VRB March 23, 2023

VRB March 23, 2023

 

Today the VRB reviewed two full time, permanent positions for ITS. Both were approved unanimously and moved forward to Michelle. 

 

Michelle moved one position (admissions) to central CUNY VRB. 

VRB March 17, 2023

VRB March 17, 2023

 

This week we reviewed 14 applications, all were unanimously moved forward to Michelle: 

 

2 in admissions

1 faculty position in Accounting (replacement)

1 aHEO position in Biology (replacement)

1 distinguished lecturer in Feirstein (replacement)

1 CLT in Film (replacement) 

1 faculty position in Library (replacement)

1 CLT Trem (replacement)

2 CA part time in Central Depository (replacement)

1 CA part time Fierstein (replacement)

1 part time Classified position in Student Affairs (replacement)

2  part time theater technicians (replacement)

 

 

2 staff positions from March 7 were approved by the CUNY central VRB (communications and library).  

 

 

VRB March 9

Today the VRB reviewed 3 full-time positions in personal counseling (retirement + expiration of federal funding), 3 part time (CA) positions in personal counseling (no new money here, just moving people around), and one staff position in student financial affairs.  The committee was almost unanimous in forwarding these to President Anderson. One person recommended 2 instead of three psychologists. 

 

President Anderson only forwarded two (communications and library) of the five positions approved on March 3 to the VRB. She is holding the other positions and seeing what comes to her on March 10. She will be forwarding applications to CUNY VRB on a weekly basis. 

 

What has become clear in this process is that all of these positions are critical to maintaining the basic operating necessities of the College. 

VRB Meeting March 3

Today the VRB reviewed 6 proposals. Two from facilities (replacement plumbers), one staff position for the library, one full time professor position in PRLS, a staff position in communications for the website, and more hours for a CA in disability services. The committee unanimously voted to forward all to President Anderson. 

 Dear Brooklyn College Community,

As Chapter Chair of our union I think it is important to be in constant communication during this latest budget crisis. From my perspective this crisis is somewhat manufactured, somewhat real. On the one hand, we have seen the largest year over year budgets for CUNY (past two years) in over 20 years. On the other hand, CUNY remains chronically underfunded. At the same time, CUNY has over 100 million dollars in reserve, yet they are implementing austerity measures. Nothing about this is inevitable, but we need to be prepared to push back, and push back hard. 

Rather than sending too many emails, I will be writing weekly updates on the meetings of the Vacancy Review Board on our chapter's blogspot. As most of you know, CUNY implemented a hiring freeze at the beginning of February. This means that all approved positions will go to a CUNY Central Vacancy Review Board. CUNY asked the campuses to institute their own Vacancy Review Boards (VRB), essentially to limit the quantity of requests to CUNY Central. Alan Gilbert asked me to serve on the VRB on February 9. I felt it was important for me to participate to ensure that our union's perspective is in those meetings. 

VRB Meeting Feb 23, 2023

There are 100 open (and previously approved) positions at Brooklyn College, everything from custodial staff to full-time faculty. These will need to come to the VRB. But before they even come to the VRB, division heads are being asked to prioritize positions before sending them to the VRB and chairs, supervisors, etc will need to seek approval before things move up the chain. Importantly, this means the VRB will see only a fraction of the requests made and approved by chairs, supervisors, and administrators. 

The local VRB will meet once a week to review applications and make decisions. The general approach will be decision making by consensus. Once we make our decisions they will be forwarded to Michelle Anderson and she will have the final authority on what gets sent to the CUNY VRB. 

My understanding is that the positions not approved by the local VRB are not cancelled, but rather will continue to be paused/frozen. 

The voting members of the local VRB are: 

Anne Lopes-Provost

Ron Jackson- VP Student Affairs

MJ Robinson- Chair of TREM and on Master Planning

Randall Clarke- Director of Seek

Carolina Bank Muñoz-PSC Chapter Chair

What is the Role of Unions? How does the PSC work? Union Week Session 1 November 3

Resources From Session One 

Sign Up for Your Campus Action Team
https://psc-cuny.org/CAT

Our Union Website
https://psc-cuny.org/

RANK AND FILE ACTION (RAFA) is a group of militant rank & file activists at CUNY challenging the culture of austerity in higher education and demanding a more democratic fighting union.
https://www.rankandfileaction.com/

Strike Authorization Vote FAQ (Rafa):
https://tinyurl.com/2vpxze72

PSC-CUNY Structure, Who to Contact, & How to Get Involved [Google Slides]
https://tinyurl.com/22n7xr83 

A Glossary of the PSC
https://tinyurl.com/5pz63sxy

Register for Upcoming Union Week Sessions and Speakers!

Social Justice Unionism [Session Two]
When: November 5- 12:15-1:15
Speakers: Alexandra Juhasz- Film, Jesús Pérez-ISSO, Lindsey Eckenroth- Music,
Lawrence Johnson- Sociology
Register: https://tinyurl.com/bcpscsession2

What’s Next? Contract and Budget [Session Three]
When: November 9- 12:15-1:15
Speakers: Amy Jeu-CLT Chapter Chair, Anthony Harb- Anthropology, Jesús Pérez- ISSO
Register: https://tinyurl.com/bcpscsession3

Discussion of the Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People [Session Four]
When:November 12- 12:15-1:15
Speakers: Louis Fishman- History, Moustafa Bayoumi- English, Naomi Braine-Sociology,
Yehuda Klein- Economics
Register: https://tinyurl.com/bcpscsession4

PSC Delegate Assembly 10/21/21 - notes

NOTE: The agenda is in purple, action items in red and highlighted in yellow, and notes in black text.

DISCLAIMER: These are informal notes and while we try to be accurate, there may be errors and there

will be omissions. Please see the "Delegate Assembly: Resolutions and Notes" page on this blog for 

details on how these items will be shared on the blog and how to access the approved minutes of any DA.

PSC Delegate Assembly, October 21, 2021

6:30-9:00

Draft agenda

I Approvals

 Agenda and Minutes for September 23, 2021 meeting

Approved with minor amendments

II President’s report and discussion (including written)

CUNY Budget Request/New Deal for CUNY/October 25, Strategic Action Plan

Issues with Spring Return

• Shout out to the work being done by the anti-bullying committee and the events they put 

  on for Freedom from Bullying week; and to the health and safety committee and the work 

  they’ve done

• CUNY Budget request

• looking pretty good! Include $416 million dollars on top of last year’s enacted budget, 

  much larger increase than previous years. Increase of $300/FTE student for community 

  colleges. 1,075 new FT faculty including 500 conversion lines for adjuncts (from ND4C), 

  tuition freeze, mandatory bargaining, maintenance of effort and capital budget request 

  higher than before. Higher requests for recurring health/safety/maintenance budget. 

• Will this be approved? BoT approval is first step. But, for the first time in a while, 

  we’re actually aligned with CUNY on some key points.

• ND4C - in addition to CUNY budget hoping for stuff in executive budget. It’s not contract 

  but does affect us. Includes free tuition for undergraduate. The need for this is evident in new 

  study that shows dramatic divergence between FT faculty/student ration between SUNY and 

  CUNY.

• October 25 action at BoT meeting - hybrid. In person and online. Make sure they know 

  we’re here and we’re strong as they decide on budget request. 

• Strategic Action Plan - being rolled out in draft form to get feedback from various levels of 

  PSC structure. Focused on what we need to do, benchmarks etc. build organizing capacity - 

  campus action team.

• No surveillance testing yet

• 70/30 mandate on return to campus for teaching

• HyFlex implementation - PSC filed a university-wide grievance and convened a working group.

• Q&A: CUNY is getting campuses to take down ventilation data if they’ve posted it on their sites.

III Treasurers Report

August Financials

Budget Proposal for 2021-22

Passes. Dues discrepancy is due to not getting our contractual wage increase until Oct.

Renee leaving and Naomi Z retiring. Budget has to reflect payouts for them. Budget approved for 

next year. Some raised having a discussion about whether our affiliations are worth the cost. 

BREAK

V Legislative Update (written)

From the written report: “October 26 at 7:00pm PSC will hold a Zoom briefing with the New York 

City Central Labor Council’s political director regarding the five ballot initiatives on the November ballot 

and New York State Redistricting proposals. Here is more information and a link to sign up.”

“General Election phone banks: On October 13th we held a phone bank for Staten Island Mark Murphy 

for Borough President and Olivia Drabczyk, the Democratic nominee for the 51st City Council District. 

On October 20th we had a phone bank for Felicia Singh and Lynn Schulman in the 32nd and 29th City 

Council Districts in Queens. We are planning an additional phone bank for October 27th”

VI Executive Director’s report (written)

Announced elections on various chapters

IV Revision of PSC Procedures for EC and DA Resolutions

Proposal from the Executive Council

[the resolution is posted on our chapter blog] the debate in the DA built on a long and involved 

debate on the DA listserv about whether postponing debate on a resolution was a way of quashing it, 

which approach allowed for more organizing and mobilization in chapters, did the change in the 

conditions a resolution should meet place undue burdens etc. A substantial amendment was 

proposed that the resolution be distributed to members directly by the EC. After some debate, 

there was a motion to table the resolution that passed by a large margin.

VII Committee Report Note: this was swapped on the schedule with the previous item

Anti Bullying Committee—report on anti-bullying month

Gave a detailed report with tons of great information. Here’s their website link and will be hosting 

a book club on Mondays at 6:30pm for 5 weeks: Nov 15, 22, 29; Dec 13, 20 Book to purchase:

  Bully Free at Work (eBook version) by Valerie Cade. To sign up, email Amy Jeu, Representative of the 

PSC Anti-Bullying Committee at amyjeu@gmail.com

VIII Unfinished and New Business

A motion to unstable the resolution on resolutions was introduced and then withdrawn.

IX Adjourn