Demand Greater City Investment in CUNY
Last Friday, the City Council heard testimony from CUNY about Mayor Bloomberg’s Executive Budget, which proposes a slight increase in funding for CUNY community colleges, but depends too much on tuition hikes. PSC members have made our platform clear to council members with our testimony, dozens of lobby visits, and the Invest in Opportunity brochure—read all about it on our City Budget Campaign page. Then send an Act Now letter to the New York City Council to add your voice to the union’s demands for greater investment in CUNY and full funding restorations for Vallone Scholarships, the Black Male Initiative, the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and other CUNY programs.
Tell Albany: Adjuncts Need Fair Access to Unemployment Insurance
Five weeks remain in this year’s state legislative calendar. In each This Week in the PSC for rest of the session, we will highlight a bill from our list of State Legislative Initiatives, and urge you to take action.
Up first: The Higher Education Employment Protection Act. This legislation reforms the state Labor Law to allow adjunct college faculty to receive Unemployment Insurance benefits when they are out of work. Under current law, adjuncts are unfairly denied unemployment benefits because of the conditional job offers they receive. See the PSC’s support memo. Read the bill and list of sponsors. Send a letter in support of the bill to your elected representatives in Albany.
Pathways: A Real Transfer Process for CUNY Students
Last week, PSC President Barbara Bowen and University Faculty Senate Chair Sandi Cooper released a joint statement announcing a plan to develop an alternative to Pathways that will improve student transfer without reducing the quality of a CUNY degree or undermining faculty governance. Read the full statement on the PSC website.
Register for the Care Congress to Defend the Social Safety Net
The expected growth of aging and handicapped populations will generate an enormous number of jobs for domestic workers. The new “Caring Across Generations” campaign aims to make those jobs quality jobs with regards to wages, benefits and working conditions. PSC’s Social Safety Net Working Group is joining the coalition of groups that support the campaign and mobilizing PSC members to attend a “Care Congress” here in New York City. Protecting the social safety net will be crucial to the Caring Across Generations effort, as many Americans depend on programs like Social Security and Medicare to help pay for elder services.
The Care Congress is Sunday, June 3, from 2-5 PM, at Pace University, across from City Hall. Join your PSC colleagues at the event. See the PSC website for more information and to register for the Care Congress.
One-on-One Retirement Advice, On Campus
CUNY employees who enroll in the Optional Retirement Program with TIAA-CREF can arrange to attend a one-on-one counseling session to learn more about the benefits available. Here’s a schedule of upcoming individual counseling sessions that will take place at CUNY Campuses through the end of June. To schedule a personal advice session, call 800 732-8353, Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 8 PM.
