Contact your Assembly Representatives Now
Help Make Retroactive Pay for the PSC Contract Part of the State Budget Negotiations
Funding for the PSC-CUNY contract may depend on budget negotiations taking place right now in Albany. More than 5,000 letters about the contract have been faxed to legislators by PSC members, but 5,000 is not enough! We all need to send letters! Click here to send yours. The sample e-letter calls on your local Assembly representative to urge Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to prioritize funding for retroactive pay for the PSC contract as part of this year’s State budget negotiation. Feel free to personalize the letters and explain what it means to you and your family and your students to have been without a contract for five years. But don’t worry if you don’t have time to add your own message; the important thing is that you send the message. When you send the e-letter to your Assembly member, another similar letter will also go to the Speaker informing him that you have contacted your representative.
PSC’s Contract-Focused Radio Ad Says:
“It’s Time for Albany to Believe in CUNY”
CUNY is a national leader in innovative education —but the faculty and professional staff of CUNY are being denied a fair union contract. That’s the message of the latest PSC radio ad airing this week in the Capital District and New York City. Titled Model, the 60-second spot contrasts the White House’s recent praise of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) initiative with the lack of action on the PSC-CUNY contract. Listen here.
PSC Officers Urge More City Funding for CUNY
Steve London, PSC first vice president, and Mike Fabricant, PSC treasurer, testified Fri., Mar. 6 at a City Council hearing examining Mayor de Blasio’s Preliminary Budget for CUNY. The Mayor’s budget plan would increase community college funding by $13 million, but it would count on the City Council to continue funding for the City Council Merit Scholarship, ASAP, CUNY LEADS, the Murphy Center for Worker Education and other CUNY centers and initiatives.
London urged the Council to continue support for the centers and initiatives and also called for a more ambitious discussion about funding CUNY—a discussion worthy of a progressive city with progressive leadership. Fabricant laid out the PSC’s city budget plan, which calls for:
- continued support for CUNY’s Council-funded centers and initiatives (+$15.9M);
- a new Council initiative to fund 100 new full-time faculty lines now (+$10M);
- the addition of 1,000 new full-time faculty and professional staff lines over time; and
- a new Council initiative to fund need-based financial aid to complement the City Council Merit Scholarship (+$5M).
Watch a video of the hearing. Read the PSC’s testimony.
Forum: Academic Freedom and Politics in the Age of Digital Media—Mar 25
The PSC’s Academic Freedom Committee will host a forum examining how new modes of digital communications are affecting the struggle for academic freedom on Wed., Mar. 25 in the PSC Union Hall (61 Broadway, 16th Floor). Wine and light refreshments will be served at 5:30 PM. Presentations will begin at 6:00 PM and will be followed by a questions and discussion. Download a flier. Learn more about the presenters:
- Robert M. O’Neil, author of Academic Freedom in the Wired World: Political Extremism, Corporate Power, and the University and president of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, University of Virginia
- Ellen Schrecker, author of The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Corporatization, the Assault on Academic Freedom and the End of the American University and professor of history emerita, Yeshiva University
