Address
to the Stated Meeting of the Faculty
October
23, 2014
Alex S.
Vitale
Chair
Brooklyn
College Chapter
PSC-CUNY
We remain concerned
about developments in the School of Business. In their drive to accreditation,
the administration seems to have adopted an approach that consistently attempts
to go around faculty. Unelected Department Chairs are being brought in,
departments are being reconfigured with little or no faculty input, faculty are
being told what and how to teach and what journals and conferences are
acceptable, and the school appears to be increasingly walling itself off from
the rest of the college. The administration seems to be pursuing a very narrow
vision of how accreditation can be achieved that distances the school from the
rest of the college, rather than embracing a broader liberal arts approach that
would build on the college’s many strengths in this area in a way that would
enhance the overall education our business students receive. We will be
meeting with Business School faculty over the coming weeks to get a clearer
picture of the situation and will continue to update you on the blog and at the
Spring Stated Meeting.
Once again the faculty
has rejected a call from the administration to embrace Pathways. At the October
meeting of Faculty Council a motion to authorize participation in CUNY wide
Pathways course review committees was defeated by a huge margin. It is clear
that the faculty at BC and throughout CUNY continue to view Pathways as a
failed policy. Here at BC the faculty is working hard on our own vision of
General Education, which may or may not comport with Pathways. At our last
meeting, this body voted almost unanimously to support that faculty driven
effort and called on the President and Chancellor to support us. That support
has not been forthcoming. Instead the administration continues to try to
pressure faculty to accept a curriculum that we believe to be flawed --, one
that is a disservice to students and a blatant attack on the central role of the
faculty in developing curriculum. We expect the President to work vigorously
with the new Chancellor to make sure that he and the Board of Trustees accept
our General Education proposal, which we hope to see completed this spring.
As you know, contract
bargaining is well underway. CUNY and the PSC continue to bargain over a
variety of non-economic issues but are stymied by the lack of a reasonable
financial offer from the City and the State. It is imperative that the Governor
and the Mayor put real resources on the table. After 4 years without a raise,
CUNY is losing out on hiring faculty and staff because of our uncompetitive
salaries. One of our greatest concerns is that Gov. Cuomo may authorize some
minimal salary increases and then force CUNY to pay for those increases out of
existing diminished resources. This would be yet another attack on CUNY and its
core mission of educating our students and a clear attempt to divide the
faculty, students, staff, and administration. We call on the Governor to add
new resources to CUNY, not take them away. We expect the President to convey
this to the Chancellor and Board but we also need to communicate directly with
the Governor and Mayor. So, today we will begin distributing postcards to be
sent to them, demanding a real non-concessionary financial offer so that
bargaining can be completed. Please fill them out and return them to us
so that we can keep track of the total number and deliver them as a group at
time that is strategically beneficial.
