The PSC is alarmed at the number of reports of members who are being called into meetings with their college’s Chief Diversity Officer because complaints against them have been filed through the CUNY-wide Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal. This message explains the rights of those against whom a complaint is filed. It also provides information about two upcoming PSC workshops on academic freedom, federal Title VI, and free speech.
Fostering an inclusive, equitable academic community is of course a laudable goal, and discrimination, harassment, and retaliation are serious offenses that cannot be condoned. But the CUNY Portal is publicly available and complaints may be submitted anonymously or even orchestrated through outside actors, making it susceptible to abuse. Despite the stated intention to protect members of our academic community from harassment and a hostile work and learning environment, portal complaints can operate to chill constitutionally protected speech. They can even be weaponized to create the very climate of fear and anxiety that Title VI of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act was intended to prevent. The Trump administration has contributed to that weaponization in the current political environment. In the name of rooting out antisemitism, ridding campuses of ostensibly anti-American bias, and quashing “illegal” protests, the Trump administration has threatened to defund colleges and universities that fail to act on Title VI allegations in ways they deem appropriate and even threatened to deport “alien students and staff” and incarcerate students and staff who are U.S. citizens if they are found to be in violation. In this environment, the tools of inclusivity and equity risk becoming a machinery of intimidation and repression.
If your college administration requests a meeting to discuss a complaint lodged against you through the CUNY Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal, you have rights under the law and CUNY policy.
- If you are a faculty member, or a member of the instructional staff engaged in teaching, research, or the selection of instructional materials, you have academic freedom.
- The university’s Policy on Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination affirms, “This policy shall not be interpreted so as to constitute interference with academic freedom” (Section III).
- The Preamble to the PSC-CUNY collective bargaining agreement expresses the shared commitment of the parties to academic freedom.
- The CUNY administration and Board of Trustees have upheld the AAUP principles of academic freedom on multiple occasions, starting in 1946.
- You are entitled to receive a summary of a complaint filed against you prior to a meeting with the administration about the complaint.
- New York State public employees have “Weingarten rights” – that is the right to representation by the union whenever it reasonably appears that the employee may be the subject of a potential disciplinary action.
- This includes formal disciplinary proceedings, as well as any other meeting, such as a fact-finding or investigatory meeting, where the result of such a meeting could be the issuance of discipline.
- This includes when any supervisor asks you questions to obtain information which could be used as a basis for discipline; or asks an employee to defend or explain her or his conduct. You are advised to request union representation.
- You are responsible for asserting your right to union representation. Management is under no legal requirement to inform you of your rights or to provide notice to the PSC without you asking. Additional information is available here.
- Not every complaint submitted through the CUNY Discrimination and Retaliation Reporting Portal is investigated as a violation of Title VI (or of another provision of the Civil Rights Act). The fact of a complaint does not in itself substantiate an alleged Title VI violation.
The PSC is committed to addressing the charged climate on our campuses through education and informed dialogue. This month we are hosting two in-person workshops about academic freedom, Title VI, and free speech – one on Thursday, March 13, featuring representatives from the PSC Contract Enforcement and Legal Affairs departments and Academic Freedom committee, the other on Tuesday, March 25, featuring speakers from the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the AAUP to offer a national perspective. All PSC members are invited to attend; rsvp here.
In solidarity,
James Davis, President
Published: March 7, 2025
