To sign this letter, please visit its new site here and leave a comment with your academic affiliation (if you have one). All are welcome in this effort to hold the union leadership accountable at the largest university by enrollment in the U.S.! Real democracy now!
Dear Barbara—
I write as a union member and CUNY contingent faculty member to express my great dismay at your statement of May 9th praising Mayor De Blasio for his CUNY budget and singling out “full-time faculty and student support staff” as needing “investments” while entirely omitting mention of adjuncts and graduate student workers.
In addition to the questionable negotiating strategy of such mayoral sycophancy—and your bizarre contention that CUNY is the “solution” to “inequality,” when CUNY reproduces, and contributes to, the inequality of New York City at large—I don’t understand how you could ignore the needs of adjuncts and graduate student workers, who teach the vast majority of classes at CUNY and are the majority of union members and agency-fee payers. Furthermore, I don’t understand how full-time faculty need “investments” more than adjuncts and graduate student workers, who make a pittance compared to full-time faculty, work under worse conditions, and lack job security. What kind of message does this send at negotiating time?
Indeed, it seems to me that any “investments” in faculty the union wins from the city should go to adjuncts and graduate student workers and not to full-time faculty, given the extreme inequality between contingent faculty and full-time—inequality that has occurred in large part because of the priority full-time faculty have received by union leadership since the beginning of the Professional Staff Congress and which, quite evidently, continues under your leadership.
I wish I could say your out-of-touch statement is an aberration, but unfortunately it conforms to the sense so many of us adjuncts and graduate student workers at CUNY have about the union’s neglect of us and our issues. It’s certainly been clear to me in my tenure this academic year as an Adjunct Project coordinator, in which you and your leadership team have either ignored or outright stymied our efforts for greater union representation of adjuncts and graduate student workers and our issues.
Union leadership has been unable to respond to or move forward our simple request from December that adjuncts and graduate student workers have a choice of which chapter to affiliate with; our demands for the bargaining agenda were sat on by you, also since December, until a meeting with my colleagues on April 10th, and we’ve received no follow-up from you, including on your promise to include adjuncts and graduate student workers in the bargaining meetings; and our newly reconstituted Graduate Center chapter—an initiative the Adjunct Project proposed at its October 2013 organizing meeting—contains only two student workers on its slate of 12.
Meanwhile, the UFT deal, which will set a precedent for the rest of the city’s bargaining units, including our own, has been heavily critiqued by the Movement for Rank and File Educators caucus, which is waging a struggle against an entrenched, monopolistic party much like the New Caucus, which commands every (or nearly every) chapter of the PSC. At the moment, I feel more allegiance to MORE than I do to our union, given your De Blasio statement and inaction on the above issues.
I am hoping you will find this letter jarring enough to immediately redress these issues, at least the ones you have full control over: namely, the addition of our demands to the bargaining agenda, the inclusion of adjuncts and graduate student workers in the bargaining meetings, and the change in chapter-affiliation policy.
Furthermore, to enable the participation of CUNY adjuncts and graduate student workers in this summer’s COCAL conference, which is being organized by the PSC and taking place at CUNY’s John Jay College, I ask that the union cover the $250 registration fee for 30 adjuncts and graduate student workers at CUNY.
I look forward to your response, Barbara. If you don’t respond, however, I will not write again, as it shouldn’t be my job to convince you of the merits, ethics, and fairness of genuine union democracy and the concomitant representation of adjuncts and graduate student workers and our needs.
Very sincerely,
Sean M. Kennedy, Graduate Center, CUNY
Elizabeth Sibilia, Graduate Center, CUNY
Wendy Tronrud, Graduate Center, CUNY
Dadland Maye, Graduate Center, CUNY
Öykü Tekten, Graduate Center, CUNY
Erica Kaufman, Institute for Writing & Thinking, Bard College
R. Josh Scannell, Graduate Center, CUNY
Preeti Sampat, Graduate Center, CUNY
Peter Matt, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Margaret Hanzimanolis, City College of San Francisco, De Anza College, Cañada College, California Part-Time Faculty Association
Debangshu Roychoudhury, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jack Longmate, Olympic College
Monique Whitaker, Hunter College, CUNY
Anna Spiro, retired CUNY adjunct
Rafael A. Mutis, Hostos Community College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Jennifer Prince, Graduate Center, CUNY
Esther Bernstein, Graduate Center, CUNY
Héctor Agredano, City College, Bronx Community College, and Graduate Center, CUNY
Collette Sosnowy, JustPublics@365, Graduate Center, CUNY
Megan Paslawski, Graduate Center, CUNY
Kristen Hackett, Graduate Center, CUNY
Fang Xu, Lehman College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Christina Nadler, Graduate Center, CUNY
Kristin Moriah, Graduate Center, CUNY
James Anthony Phillips, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Ana M. Fores Tamayo, Adjunct Justice
Tristan K. Husby, City College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Erin Michaels, Graduate Center, CUNY
Cameron Pearson, Queens College, CUNY
David Tillyer, City College, CUNY
Amy Martin, Graduate Center, CUNY
Colin P. Ashley, Doctoral Students’ Council Co-Chair for Business, Graduate Center, CUNY
Ian Foster, Graduate Center, CUNY
Derrick Gentry, alumnus, Graduate Center, CUNY
Melissa Phruksachart, Graduate Center, CUNY
Maureen E. Fadem, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Alec Magnet, Graduate Center, CUNY
Erin M. Andersen, Graduate Center, CUNY
Ashna Ali, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jerry Levinsky, Member UALE, COCAL Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor
Michael A. Rumore, Graduate Center, CUNY
Makeba Lavan, Graduate Center, CUNY
Conor Tomás Reed, Medgar Evers College and Graduate Center, CUNY; Free University-NYC
Kathryn Moss, Graduate Center, CUNY
David Spataro, Graduate Center, CUNY
Kenneth H. Ryesky, Queens College, CUNY
Betsy Smith, Cape Cod Community College; member of MCCC, MTA, and NEA
Isabel Cuervo, alumna, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jennifer Chancellor, Graduate Center, CUNY
Luke Elliott, Graduate Center, CUNY
CUNY Adjunct Project
Alan Trevithick, La Guardia Community College, CUNY
Ann Kottner, York College, CUNY
Vanessa Vaile, Precarious Faculty Network
Mary Carroll, Lehman College, CUNY
Linda Neiberg, Baruch College, CUNY
Brian Unger, Graduate Center, CUNY
Ian Green, Graduate Center, CUNY
Eric Lott, Graduate Center, CUNY
John Sorrentino, John Jay College, CUNY
Hulya Sakarya, Mercy College
Allison E. Brown, Graduate Center, CUNY
Rayya El Zein, Medgar Evers College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Melissa K. Marturano, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Ross Borden, SUNY–Cortland
Frank Reiser, Nassau Community College
Dominique Nisperos, Graduate Center, CUNY
Amanda Matles, Graduate Center, CUNY
Lavelle Porter, City Tech and Graduate Center, CUNY
Lauren Tenley, College of Staten Island and alumna, Graduate Center, CUNY
Mary N. Taylor, Graduate Center, CUNY
Edwin Mayorga, Graduate Center, CUNY
Charlotte Thurston, Graduate Center, CUNY
Robin Hizme, Queens College, CUNY
Sue Clark-Wittenberg, Director, International Campaign to Ban Electroshock
Wilson Sherwin, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, CUNY
James D. Hoff, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Mark Drury, Graduate Center, CUNY
Anton Borst, Hunter College, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jason Schulman, Lehman College, CUNY
Wilma Borelli, Lehman College, CUNY
Daniel Nieves, City College and Lehman College, CUNY
Elizabeth Bidwell Goetz, Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Maria L. Plochocki, Baruch and College Now, CUNY
Sara Jane Stoner, Graduate Center, CUNY
Anna Gjika, Graduate Center, CUNY
Alicia Andrzejewski, Graduate Center, CUNY
Paul Hebert, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Patrick Reilly, Baruch College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Kara Van Cleaf, Graduate Center, CUNY
Harry T. Cason, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Kylah Torre, Graduate Center, CUNY
Kate O’Donoghue, Queens College, CUNY
Keith Hoeller, editor, Equality for Contingent Faculty; co-founder, Washington Part-Time Faculty Association
Karen Gregory, City College and Center for Worker Education, CUNY
Michael Friedman, Queens College, CUNY
Heather Heim, Lehman College, CUNY
Marnie Weigle, San Diego City College
Austin Bailey, Hunter College, CUNY
Leigh Somerville, Queens College, CUNY
Lindsey Freer, Macaulay Honors College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Graduate Center, CUNY
Nathaniel Sheets, CUNY Graduate Center, Hunter College
Brianne Bolin, Columbia College Chicago
Sean Collins, trustee, Troy Area Labor Council
Meyer A. Rothberg, alumnus (1958), City College, CUNY
John Martin, chair, California Part-time Faculty Association
Jonathan R. Davis, Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Marga Ryersbach, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Andrew Akinmoladun, Bronx Community College, CUNY
Thomas Smith, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Tyler T. Schmidt, Lehman College, CUNY
Sarah Davis, Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Reid Friedson, Adjunct Faculty Union
Emily Nell, Graduate Center, CUNY
Jack Henning
Vakhtang Gomelauri, Global Center for Advanced Studies
Brenden Beck, Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Brandon Kreitler, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Alex Kudera, author, Fight for Your Long Day, Clemson University
Aysenur Ataman, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center, CUNY
Anthony Galluzzo, Queens College, CUNY
Jenna Gibbs, Florida International University
Ryan Daley, former NYCCT adjunct; Red Hook Initiative
David Parsons, Baruch College
Rebecca Schuman, all-purpose higher-ed loudmouth
Daniel Levine, alumnus (2013), Baruch College; writer
Stanley W. Rogouski
Kelly Eckenrode, Lehman College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Danny Sanchez, Queens College, CUNY; member, Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee
Michelle Chen, Graduate Center, CUNY
Carol Lipton
Michael Pollak
Aaron Botwick, Graduate Center, CUNY
Naja Berg Hougaard, Graduate Center, CUNY
Gerhard Joseph, Lehman College, CUNY
Catherine Liu, alumna, Graduate Center, CUNY; University of California–Irvine
Emma Myers, Borough of Manhattan Community College and City Tech, CUNY
Marimer Berberena, Hostos Community College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Seth Sanders, Trinity College
Evgeniya Koroleva, Graduate Center, CUNY
Johannes Burgers, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Angelina Tallaj-Garcia, Graduate Center, CUNY
Alexander Chee
Sansanee Sermprungsuk
0 Comments
1 Pingback