Brooklyn College PSC-CUNY

The IFC Center (6th Avenue & 3rd Street, Manhattan) is showing the new documentary Starving the Beast ( dir. Steve Mims) about public higher education.  See trailer here .

This event is open to all who are interested in fighting to improve the conditions of the most vulnerable and exploited segment of the academic labor force. It will be hosted in at the Graduate Center, room 5414 on  Thursday, September 22 at 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM . What can we learn from other academic unions about transforming the conditions of contingent workers? Following the PSC's hard-fought struggle after six years to secure a contract, the question of our next steps looms large. In this time of austerity, when academic workers face an administration and government intent on making cuts to public education, it is especially important for workers across the country and beyond to share their knowledge and experiences of both victories and setbacks.  Lecturer Jonathan Karpf of the  California Faculty Association  (CFA) will join graduate emplo yee and adjunct activists from CUNY to discuss his experience organizing part-time, contingent labor and the CFA's efforts...

Brooklyn College faculty rally for new contract By Conor Skelding 3:21 p.m. | Oct. 15, 2015   The Brooklyn College chapter of CUNY's faculty and staff union, the Professional Staff Congress, rallied outside the college gates on Thursday afternoon for a new contract without tuition increases. "We're hoping that they move the message in Albany closer to the governor's office so that the chancellor, the governor, and the mayor will find the political will to sit down at the bargaining table," said James Davis, an English professor at Brooklyn College for 12 years. The PSC has been working without a contract for five years. Agreement on a new contract requires the buy-in of not just the union and university, but city and state as well. CUNY has also raised tuition $300 per year for the past five years under a plan approved by the state Legislature in 2011. Tuition is now $6,330 per year at CUNY's senior colleges. "The PSC is strongly against ...