Brooklyn College PSC-CUNY

Over the last several months this blog has become an essential tool for communicating with PSC members and supporters across CUNY and more broadly within academia. We want to encourage you to stay connected to our work by subscribing to the blog by entering your email in the box provided on the right of this screen. This will allow you to get an email notice whenever we post a new story. We promise not to overwhelm you with stories. We typically only put out 1-3 a week. We've also created a Twitter feed linked to this blog. We post links to new posts and also pass along news about similar struggles going on at CUNY and throughout higher education. Our Twitter handle is @PSCCUNYBC.  https://twitter.com/psccunybc .

CUNY management was defeated in its attempt to block consideration of a union grievance on the way the University implemented Pathways, and has been told in no uncertain terms that faculty’s curricular duties are terms and conditions of employment covered by the PSC’s contract.  The ruling  was issued on Friday by an independent arbitrator of a grievance filed by the PSC. CUNY had petitioned for the grievance to be dismissed, arguing that issues of governance are not covered by the PSC contract and cannot be challenged by the PSC. The petition to dismiss was an attempt to narrow scope of the contract, and was soundly rejected by the arbitrator. The grievance, filed by the PSC in 2012, alleges that in its implementation of Pathways CUNY failed to act in accordance with University Bylaws and college governance plans established for the development and execution of curriculum changes. The grievance also alleges that the implementation of Pathways was a violation of academic fr...

Last month CUNY Vice-Chancellor Alexandra Logue wrote an essay for Inside Higher Education in which she called for expanding the use of MOOCs. Logue seems to have missed the latest research. This week’s New York Times outlines the latest research affirming the very limited effectiveness of MOOCs (see below and also see this ).  Given that students in MOOCs have an almost infinitesimal completion rate, and given that few students are willing to pay for what MOOCs offer, why are the Chancellery and Board of Trustees so keen on them?  Are they simply the latest victims of the agenda of the K-12 plutocratic reformers and technocrats? The answer may be that MOOCs represent yet another way to degrade public education in the name of lowering costs. Today we learned that as part of CUNY’s ongoing effort to streamline and centralize the curriculum that the Board of Trustees passed a measure that eliminates local controls over the issuing of e-permits. Students now no longer...

On Tuesday Brooklyn College’s Faculty Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing CUNY’s draft policy on “ expressive conduct ” (see below). The draft policy has been heavily criticized by faculty and students and the PSC Delegates Assembly also called for the withdrawal of the policy at its last meeting.  Today the New York Times reported on the issue, quoting PSC President Barbara Bowen saying, “if CUNY is to be an intellectually vibrant university, it must recognize that ‘expressive activity’ is a vital part of campus life, not a danger to be confined to narrow limits.” CUNY senior vice chancellor Frederick P. Schaffer, claims that it was faculty who requested the creation of a unified policy. While it may be true that one or two of the 15,000 faculty may have mentioned something to him along these lines, that does not mean that this point of view is representative of faculty opinion broadly. Now that CUNY has heard from the PSC’s Delegate Assembly, elected by the e...

Gov. Cuomo appointed two new trustees to the CUNY Board yesterday . The news is mixed. First the good:   Jeffery Wiesenfeld   has been replaced. Wiesenfeld is best known for trying to deny an honorary degree to Tony Kushner. Unfortunately he wasn't replaced by Kushner as some suggested. However, his replacement has some positive aspects. Barry F. Schwartz is a business executive, who manages MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings Inc., which is the financial vehicle for the wealth of   Ronald O. Perelman , one of the richest men in America. Unlike, most other CUNY Trustees, however, Schwartz has a background in higher education. He serves as chairmen of the Board of Kenyon College, where he received his BA and is on the Board of Visitors at Georgetown Law School, where he received his JD. Interestingly, he’s also on the Board of Human Rights First , a major player in the human rights world. Schwartz’s connection to Culomo is probably that Cuomo’s former chief of staff is al...

Last semester the provost unilaterally ended the college’s language and speech requirements over the express objections of Faculty Council. On November 12 th  the Brooklyn College Faculty Council protested this decision by voting 80-3 in favor of a Special Resolution on Faculty Governance . The resolution asserts that the Provost violated the college's governance plan by changing the College Bulletin to comply with Pathways .  The College’s governance plan makes clear that only Faculty Council, not the Provost, the Board of Trustees, or any other administrator, has the authority to make changes to the College Bulletin. The resolution raises a fundamental question. Will the CUNY administration abide by its own governing documents? The Board of Trustees asserts that it has total and unquestioned authority to make any educational changes it wants. The PSC, the University Faculty Senate, and numerous campus governing bodies have challenged their contempt for faculty governan...

At our Chapter Meeting on Thursday we had a good discussion of the problems with HEO and CLT times sheets. This will be a major topic of discussion in our "Labor-Management" meeting next month. We will be calling on the administration to sign off on time sheets that acurately reflect the time worked by HEO's and CLT's even if extra hours haven't been preauthorized.  Union members in HEO, CLT and Research series titles are organizing a university-wide petition campaign pressing CUNY to negotiate with the PSC on the implementation of the new time-sheet system. The drive started in early November at BMCC and City Tech and was launched CUNY-wide at a joint meeting of the HEO and CLT chapters held last week at the PSC Union Hall. The petition calls on CUNY to negotiate about the timesheets and demands that any new time-sheet system for HEOs and CLTs reflect the complexity of our jobs and the variability of our schedules. To volunteer for the workplace petition drive, ...

Momentum is building against the efforts by the CUNY central administration to restrict protest. Last Thursday the PSC Delegate Assembly passed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of CUNY's new draft policy on Expressive Activity arguing that it is unnecessary in the face of existing policies and is designed to continue CUNY's long history of attempting to stifling protest (text of the resolution to follow soon). In the latest instance of this, the administration of CCNY continues to harshly punish 2 of their students involved in protesting the closure of the  Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center . The two students have been suspended without a hearing, denied access to Spring registration, and turned over to local police for criminal prosecution , for their participation in non-violent protest activities at the college.  Below is a response to CUNY's attempt to limit student protest from BC Political Science major and student govern...

CUNY continues to maintain a personnel system designed for full time permanent hires,  when over half the teaching is done by at will temporary employees. Semester after  semester adjuncts and department secretaries have to fill out employment paperwork.  Because of the way CUNY handles scheduling, leaves, and other employment practices, large  numbers of classes end up having to be filled within 2 weeks of the start of classes,  meaning delayed paperwork and late payments to adjuncts. CUNY First has exacerbated this  problem as it has made the personnel processes more complicated, at least in the short run.  Adjuncts should be aware that they are eligible for emergency payments of 80% from  their local campuses. Contact your local PSC chapter or the central office for help in arranging this.  October 29, 2013 Print Comment FACULTY Even in New York, Adjuncts' Paychecks Can Take Their Sweet Time By...

Stated Meeting Address October 24, 2013 Alex S. Vitale Chair Brooklyn College Chapter PSC-CUNY As most of you know we have gone 3 years without a contract. This is a condition we share with every unionized employee in the city. Because of Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence on withholding raises and increasing health care contributions, there are no unions currently bargaining with the City. None. Gov. Cuomo has made and in some cases won similar demands from the state unions. As a result, we have very little reason to engage in economic bargaining until the election of a new mayor. We have, however, approached CUNY management about opening up non-economic bargaining and there are many things to discuss. We will prepare to bargain in earnest over economic matters when a new mayoral administration shows an interest in non-concessionary bargaining. But given that the old contract remains in force, we have very little incentive to bargain. On a brighter note, the PSC was the ...

The following resolution will be brought to the November Faculty Council meeting by the FC Steering Committee. The local PSC chapter supports this resolution. BROOKLYN COLLEGE OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK FACULTY COUNCIL November 12, 2013 Special Resolution on Faculty Governance Steering Committee Whereas , according to the Governance Plan of Brooklyn College (Article II), the faculty “shall be responsible for the formulation of policy relating to the admission and retention of students, including health and scholarship standards; student attendance, including leaves of absence; curriculum; awarding of college credit; granting of degrees”; and Whereas , Faculty Council is “the legislative body of the Faculty and shall have all the responsibilities of a faculty”;  and Whereas , Faculty Council, at its meeting of April 3, 2012, voted not to “implement a [CUNY] Pathways curriculum under the current guidelines,” and again, at its meeting...

BY Alex S. Vitale CUNY’s new draft policy on Expressive Activity in paying rhetorical allegiance to the “important of a free exchange of ideas and expression of all points of view,” makes the fundamental mistake of equating protest with speech. Throughout the document, the right to protest is restricted by concerns about “order,” “disruption,” and the “rights of others.” These restrictions indicate a basic misunderstanding of the nature of the right to assembly as distinct from the right to freedom of speech. There are many possible outlets for ideas including interpersonal speech, published writing, and social media. The right to assemble, however, involves the physical manifestation of people in space as both an exercise in communication and an expression of power. As such it is inherently disruptive, disorderly, and interferes with the rights of others. Any policy that attempts to eliminate these qualities reduces protest to speech. The constitution specifically protects t...

The PSC was a founding member of Campaign for the Future of Higher Education and will host the next CFHE meeting in New York in January 2014. ( http://futureofhighered.org/sixth-national-gathering-cfhe-focusing-winning-campaigns-public-higher-education/ )   At the last CFHE meeting in Columbus, Ohio in May of this year, PSC First Vice President Steve London and PSC Treasurer Mike Fabricant delivered a strategy paper calling on CFHE to focus on MOOCs and on-line learning. Below is one of the results from that effort: From Campus Learning http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/10/09/faculty-coalition-its-time-to-examine-mooc-and-online-ed-profit-motives.aspx                                                  ...

The PSC bargains its contracts in a very complicated environment. CUNY is a public institution that is financed by both New York City and the State of New York. Following the NYC fiscal crisis of the 1970’s, the State took over much of the financial obligation for CUNY. Almost all public funding for senior colleges and two-thirds of public funding of community colleges comes from the state. The remaining one-third of public funding for community college, along with some cross CUNY special programs, like the Black Male Initiative come from the City. This means that when the PSC sits down with CUNY management, the labor negotiators from the City and the State, appointed by the Mayor and the Governor are looming in the background. While CUNY and the PSC have flexibility in negotiating a variety of “non-economic” aspects of the contract, such as disciplinary procedures or the process for reappointment, the basic “economic” package is set by the city and state. Salary increases or new...