PSC in the News (June)
- Daily News: Choking CUNY has consequences
- Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscribers Only): The Travesty of Starving Our Best Public Universities
- Jacobin Magazine: Degrees of Austerity: Inside the budget crisis affecting the largest urban university in the United States and the half million students it serves.
- The Washington Post: Adjuncts are unionizing, but that won’t fix what’s wrong in higher education
- The Brooklyn Rail: THE LAST CUT WAS THE DEEPEST: Cuomo’s Gamble and CUNY’s Full-Throated Retort
- DNA Info: Protests Call For More CUNY Funding Before Michelle Obama Speech
- NY Times: Michelle Obama Denounces Donald Trump in CUNY Commencement Speech
- NY1: First Lady Takes Aim at Trump During Commencement Address at CCNY Graduation Ceremony
- WNYC: From ‘The Poor Man’s Harvard’ to ‘Brokelyn College’
- Capital Tonight: CUNY Rising Urges Contract, MOE
Albany Must Pass the MOE ASAP
PSC leaders are in Albany today standing alongside Senate Higher Education Chair Kenneth LaValle and Assembly Higher Education Chair Deborah Glick to call for passage of a true Maintenance of Effort (MOE) for CUNY and SUNY before the end of the legislative session on June 16. The 2016-17 Enacted State Budget held CUNY tuition flat for one year but it failed to fund the tuition freeze or address the MOE provision that PSC members fought hard for. Even the inadequate MOE provisions of SUNY 2020, which led to a decline in per-student funding because they didn’t cover increasing operating costs, are set to expire at the end of June. Without any MOE language, our four-year SUNY and CUNY campuses face further state funding reductions in next year’s state budget. A strong MOE is needed to ensure that state funding is provided to cover operating costs such as rent, energy, fringe benefits and salary step increases. The news conference is being sponsored by PSC, UUP, NYSUT and NYPIRG.
Do your part to help pass the MOE by sending this letter to your legislators in Albany.
New Pension Benefit for Military Veterans
Governor Cuomo recently signed into law a bill that allows honorably discharged military service personnel the opportunity to purchase up to three years of credit toward their New York City or New York State public pensions. Previously, New York state law only allowed former military members the chance to buy back pension credit if they fought in certain major military conflicts such as WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Read about it in the Daily News. NYC Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) members wanting to take advantage of this opportunity should contact TRS at 888-869-2877.
Documentary: “Preying on Puerto Rico: Forgotten Citizens of Hedge Funds”—June 13, 6:30PM
Hedge Clippers is sponsoring a screening of the documentary “Preying on Puerto Rico: Forgotten Citizens of Hedge Funds” on Monday, June 13, 6:30PM at the SEIU 32BJ headquarters located at 25W 18th Street. Watch a clip from the documentary. The screening will be followed by a short discussion by journalists from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists about how the media has covered Puerto Rico’s financial crisis, which is now a humanitarian crisis.
Visit the online calendar for locations and more information
LaGuardia CC Picket to Defend CUNY, June 8, 1:00pm
Legislation Committee Meeting, June 8, 6:00pm
International Committee Meeting, June 10, 4:00pm
Annual Retiree Chapter June Luncheon, June 13, 12:30pm
