CUNY faculty union members to testify on contract, budget request

Members of the Professional Staff Congress, the City University of New York’s faculty and staff union, are set to testify at the CUNY Board of Trustees’ public hearing this afternoon to push for raises and improved conditions.

The union — which represents 30,000 faculty and staff — plans to testify about the need for students to receive a quality education. And while their current contract expires at the end of February, the union is also pushing for raises for all of its members above inflation, stronger health and safety standards, and a fairer remote work policy, POLITICO’s Madina Touré reports.

The union also wants the university to invest in recruitment and retention initiatives for faculty from underrepresented groups in academia and help create mentorship programs for faculty of color.

“We’re gonna be asking our members to testify at the Board of Trustees hearing to impress upon CUNY that we need a very strong budget request for the coming fiscal year from them and we are seeking real raises and other important provisions in the next contract,” James Davis, PSC’s president, told POLITICO recently.

PSC members throughout CUNY will be wearing #Red4HigherEd on Monday during the hearing, which will take place at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City.

CUNY told POLITICO it has not yet finalized its budget request. The board will vote to approve the request for fiscal year 2024 on Dec. 12.

The union is holding actions on campuses citywide during Union Week, which kicks off today and concludes Friday.

“Wages is certainly on the mind of everyone,” said Carolina Bank Muñoz, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and chair of the college’s union chapter. “It’s a really significant issue at Brooklyn, because we’ve lost so many faculty of color during the pandemic and it’s so hard to recruit faculty of color given the wages.”

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Around New York

DOMINICAN TEACHERS LOSE PHONE SERVICE AMID PROBE — New York Post’s Susan Edelman and Georgia Worrell: “Bilingual teachers brought from the Dominican Republic to work in New York City schools found service on their cell phones abruptly cut off last week — adding to the anxiety they face amid an investigation of the Department of Education employees who recruited them. The disruption came without warning or explanation as city and federal agencies investigate complaints that the Dominican teachers have been exploited and threatened. ‘I realized it when one of the other teachers told me, ‘Check your phone to see if it’s only mine that’s running low,’ one told The Post. ‘I wasn’t able to make calls, I wasn’t able to get access to the Internet.’”

NEW SCHOOL, PART-TIME FACULTY UNION TO MEET MEDIATOR — Gothamist’s Elizabeth Shwe: “After two weeks of canceled classes, the New School and the union representing its part-time faculty will meet with a mediator ... [again today] to work toward an agreement. Part-time faculty who are members of ACT-United Auto Workers Local 7902 have been on strike since Nov. 16 and rejected the school’s ‘last, best and final’ offer by a 1,821-88 vote on Thursday. Part-time faculty make up 82% of the New School’s faculty, according to the university.”

HOSTOS STUDENTS WITHOUT CAFETERIA — The CITY’s Jonathan Custodio: “The cafeteria at Hostos Community College closed when the pandemic shut down New York. Nearly three years later, it remains shuttered — and hungry students who have returned to campus want it back. Hostos students demanded the college reopen its school cafeteria on Wednesday at a rally inside a campus building, saying their waning energy levels due to lack of access to nutrition on campus have made it harder to get through classes.”

POLICY CHANGES TO BRING MORE CONTRACTS TO WOMEN, MINORITY BUSINESSES — Daily News’ Cayla Bamberger: “A scant 1.5% of businesses that service NYC schools are owned by minorities and women, prompting a shift in policy at the Department of Education to improve diversity and fall in line with citywide standards. Officials described the move as a way to ‘diversify the entire education ecosystem’ that currently contracts with the oft-overlooked businesses at one of the lowest rates in the city. One vendor told the Daily News the city would ask her to submit proposals around midnight — only to find out the following morning that another vendor had been chosen.”

NEW YORK FOUNDLING PUERTO RICO CONVERTING TO EARLY ED CENTER IN CATAÑO — NimB.com: “New York Foundling Puerto Rico has completed the processes to convert the former Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón School in Cataño into an $8.5 million center for Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which will provide services to qualifying residents of the town, the entity’s director Carmen Villafañe confirmed. The demolition and subsequent construction of the new Head Start and Early Head Start facilities is underway at what will eventually be the headquarters for most of the five Centers that the organization currently has in the coastal municipality.”

SUNY BROCKPORT RECOGNIZED AS UNIVERSITY — RochesterFirst’s George Gandy: “SUNY Brockport has been officially recognized as a university! In a statement from SUNY Brockport, SUNY Chancellor Deborah Stanley approved the school’s application to earn recognition as a university. The university will continue to be referred to as SUNY Brockport, however, its official state education title will be known as ‘State University of New York Brockport.’ SUNY Brockport President Heidi Macpherson expressed how proud the school is of the recognition while adding the mission of the university remains the same.”

TRASH LAWS FOR SCHOOLS — PIX 11’s Kala Rama and Jonathan Rizk: “Community members in Harlem…called for cleaner streets around New York City public schools and asked the Department of Education to follow the same rules enforced in their neighborhood. Organics, recycling, and garbage cans may be placed on the curb after 4 p.m. the evening before collection. However, this means that piles of waste may linger for up to 14 hours, including during the evening rush hour.”

— CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is announcing plans this morning for a “One Stop” Welcome Center at York College in Jamaica aimed at assisting New Yorkers with re-enrolling in college at the school. The center — which will open in 2024 — is part of CUNY Reconnect, a $4.4 million program that aims to help 700,000 New Yorkers who have college credit but do not have a degree to come back to CUNY. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who proposed the program, will also be in attendance. The program has helped re-enroll 3,000 students at CUNY this fall.

Across the River

POST-COVID STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT DATA COMING — NorthJersey.com’s Mary Ann Koruth: “The New Jersey Department of Education announced it will release statewide K-12 assessment data next week that will give insight into broad trends in how students performed on the state’s New Jersey Student Learning Assessments test. Data is expected to be posted Wednesday on the department’s website after it is presented at the State Board of Education’s monthly meeting, said spokesperson Shaheed Morris.”

STATE MAY HAVE TO STUDY HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE — New Jersey Monitor’s Sophie Nieto-Muñoz: “Clarence Payte says his path to education was disrupted by housing insecurity and taking on family responsibilities at a young age. After experiencing homelessness and seeing his mother incarcerated — leaving him to care for his three siblings and move in with his aunt — he couldn’t finish traditional high school...He urged lawmakers to advance a measure (S3080) that would create a task force and office within the Department of Education to study and prevent student dropout.”

Around the Nation

BLACK HISTORY TAKES CENTER STAGE IN AP CLASS — Washington Post’s Sydney Trent: “The lesson on historical racism in the United States started with an exploration of Haitian Vodou and its American cousin, Voodoo…Baltimore Polytechnic, a selective, mostly Black magnet high school with about 1,600 students, is one of about 60 public high schools nationwide that were chosen to pilot the Advanced Placement course, the first new offering from the College Board since 2014.”

LOUISIANA LAUNCHES TIP LINE TO ACCUSE LIBRARIANS OF ‘SEXUALIZING CHILDREN’ — Vice’s Claire Woodcock: “On Tuesday, the attorney general of Louisiana launched an online form encouraging residents of the state to report librarians who they suspect of stocking sexually explicit books — or anything else they might object to being seen by their kids. The reporting form was created as part of a failed investigation by Attorney General Jeff Landry that aims to find any books on library shelves that violate Louisiana statutes.”

Around the World

KYIV STUDENTS GRAPPLE WITH SCHOOL UNDER RUSSIAN BOMBARDMENT — Reuters’ Max Hunder and Stefaniia Bern: “Despite the missile strikes and power cuts that have become a regular occurrence in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv’s 190,000 remaining school children are still expected to attend classes, whether online or in person...Though [13-year-old Yulia’s] school, like most buildings in Ukraine’s embattled capital, experiences regular electricity cuts caused by Russian missile barrages on the power grid since October, city officials insist pupils will at least be able to finish the current semester, which ends on Dec. 23.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SEE TOUGH ROAD TO GETTING CLIPS — Poynter’s Julia Métraux: “When Nayanika Guha arrived in New York City to start her journalism master’s at New York University in August, she thought that she would have to stop freelancing due to being on an F-1 student visa…At journalism schools, professors often encourage students to pitch work that they have published in class, but international students are often left with questions about what they can get paid for their work.”

Extra Credit

A New York BOCES teacher received an outstanding educator award after 44 years.