Brooklyn College PSC-CUNY

PSC Pres. Barbara Bowen sent   this letter   to CUNY Board of Trustees Chair Benno Schmidt on Fri., June 21. The letter calls on Chairman Schmidt to respect the full-time faculty’s 92% vote of No Confidence in Pathways and rescind the resolution that established the program. “A curriculum that has so dramatically failed to win the confidence of those responsible for executing it cannot be in the best interest of the University,” she says in the letter. The overwhelming result of the No Confidence vote demands that “Pathways be removed from its position as CUNY’s general education curriculum and replaced by a curriculum or curricula formulated by elected faculty bodies,” according to Pres. Bowen. Members of the CUNY Board of Trustees received a similar letter, which was copied to Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and Interim Chancellor William Kelly. June 21, 2013 Dr. Benno Schmidt Chairperson, Board of Trustees The City University of New York 205 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10017

Over the last several months president Gould has intervened in the governance of several departments including Accounting, Modern Languages, and Business Management and Finance. Some other departments and programs are also expressing concerns about the role of Deans and the President in the internal governance of their departments. While the President has the right to overrule the selection of a chair by a department (subject to approval by the Board of Trustees), this right has typically been reserved for extreme situations where a department is completely divided or otherwise unable to manage their own governance. President Gould‘s more recent interventions do not fit this pattern. In the case of Business Management and Finance, the department voted unanimously to reelect Robert Bell as Chair. When they were told that that selection was unacceptable to the President, for reasons that have yet to be stated, the department unanimously supported a second candidate. Despite this, th

Between CUNY First, increasing enrollment, and hiring freezes, HEOs and other administrative support staff have experienced significant increases in workload and stress.  In every round of contract bargaining, the CUNY administration has tried to reduce HEO job security and deny them avenues for promotion. Meanwhile, the number of top administrators is increasing along with their salaries. Promotions without significant increases in responsibilities are also common, creating an army of Deans, Deanlettes, Senior Vice Presidents, Assoc. Provosts, etc., not to mention the growth of CUNY Central Administration, which has brought us such wonders as Pathways and CUNY First. It is this context that we offer the following post by Prof. Benjamin Ginsberg at Johns Hopkins, reprinted from Minding the Campus . June 13, 2013 Forget MOOCs--Let's Use MOOA By Benjamin Ginsberg As colleges begin using massive op

The following resolution was passed at the national meeting of the American Assoc. of University Professors last weekend: Resolution in Support of Faculty Control of the Curriculum at the City University of New York Whereas, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has been a longstanding proponent of sound academic governance, the principles of which are enunciated in the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities , and Whereas, the Statement on Government , which embodies standards widely upheld in American higher education, rests on the premise of appropriately shared responsibility and cooperative action among the governing board, the administration, and the faculty in determining educational policy and resolving educational problems within the academic institution, and Whereas, Section V of the Statement on Government defines the role of the faculty in institutional governance, stating in part: The faculty has primary responsibility for su

Earlier this week, President Gould sent out a statement to the Brooklyn College community to honor the legacy of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. We indeed applaud the gesture, but find it bitterly ironic that CUNY has managed in just one decade to cut in half the percentage of black freshmen at Brooklyn College and City College, campuses located in two of the city's most predominantly (and historically significant) black communities. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/black-latino-freshman-top-cuny-colleges-new-study-finds-article-1.1083509 Earlier this year, a group of black and Latino faculty and staff, concerned about changes to Brooklyn College's Black and Latino Male Initiative, sent a letter to the administration that has yet to be formally addressed. In it concerned faculty and staff express the very issue of low black/Latino enrollment and recruitment at Brooklyn College. Below are excerpts from the letter: January 31, 2013

Mike Fabricant & Arthurine Desola on why the Mayor should negotiate fair wage increases & fair contracts for all City workers, including CUNY faculty & staff. Fair Contracts For All Rally. June 12 . City Hall. 4 PM.

The referendum votes have been tallied: a total of 4,322 votes were cast, out of a total number of 7,202 possible votes: a 60% turnout. Of those, 3,996 full-time faculty agreed that they have No Confidence in Pathways, with only 323 voting Disagree (and 3 void ballots). An absolute majority of the full-time faculty are on record as having no confidence in Pathways. That is a stunning rebuke to the new curriculum and the coercive process used to implement it. I will send a longer message to the entire membership shortly, but for now I want to congratulate you all on your extraordinary collective effort in defense of our students' right to a rigorous education. Equipped with this result, we can take the campaign to a new level in the fall. In solidarity, Barbara Bowen