Testify Next Monday at Hostos
At next Monday’s (June 18) CUNY Board of Trustees Borough hearing, CUNY faculty will testify about Pathways’ potential impacts on students and how Pathways will undermine the value of a CUNY degree. If you have strong feelings about the issue, please sign up to testify. Unlike regular Board hearings, which limit testimony to items listed on the Calendar for the next Board meeting, Borough hearings allow “statements from concerned individuals about university issues.” So this is also the time to testify about the proposed increase in executive salary ranges at CUNY.
The hearing will take place at Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse, in the third-floor cafeteria. PSC Communications Coordinator Fran Clark (646-459-6882) can help you register to speak and coordinate your testimony with that of others. If you want to support the fight against Pathways by attending the hearing without testifying, please click here to let us know you’re coming.
Silent March to End Stop-and-Frisk
This Sunday (Father’s Day), join your PSC colleagues at the Silent March to End Stop-and-Frisk to show that we refuse to let the children of New York City—or anyone else—be victimized by racial profiling. CUNY students are among the targets of Stop-and-Frisk. One such young man, Nicholas K. Peart, a 23-year-old BMCC student, shared his feelings after being repeatedly stopped and frisked in a piece he wrote for the New York Times. Research and commentary from CUNY faculty have helped inform the public about the impacts of stop and frisk.
Members of the many labor, civil rights, faith, and community groups sponsoring the silent march will begin gathering at 2:00pm on West 110th St. between Central Park West/8th Ave. and Fifth Ave. At 3:00pm the march will begin at 110th St. and Fifth Ave. It will proceed south on Fifth Ave. past Mayor Bloomberg’s mansion and on to 78th Street. (Visit the event website and download a flier.) PSC members will meet at 2:00pm at [location]
Demanding a Fair and Moral City Budget
The campaign for a fairer budget that will fund CUNY adequately and protect public services continues. At last Wednesday’s City Council budget hearing, clergy from throughout the city stood up during the proceedings to demand a moral budget, one that does not impose the greatest costs on low-income and working new Yorkers. Find video about why the faith leaders took action on the 99% New York coalition website and photos on the PSC Facebook page.
Hundreds of CUNY faculty and staff have sent an Act Now letter urging the City Council to support PSC’s demands for fair taxation, greater investment in CUNY and full funding restorations for Vallone Scholarships, the Black Male Initiative, Murphy Institute for Worker Education and other CUNY programs. If you haven’t done so, please send your letter today.
Support Research Foundation Transparency Legislation
With two weeks to go in Albany’s legislative session, a bill to increase transparency at the SUNY and CUNY Research Foundations is gaining traction, and we need your help to get it moving. If you think faculty have a right to know how their grant money is handled, send a letter in support of bill number S.5797-a (LaValle) / A.7789-e (Glick) to your elected representatives in Albany. Other pieces of PSC-backed legislation to provide financial aid for undocumented students, allow unemployment benefits for adjunct faculty, and combat workplace bullying remain stalled in committee.
Take Action on the Federal Budget for Higher Education
In May, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed amendments to a key appropriations bill to eliminate funding for the National Science Foundation’s political science program and the American Community Survey (ACS), the Census Bureau’s annual study of U.S. socioeconomic conditions. The American Journal of Political Science has published a free virtual issue that showcases articles that use NSF funded data, and our colleagues from throughout the country are sending a letter urging the Senate to protect funding for political science research. Add your name here. A letter campaign is also ongoing to defend the ACS, because the government needs good data to make informed decisions. The ACS letter is online here. Please add you name to it as well.
PSC’s Founders: Pillars of Labor
Two of PSC’s founding leaders, the late President Belle Zeller and the late Deputy-President Israel Kugler, were remembered recently as Pillars of Labor at a ceremony at the Wagner Labor Archives of New York University. Zeller’s and Kugler’s names were inscribed on a pillar in the reading room of the Wagner Labor Archives to celebrate their lasting contributions to academic unionism and mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the PSC through the merger of the Legislative Conference of the City Colleges and the United Federation of College Teachers. PSC’s 40th anniversary will also be celebrated at a June 18 luncheon organized by the PSC Retirees Chapter. See photos of the Pillars of Labor ceremony.
