Job Announcement

Adjunct Project: Co-organizer for Advocacy and Education

Applications due November 1, 2020

The Doctoral and Graduate Students’ Council (DGSC) seeks candidates for the open positions of Co-organizer for Advocacy and Education at the CUNY Adjunct Project. 

The Adjunct Project is an affiliate organization of the DGSC. Its three co-coordinators work with each other, the DGSC, and labor organizing efforts on and off campus to advocate for, share information with, and collaboratively build the power of CUNY adjuncts and Graduate Center student workers. The organization has as its mandate to raise consciousness on the state of academic labor as a whole. 

The new coordinator will serve alongside two other coordinators from September 2020 to June 30, 2021, with the possibility of reappointment, and be paid an annual stipend of approximately $4,787.60 to be paid in monthly payments throughout the year. Applicants must be matriculated Graduate Center students with experience as CUNY adjuncts or adjunct-equivalent roles. 

The successful applicant will work together with the other coordinators of the Adjunct Project, who are collectively responsible for: 

• organizing with CUNY adjuncts and student workers around working conditions and overlapping struggles; 
• planning workshops, discussions, and other programming aligned with the Adjunct Project’s mission; 
• liaising with other groups on CUNY campuses, including but not limited to the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), adjunct groups, and undergraduate groups; 
• stimulating awareness, discussion, and collective action around adjunct and student worker issues among the broader Graduate Center community as well as across the CUNY campuses; 
• identifying changes in national, state, and local labor relations relevant to graduate student adjuncts; 
• updating website and social media content and producing other publicity and materials regarding issues, information, and events; 
• maintaining the Adjunct Project’s operations, including tracing finances and responding to emails; 
• ensuring that all activities of the Adjunct Project are consistent with the DGSC Constitution and Bylaws; and 
• hiring consultants, contingent on need and funding. 

The official job description for the Co-organizer for Advocacy and Education can be found here, under number 4.

We specifically seek applications from individuals with the ability to contribute to the continuing commitment of both the Adjunct Project and the DGSC to equity and inclusion, social and cultural diversity, and the transformative power of our differences. We are particularly interested in applicants with digital organizing and advocacy experience (twitter, facebook, website, graphics development, as a primary facet of this position will include digital event management (political education, webinars, panels, actions, etc.). The search committee invites applicants to identify their strengths and experiences in these areas and describe how they would further this goal at the Adjunct Project. 

Candidates must forward CVs and cover letters indicating the position they are interested in to Sharanya Dutta, DGSC Co-Chair for Student Affairs at (ccsa@cunydsc.org) by November 1, 2020.

While COVID-19 social distancing measures are still in effect, this position will be remote. We do have an office on campus, but we urge everyone on staff to not go to the GC office, and to work from home for the time being. If you are not in New York City due to COVID-19, you may still apply. However, our intentions are to be back in- person, when it is fully safe to do so.

To Interim Graduate Center President James Muyskens, Interim Graduate Center Provost Julia Wrigley, CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez, and the CUNY Board of Trustees:

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and we have uninsured students at the Graduate Center because CUNY has been unwilling to answer the call from the Full and Fair Funding group, the CUNY Adjunct Project, the Doctoral Student Council, and over 450 community members* who have demanded structural change to secure equity in funding and health insurance for all doctoral students.

Healthcare is a human right, and the Graduate Center has the responsibility to provide it to all students.

One third of current and incoming doctoral students at the CUNY Graduate Center – as much as 50% in some departments – receive only five-year tuition waivers or else no funding at all. Within this two-tiered system, students without Graduate Assistantships do not qualify for the New York State Health Insurance Program. Many students are forced to take on extremely precarious low-paying adjunct jobs to qualify for health insurance, and sit with the anxiety each semester that they will lose both their job and their ability to seek medical care. 

The present global health situation, increasing in urgency with a case of COVID-19 already reported within the CUNY system, shows the importance of structurally guaranteed, universal access to health insurance. 

The contract ratified in December of last year by the PSC has set up infrastructure for expanded access to NYSHIP. However, four months later, there have been no implemented changes in student’s access to health insurance at the Graduate Center. It is now that we must see a firm and rapid commitment from CUNY to secure non-contingent access to healthcare for all doctoral students. 

We call on CUNY leadership to move quickly to eliminate the two-tiered funding structure and to provide the human right of healthcare to all students at the Graduate Center. 

Signed,

The Full and Fair Funding group

The CUNY Adjunct Project

*Number of signatures on our Spring 2019 open letter demanding universal graduate assistant positions and access to health insurance. To sign the letter and for more information on the Full and Fair Funding campaign, visit http://cunyadjunctproject.org/funding