Brooklyn College PSC-CUNY

Brooklyn College Faculty Council endorsed the following resolution on Nov. 17, 2020 

 

  The following resolution was endorsed at the October 7 BC PSC chapter meeting. Vote: 32 Yes, 0 No, abstentions not counted.

 

 The BC chapter and its many activists - and some students too - featured prominently in the PSC's round-the-clock day of action on the first day of the Fall 2020 semester. Partial video of the livestream is here:  https://www.facebook.com/PSC.CUNY/videos/313609966628985/?__so__=channel_tab&__rv__=all_videos_card The BC chapter segment begins around 2:39:00 into the video. 

 

Video by Tami Gold:  https://vimeo.com/437523429

The BC PSC Executive Committee endorses the June 15, 2020, "Statement Against Anti-Blackness and For Systemic Change" by the BC Black Faculty and Staff Organization, the Faculty of Color Group, and the Latino Faculty and Staff Organization. As members of Black Faculty and Staff (BFS), Faculty of Color (FOC) Group, and Latino Faculty and Staff (LFSO), we are greatly affected by the murders of Black people by police officers and white vigilantes. Even before the mass uprisings across the country, we witnessed the vulnerability of our students as COVID-19 exposed the structural fault lines where Black suffering is distinct, often beyond comparison. Now that conscientious people across the nation have joined in protests to condemn racism, corporations and institutions have seized the moment to join the chorus of those who utter the name of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McCade. However, we at Brooklyn College are disturbed by the...

Dear Colleagues, You’re likely aware that many Brooklyn College adjunct jobs are currently at risk, and for some the health insurance that comes with their CUNY employment. The PSC is engaged in a union-wide campaign to preserve those jobs and build for the larger struggle ahead. Here at Brooklyn, the PSC chapter is urging all faculty to submit Spring 2020 grades on the last permissible date, May 28 . We are not asking you to violate university policy or state law, nor is your students’ degree progress in jeopardy. But in solidarity with one another as faculty, we must act in protest of the demand to cut 25 percent of Fall course offerings. Having everyone on the faculty do the same thing at the same time is one important way to show to the administration and ourselves that we are capable of acting in concert. In order to exert pressure on the decisionmakers and those who hold the purse-strings of the university, we will need to escalate coordinated actions beyond next week, into...

The following passed as a statement of the members assembled at the May 21, 2020 special meeting of the Brooklyn College PSC chapter. Quorum not achieved: 22 yes, 3 no, 2 abstain. WHEREAS the COVID-19 crisis has caused unprecedented physical, emotional, and economic hardship for the students, faculty, and staff of the university, many of whose families have been thrown into chaos due to layoffs, illness, or both, and WHEREAS the governor has been granted the right to make executive cuts to the state budget, and this pressure is already being felt at Brooklyn College via demands by administration to slash Fall 2020 department budgets by as much as 25%, and WHEREAS adjunct faculty, who are most vulnerable to these cuts, teach a majority of classes at CUNY, and have faced decades of unstable work, low wages and hyper-exploitation that have left many financially unprepared for this crisis, and WHEREAS many adjunct faculty in particular rely upon a minimum number of courses...

Please use the links below to donate to the families of our deceased colleagues and to colleagues who have lost loved ones. Jay Jankelewicz family https://www.gofundme.com/f/wh43nu-rest-in-peace-jay Jamilah Simmons family https://www.gofundme.com/f/ 63rtz-support-the-simmons- family?utm_medium=copy_link& utm_source=customer&utm_ campaign=p_lico+share-sheet

Chancellor Matos Rodríguez and President Anderson: Faculty, staff and students of Brooklyn College, like all New Yorkers, have had our lives upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.  We have seen the inequities of our society laid bare, as the rates of illness and death have risen disproportionately in the low-income communities of color and immigrant communities served by our university. We have witnessed unbearable loss of life in our City, including among our colleagues and our families. To cause further trauma for the Brooklyn College community by cutting 25% of course offerings and eliminating the jobs of many of CUNY’s most precarious workers is outrageous. Furthermore, it undermines Brooklyn College’s core mission to “educate immigrants and first-generation college students from the diverse communities that make up our city and state.” The fiscal challenges we face are real, but CUNY must address them with maximum transparency. For Brooklyn College, we demand a virtual town ...

April 27, 2020 We respectfully request that you hold a virtual Town Hall on the BC budget for the campus community before we resubmit our Fall 2020 schedules. We take the New York State budget crisis seriously and recognize its adverse impact on Brooklyn College. We are willing to continue working in a spirit of collaboration. Nevertheless, we and other members of the campus community have questions that deserve answers before dramatic actions are taken to reduce Fall course offerings. We ask that you make available the day before the meeting the budgetary data on which you have based the contingency planning. Humanities & Social Sciences Prudence Cumberbatch Africana Studies Danielle Kellogg Classics Susan Longtin CASD Ellen Tremper English Gunja SenGupta History David Brodsky Judaic Studies Vanessa Pérez Rosario Modern Languages & Literatures Robert Lurz Philosophy Immanuel Ness Political Science Maria Perez y Gonzalez...

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act may entitle you to federal benefits: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/posters/FFCRA_Poster_WH1422_Non-Federal.pdf Questions and applications should be directed to Brooklyn College Human Resources: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/offices/hr.php

The Brooklyn College Stated Meeting of the Faculty scheduled for March 24, 2020 was cancelled. The following remarks were submitted by BC PSC Chapter chair, James Davis. Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus outbreak has transformed the way we work and interact.  It’s been a stressful time for everyone, from anxieties about our health, the safety and care of our loved ones, and the broader public health crisis and economic uncertainty, to the big lift required to move our teaching online and to modify, or even suspend, our labs and research agendas.  The PSC has sought to support CUNY faculty and staff as this crisis has unfolded, and more work lies ahead.  Arriving in the middle of the NY State budget season, the coronavirus compelled the union to turn attention from Albany back to the campuses.  The first move, to online instruction, affects some terms and conditions of our employment.  They will be the subject of negotiations with CUNY management i...

Rise and Resist is calling for an action to Defend Democracy if/when the senate acquits Donald Trump:  If the acquittal is announced before 2pm on a weekday, then we are calling for people to converge on Columbus Circle at 5pm. If the acquittal is announced after 2pm Mon - Thurs, then we are calling for people to converge on Columbus Circle the FOLLOWING day at 5pm.  If it is announced after 5pm on a Friday, then we calling for the convergence at Columbus Circle for 2pm on Saturday. https://facebook.com/events/s/ the-gop-destroys-democracy- tak/224039705290516/?ti=icl