Hey guys. So I know we’ve been super occupied (haha, pun intended) with other things recently, but there’s going to be this workshop on how to successfully navigate NYSHIP (your health insurance if you’re a doctoral student at the GC) next Thursday 12/8 @ 2pm. I know this sounds boring, but we’re trying to make it useful and exciting–kind of like a “skill share”! It will be a place for people to share the names of providers who have been good for them and who take our insurance, things to ask/say when you make/go to an appointment, situations that you have been able to actually get taken care of with NYSHIP (like, financial things that have been resolved), but also the particular areas that still need improvement. No administrators will be there giving boring presentations; instead students who have a lot of experience with using the insurance will share their expertise and field questions!
Please send me any and all ideas you have for how to make this workshop most useful, and also let me know if you’d be willing to participate and share an anecdote or a particular piece of knowledge that you have acquired about navigating NYSIHP. We can also of course talk about how NYSHIP should be changed, and we can strategize about ways to do that if folks are into that.
The workshop will be on Thursday December 8th @ 2pm in Room 5414.
#occupyCUNY/Graduate Center General Assembly invites you to…
Faculty Speak-out: Supporting the N17 Student Strike!!! Wednesday, November 16th 6:30 PM @ Proshansky Auditorium, The Graduate Center Scheduled speakers:
Anne McClintock (UW-Madison Professor of English and Gender Studies) Neil Smith (Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, Graduate Center) Stanley Aronowitz (Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education, Graduate Center) Susan Buck-Morss (Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Graduate Center) Ira Shor (Professor of English, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center) Katie Cumiskey (Associate Professor of Psychology, College of Staten Island) Ashley Dawson (Associate Professor of English, Graduate Center, College of Staten Island) Ammiel Alcalay (Professor of English, Graduate Center and Queens College) Anthony Alessandrini (Associate Professor of English, Kingsborough Community College) Jackie DiSalvo (Associate Professor of English, Baruch and the Graduate Center) Patricia Clough (Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies, Queens College and the Graduate Center)
CUNY’s Black radical traditions will take center stage at this exciting event on Friday, November 11, at the CUNY Graduate Center. In a time where social movements are being revitalized through critical education and direct democracy, these invaluable speakers will discuss the amazing histories, present efforts, and future visions of CUNY. We will apply special attention to past public space occupations at CUNY that catalyzed major institutional and social change—-such as the 1969 CCNY strike achieving Open Admissions–to suggest a bridge between the global “Occupy” movement and how we can transform our own university system. We welcome all CUNY communities to join us.
Speakers: Louis Reyes Rivera, 1969 CUNY Open Admissions Strike Leader Prof. Michele Wallace, The Graduate Center Prof. Barbara Winslow, Brooklyn College Hank Williams, The Graduate Center LaMont OyeWale Badru, Lehman College
Co-Sponsors: Africana Studies Group The Adjunct Project IRADAC
The first #occupyCUNY Graduate Center General Assembly was a great success!!! So…
Our second GA will be held on Friday November 11th at 6pm in the 8th floor cafeteria of the CUNY Graduate Center.
As we build locally at our individual schools across CUNY, we are preparing for the CUNY-wide General Assembly (at Medgar Evers at 12pm on November 12th). It seems important to meet with folks on a school-to-school basis to plan for the student week of actions Nov 14th-21st (http://studentweekofaction.wordpress.com/), and to work toward CUNY-wide stuff more broadly, including the city-wide day of actions on the 17th and the student mobilization around tuition hikes on the 21st. Working groups will be convening to continue their work and report back. Come with your ideas!!!
You’re invited to the first-ever Occupy CUNY Graduate Center General Assembly! Friday November 4th @ 6pm Grad Center cafeteria on the 8th floor
Meet up with other GC and CUNY folks to plan for the student week of actions Nov 14th-21st, and to work toward CUNY-wide stuff more broadly, including Occupy Wall Street’s city-wide day of action on the 17th and the student mobilization against tuition hikes on the 21st.
Some other dates to mark on your calendar:
Fri 11/11 @ 3-5pm, GC Room 5409: Africana Studies, Adjunct Project, and IRADAC workshop collaboration: “Black Student Radicalism at CUNY: Past, Present, and Future” (speakers: Louis Reyes Rivera, 1969 CUNY Open Admissions Strike Leader; Prof. Michele Wallace, CUNY Graduate Center; Prof. Barbara Winslow, Brooklyn College; Hank Williams, CUNY Graduate Center; LaMont OyeWale Badru, Lehman College…check AP website soon for more info about this rad workshop)
When: Friday, October 21st, 6-9pm, or however late people want to stay!
What: Teach and learn about the intersections between Occupy Wall Street and the labor and education conditions of CUNY faculty, staff, and students. Strategize next steps and actions going forward!!!
Hello everyone! If you’re free tomorrow at TODAY, please try to make it to the Defending Public Higher Education Conference at the GC and the AP STRATEGY SESSION/SOCIAL DIRECTLY AFTER AT 3:30PM:
Friday, October 7: Defending Public Higher Education Conference at the Grad Center, 8:30am-3pm http://defendingpublichighereducation.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Many GC/CUNY affiliates are endorsing this conference featuring several speakers, including the AP’s own Antonia Levy leading a discussion with Frances Fox Piven and a range of activists in the audience (see attached flyer). Their particular panel is from 1-3pm (free food 12-1pm!!!) Antonia needs us there to radicalize the convo with FFP and it might also be a good place to begin to think about stuff to discuss at the strategizing session later that day…
If you’re at Hunter College that day, a speak-out will occur at 1pm outside the Hunter West bldg at 68th and Lexington
then…
Grad Center folks will meet in the lobby at 3:45pm for a caravan to leave at 4pm sharp (another group will also leave at 4:15pm if ou can’t make the first caravan) for a mass student/labor/community rally at *Foley Square* that will march to Liberty Plaza, the site of Occupy Wall Street.
More info about the rally:
Union workers and community members impacted by the economic crisis have been demanding that Wall Street and the wealthiest New Yorker’s pay their fair share of taxes.
Welcome to the new CUNY Adjunct Project website! Here you’ll find information about teaching at CUNY, including (but not limited to) being a first-time adjunct; how to navigate your health insurance plan; what your rights and responsibilities are; what our contract looks like; and other issues affecting graduate student workers and adjuncts.
If you are teaching at CUNY, you should be a member of the Adjunct Project! On a broad scale, we work to empower you in the classroom. We try to
raise consciousness about academic labor issues inside and outside CUNY, educate GC adjuncts about ways to address these issues, and activate GC student-workers to improve their collective position as workers at CUNY.
Furthermore, the Adjunct Project seeks to organize its resources for graduate students around two areas: 1) labor issues and concerns, and 2) teaching resources and pedagogy. Both of these elements are key dimensions of empowerment in . . . → Read More: Welcome to the Adjunct Project!
32BJ RALLY to Support Security Officers at CUNY Campuses Wednesday, June 8 CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue 3:30 to 5:30 pm
SEIU 32BJ is the union that represents the security officers at CUNY locations; more than 200 of these folks are facing the loss of their jobs this month. From the folks I have spoken to around the Grad Center, it appears that management is hiring new, non-union security officers for cheaper to fill their places. Many of the folks I regularly talk to have been upset about this a while; for them to call a rally is a major action. I believe we really need to demonstrate our solidarity and support for these folks; many of them signed the petition for our four demands in October. PLEASE, if you are not otherwise occupied, come to the Grad Center for a few hours on Wednesday. If you absolutely cannot . . . → Read More: RALLY THIS WEDNESDAY: Stand in Solidarity with other CUNY Workers
As most of you already know at this point, due to a resolution recently passed by the Welfare Fund, almost 2000 adjuncts may be without health insurance next year at this time. This crisis is complex–it is not entirely obvious where to point the finger. But one thing is certain–CUNY management has made it clear that they are going to attempt to pit their workers against each other, and to place the blame elsewhere, once again devaluing the health and well-being of the majority of its workforce.
PSC leadership recently contacted the AP co-coordinators about meeting to discuss this crisis and how to prevent it. This is truly a time for all of us–members of the AP, CCU, First Friday Committee, and any and all rank and file union members–to come together and commit to working as hard as we can to see that this doesn’t come to pass.
