Make a Phone Call to Stop the Sequester
The PSC is part of the AFL-CIO’s national call for an alternative to the across-the-board “sequestration” cuts to the federal budget, which are scheduled to begin this Fri., Mar. 1. We are demanding a budget solution that protects vital services, preserves the Safety Net and reduces the deficit with fairer tax policies and reduced military spending. The deadline is looming, so please click this link to call your members of Congress and urge them to prevent the scheduled cuts that hurt working families and enact a more progressive tax plan. For more articles on this topic from the AFL-CIO, click here and here.
Three Ways to Help Win PSC’s Budget Campaign
For Albany to make the right decisions on CUNY’s budget, lawmakers need to hear about working and learning conditions at the university. They also need to hear from you about PSC’s state budget platform. To add your voice—and your story—to the call for more state funding for CUNY, you can do two things:
- Send an e-fax demanding more investment in public higher education to your legislators via NYSUT’s Member Action Center (MAC). The MAC letter hits points from budget platforms advocated by the PSC and our sister union, United University Professions (UUP).
- Sign up via this web form to lobby with us. You can join colleagues from across the state at NYSUT’s Higher Education advocacy day on Mar. 11 – 12. You can lobby alongside CUNY students at PSC’s Student/Faculty/Staff Higher Ed Action Day on Mar. 12. Or you can sign up for local meetings being scheduled in legislators’ New York City offices in April and June. Transportation, food and hotel costs for the Mar. 11-12 Albany trips are covered by NYSUT with funds from PSC members’ voluntary contributions to COPE, the unions political action fund. Members can also ride back and forth to Albany in one day with students on the buses for the Mar. 12 Student/Faculty/Staff Higher Ed Action Day.
- Testify at the City Council Higher Education Committee’s hearing on the Preliminary Executive Budget for the community colleges and university programs on Wed., Mar. 6. CUNY testifies at 10:00 AM and the public at 11:30 AM. If you are interested in testifying, please email Fran Clark at [email protected]
The Mayor’s Preliminary Executive Budget for New York City was released recently, and City Council members also need to hear from CUNY faculty and staff to make informed budget decisions. That leads to the third way you can help PSC’s budget campaign:
PSC’s International Committee Presents: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back!
The PSC International Committee will host a forum called They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back: Resisting the Closing of Opportunity in Higher Education next Wed., Mar. 6 at 2:00 PM in the BMCC Student Cafeteria. The event will examine local and international resistance to the corporatization of public universities, including student/faculty push back against rising tuition, student loan debt, exploitation of adjunct faculty and the tracking of students along class and race lines. Guest speakers from the “Edu-Factory Collective,” Occupy Wall Street’s Strike Debt campaign, the PSC and Students United for a Free CUNY will be there. Learn more about the speakers here and download a flyer here.
PSC’s Women’s Committee Presents: The Founding Women of CUNY
The PSC Women’s Committee will host a luncheon called The Founding Women of CUNY next Fri., Mar. 8, International Women’s Day. At the event, CUNY Distinguished Professor of History Blanche Wiesen Cook, will describe the key roles that Mina Reese, Ruth Weintraub and Belle Zeller played in the 1961 consolidation of NYC’s seven municipal colleges into the City University of New York. Seating is limited. RSVP by Mar. 6 to Marcia Newfield at [email protected]. Click here to download a flyer.
Share Your Thoughts on the Future of Academic Publishing
This month Clarion published a Viewpoint article by Brooklyn College Associate Professor Samir Chopra, which cited the recent suicide of hacker-activist-Reddit founder Aaron Swartz in its call to reexamine the “scandalous state of academic publishing.” At the time of his death, Swartz was facing a possible 35 years in prison for downloading millions of academic articles from the JSTOR repository with the intent to make them freely available on the Internet. Chopra argues that academics can spur reform by refusing to support the current system, joining boycotts of for-profit publishers like Elsevier and switching to open-access academic journals such as Public Library of Science. Here is the article. Clarion would like to hear your views on the topic. Send letters to the editor or proposals for op-ed articles to our editor, at [email protected].
Adjunct Health Insurance Extended Through April 30
The current adjunct health insurance through the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund has been extended through April 30. Read the message here.
