Spring 2020 Stated Meeting Remarks, BC PSC

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 in the days ahead.  The second move, an incremental reduction of employees on campus, posed a difficult, urgent challenge.  Determinations about who was permitted to work remotely, compelled to report to campus, and designated essential or non-essential, varied from campus to campus and changed by the day, as elected officials and CUNY management reckoned with the rapidly expanding health crisis. 

We are now at the unwelcome but stable point at which none but critical operations personnel at CUNY are moving around the city and the workplace.  Students who need laptops or food can access them on campus; otherwise everyone should work and study remotely.  As stressful as this transition has been, and as troubling as the weeks ahead appear, we are fortunate to have a labor union struggling for the health and safety of CUNY employees, fortunate to have local administrators who listen and engage with the concerns of faculty and staff, and above all fortunate to have each other.  Many of you have contacted me or other members of the BC PSC Executive Committee during this crisis, and we are grateful for that.  You have helped the union to coordinate its response to shifting, ambiguous policy pronouncements from CUNY Central.  You have also challenged us to take in the needs of everyone the PSC represents, from the lab technicians who keep classes and research programs running, to the Library faculty on whom we all rely, to the staff who provide vital student services on campus, to the extraordinary adjunct and full-time teaching faculty. 

  Please continue to be in touch with your questions and concerns.  We’ll do our best to rise to this challenge, as you are in your own work.  Stay safe, stay productive, enjoy your virtual time with your students, and remember that your mental health is as important now as your physical health, so be kind to yourselves.