Barbara Bowen to the Board of Trustees: “Aim Higher!”
At a meeting of the CUNY Board of Trustees held last night at Baruch College, PSC President Barbara Bowen urged the Board to take a public stand against the State’s practice of refusing to fund the ongoing costs of labor contracts. “CUNY’s FY 2020 budget request must challenge the premise that poverty funding is all CUNY can expect. Aim higher! It must call for a fully funded contract, with real raises for all and $7,000 per course for adjuncts,” she said. Video of the meeting is posted here (President Bowen speaks at timestamp 41:45).
The meeting was held just a week after more than 100 faculty and staff testified at a Board hearing also held at Baruch. The testimony featured first-hand stories of the damage being done to the University by salaries that lag thousands of dollars behind those at comparable institutions, near-poverty-level adjunct pay and chronic underfunding.
Make Every PSC Vote Count on Tues., Nov. 6
Help us re-set the agenda in Albany and Washington D.C.
The PSC and our statewide affiliate, NYSUT, have endorsed candidates for state office who will demand increased funding for CUNY. At the national level, we’ve endorsed candidates who will defend healthcare and the social safety net, push for fair taxation, and oppose racism and anti-Semitism and attacks on immigrants and LGBTQ people. Andrew Gounardes (Brooklyn, SD 22) and John Liu (Queens, SD 11) for State Senate and Max Rose (Staten Island/Brooklyn, CD11) for Congress are all candidates with close races who can win with our help.
Click here to volunteer to help PSC members get out the vote in these final days before the November 6 election. You can call PSC colleagues about the election from the PSC office this Thursday from 5:30-8:30 p.m. or from home any day of the week. Even better, you can join door-to-door labor walks this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. for Rose (on Staten Island) or Liu (in Queens) or this Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. for Gounardes (in Brooklyn).
Press the Presidents for a Fully Funded Contract with Increased Salaries for All and 7K for Adjuncts
The CUNY Board of Trustees has yet to present a University Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2020. So nine PSC chapters are still collecting signatures on local “Press the Presidents” petitions, which urge the presidents of their colleges to push the CUNY Board to put forward a budget request that supports $7000 per course for CUNY adjuncts and increased salaries for all faculty and staff. Bronx Community College, Brooklyn College, City College, The Graduate Center, John Jay College, Lehman College, New York City College of Technology, the School of Professional Studies, and Queens College all have their petitions posted online. Click here to add your name to the petition for your campus if you work at one of these campuses.
CUNY Rising Says: Fund CUNY ASAP!
Please add your name to this CUNY Rising Alliance petition and help spread the word about CUNY Rising’s “Fund CUNY ASAP” campaign. The petition and the campaign call on Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to extend CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and Accelerate Complete Engage (ACE) initiatives CUNY-wide. Both programs provide additional academic and financial support to help students graduate on time. Students in ASAP and ACE benefit from smaller classes and high-contact advisement and receive free tuition, free books and free MetroCards.
