Brooklyn College March to #FreeTheFunds:
Beyond Racist Austerity
Faculty, staff and students called out Brooklyn College President Michelle Anderson last Wednesday for failing to adequately address racism faced by students and faculty and for her failure to release a plan for the $58.6 million in COVID relief funding allocated to Brooklyn College. During a rally at the gates of Brooklyn College and a march to Anderson’s home in Prospect Park South, the protestors demanded that Brooklyn College use the stimulus money Congress allocated to CUNY for institutional pandemic relief. Read more.
Town Hall on Safe Reopening
PSC’s Detailed Standards for a Safe Reopening
On May 20, the PSC hosted a town hall to provide members with clarity about CUNY’s recent announcements about reopening. During the town hall we reviewed the union’s Standards for a Safe Reopening and updated members on the progress we’ve made pressing CUNY to adopt the standards.
PSC Health and Safety Watchdogs were at the event to outline the union’s systematic approach to ensuring the safety of our worksites. Members had the opportunity to ask questions and PSC leaders laid out the next steps in the union’s campaign for a safe reopening.
Click here for a table detailing the PSC Standards for a Safe Reopening. For each of the ten original safety standards the union published in April, the new table includes a list of specific requirements CUNY should meet to achieve the standard, a checklist that allows you to verify whether the standard is being met, and a list of scientific and legal sources supporting the standard.
This Year’s CLT Unity Day is for Everyone in the PSC
Please join us on Friday, June 4th for a one-day virtual conference to learn about College Laboratory Technicians (CLTs), their issues, and concerns.
This year’s CLT Unity Day is meant for everyone in the PSC. It will be a chance to build cross-title solidarity, to learn about bargaining, to meet the new PSC leadership and to confront issues that affect all of us—like workplace bullying, health and safety and college governance.
Ranked Choice Voting Workshop
The PSC hosted a Ranked Choice Voting 101 Workshop last Monday that was led by Olivia Brady, a representative of NYC Votes and the Campaign Finance Board. If you missed it, you can click here for a video of the presentation, which included voting simulations and a question and answer session.
Council Members, Students & Union Rally against Mayor de Blasio’s Cuts to CUNY
The PSC joined CUNY Rising Alliance groups representing tens of thousands of CUNY students and community members Friday, May 21st at an online rally opposing the Mayor’s plan to cut City funding for CUNY community colleges by $67 million. The rally was held right before the start of the City Council’s Higher Education budget hearing. Council Members Ayala, Gibson, Lander, Levine, Powers, Reynoso, and Rosenthal joined the rally, which was organized by the CUNY Rising Alliance, New York Public Interest Research Group, the PSC, University Student Senate and Young Invincibles.
- Watch a video of CUNY’s City budget testimony starting at the 2:31:20 timestamp.
- Send a letter urging your NYC Council member to reject the cuts and increase City funding for CUNY.
- Read “The City’s Engine of Economic Mobility Needs a Kickstart,” an op-ed written by City Council Higher Education Chair Inez Barron and City Council Civil Service and Labor Chair I. Daneek Miller.
Tell Your State Legislators: Increase Mental Health Resources for NY’s College Students!
PSC and the CUNY Rising Alliance are pushing legislators in Albany to pass a bill (A302/S844) that would require at a minimum ratio of one clinical, non-student mental health staff member per one thousand students on all SUNY and CUNY campuses. The bill, sponsored by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and Senator Andrew Gounardes, essentially enacts the portion of the New Deal for CUNY related to mental health counselors at CUNY. Click here to send a letter from our coalition partner Young Invincibles urging your legislators to support A302/S844 and cosponsor the full New Deal for CUNY.
In the News: New Deal for CUNY
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas likens the campaign for a New Deal for CUNY to the Fight for $15 in an op-ed published yesterday, June 1 in the New York Daily News. “This is often the way with dramatic policy demands: They sound unbelievable until suddenly they become reality,” she writes. “Right now, the New York Legislature has an opportunity to transform the national conversation about free college from the radical to reality.” You can find a link to the full piece, “The new deal that CUNY deserves,” on the PSC in the News webpage.
