lClarıonNEWSPAPER OF THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS / CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK OCTOBER 2007

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS l AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS l NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION l NYC CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL l NYS AFL-CIO l NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS

Grad ratedebate

ANALYSIS

SOLIDARITY

The Queens College PSC Chapter hasjoined with other unions on campusto attack long-standing problems.They have won improvements inworking conditions, from health andsafety to promotions. PAGE 4

UTOPIA, DYSTOPIA

On the last day of the old contract,members from across CUNY lettheir creativity loose in the PSCUnion Hall. They sang, danced, drew, performed poetry and evenPowerPointed to illustrate whatCUNY might look like in the future,under union or management contract demands. PAGES 6-7

Community scrutinyfor Fiterman plans

FIRE SAFETY

The August 18 Deutsche Bank blazethat killed two firefighters hasheightened community concernsabout the demolition of BMCC’sFiterman Hall. CUNY and its con-tractors await regulators’ approvalto begin decontamination, but PSCmembers and allies wonder if theyhave learned all the lessons of theDeutsche Bank disaster. PAGE 8

Today’s students take longer to

earn diplomas – but college has lasting

benefits, for them and society.PAGE 10

Labor coalition wins campus fixes

Our CUNY versus Their CUNY

PSC mass meeting at Cooper Union’s Great Hall

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BENEFITS

The PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund is offer-ing a new program for long-term careinsurance. Long-term care provideshelp with activities of daily living,which may be needed due to illness,injury or advanced age. PAGE 9

New long-term care insurance program

On Tuesday, October 30, at 6:00 pm, the union will hold a mass membership meet-ing on the contract campaign. Come to Cooper Union for the latest news from thebargaining table, discussion of campaign strategy and an evening of union spirit.Meet your colleagues from across CUNY, and consider what we can do together to shape the outcome. PAGES 3, 5 & 11

l Governor Spitzer’s policy on im-migrants’ driver’s licenses deservesour support. The definite positiveaspects outweigh the potential neg-ative ones.

As Chung-Wha Hong, executivedirector of the New York Immigra-tion Coalition, said, “The old policyundermined public safety and hin-dered law enforcement by creatinga huge population without recordsor identification and denied themthe ability to drive.” Now hard-working immigrants will be able toget to work and to participate in allthose activities that require a car.

The new policy will help reduce thenumber of unqualified drivers and re-duce auto insurance rates. Driver’s li-censes will be issued through aprocedure that requires severalforms of identification from thosewithout a social security card or relat-ed documents. The new requirementswill make licenses be more reliable –not less – as proof of identity.

This procedure will neither nega-tively affect “homeland” securitynor increase the flow of undocu-mented workers. Terrorists func-tion with or without driver’slicenses. People do not immigrate toget a driver’s license. Effective re-sponses to security and immigra-tion issues come from national andinternational economic and politicalpolicy decisions more than frompunitive, short-term measures.

We who work with a large immi-grant student population, who knowthe challenges, aspirations and ef-forts of these students, can standwith them and their organizationsby supporting Spitzer’s more hu-mane and rational proposal.

For a more comprehensive viewof this issue, the website www.thenyic.org is helpful.

John HylandLaGuardia (emeritus)

Cutting off college access?l If CUNY Central has its way, itwill soon be more difficult for manystudents to enter a CUNY seniorcollege. Beginning in Spring 2009,CUNY Central wants to raise theSAT math cutoff score from the cur-rent 480 to 500 at six senior collegesand to 510 at the “top five” colleges.Students will still be able to substi-tute a passing score on the MathCompass test or the Regents exam,but the Compass test also will havehigher cutoff scores. The Regentsmath cutoff will remain the samepending a state review of the test.New cutoffs on the writing and read-ing tests will follow.

These changes give unwarrantedand harmful power to standardizedtests. The data so far indicate thatthe tests are weak or worthless pre-dictors of success at our Universityand disproportionately limit the op-

portunities of students of color.Since 1999, when CUNY mandatedstandardized test cutoffs for admis-sion to bachelor’s degree programs,three senior colleges – City, Baruchand Hunter – have suffered sharpdrops in black enrollment. The newcutoffs will further weaken our abil-ity to provide opportunities to thosedisenfranchised by our society.

Bill CrainCity College

Lessons of experiencel I read Barbara Bowen’s article inthe Summer 2007 Clarion concern-ing the union’s proposal for a Cer-tificate of Continuous Employment(CCE) for adjuncts.

While it sounds like a great way toapproach the issue of seniority andjob security, I wonder whether thisapproach suffers from the same flawsthat were incorporated in the agree-ment concerning adjunct lecturerconversion lines.

In a meeting of the Committee forPart-Time Personnel attended byBarbara, I described why I thoughtthe qualification criteria for conver-sion lines were too narrow. Barbaraagreed that there should be multiplealternative criteria, and said thatshe would seek a revision in thenext round of bargaining.

Some of the factors that causedmy exclusion from eligibility for aconversion line include:l Teaching a specialized course offered once per year or once persemesterl Appointments to two campusesl Course cancellation l Appointment as a fractional Visit-ing Lecturer

Conversion line criteria in thecurrent agreement could be mademore inclusive by offering a varietyof criteria that could be used to es-tablish eligibility. I hope the bar-gaining team is pursuing this, and

that any agreement concerningCCEs benefits from our conversionline experience.

Stan WineBaruch College

PSC President Barbara Bowen re-sponds: I am grateful to Stan for hisclose attention to the details of eligi-bility for conversion lines; one of thesuggestions made by adjuncts anddepartment chairs about eligibilitycriteria was already incorporatedinto the guidelines for last year's se-lection. Just to clarify, though:speaking for the PSC negotiationteam, I said that we were glad to re-ceive suggestions for improvementsin the eligibility requirements forany future conversion lines and thatwe would consider these suggestionsif any further conversion lines werenegotiated. Meanwhile the PSC ispressing hard for a more global solu-tion to CUNY's scandalous lack ofjob security for half of its faculty – aCertificate of Continuous Employ-ment for eligible adjuncts who havelong-time successful service to theUniversity. We will consider the sug-gestions from members about con-version lines and the experience ofdepartments with them last year aswe discuss this proposal.

TIAA, TRS & COLAl Now that pension equity has beenattained for active TIAA partici-pants, it seems appropriate thatsimilar equity should be pursued forTIAA retirees.

TRS retirees get an annual Costof Living Adjustment (COLA) totheir pensions to offset inflation.TIAA retirees do not have similarprotection.

It is only fair that an inflationhedge, similar to that of TRS, be af-forded to TIAA retirees.

Howard ReznikoffKingsborough CC (retired)

2 NEWS & LETTERS Clarion | October 2007

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | WRITE TO: CLARION/PSC, 61 BROADWAY, 15TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10006. E-MAIL: PHOGNESS@PSCMAIL.ORG. FAX: (212) 302-7815.

Driver’s licenses & immigrants in NY

On October 1, representatives from the PSC and other groups in the NY Coali-tion for Immigrants’ Rights to Driver’s Licenses assembled at City Hall to cele-brate Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s new policy that all New Yorkers, regardless ofimmigration status, will have equal access to driver’s licenses.

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th

A win for immigrantsPSC MEMBERSHIP UPDATE FORMPlease complete and send this form to:Professional Staff Congress, 61 Broadway, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10006ATT: Diana Rosato, Membership Coordinator

NAME First Name

Middle Name

Last Name

Social Security Number

HOME Number and Street

ADDRESS Town/City

State and ZIP

PHONE Home Phone

Office Phone

COLLEGE Teaching College

Payroll College*

Rank

Department

E-MAIL E-mail Address

Would you like to receive short weekly e-mail updates from the PSC? m Yes m No

*For example, if you are paid by the Graduate School but teach somewhere else at CUNY, theGraduate School would be your payroll college.

Have you moved, been promoted,or changed departments or cam-puses since you signed your PSCmembership card? Let the unionknow. You can clip and send theform below, or fill it out online

on the union’s website at www.psc-cuny.org/memberupdate.htm.If you like, you can also choose tosign up for the union’s e-mail up-dates, “This Week at the PSC” atthe same time.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12: 5:30 pm / In soli-darity with the teachers’ union ofOaxaca, Mexico, the PSC will hostan evening of cultural entertain-ment and political discussion featur-ing guest speakers Raquel Cruz-Manzano and Hugo Aboites. Cruz-Manzano is a teacher and unionleader in Oaxaca, on strike for over16 months. Aboites is a union leaderand sociology professor at the Met-ropolitan University of Mexico City.A light Oaxacan dinner will beserved at 5:30 pm and the programwill begin at 6 pm. For further infor-mation, contact Jean Anyon (212)817-8277. In the PSC Union Hall, 61Broadway, 16th floor.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15: 4 pm / PSC Sol-idarity Committee. At the PSC office,61 Broadway, 15th floor. For moreinfo, contact Jim Perlstein at jperl-stein@bassmeadow.com.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17: 6 pm / PSCLegislation Committee. At the PSCoffice. For more info, contact EileenMoran at eyedon@earthlink.net.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19: 6 pm / LaborGoes to the Movies shows ControlRoom, a documentary about theIraq War and Al Jazeera television.The US military spokesperson fea-tured in the film is now a correspon-dent for Al Jazeera. In the PSCUnion Hall. For more info, contactDania Rajendra at (212) 354-1252 ordrajendra@pscmail.org. No RSVPs.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25: 5:30 pm / ThePSC will hold a presentation anddiscussion of the proposed PSC Bud-get for 2007-2008 before the DelegateAssembly meeting, at the PSCUnion Hall. All interested PSC mem-bers welcome. Photo ID required toenter the building.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26: HEO/CLT Pro-fessional Development Fund appli-cations are considered on a rollingbasis. The next two deadlines areOctober 26 and November 23.Forms and more information are atwww.psc-cuny.org/HeoCltProfDev.htm. Remember, applications mustbe approved before any funds arespent. For more info, contact LindaSlifkin at (212) 354-1252 or lslifkin@pscmail.org.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30: 6 – 8:30 pm /PSC mass membership meeting onhow to win a fair contract! (Seepages 5, 11 – and this issue’s cover.)In the Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7East 7th Street. Take the 6 train toAstor Place or the R or W to 8thStreet.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8: Adjunct/CET Professional DevelopmentFund applications are consideredon a rolling basis. The next twodeadlines are November 8 and De-cember 16. Forms and more infor-mation are at www.psc-cuny.org/AdjunctContinuingEdDev.htm.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9: 6 pm / LaborGoes to the Movies shows PeterWatkins’ first feature film, Culloden.In the PSC Union Hall.

CALENDAR

Update your info!

Clarion | October 2007 NEWS 3

By DANIA RAJENDRA

“We’re not even in the ballpark,” ex-plained Assistant Professor PatrickLloyd of the Physical Science De-partment at Kingsborough. “Wehave lines that have been open formore than a year, and we just can’tfill them.”

CUNY salaries are low. That factis keeping CUNY from recruitingand retaining full-time faculty, PSCmembers say.

“We had interest in the job fromsomeone with a PhD from Columbiaand a post-doc at Berkeley. Wemade an offer, and this person end-ed up turning us down to work forthe New York City public schoolsfor $20,000 more than we offered,”Lloyd said.

“We’re simply not competitive,”explained Baruch Sociology Depart-ment Chair Glenn Petersen, who hastaught at CUNY for 30 years. In thattime, the value of CUNY salaries hasdropped steeply in real dollars.

Top steps in most titles havedropped 31% to 37% since 1971, afteradjusting for inflation. The bottomand median steps showed even big-ger declines in value, between 40%and 50%.

DECLINEThis means that in 2007, a profes-

sor or a Higher Education Officer onthe top step now earns about$59,000 less in real dollars than atop-step professor or HEO did in1971. An assistant professor on themedian step earns about $45,000less, after inflation.

Salaries for lecturers, college labtechnicians, assistants to HEO andpart-time faculty and staff have alsoseen major declines in purchasingpower, slightly moderated by equityincreases. The hourly rate for ad-junct lecturers in 1971, in to-day’s dollars, is equivalentto $108 – compared to a rateof $69 today. Yet todayCUNY is far more depen-dent on its part-time facul-ty, who teach about half ofits courses.

The PSC shared thesenumbers with CUNY administrationover the bargaining table last Spring.But so far, management has made noproposal to repair the damage. In-stead, CUNY has demanded theelimination of salary steps, to replacethem with a system of raises given atthe college president’s discretion.(For details, see page 11 of the Sep-tember 2007 Clarion, at www.psc-cuny.org/communications.htm.)

“The salary steps provide real ad-vances for our members, each stepincreasing pay by 31⁄2 % to 41⁄2 %,” saidPSC First Vice President Steve Lon-don. “The problem is, the value ofthe steps is eroding – so it is as if ourmembers are walking up a down-ward-moving escalator.”

From 1971 to 1983, during the NYCfiscal crisis, all titles saw a steep de-cline in real wages. Median salariesdropped in value by 30% to 40%, ac-

counting for most of the loss to date.The PSC negotiated increases in themid-80s that made up between halfand one-third of this lost ground –but real wages declined againthroughout the 1990s, going evenlower than before. It wasn’t until thecontract signed in 2002 that salariesbegan to stop sliding. The 2000-2002agreement provided increases some-what ahead of inflation, while the following one, like other City agree-ments at the time, was somewhat be-hind. The net result is that, despitesome periods of progress, CUNYsalaries have lost close to half theirvalue in a generation.

HUGE GAPPhil Eggers, a professor of English

at BMCC, has worked at CUNY since1974. “It used to be that if you toldsomebody you taught at CUNY,they’d say, ‘Oh, you guys are paidwell.’ I don’t hear that anymore. Nowthey just sort of shrug and say, ‘Howdo you manage?’”

If management tried to cut pay by40% in one year, said Eggers, theywould face a rebellion “It’s been re-lentless, but you don’t necessarilyperceive it from year to year. It’swhen you put it together over 10years, 20 years, you realize howlarge a change has come about.”

Eggers was chair of his depart-ment for 18 years, and he said thatCUNY’s salary slide had a serious ef-fect on recruitment. “Our workloadis very heavy, and the cost of livingin New York has gotten absurd,” hesaid. “So it’s become very hard tobring in new faculty from outside.”

One department chair, who askednot to be identified, said their owndepartment recently carried out

“the widest search wehave ever done.” Afterinterviewing five final-ists, the job was offeredin turn to each of thethree top choices. All ne-gotiated with the dean,but ultimately declinedthe position. “We were

left with having offered the positionover several months and still nothaving somebody. So we reopenedthe search.” After another round ofinterviews, the job was offered andrejected twice. Finally, the depart-ment hired the sixth person to whomthey’d offered the job.

This chair praised the new hire asa scholar with a lot to offer CUNY –but noted that even with a happyending, the prolonged search was adrain on faculty time and energythat the department could ill afford.“It entails a tremendous amount ofwork,” said the chair. “And we havevery little money to bring peoplefrom other parts of the country to in-terview, despite being required todo a national search.”

Retention is just as large a prob-lem as recruitment. CUNY losespromising young scholars every

year – faculty members like DavidKazanjian.

Kazanjian moved to the Universi-ty of Pennsylvania in 2005, aftereight years at Queens College andthe Graduate Center. “It might seemlike an obvious choice to go to theIvy League,” he told Clarion. “But itwas quite difficult. I loved CUNY. Infact, I had turned down a job at theUniversity of Michigan two yearsearlier. They offered me $20,000 ayear more than I was making, and aspousal hire. At the time, my part-ner was teaching in Rhode Island.”Kazanjian negotiated with Queens,but, he said, “they didn’t really domuch for me. Nonetheless, I decided

to stay.” His move to Penn increasedhis salary by about $30,000 but henoted, “I still live in New York. I hadto go work at Penn to keep up withthe cost of living.”

DOUBLE DISADVANTAGECUNY’s pay is below that of com-

parable schools nationally (seechart). But CUNY is doubly disad-vantaged, because it pays below-parwages in a city with a very high costof living. And today those lowsalaries hurt CUNY’s recruitmentand retention more than ever: “The[increased] college hiring trend isnationwide,” reports Crain’s NewYork Business, “but New York City,which has become the top destina-tion in the country for students fromaround the nation, is seeing thesharpest growth.” That means oth-er universities in NYC are “aggres-sively recruiting academics,” anddepartments at CUNY generallycan’t match their offers.

The low salaries at CUNY areparticularly tough because of NewYork’s expensive housing market.According to Crain’s, in NYC, “oftenuniversities subsidize rents or givehousing stipends to new profes-sors.” At CUNY, the chancellor and

various college presidents receivesubstantial subsidies for housing –but faculty and staff do not.

SHELTER“I’m at Baruch, we’re in the middle

of Manhattan,” said sociologist Pe-tersen. “But we can’t offer housing, oreven a housing allowance. The onlypeople who live near the college arejunior faculty who have some smallplace they lived in as graduate stu-dents. With few exceptions, all our se-nior faculty live in the suburbs.”

“In my department, we have peo-ple who live in Connecticut and NewJersey,” said Lloyd of Kingsbor-ough. “It affects their availability forthe students. I live in Brooklyn – ina 400-square-foot apartment.”

In addition to competition from

other NYC universities, manyCUNY departments also face com-petition from outside academia.“The nursing faculty shortage is asbad or worse as the national nursingshortage,” said Mary O’Donnell,chair of the nursing department atCollege of Staten Island. “Studentswho come out of our associate’s de-gree program and pass the licensureexam earn around $65,000. We’relucky if we can hire a faculty mem-ber with a PhD for that salary.”

O’Donnell told Clarion that thisposes serious problems for recruit-ment. “There are nurse practition-ers with a master’s degree to whomwe say, ‘We’d love to have you teachfull-time, but you really need yourPhD, or at least be close to that.’They’re earning $80 to $90,000.They’d need to stop what they’re do-ing and go back to school, in order toearn less.” Despite the attractions ofa tenure-track job, she said, “Whywould they do that?”

A similar problem exists in the ac-counting department at Baruch.“Low salaries are absolutely a ma-jor problem at Baruch,” said Profes-sor of Accountancy MarilynNeimark. Baruch has used provi-sions for overscale pay to recruit

new faculty. But this means veteranfaculty may find that their newercolleagues make more – sometimesmuch more – than they do.

Department Chair Masako Dar-rough explained, “A full professorcould make 60% of what the rookiesare getting.”

Neimark said that this is “terriblefor morale,” and Darrough agreed.

“I think the senior people feel un-dervalued,” she told Clarion. “Whenthe gap becomes quite large, it be-comes very tempting to move.” Dar-rough cited three tenured professorsher department has lost. “The onlyway Baruch is willing to reconsidera salary is to have an offer from an-other school,” she said – but by thetime faculty have gone through an-other institution’s search process,

they are more willing to leave. “It’svery wasteful,” she concluded.

Frank Kirkland, chair of philoso-phy at Hunter, said that he has re-ceived support for addressingsalary imbalances in his own de-partment. “I have been fortunate insecuring some upgrades in salariesfor recently tenured faculty becauseof the low-balling of their initialhires,” he said. “But many chairper-sons have not been as fortunate.This speaks to the need for restora-tion of competitive salaries acrossthe board,” Kirkland said.

RESTORATION NEEDEDRepairing the damage done to

CUNY’s salaries since the 1970s is anecessity, said Petersen of Baruch.“The University is cutting its ownthroat,” he told Clarion. “It is amockery for [Chancellor Goldstein]to say he wants to build a much fin-er university when he is not fightingfor salaries to hire people.”

“In the late 60s and 70s we recruit-ed a generation of faculty with com-petitive salaries, and they are nowretiring,” said London. “As we re-cruit a new generation, we need tomake the same investment in them– and in CUNY’s future.”

Full-time faculty lured away

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Uncompetitive salaries hurt CUNY

CUNY salaries don’t measure up

By DANIA RAJENDRA

With patience and persistence, aloose group of union representativesat Queens College has become a se-rious labor coalition over the lastcouple of years – one which gets ac-tion from the college administration.“When we go to management well-informed and with solidarity, theytake us seriously,” said Diane Men-na, a PSC officer for part-time personnel and acoalition participant.

While other PSC chap-ters, including those atBronx Community Collegeand York, have organizedjoint efforts with othercampus unions, the experience atQueens has been the most devel-oped. It began in 2005 within theQueens PSC chapter’s health andsafety committee. Headed by Pro-fessor Bette Weidman of the Eng-lish department, the committee hadbeen staging regular “tenants’meetings” to document problems inparticular buildings.

“But if we really wanted to knowwhat was going on,” explained com-mittee member Ben Chitty, “we hadto talk to the custodians, the labor-ers and especially the trades – car-penters, plumbers, electricians,stationary engineers. We had to talkto all the unions.”

EXCITINGThus was born the idea of the

Queens College Unions Joint Com-mittee on Quality of Work Life. Asthe largest union on campus, thePSC took the lead. Chitty, a HigherEducation Associate and member ofthe PSC leadership on campus, wentto human resources to find out howmany unions – and which ones –represented campus employees.They refused to tell him.

A long-time union activist andsometime student of the labormovement, Chitty is co-author withhis wife Priscilla Murolo of the book,From the Folks Who Brought Youthe Weekend: A Short IllustratedHistory of Labor in the UnitedStates. So he took management’s re-sponse as a challenge. Chittycombed through websites, contractsand other sources and found thatthere were at least 17 differentunions with members on theQueens College campus.

Menna and Chitty began contact-ing these unions to identify localrepresentatives who could be invit-ed to a meeting. “In the beginning itwas very slow,” Menna remem-bered. “We’d get one person show-ing up from one union, then twofrom different unions, then backdown to one. People came in tenta-tively, and we would explain theidea to them, and they wanted toknow the purpose,” she said. “Theyseemed to be wondering, ‘what dothese professors want?’”

It took many phone calls andabout a year, but eventually “it be-came evident to people who did

come how productive it could be andthey’d get very excited about it,”Menna recalled. “As we started toget more and more people, it feltfantastic. It was energizing. It beganto feel like a coalition.”

Joint committee member JosephPerry, AFSCME Laborers Local 924

shop steward and execu-tive board member,agreed: “This committee isgreat. It does something Ihave never seen at QueensCollege – bridge the gap be-tween faculty and staff.”

Health and safety prob-lems quickly emerged as a commonconcern for all the union represen-tatives. They were also concernedabout personnel practices. “At QC,there was an incredible lack oftransparency in the hiring and pro-

motion of staff,” Chitty explained. Soon, the efforts to coordinate

and keep each other informed beganto bear fruit. At the start of theSpring 2007 semester, a CarpentersUnion representative reported thathe had pulled his people out of abathroom renovation project in thecollege’s New Science Building be-cause of potential health risks frommold. “The job included carpenters,plumbers pulling out the old fix-tures, laborers doing demolitionwork and carting away debris, andcustodians cleaning up the mess.And none of them wanted to do thework,” Chitty told Clarion.

“We were the ones who found it,”carpenter Ken Goodwin said of themold. “We brought it to manage-ment’s attention, but they wantedus to go ahead and continue withthe job. The guys here didn’t want totell us what kind of mold it was. Icouldn’t even get them to test it.”

RESULTSThe joint committee wrote the

president as a group, with PSCChapter Chair Jonathan Buchs-baum signing on behalf of the com-mittee. The letter asked the collegeto conform to city guidelines forcontaining and remediating mold

hazards and for notifying employ-ees working near the site about thehazard.

After the letter was received, thecollege reassessed the site. “The col-lege tried to treat the mold as whatthe City calls a Level 1 site – a small,isolated area which can be cleanedby regular maintenance staff. Itturned out to be a Level 4 site withextensive contamination, which re-quires specialized professionaltreatment,” Chitty explained. Thecollege quickly hired a certifiedmold remediation firm.

“I really believe that the letter waswhat produced that result,” saidGoodwin. “At first I was a little reluc-tant to participate [in the committee],because I thought there might berepercussions. But now, I don’t care ifthey’re mad at me – I did the right

thing. I think the committee is neces-sary, because people are afraid tostand up for themselves.”

Since that incident, another moldhazard was discovered this summerin the same building. The collegesealed off the site and professionalremediation of the mold hazard hasjust been completed. “This time, thecollege notified the affected depart-ment in advance,” noted Chitty.“That’s a big step forward but itdoesn’t go far enough.” Chitty ex-plained that exposure to mold is es-pecially dangerous for people withallergies or respiratory problems –and the college’s current notifica-tion process fails to ensure that theyare actually alerted to their risk.

The joint committee plans tomeet regularly with college admin-istrators. Human Resources Direc-tor Reinalda Medina met with thecommittee in May. At the next meet-ing the laborers reported gettingsome long-delayed promotions andthe custodians reported that part-time workers had been made full-time, both of which they attributedto the work of the committee.

The college’s health and safety of-ficer, William Graffeo, met with thecommittee in June. Over the sum-mer the committee got quick re-

sponses to potential mold hazardsin the Rosenthal and Razran build-ings and to the landlord’s failure tohandle mold and asbestos contami-nation properly after an Augustflood in Kissena Hall.

Menna and Chitty agreed aboutthe central role played by chronicCUNY underfunding in the college’sproblems and the importance of mu-tual understanding and cooperationacross the entire workforce.

ALL BENEFITED“If the light goes out in your office

and it takes two weeks to get itfixed, all you know is that you’re sit-ting in the dark,” said Chitty. “Thereality is that buildings and groundsdoesn’t have enough staff, and thecollege often doesn’t have any lightbulbs anyway.

“Look at the stationary engi-neers: the college has added thou-sands of square feet in new andrenovated buildings and cut thenumber of engineers,” he said. “Noone is shirking – they’re doing thebest they can with truly pitiful resources.”

“We have all really benefitedfrom the opportunity to describeour situations and express our frus-trations,” Menna said. “So insteadof squabbling with each other, wecan understand the root problem –the University is not adequatelyfunded.”

“Of course, lack of funds can’t ex-cuse or justify some administrativedecisions,” adds Buchsbaum. “Weare beginning to appreciate howmuch work at QC has been out-sourced. We’ve identified morethan a dozen contractors at Queenswho do what used to be – andshould still be – union work. Wedon’t know whether they pay pre-vailing wages, but we do know thattheir work does not always meetprofessional standards.”

At Queens, union activists say,the administration has moved ag-gressively to use outside contrac-tors to do the work of unionizedcollege departments, which have be-come short-staffed due to attritionand positions left unfilled. This is be-ing done in more and more areas ofwork and thus affects more andmore unions.

CREEPING PROBLEMSThe joint committee invited Vice

President Katharine Cobb to discussthe use of contractors and whethercollege staff could be paid overtimefor routine work that can’t be doneduring regular hours. But Cobb can-celled at the last minute, on thegrounds that one of the contracts in-volved was University-wide.

“This creeping privatization af-fects nearly every union at Queensand campuses throughout theCUNY system,” Buchsbaum toldClarion. “If we are going to confrontissues like this, we need help fromthe other unions. And they need usto act like what we are – the largestunion on campus.”

4 NEWS Clarion | October 2007

Bridging “thegap betweenfaculty andstaff”

Campus coalition boasts winsQC unions work together

By STEPHANIE HORVATH

Queens College is not the onlyPSC chapter to collaborate withother campus unions. In 2006, theBronx Community College (BCC)PSC chapter confronted healthand safety problems ranging fromleaky ceilings in the library to po-tential asbestos hazards in de-partmental offices. BCC ChapterChair Marianne Pita said herchapter tackled this issue throughjoint organizing efforts with AF-SCME DC 37, the union represent-ing the buildings and groundsdepartment at BCC.

“It was very helpful to work to-gether. We ended up calling ameeting of the library staff andevery single person in bothunions came,” Pita said. “It was avery powerful group, and therewas very powerful testimonyfrom many people in both unionsabout upper respiratory prob-lems they had when they walkedinto the building. This was heardby management and I think it in-tensified the pressure to solvethe issue.”

SAFETYIn response, the New York

Committee for Occupational Safe-ty and Health (NYCOSH) hosted aseries of health and safety work-shops at the BCC campus. Follow-ing these workshops, the BCCPSC chapter and AFSCME DC 37proposed a joint health and safetycommittee that would hold regu-lar meetings with management.So far college administration hasrejected the idea, saying it is notneeded.

But Pita said that health andsafety conditions at BCC are wors-ening, and the two unions are dis-cussing a revival of the jointcommittee proposal. She told Clar-ion that she sees the committee asa necessary step in order to makeprogress on these problems.

SOCIALSIn recent years the PSC chapter

at York College has united sever-al campus unions with a differentgoal in mind – eating sweets andhaving fun. The York Collegechapter has twice hosted a “Multi-Union Gala Pre-Holiday DessertFest,” both of which were well-at-tended. Janice Cline, PSC chapterchair at York, described the partyas “an opportunity for people ofdifferent positions in the collegeto get together socially and to findnew opportunities to know andrespect one another.”

Cline said that this kind of eventcan be “a great idea to get thingsgoing on a campus where youneed to have better relations.”

Unity atCUNY colleges

(Front) Anna Johnson, Local 1597, DC 37; Jimmy Alongi, IBEW Local 3; Ken Goodwin,Carpenters; (rear) Arthur Chitty, PSC; Joseph Perry, Laborers Local 924, DC 37.

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Clarion | October 2007 NEWS 5

By PETER HOGNESS

“A great university provides theconditions faculty and staff need towork. Why not CUNY?”

That’s what 5,534 PSC membersasked CUNY management by sign-ing a petition that began with thatquestion and ended with a state-ment of support for the union’s con-tract demands. (Text and signaturesare at www.psc-cuny.org.)

On September 19, the day onwhich the old contract expired,dozens of union activists deliveredthe signed petition to CUNY centraladministration headquarters onEast 80th Street. In addition to thepaper petitions, they carried giantplacards that bore every one of themore than 5,000 names.

The crowd accompanied PSC Pres-ident Barbara Bowen into the lobby,before she went upstairs to meet withChancellor Matthew Goldstein andpresent him with the petition. Theunion had asked the chancellor to al-so meet with a group of rank-and-filemembers to hear their concernsabout the contract first-hand, but thechancellor declined.

“To honor our students, facultyand staff, CUNY needs to provideadequate wages for all employees,”said Tim Coogan, assistant profes-sor of social science at LaGuardia,as the group rallied and chantedoutside. Coogan was an adjunct atCUNY for about 20 years before hewas hired on a tenure-track linefour years ago. “I think it’s essentialthat people get involved inthe contract effort,” he toldClarion. “You have to havepart-timers and full-timersworking hand-in-hand.”

“We could hear you insideduring the meeting,” PSCPresident Barbara Bowen told thecrowd when she came back outside,“‘What do we want? A contract!When do we want it? Now!’ Yousounded great!”

Bowen said that when she pre-sented the petition, she asked thechancellor to commit “to making adecent salary offer in this round – [topledge] that CUNY would not cometo the table proposing increases be-low inflation.” She also asked thatCUNY drop its demands for uniongivebacks – the elimination of salary

steps, reduction of HEO job security,taking department chairs out of theunion and others. “But he would notmake either pledge,” she reported.

The two sides met again in bar-gaining three days later, whereCUNY still declined to make anyeconomic offer. Discussions contin-ued on non-economic issues, includ-ing management proposals on

grievance and arbitrationprocedures and the PSCproposal for a sick leave“bank” through which em-ployees could donate someof their sick days to others.

PSC bargaining teammembers have been holding a seriesof campus meetings with members,and PSC First Vice President SteveLondon said those sessions havebeen well-attended. “There’s a senseof appreciation for the victories thatthe union has won, such as on pen-sion equity or HEO overtime, andthere’s a willingness to get involved,”he said. “People understand thatthose victories came about throughmember action, and they understandthat the same will be true for anygains in our next contract.”

Sept. 19 petition delivery

By PETER HOGNESS

On October 30, the ProfessionalStaff Congress/CUNY will hold amass membership meeting on thecontract campaign in the historicGreat Hall at Cooper Union.

“Come to the meeting for thesame reasons you signed the peti-tion,” said Mike Fabricant,PSC treasurer and co-chairof the union’s contract orga-nizing committee. “It’s apublic show of support forthe PSC’s agenda – for a uni-versity that offers competi-tive salaries, job securityand good benefits for all. Wewant a university that treats em-ployees with respect and gives stu-dents the education they deserve.”

The meeting will feature a reporton the latest developments at thebargaining table and will lay outunion plans for the next step in thecontract fight. Union leaders andmembers will discuss the challengesposed by the history of pattern bar-gaining and today’s political climatein New York State. They’ll talkabout how the PSC can achieve agood settlement and what it willtake to win.

A short film will show the deliveryof the petition signed by 5,534 facultyand staff to CUNY’s headquarters on

East 80th Street. It happened on Sep-tember 19, the day the old contractexpired, and the union asked Chan-cellor Matthew Goldstein to meetwith a group of rank-and-file unionmembers about their contract con-

cerns. Goldstein said no –but on camera, those mem-bers tell what they wouldhave said if the Chancellorhad been willing to listen.

“When we bring athousand members to-gether, CUNY will have tolisten,” said PSC President

Barbara Bowen. “Every time peopleshow their support for the union onthis scale, management moves.They may not want to admit it, butwe see the results at the bargainingtable – it’s very clear.”

WORD SPREADSTo produce that kind of turnout,

campus activists are spreading theword about October 30 and why it’simportant. “We just had the juniorfaculty orientation that our chap-ter does every year, where we out-lined management’s contractdemands,” said Carolina BankMuñoz, a chapter executive com-mittee member at Brooklyn Col-

lege. “All these first-year facultywere saying, ‘They want to takeaway our step increases? I’ll defi-nitely come to the meeting!’”

CUNY management’s demand toeliminate step increases, and im-pose a system where raises wouldcome at the college president’s dis-cretion, “would really hit people intheir wallet,” said Bank Muñoz andwould especially hurt new employ-ees. “CUNY’s salaries are far toolow, but one of the good things aboutour salary structure is the steps.”

KEY ISSUESThe lack of an economic offer

from management is another key is-sue, said Tibbi Duboys, BrooklynCollege chapter chair – and CUNY’sexcuses for this failure won’t wash.“It is the responsibility of manage-ment to bring these issues forward,”she said. “Let them light a fire underthe State and City! If the Chancelloris serious, let him take [PSC Presi-dent] Barbara Bowen with him toargue for better salaries from theCity and State.” (See page 3.)

If people came to the PSC’s lastmass membership meeting, in 2005,Duboys said that it’s usually easy toconvince them to come on October

30. “It was an exciting event, andpeople remember it favorably,” shesaid. “I’m getting a lot of positivefeedback.”

“It provides an opportunity tomeet other faculty and staff fromacross CUNY,” said Rebecca Hill, anorganizing committee member atBMCC. “That doesn’t happen oftenenough, and union events are one ofthe main places where it occurs.And to be in a room with that manypeople, seeing everyone there fromacross the University – it’s a power-ful experience. When you see howmany others are involved, it cangive you a broader sense of what’spossible.”

Momentum gathers formass meeting on Oct. 30

Winning a good contract

‘Managementonly moves inresponse tomemberpressure.’

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City Tech English Professor Brian Keener and City College HEO Jean Weisman wereamong the 5,534 PSC members who signed the PSC petition. The names were list-ed on huge placards and the petition was delivered to the chancellor.

Goldsteinrefused tomeet withmembers.

MembersmobilizeUnion activists on campus arespreading the word about the PSC’smass membership meeting on Oc-tober 30. And one of their key toolsis the union’s member-to-membernetwork, dubbed “My Five.”

The name comes from the basicidea: volunteers in the “My Five”network stay in touch with five oth-er union members to help keepthem informed about the issues incontract negotiations and impor-tant events like the October 30meeting.

“The October 30 event is a greatway for people to use the ‘MyFives,’ and it’s great way to signpeople up to join the network forthe first time,” said Carolina BankMuñoz, a chapter activist at Brook-lyn College. “Asking someone totalk to five coworkers about Octo-ber 30 is very concrete, and it’s easyto do. Even if someone’s never beenactive in a union before, it’s natur-al to want to tell other people aboutsomething this important.”

Chapter Chair Tibbi Duboys toldClarion that at Brooklyn, organizerswant to make it as easy as possiblefor people to get involved. “We’rereaching out to new people and en-couraging them to have a connec-tion with the union in the way thatworks for them. If they’re not pre-pared to talk with five people, we’reasking them to have a conversationwith at least one of their colleagues.We want to build a culture of con-versation on union issues, whichwill help us all have stronger con-nections in the future.” – PH

Be there!The PSC mass membership meeting isset for Tuesday, October 30, 6:00 to8:30 pm in the Great Hall at CooperUnion. The entrance is just off 3rd Av-enue and East 7th Street. Closest sub-way stops are the 6 train to AstorPlace, or the R or W trains to 8th Street.

Since 1858, the Great Hall hasbeen the site of historic meetings forworkers’ rights, women’s rights andracial justice. Those who have spokenthere include Frederick Douglass, Em-ma Goldman and Mark Twain.

There are many ways to be an active union member.You can march on a picket line, of course, or send a fax.But it turns out that you can also be a union memberwho’s a cartoonist, a musician, a poet, a playwright ora satirist, and who decides to contribute your talent andtraining to the cause.

That’s what happened at the PSC Union Hall on theevening of September 19, just hours before the oldcontract expired. Applying their imagination to

CUNY’s future, members used different forms of ex-pression to show how the actions we take todaymight shape our workplace of tomorrow.

The union’s Contract Organizing Committee set thestage over the summer, with a call for members to “con-tribute a piece of creative work that illustrates what lifewould be like under management’s demands, or underthe PSC’s demands,” as a result of the current contractnegotiations. The underlying point was that each side’s

bargaining agenda implies a very different vision of thekind of university that CUNY should become.

On these two pages are some of the works thatmade up the evening’s program. There are manymore, and you can see the rest on the union’s website,at www.psc-cuny.org/OurCUNY.htm. If all this in-spires you to create something of your own, considersubmitting it for publication in Clarion. Our addressand e-mail can be found on page 2.

from

Our CUNY vs. TheirCUNY: A Musical[We join this play in progress, just after Professor Shifrin has sung“The 27-Hour Blues,” about her heavy workload teaching English at aCUNY community college. Professor Sullivan remarks that her ownwork week isn’t as bad because she doesn’t teach writing-intensiveclasses. But perhaps she spoke too soon.…]

PROFESSOR SULLIVAN [to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I Amthe Very Model of a Modern Major General”]:

I am a very conscientious history professor I spend 10 hours reading books before I give each lectureFrom Spartacus to Reconstruction, Manitou to mass productionI answer students’ questions with the facts and not conjectureI’m very well acquainted too with matters technologicalI use computers in my class because it’s pedagogicalI spend seven hours weekly on those methods Paolo-Freirean…

(hmm, ‘Paolo Freirean...’)And if I have two preps it’s 27 hours I’m carryin’!

I’m 15 hours in the classroom and five more in the office climeI do more than I’m asked because it seems to me I’ve got the timeThe students really need me see, they visit on the regular – I am a very conscientious history professor.

It’s 47 hours and we haven’t got to grading yet I write my own exams and quizzes, that’s at least two hours I betAdd another five for grading – piles which are so very thickThe total’s now at 54 – I think I might be getting sickAdministrative meetings are another duty of my week The e-mails that I must respond to are another hour at leastLet’s round it off at 60 hours, I thought I had it easier…But when I think of finals week it makes me even queasier.

It’s blue books by the pound and their handwriting is so hard to readAnd multiplied by 35 it’s really quite a task indeed.With 20 minutes for each one, it’s 12 more hours before I’m done And multiplied by five it means I hardly see my kids at home.

Gosh I didn’t know that I worked 120 hours a weekThat leaves just 48 for me, I see that I am up shit’s creek!

[words by Rebecca Hill, BMCC]

6 OUR CUNY vs. THEIR CUNY Clarion | October 2007

News from the near future

CUNY announces new bargaining stanceNEW YORK, the day after tomorrow (AP) – Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City Univer-sity of New York, called a press conference this afternoon to announce that the University istaking a radically new stance in its bargaining with the Professional Staff Congress, the unionthat represents CUNY’s faculty and professional staff.

“It is clear to me,” he stated, “that the best way to build the kind of top-quality, nationally-competitive, student-oriented university we aspire to be is by giving our faculty the best con-tract possible. I, of course, have long held this view, but recent events have convinced methat the time to act is now.”

Goldstein, who appeared uncharacteristically disheveled, almost shaken, said that in the lastfew days he had held extended meetings with new faculty members from campuses across theUniversity. “After meeting face-to-face with junior faculty members, I feel as if something inme just…snapped,” he said. “How is it that, for several years running, we have had no pro-visions for parental leave? How can we claim to be a top-flight university if our faculty can-not afford childcare or approach the possibility of home ownership? If 90% of our junior facultyare eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch, what does that say about the overall health ofour University?”

Apparently, hundreds of junior faculty members had converged on the chancellor’s place ofwork, demanding a meeting which was said to have lasted 36 straight hours. “Our new facul-ty members are a remarkably persuasive group,” the chancellor stated in reference to the meet-ing, which one member of his staff referred to as “harrowing.”

Also present at the meeting were department chairs from several campuses. Asked why somany chairs had accompanied their junior colleagues, Chancellor Goldstein explained, “Theyshowed me long lists of what they called casualties of our austerity contracts – talented youngfaculty who had left CUNY after a year or two to take positions with budgets for research andsmaller class sizes.”

Goldstein stated that, as a first step, he would seek to increase faculty and staff salaries byroughly 40% over three years. “Such an increase,” he explained, “would merely bring salariesin line with levels during the 1970s, when the University was compensating its workers on apar with other New York City-area institutions of higher education.”

“Wow,” said Joan Smith, assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College. “Does this meanthe University is actually going to put its money where its mouth is? Will I actually be ableto afford the dental crown work that I’ve been putting off for three years?”

“We’ve always wanted to make all of CUNY an honors college, to treat all our faculty like ‘dis-tinguished professors,’” the chancellor said. “And now we may have the chance.”

Imagined by James Davis and Joseph Entin, Brooklyn College.

Contract fight gets creative

Left, BMCC faculty members Ingrid Hughes, Robin Isserlesand Lisa Rose. Above, the evening’s masters of ceremonies,Distinguished Professor Blanche Wiesen Cook of John JayCollege and the Graduate Center and Assistant Professor

Rebecca Hill of BMCC. Above right, BMCC students perform“Under Management,” with music by Joyce Moorman andlyrics by Rashhidah Ismaili from her poem “Exposition.”Right, BMCC Assistant Professor Joyce Moorman.

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on member.r send a fax.on memberaywright orr talent and

Hall on theore the old

gination to

CUNY’s future, members used different forms of ex-pression to show how the actions we take todaymight shape our workplace of tomorrow.

The union’s Contract Organizing Committee set thestage over the summer, with a call for members to “con-tribute a piece of creative work that illustrates what lifewould be like under management’s demands, or underthe PSC’s demands,” as a result of the current contractnegotiations. The underlying point was that each side’s

bargaining agenda implies a very different vision of thekind of university that CUNY should become.

On these two pages are some of the works thatmade up the evening’s program. There are manymore, and you can see the rest on the union’s website,at www.psc-cuny.org/OurCUNY.htm. If all this in-spires you to create something of your own, considersubmitting it for publication in Clarion. Our addressand e-mail can be found on page 2.

Clarion | October 2007 OUR CUNY vs. THEIR CUNY 7

tract fight gets creative

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I think there are some places where they serve sherry in the late

afternoon, and at Columbia there’s tea for graduate students, and

I know there are a lot of offices in the city where there are coffee

carts in the morning – I mean you pay for it, it’s not free, that’s

cool. Now it’s time to create the tea cart. It’ll roll around on the

different floors and you can go out into the main hall and buy tea

or coffee and a little cookie or fruit tart and talk shop, talk union,

talk books, talk dreams and things you’re working out. I mean I

know we have a lot of different schedules, but the talking tea cart

will give you a little boost between 3 and 5 whenever it rolls by

your office, and the cookies can be in the shape of administrators’

faces, or magna cartas, or photocopy machines, which the office

staff haven’t yet had repaired, or in the shapes of countries

where our students come from, and the prices will be pretty good,

since our paychecks seem to be shrinking, shrinking so good

prices are important. We can make it an event that everyone

wants to take part in – when’s my time to work the tea cart?

people will demand.

The tea cartBy PAGE DELANO, BMCC

By DAVID WINNHunter College

The day begins early at Benno G.Schmidt Vocational (formerlyHunter) College, the flagship campusof the City University of New York.

Students, faculty and staff pour infrom the subway and buses, longlines forming at the Bernie KerikCompany Security Checkpoints,where voice-and-eye identificationdevices are employed to insure thesafety of the college population.

Entering the college is swift (un-less the machines determine theneed for a body cavity search), andthe throng is greeted by the deli-cious aromas of food andbeverages prepared by themany national franchisechains, who not only oper-ate the food service optionsavailable on-campus, butfrequently sponsor pro-grams and in some caseswhole departments atBSVC-CUNY, making it nolonger necessary for the college torely on the prolonged, often frus-trating process of public funding.

For example, purchase a latte or amacchiato at Starbucks and you’ll bepresented with a cup bearing theprofile of and a pithy quotation fromsuch authors as Ayn Rand, WilliamF. Buckley or David Brooks. Thepresence of these literary titans onthat steaming cup of morning brewis emblematic of Starbucks’s func-tion as the main support of BSVC’sEnglish department and creativewriting program.

Where else could an aspiringyoung scholar or writer find suchcourses as Caffeine and the Cre-ative Process or Coffee Nerves andthe Restoration Theatre?

BSVC-CUNY’s unique and inge-nious melding of scholarship andproduct placement has set new stan-dards for economies of scale in the

academic realm and streamlined theentire culture by eliminating theneed for tenure, the tedious searchprocess, and the archaic and wrong-headed notion of peer review.

Of course, not all public fundinghas been eliminated. In an innova-tive move, the US military now spon-sors the college’s physical educationprogram. Each branch of the servicenow has their information office andrecruitment center at sites on cam-pus, and students may sign up forany number of programs by simplymaking a six-year open-ended com-mitment to the branch of service oftheir choice. A junior year abroadprogram is included, with Iraq, Iran,

North Korea, the Philip-pines and other exotic desti-nations proving to beastonishingly popular.

Similar public fundingprovides backing for ournew interrogative arts andmotivational research pro-gram, which replaced theold and outmoded psycholo-

gy department. BVSC is committed to the envi-

ronment; for that reason, the eleva-tors and escalators have been turnedoff (except for administrators). Stu-dents and faculty take turns carry-ing each other up the stairs,providing the younger and more fitamong them with both an opportuni-ty for community service and thechance to earn some extra cash.

Since the retirement (or unex-plained disappearance) of the lastfew tenured, full-time faculty mem-bers and the elimination of collectivebargaining, BSVC has transformeditself from a staid, union-ridden, di-rectionless campus into a forward-looking, dynamic and profitableinstitution. With its eyes firmly fixedon the future, its feet solidly plantedon the bottom line, BSVC stridesforth.

Don’t get in its way.

CUNY in 10 years. . .without the PSC

A unique & ingeniousmelding ofscholarshipand productplacement

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By DANIA RAJENDRA

The August 18 fire at the DeutscheBank building in lower Manhattan,which killed two NYC firefighters,has meant heightened scrutiny forfire safety and community notifica-tion issues in CUNY’s plans to clean,demolish and rebuild BMCC’s Fiter-man Hall

Like the Deutsche Bank building,Fiterman Hall was damaged beyondrepair by the September 11 attacks.Both buildings are badly contami-nated with a range of toxic sub-stances – asbestos, dioxin, mercuryand more – but the two demolitionsare being handled differently.

Unlike the problem-plaguedDeutsche Bank building, which wasbeing decontaminated as it was de-molished floor-by-floor, at Fitermanthe “two-step process involves de-contamination first, then decon-struction of the building,” saidCUNY spokesperson Michael Arena.

GOOD STARTUnion safety experts and others

agree that the two-step process isbetter. Fiterman is also a muchsmaller building, which simplifiesmatters. And CUNY has been moreforthcoming and publicly account-able than have been the companieson the Deutsche Bank job.

But advocates and experts saythe University could, and should, domore. “CUNY has had several Fiter-man Hall meetings, I have to givethem credit for that,” said GlennCorbett, associate professor of fire

science at John Jay College. “But,that said, they have to have a stellarplan when it comes to safety.”

According to BMCC’s website onthe Fiterman project, CUNY expect-ed to have finished erecting the scaf-folding needed for decontaminationand demolition by September 2007.As Clarion went to press inearly October, it appearedclose to completion, butgovernment regulatorshad yet to approve any de-contamination plans.

Meanwhile, health andsafety experts have identi-fied several concerns in theplans to clean and demolish Fiter-man Hall in light of the DeutscheBank fire: the use of plastic, plywoodand negative air pressure to containthe toxic elements inside the build-ing; the condition of standpipes; andcommunity notification and emer-gency action plans.

CUNY Vice Chancellor Iris Wein-shall told an October 2 communitymeeting that the Deutsche Bank ex-perience informed CUNY’s plans totake down Fiterman. But Corbettand others have questioned whetherCUNY and its contractors, headedby DASNY (the Dormitory Authori-ty of the State of New York), havelearned all the necessary lessons.

Use of flammable plywood andplastic partitions in the DeutscheBank building both fueled the fireand made it harder and riskier for

firefighters to move inside the struc-ture. A safer alternative, Corbettsaid, is greenboard: “water-resistantgypsum board [that is] essentiallynoncombustible.” EPA guidelinessuggest plywood, but Corbett saysthat CUNY can – and should – sur-pass this standard.

At the October 2 meeting,officials said that the ply-wood covering the exterior ofFiterman’s south side wasneeded because of the severedamage to the façade from9/11 and that its fire ratingwas approved by the FDNY.But they said that plywood

would not be used on the remainingsides, which are sufficiently intactso that the building’s own structurecan be used to seal off the insidewhile decontamination work pro-ceeds. They did not address whatmaterials are being used for interiorpartitions, and Arena did not re-spond to a Clarion question on thetopic.

IN CASE OF FIREContractors use negative air pres-

sure within a building to containtoxic dust and other contaminants.But negative air pressure can causea fire to spread downward, ratherthan up. “We need proactive mea-sures at Fiterman to make surethere’s an emergency cutoff for neg-ative pressure,” said Dave Newman,an industrial hygienist with the NY

Committee for Occupational Safety& Health (NYCOSH).

Should a fire occur, it is criticalthat standpipes – which deliver wa-ter to firefighters’ hoses – be inworking order. In the DeutscheBank building, standpipes were cutand sections of pipe were missing,leaving firefighters without water toextinguish the blaze. At a Communi-ty Advisory Board meeting on Au-gust 21, Paul Stein, a PublicEmployee Federation (PEF) memberwho works across the street fromFiterman, raised concerns about itsstandpipes. “The plans for Fitermansay [they] will be repaired, whichstrongly suggests [they were] bro-ken,” he told Clarion. The fire de-partment inspected the standpipesthe next day, and found them inworking order. When Clarion askedhow long since September 11, 2001,Fiterman’s standpipes had been bro-ken, CUNY spokesperson Arena de-clined to respond.

INSPECTIONS?The October 2 meeting was told

that FDNY will conduct regular in-spections at Fiterman – an issue inthe Deutsche Bank fire, which hadnot been inspected for years. Clari-on asked for the date of the most re-cent FDNY inspection of Fitermanprior to the Deutsche Bank fire butagain Arena declined to respond.

The Deutsche Bank fire also high-lighted the lack of a meaningfulcommunity notification plan. Resi-dents said while smoke poured outof the building authorities did not in-form them whether to stay indoorsor leave the area. They weresharply critical on the notificationissue, as they have been raising itfor years with no clear answer.

Responsibility for emergencymanagement and community notifi-cation at both Deutsche Bank andFiterman rests with the City’s Officeof Emergency Management (OEM).Since the August fire, City officialshave promised better plans, andOEM said it is beginning to look in-to high-tech solutions such as cellphone text messages.

NONCOMMITTALAt the October 2 meeting, CUNY of-

ficials discussed creation of a commu-nity notification e-mail list, but werenoncommittal when asked about au-tomatic phone calls or low-tech op-tions like an emergency siren. Plansfor the Fiterman project completedlast March call for emergency drills atBMCC, but PSC Chapter Chair JaneYoung told Clarion that no such drillshave been held. Young said that em-ployees and students at BMCC stillhave little idea what they would be ex-pected to do in an emergency.

PSC members and their allies saidthey will continue to insist on ac-countability from CUNY, its contrac-tors and government agencies.“We’ve been very involved,” Youngtold Clarion. She was elected to theFiterman Hall Community AdvisoryCommittee, and she said the chapterraises Fiterman questions at labor/management meetings. “They’reconscious that we’re conscious,” shesaid. Young said the PSC is also con-tinuing its work in the WTC Commu-nity and Labor Coalition, whichincludes NYCOSH and members ofCommunity Board One (CB1).

“It is only when the communityand workers come together,” CB1member Catherine McVay Hugh-es told Clarion, that officials willrespond.

8 NEWS Clarion | October 2007

By PETER HOGNESS

In September, a furor eruptedamong PSC retirees when all thosereceiving pensions from the Teach-ers Retirement System (TRS) orother municipal retirement systemswere sent a letter notifying themthat they may be at risk for identifytheft.

The letter was sparked by thetheft of a consultant’s laptop, con-taining names, social security num-bers and even the bank accountnumbers of thousands of retirees,from a restaurant. The consultantwas not employed by TRS or NYC-ERS or any of the other municipalretirement systems; rather, he wasworking for FISA, NYC’s FinancialInformation Services Agency,whichprocesses pension checks for all themunicipal retirement systems.

The data loss drew a strongprotest from the PSC. “FISA has anobligation to treat that informationwith higher standards of protec-tion,” PSC Executive Director Debo-rah Bell wrote to FISA head RobertTownsend. “The fact that a consul-tant is carrying such…recordsaround on a laptop is particularly

outrageous,” she wrote. “Why issuch information allowed to beportable…and permitted to be tak-en off-site?”

The union called for City Councilhearings on creating and enforcingFISA standards for protecting re-tirees’ personal information.

FISA stated that the theft appearsto have been random and thecomputer was password-pro-tected, limiting the likelihood ofidentity theft. It added that thenames and other informationon the laptop are “confined to asubset of City retirees.” Butsince the agency was unable todetermine exactly whose informa-tion was on the laptop and whosewas not, it sent a letter to every sin-gle member of all municipal pensionsystems.

Among CUNY retirees, this es-sentially means members of TRS orNYCERS. Those who only belong toTIAA-CREF (or similar plans with-in CUNY’s Optional Retirement Pro-gram) are unaffected.

TRS told Clarion that its own datasecurity policies are much stricterthan FISA’s. TRS policies “prohibitany employee or consultant from

taking any sensitive member dataoffsite,” said spokesperson MattLaskowski. TRS has implemented arange of security measures to en-force that policy, Laskowski said,“For example, we have disabled CDdrives and flash drives on PCsagency-wide to prevent downloadingof data” that could be removed from

TRS offices.TRS has tightened its own

data security policies sinceearly 2006, when one of its ownemployees was found to bepart of an identity theft ring –an incident that drew severecriticism.

FISA offered potentially affectedretirees free enrollment in EquifaxCredit Watch Gold, a monitoringservice from one of the main nation-al credit agencies that is supposedto alert participants to attempts atidentity theft. Details are availablein the letter sent out by FISA orfrom the FISA Call Center at (212)857-1700 during business hours.

For more information on protect-ing yourself from identity theft, seepage 9 in the December 2003 Clari-on, available at www.psc-cuny.org/communications.htm.

Retiree data compromised

Communitynotificationanotherpressingconcern

Spotlight on Fiterman fire safetyIs CUNY doing enough?

The fire at the problem-plagued Deutsche Bank building on August 18 killed twofirefighters and heightened concerns about the plans for Fiterman Hall.

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PSC calls forCityCouncilhearings

By LARRY MORGANExecutive Director, PSC/CUNY Welfare Fund

The Welfare Fund is bringing mem-bers a one-time, limited opportunity:a new long-term care insurance planis being offered to active employees,and those younger than 70 years ofage can purchase it regardless oftheir medical condition. This plan hasbeen specially designed for our mem-bers with a top-rated insurer and atvery competitive prices.

More than half our members willrequire some form of long-term careover the course of their lifetimes. Itmay be required by injury or illness,or it may simply be due to growingold. Long-term care can include caredelivered in a nursing home – but italso includes assisted living, adultday care, home care and alterna-tives.

DAILY ACTIVITIESTypically, long-term care (LTC) in-

volves help with “activities of dailyliving” such as feeding, dressing, toi-let, bathing, etc., or when the loss ofcognitive skills is an issue. Insurancecoverage is expressed in terms of themaximum amount reimbursable perday, for type of service and period oftime, plus any special features of agiven plan.

Medicare coverage for long-termcare is extremely limited. For cover-age under Medicaid, those who arenot already poor must “spenddown” their assets in order to qual-ify. The drain on resources fromproviding long-term care can beenormous, as anyone who has guid-ed a parent or friend through thisexperience can attest.

The PSC/CUNY Welfare Fundwas a pioneer in making LTC cover-age available nearly two decadesago. Since that time, the arena oflong-term care has broadened, ashas the insurance product associat-ed with it. The Welfare Fund, withthe assistance of a special commit-tee comprised of Fund and unionstaff, PSC retirees and our benefitconsultants, has worked over thepast year with the John HancockCompany to design a new programto better fit the current health carelandscape and the particular needsof our membership.

WHAT’S NEWl Wider scope of employees coveredl Easier to qualify for benefitsl Longer period of coveragel More flexible benefits (i.e., alter-nate forms of care)l Better protections against loss ofcoverage

The new insurance will be madeavailable in two phases:

Phase 1: All members who are notcurrently enrolled in the WelfareFund’s long-term care program un-der John Hancock will receive amailing in the fall of 2007, announc-

ing the opportunity to enroll in thenew plan. All WF members and allothers in the PSC bargaining unitand their spouses and dependentchildren are eligible to purchase thislong-term care policy. Active full-time employees (as well as ad-juncts in their thirdconsecutive semester andteaching six or more cred-it hours, and hourly em-ployees working 17 1⁄2hours or more perweek) who areyounger than 70years old at the endof 2007 will be able toenroll without ques-tion of medical quali-fication. All othereligible members anddependents may be re-quired to provide medicalinformation in order to obtaina policy. Any member who doesnot receive a mailing should contactthe WF or John Hancock.

Phase 2: All people who currentlyhave a policy with John Hancock willreceive a mailing in the spring of 2008,explaining that they may stay withtheir present coverage or join thenew program. For this group, premi-ums for the new program will be cal-culated on an individual basis,reflecting the amount of past premi-um payments. Adjunct personnelwho don’t meet phase 1 criteria notedabove will also receive this mailing.

DEDUCTED FROM PAYAs in the past, premiums for

long-term care insurance will befully paid by those who elect cover-age. Premium payments are gener-ally deducted from payroll orpension checks and forwarded tothe insurance carrier. The WelfareFund is cost-neutral in this equa-tion, neither funding the benefit,nor receiving any subsidy or com-mission from the insurance carrier.The Fund does help develop andmonitor the program and providesparticipants with informational andadvocacy support.

Once a person signs up for cover-age, a rate is set which does not in-

crease over the years (unless cover-age is voluntarily increased). Thatrate is determined by age at enroll-ment and the maximum daily bene-

fit selected. Since this rate – not sur-prisingly – increases with age of enrollment, each year’s delay in-creases the premium you will pay ifyou sign up at a later date.

More importantly, we havea one-time-only arrangementwith John Hancock that nomedical evidence of insura-bility will be required for ac-tive full-time employeesyounger than 70 years of age– either within 60 days of initial hireor during this initial offering fromOctober 29, 2007, through December15, 2007. This is called “guaranteedissue,” and it means that the samecoverage at the same premium(based on age and choice of benefitlevel) will be offered to all appli-cants without consideration of pastor current medical condition.

‘GUARANTEED ISSUE’This does not mean that others –

outside of full-time active employ-ees under 70 – will be denied cover-age. It only means that theinsurance company is entitled toevaluate their “insurability.”

In addition to providing indemni-

fication against costs of future care,this John Hancock program has spe-cial appeal to our population:

Wide Scope of Covered Persons:This is the only program to ourknowledge that affords qualifiedadjuncts the benefit of guaranteedissue.

Tax Qualification: This pro-gram (as well as certain others)

qualifies for special taxtreatment. There is every

likelihood (after youconsult with your taxadviser, of course)that premium costswill be tax-de-ductible on federalreturns and, for NewYork State tax filers,

premium costs maydirectly offset gross

adjusted income. Return of Premium on

Death: For those who dieprior to age 75, it also serves

as a minor but substantive formof life insurance. Those who die be-fore age 65 will have 100% of theirpaid-in premium (net of benefit pay-ments, if any) returned to their es-tate. For each year until age 75, that100% is reduced by 10% and after 75this benefit disappears.

We all know that thisis a very easy decision todelay. We urge you tothink about it now.Everyone’s situation isdifferent, and you mayfind websites such as

www.longtermcare. gov or www.longtermcarelink.net helpful in de-ciding what choice is right for you.Talk to family, friends and col-leagues. An article on what criteriato consider, “Plan for long-termcare,” which appeared on page 10 ofthe March 2006 Clarion, is availableon the web at www.psc-cuny.org/communications.htm.

Presentations about the newLTC program will be held onCUNY campuses this Fall to an-swer any questions that you mayhave. The Welfare Fund website(psccunywf. org) will also have fur-ther details on the new program,plus links to John Hancock andother resources.

Clarion | October 2007 BENEFITS & NEWS 9

Welfare Fund announces new long-term care program

HealthtransferperiodThe annual transfer period for mak-ing changes in your health benefitswill occur this year during the monthof November. The forms needed tomake a change are available fromyour college benefits office.

For full-time CUNY employees,the transfer period for changes inbasic health insurance coveragewill run from November 1 throughNovember 30, 2007. For changes infull-timers’ dental coverage, thisyear’s transfer period is from Octo-ber 29 through November 30.

For part-time CUNY employees,the 2007 health insurance transferperiod is from October 29 throughNovember 30.

Retirees can make changes onlyduring the transfer period of even-numbered years, so they will nextbe able to change their health insur-ance coverage in the Fall of 2008.

GHI OPTIONAL RIDERThe annual transfer period is al-

so the time when participants canmake changes in the optional ridersavailable with their particular basichealth insurance plan. CUNY em-ployees enrolled in the GHI-CBPhealth insurance program maywant to consider the GHI OptionalRider, which has proven very popu-lar among PSC members.

The GHI Optional Rider signifi-cantly reduces the cost of using out-of-network doctors for GHIparticipants. The cost is $2.79 per pay-check for an individual, or $7.02 for afamily (rates effective on 7/1/2007).

Those who sign up for the GHIOptional Rider get more than high-er reimbursements from the basiccarrier (GHI). In addition, thosewith the rider are charged a lowerdeductible by the Welfare Fund’sExtended Medical Benefit. With theGHI Optional Rider, an eligible par-ticipant must reach a deductiblelevel of $1,000 per individual (up toa maximum of $2,000 per family) be-fore this major medical benefitstarts to pay. Without the optionalGHI Optional Rider, the deductibleis $4,000 (to a maximum of $8,000per family). – PH

Help for daily life in advanced age

Gregory Nemec

New Orleans teachers gainAfter more than a year without acontract, some teachers in NewOrleans have had their right tobargain collectively restored,United Teachers of New Orleans(UTNO) President BarbaraMitchell announced. But as a re-sult of post-Katrina restructuring

of the NO public school system,faculty and staff who work at Re-cover School District schools andcharter schools continue to be ex-cluded. UTNO pledged to contin-ue its fight to represent them asthey begin contract negotiations.

AFT: ‘Jena 6’ solidarity On September 20, some 15,000people marched in Jena to de-mand justice for the “Jena 6,”young African Americanscharged with attempted murder

after a high school fight in De-cember 2006. The march in Jenawas augmented by local demon-strations across the country, andthe AFT issued a statement call-ing them “victims of judicial in-equality and an overzealousprosecutor” and expressing con-cern about the fairness of theirupcoming trials.

In the fall of 2006, black studentsat Jena’s high school sat under atree which until then had been ex-clusively claimed by white stu-dents. The next day, nooses were

hung on the tree in question andoff-campus attacks on black stu-dents followed.

AFT Vice President Nat La-Cour said, “The designation of a‘white tree’ on a public schoolcampus and the display of suchviolent symbols of hatred asnooses hanging from a tree can-not be tolerated in our society.”One of the convictions of the Jena6 was overturned; the other fivehave not been tried, and chargeswere reduced since the protestsbegan.

LABORIN BRIEF

A planspeciallydesigned forPSC members

By PAUL ATTEWELL and DAVID LAVINCUNY Graduate Center

Undergraduate enrollments havegrown sixfold in the US in thelast half-century and continue toboom; today more than 80% ofhigh-school graduates go to

college within approximately eight years of graduation. One might expect those ac-complishments to be celebrated, but the expansion of higher education has been ac-companied by ambivalence, anxiety and op-position. As enrollments continue to climb,the intensity of criticism grows ever louder.

We are told that public colleges admit in-adequately prepared students, that gradua-tion rates are scandalously low, thatstudents take too long to graduate and thatuniversity graduates lack appropriate jobskills. Last fall’s report by Secretary of Edu-cation Margaret Spellings’ Commission onthe Future of Higher Education followedsuit in calling for more institutional account-ability for what students learn and for grad-uating them faster and at less cost.

Many of the questions policy-makers askare distorted by conceptual blinders thatevaluate today’s undergraduate experienceagainst a norm from an earlier era whenstudents entered college immediately afterhigh school, attended college full time, livedin dormitories and rarely worked for pay be-cause they were financially dependent ontheir parents. But such traditional students,whose needs and experiences still drivepublic policy, make up less than a quarter oftoday’s undergraduate population. We needto focus on what higher education is, notwhat it once was.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF STUDENTIt should come as no surprise that today’s

undergraduates – often commuter studentswho typically juggle family or work obliga-tions, or both, with college – do not fare wellon performance measures designed for adifferent kind of student. Today many un-dergraduates cycle in and out of college.They stop for a while or drop down to part-time status to earn enough money to pay fornext semester’s tuition, or for rent, or tohave a child, or to accept a promising job opportunity. For such students – remember,they are the majority of today’s undergradu-ates – a college education is something thathas to be squeezed into the rest of life. Col-lege is no longer a phase of youth to be en-joyed before real life begins.

That became all too clear to us in thecourse of our long-term study of female col-lege students and their children. We fol-lowed the women who entered the CityUniversity of New York system from 1970to 1972, as CUNY campuses began accept-ing all New York City high-school gradu-ates. It took the students we tracked a longtime to complete their degrees, but 30 yearsafter entering college, 70% of women whohad attended CUNY colleges had earned adegree, and more than three-fourths ofthose had earned a bachelor’s degree. Inparallel analyses we conducted of datafrom the National Longitudinal Survey ofYouth, which until 2000 tracked studentsnationwide for 20 years, we found that thegraduation rate was 61%. Even among theweakest prospects – students who enteredcollege with high-school averages of C or

below – we estimated that among recentnational cohorts, about half are graduatingin the long run.

What accounts for the discrepancy be-tween the critics of higher education, whobemoan its shortcomings, and our research?The distressingly low graduation figuresthat scandalize critics are typically collectedsix years after college entry. They give theimpression that huge numbers of students –particularly economically disadvantagedand minority students – fail to benefit fromattending college. That approach measuressuccess or failure far too soon. Working-class and minority students are takinglonger than six years – in some cases muchlonger – to get through college, but manymore of them ultimately cross the finish linethan the short-term assessments imply. Re-

cent government data indicate that morethan 28% of bachelor’s degree recipients gettheir degrees more than six years after en-tering college. Women, members of minori-ty groups and poor students tend to takelonger than the average.

Despite delayed graduation, collegemakes a big difference in the lives of work-ing-class students and their children. Twofindings stand out. First, despite a huge in-crease in the college-educated population,the value of a degree has not eroded overtime. For women, in particular, it hasgrown. While the students we studied whoentered college with poor preparation oreconomic disadvantages did not earn asmuch as straight-A or middle-class colle-gians, poorly prepared students who at-tended college nevertheless earned 13%more annually than students from similarbackgrounds who went no further thanhigh school graduation.

Moreover, after controlling for IQ, high-school performance and family background,we found that even students who attendedcollege but failed to graduate earned signifi-cantly more than equivalent students whonever attended college. Thus when highschool counselors encourage their poor oracademically weak students to aim for col-lege, they are not misleading them.

NEXT GENERATION BENEFITSSecond, an important but underappreciat-

ed benefit of higher education is the impactthat college attendance has upon the lifechances of the next generation. We discov-ered that when mothers from poor andworking-class backgrounds went to college,they changed the way they raised their chil-dren. Their educational expectations for

their children climbed and their style of in-teracting with them was affected, comparedwith similar women who never attended college. College mothers became more in-volved in their children’s schools and turnedinto advocates for the kids. They took theirchildren to museums, zoos and theaters, orprovided other forms of cultural enrich-ment. They involved themselves more incommunity and church groups. In combina-tion, such parental activities associated with maternal college attendance improvedtheir children’s educational performance,whether measured by test scores or chancesof college entry. In short, maternal college-going interrupts the cycle of poverty.

NOT UNALLOYED SUCCESSThe picture that our research uncovered

was not one of unalloyed success. The disad-vantages of race and class continued tostretch across generations, so that children

of minority and poor mothers who attendedcollege were less likely to succeed educa-tionally than children of white and affluentmothers. College access did not erase disad-vantages for everyone. On average, howev-er, we found that maternal college-goinghad a significant positive impact on theprospects for the second generation amongvarious disadvantaged groups.

If we are to have accountability and bench-marks for higher education, then let us mea-sure what matters for our society: thelong-term impact of educational access uponcollege students and their offspring. Adoptingmeasurement systems that count disadvan-taged students as failures because they takelonger to graduate will inevitably make thoseinstitutions that serve working-class and mi-nority students appear inefficient, while en-suring that colleges that enroll more-affluentstudents look highly productive. That is notaccountability or fiscal prudence; it is an ex-cuse for further cuts in financing for publicuniversities and camouflage for reversingpast gains in access to college.

Instead, we should concentrate on the as-pects of educational policy that stack thedeck against disadvantaged students. Al-though our study documented the successof many of those students, we also saw theobstacles they faced:l Skyrocketing tuition at public universitiesthat makes college less affordable for work-ing-class and middle-class students alike. Inthe last 30 years, the percentage of the costsof attending a public four-year college cov-ered by Pell Grants has fallen by nearly one-half, winching up the pressure on poorstudents.l Punishing reductions in government aid forstudents who work their way through college.Part-time students are made ineligible for cer-tain kinds of assistance, yet financial stresspushes students to take fewer credits to ac-commodate longer work hours. When eco-nomically stressed students drop out ofcollege to earn money to meet tuition, theirtemporarily increased earnings reduce theiraid eligibility for the following year. It’s aCatch-22.l Federal requirements that most college stu-dents be classified as dependent on their par-ents until they are roughly 23 years old, thusreducing their aid. That is unrealistic for stu-dents from poorer families who have been fi-nancially self-supporting since their lateteens. They can’t or won’t take money fromtheir struggling parents (if anything, theirparents may ask for their assistance), whilethey soldier on with grossly inadequate aid.

We can cling to an increasingly unrepre-sentative image of undergraduate life anddocument through statistical measures thatuniversities filled with working-class and mi-nority students do not live up to that privi-leged benchmark. Or we can acknowledgethe emergence of a system of mass higher ed-ucation and develop policies that recognizethat college-going has profoundly changed.

Paul Attewell and David Lavin are professorsof sociology at the Graduate Center of the CityUniversity of New York and co-authors, withThurston Domina and Tania Levey, of Pass-ing the Torch: Does Higher Education for theDisadvantaged Pay Off Across the Genera-tions? (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007). Thisarticle first appeared in the Chronicle of High-er Education.

10 OPINION Clarion | October 2007

Graduation rates in real lifeBY THE NUMBERS

A four-year yardstick is out of date

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By BARBARA BOWENPSC President

On Tuesday, October 30 at 6:00 pm,the PSC is holding a mass mem-bership meeting in the GreatHall of Cooper Union in Manhat-tan. Why should you come?

1. Come for yourself. Come to the meetingbecause the experience of being in one of themost beautiful rooms in New York City witha thousand other people who want the samechanges you want is not to be missed.

2. Come to the mass meeting because thisround of negotiations is a contest betweentwo radically different agendas for CUNY.Management wants a workplace where wehave no annual salary steps and insteadhave to please the president to get an in-crease. Management wants departmentchairs out of the union. It wants more contin-gent faculty and staff, less academic free-dom. Management wants to slash jobsecurity for HEOs. (Details of the demandsare on the PSC website.) These managementdemands have nothing to do with the re-quirements of the City and the State; theyare purely CUNY’s agenda. Come to themeeting if that’s not the university you want.

3. Come to the meeting because numbersmatter. In the last two contract campaigns,every single time we held a large rally,CUNY moved. If we fill the Great Hall atCooper Union to bursting as we did twoyears ago, the union’s power at the bargain-ing table will increase. Naturally, Matt Gold-stein says that demonstrations don’t matterand what counts is “reasoned discourse” atthe bargaining table, but the facts tell a dif-ferent story. The union bargaining team alsobelieves in productive discussions, but whatcounts is power, and a huge turnout at themass meeting shows we have it.

4. Come to the meeting to hear directlyfrom the union bargaining team the latestdevelopments at the bargaining table – andthe politics behind those developments. ByOctober 30 there may be significant move-ment in negotiations with statewide unions;come and hear what that means for us.

5. Come to Cooper Union to launch theunion’s campaign to push management’s

dangerous demands off the table. StartingOctober 30, we will work with you to forcemanagement to drop their anti-faculty, anti-staff, anti-adjunct, anti-student, anti-tenure,anti-academic freedom demands. Come tothe meeting to find out how to be part of thiscampaign.

6. Come to the union meeting to hear a dis-cussion of the PSC’s strategy to wage morethan a defensive campaign. Another austeritysettlement will do nothing to reverse the ero-sion of CUNY salaries or improve our workingconditions; we need a non-austerity contract.But how do we achieve that with City, Stateand CUNY lined up behind the “pattern” – theanti-worker doctrine that all public employeeunions must accept the same settlement, toooften below the level of inflation? What canone union do against this system? Or are wereally alone? Come for an honest discussion ofwho the PSC’s allies are in this fight, how weplan to mobilize them and what you can do.

7. Come to Cooper Union, even if you havenever come to a union event before, becausethis round of bargaining is different. In the lasttwo union contracts, the PSC bargaining team– with the strong support of the membership –was able to achieve some changes many peo-ple thought impossible for CUNY – well-paidsabbaticals and junior faculty leave, paid of-fice hours for adjuncts, 100 new full-time facul-ty positions. But reversing 30 years of salaryerosion is a different matter; it requires aneven larger financial package. How do wemake progress on this difficult issue? Come tothe meeting to find out.

8. Come to the mass meeting if it matters to you that many of us have seen CUNYsalaries lose up to 40% of their real value overthe course of our own careers. Increasingly,we are finding that our salaries simply do notbuy what they once provided. The latest bitterirony is that many of us are having troublesending our own children to college. Mean-while CUNY departments cannot recruit thenew faculty they need and are beginning tolose their senior and mid-career faculty. As aresult of the PSC’s advocacy, there is startingto be some serious political support for restor-ing CUNY salaries; come to hear how you canadd your voice to this effort.

9. Come to be visible. Nothing tells us moreabout the importance of our making ourselvesvisible than Chancellor Goldstein’s refusal tobe photographed receiving the union petitionbearing 5,534 names. As someone who careful-ly controls his image, Goldstein knew that apicture of his receiving so many thousands ofsignatures against his agenda for CUNYwould disrupt his message of a faculty andstaff thrilled with his leadership and support-ive of his plans. Come in large numbers to theCooper Union meeting so the real views of themembership cannot be effaced.

10. Come to the union meeting if you be-lieve that CUNY’s mistreatment of half of itsteaching force has to change. Many of us findit unacceptable to be bombarded with sub-way ads about a few terrific people teachingat CUNY while we know that more than halfthe courses are taught by underpaid, under-supported, under-respected adjuncts. If

CUNY can get away with mistreating thislarge a part of its labor force, all of us are un-dermined. Come to hear how the union is or-ganizing for change.

11. Come on October 30 if you believe weare entitled to good healthcare benefits, amanageable workload and basic humanrights such as a safe workplace and paidparental leave. All of these issues are atstake in this round of negotiations; only byworking in a strategic, organized way canwe win them. Find out how.

12. Come to find out what you can do inwhat may be a historic fight for public highereducation in New York City. With the inade-quacy of our salaries reaching a crisis point,and the adjunct system shortchangingeveryone, this may be the moment for signif-icant change. To be effective, the PSC has tobe at least as well organized as the forces op-posing us; at the mass meeting you will hearhow the union is building its base and howeven a modest amount of effort by each per-son will magnify this work.

13. Come on October 30 because the NewYork State Higher Education Commissionplans to release its preliminary report this fall.The commission’s findings are likely to set theagenda for funding and policy on public highereducation in New York for many years tocome. A massive turnout at the union meetingwill put force behind the agenda we articulate.

14. Come to support the negotiating team. Inthe first round of negotiations, the union bar-gaining team logged more than 600 hours ofmeetings together. That number doubled inthe next round. Not just full-time union offi-cers and legal advisers, but faculty and stafflike you have taken on the enormous task ofnegotiating this contract. Sociologists, mathe-maticians, student advisers and others, theyhave mastered both the minutiae and the bigpicture. All of their work is to advance yourinterests. Come and show your support.

15. Come to the Cooper Union meeting toplace yourself in history. People sat at meet-ings in this room in 1860 and heard AbrahamLincoln make one of the most importantspeeches of his presidential campaign and in1862 heard Frederick Douglass call for imme-diate emancipation. When New Yorkershave gathered to organize for women’srights, labor rights, abolition and freedom,they have often gathered in this room.

16. Come on October 30 because you didn’tcome to the mass meeting in 2005 and you’vebeen sorry ever since.

17. Come on October 30 because you didcome to the mass meeting in 2005 and youwouldn’t dream of missing this one.

18. Come if you want a future at CUNY, ifyou think the future of CUNY is worth fight-ing for. Come to Cooper Union if you refuseto accept that our students deserve a less se-rious education than the children of the rich– just because they are predominantly work-ing class and people of color. Come if you be-lieve another university is possible.

19. Come to the union meeting if you believethat people acting together can createchange. Come if you haven’t given up on theidea that intellectuals can contribute to pub-lic life. Come if you believe in standing up foryour rights and the rights of your students.Come if you want to experience, at least forone night, an alternative to the culture ofcommercialism, individualism and politicaldespair that surrounds us. Come if you haveanger, but also come if you have hope.

Clarion | October 2007 OPINION 11

Newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York, collective bargaining representative of the CUNY instructional staff. Vol.36,No.7. PSC/CUNY is affiliated with the American Associationof University Professors, National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers (Local 2334), AFL-CIO, the New York City Central Labor Council, and New York State United Teachers. Publishedby PSC/CUNY, 61 Broadway, 15th floor, New York, NY 10006. Telephone: (212) 354-1252. Website: www.psc-cuny.org. E-mail: phogness@pscmail.org. All opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarilythose of the PSC.PSC OFFICERS: Barbara Bowen, President; Steven London, First Vice President; Arthurine DeSola, Secretary; Michael Fabricant, Treasurer; Stanley Aronowitz, Jonathan Buchsbaum, Lorraine Cohen, JohnPittman, Nancy Romer, University-wide Officers; Robert Cermele, Vice President, Senior Colleges; Kathleen Barker, Marilyn Neimark, Alex Vitale, Senior College Officers; Anne Friedman, Vice President,Community Colleges; Jacob Appleman, Lizette Colón, Susan O’Malley, Community College Officers; Iris DeLutro, Vice President, Cross Campus Units; Donna Veronica Gill, Steven Trimboli, Vera Weekes,Cross Campus Officers; Marcia Newfield, Vice President, Part-Time Personnel; Susan DiRaimo, David Hatchett, Diane Menna, Part-Time College Officers; Peter Jonas, James Perlstein, Retiree Officers;Irwin H. Polishook, President Emeritus; Israel Kugler, Deputy President Emeritus; Peter I Hoberman, Vice President Emeritus, Cross Campus Units.STAFF: Deborah Bell, Executive Director; Faye H. Alladin, Coordinator, Financial Services; Dorothee Benz, Coordinator, Communications; Debra L. Bergen, Director, Contract Administration & University-wideGrievance Officer; Nick Cruz, Coordinator of Organizing; Barbara Gabriel, Coordinator, Office Services and Human Resources; Kate Pfordresher, Coordinator, Research & Public Policy; Diana Rosato,Coordinator, Membership Department; Clarissa Gilbert Weiss, Director, Pension and Welfare Benefits.

Editor: Peter Hogness / Associate Editor: Dania Rajendra / Designer: Margarita Aguilar / Proofreader: Nicole Lisa / Intern: Stephanie Horvath© 2007 Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

Clarion OCTOBER 2007

19 reasons to cometo the mass meeting

CONTRACT FIGHT

Inform yourself and increase PSC power.

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By ELLEN BALLEISENBronx Community College

When I saw the first “LookWho’s Teaching at CUNY!”advertisement on the sub-way, it didn’t make a big im-pression. But within a few

weeks I saw several more on subways and onbuses, followed by a full-page ad in the NewYork Times. And with each additional sight-ing, I found myself growing angry.

There were a lot of reasons, but let’s startwith one. In April, everyone in the CUNYbuilding where I work was forced to evacu-ate when a giant sinkhole opened up outsidethe front door, big enough to hold a Volk-swagen. We were back in the building thefollowing day but as of press time, the sink-hole is still there. It’s surrounded by a fencewith a sign that says, “Work in Progress” –but in six months, I’ve seen no work and noprogress.

COSTLYEvery time I saw another “Look Who’s

Teaching. . .” ad, I wondered how much thiscampaign must cost. Was this really the bestway to spend CUNY’s available funds?

I wasn’t the only person with questionsabout this expensive public relations blitz.Kenneth Ryesky, an adjunct assistant pro-fessor at Queens College, used the Freedomof Information Act to obtain CUNY docu-ments on the cost of the ad campaign. Thoserecords showed that for bus and subway ads,print ads in a variety of publications and ca-ble TV commercials in March and April,CUNY spent $780,180.

But the records turned over by CUNYweren’t complete. They didn’t include twofull-page ads in The New York Times – which,according to the Times’s ad rates, would havecost about $118,000. And since the “LookWho’s Teaching. . .” campaign has run longpast April, it’s safe to assume that the pricetag is now well over $1 million and possiblytwo or three times that amount.

When Ryesky posted his discoveries on ane-mail discussion group I belong to, I began ex-amining my angry response to the campaign.Was it just about money? That was certainlypart of it, but it wasn’t the whole story.

In fact, I don’t have a problem with CUNYtrumpeting the achievements of the individ-uals featured in the ad campaign. I’m a big

fan of Billy Collins’s poetry, I like JohnCorigliano’s music and I’ve read many ofGregory Rabassa’s translations with plea-sure. I do want the general public to knowthat CUNY has professors with worldwidereputations.

But I don’t want the public to think thateverything’s just wonderful at CUNY or thatit’s only the distinguished professors whoare worth recognizing. The University hasthousands of faculty – adjuncts, full-timersand continuing education teachers – who donot have international reputations but whowork extremely hard, day in and day out, un-der conditions that border on the impossible.

I’ve heard some adjuncts suggest an alter-nate ad campaign called “Look Who’s Teach-ing Most of the Classes at CUNY.” Accordingto CUNY’s own statistics, 59% of the facultyconsists of adjuncts. These part-time facultyearn as little as $2,500 per course.

How about “See What’s Crumbling atCUNY”? There’s no shortage of photo ops forthat campaign. Besides the sinkhole at BronxCommunity College, it might include CCNY’s

Marshak Building – which is literally fallingdown, its decaying concrete held up only byan external skeleton of rusting I-beams.

“Look How Many Students Crowd IntoOne Class at CUNY!” I’d focus this campaignon freshman composition classes, where stu-dents are supposed to develop critical skillsthat they apply in all their subsequentcoursework. The National Council of Teach-ers of English (NCTE) recommends thatfreshman composition classes have no morethan 20 students. At my college these classespack in 30 students at a time – 50% more thanthe NCTE guideline.

UNAFFORDABLE“Look Who Wanted to Teach at CUNY –

But Couldn’t Afford It!” Most search commit-tee members have tales of candidates whowanted to work at CUNY but turned down ajob offer because of the low salary andNYC’s high cost of living. This ad might fea-ture the chemist who reluctantly declined aposition at Kingsborough, because, with hisPhD, he could make more money in the New

York City public schools. (See page 3)What exactly does CUNY think it’s buying

with a media campaign that only shows atiny slice of the University? When I imaginemyself as a fly on the wall during the conver-sations that led to the “Look Who’s Teach-ing. . .” ads, I hear administrators talkingabout the need to improve CUNY’s publicimage, which had been badly tarnished bypress coverage of the “University Adrift” re-port published during the 1990s.

CUNY has certainly had more than itsshare of negative press, and its fundingproblems were aggravated by tabloid edito-rials saying that City University was not agood place to invest taxpayer dollars. TheUniversity administration and I would prob-ably agree that it’s important to tell the pub-lic about the accomplishments of CUNY’sfaculty.

PUBLIC DOLLARSBut as that fly on the wall, I don’t hear

these administrators talking about drawingthe public’s attention to CUNY’s long-termloss of public dollars, which is the root causeof adjunct exploitation, overworked profes-sional staff, deferred maintenance andpacked classes.

A better image should not be sought mere-ly for its own sake. Any PR campaign shouldhave the message that CUNY has manywonderful professors and instructors butneeds more financial support to fulfill its ed-ucational mission.

The crumbling infrastructure, reliance onunderpaid adjuncts, low wages for full-timers and crowded classes aren’t news toany of us who work for CUNY. But this infor-mation isn’t common knowledge, evenamong New Yorkers who closely follow localnews. It’s the University administration’s jobto get the word out that public higher educa-tion in the City is of great value and that iturgently needs greater support.

University leaders elsewhere in the US aredoing just that. For example, the president ofMetropolitan State College in Denver, Col-orado, just wrote an op-ed titled “Stop Starv-ing Our Urban Public Universities.”

If that were part of the message of “LookWho’s Teaching at CUNY!” then I might findthe campaign more worthwhile. But there’sno way to justify a taxpayer-funded institu-tion spending more than a million bucks togive itself a pat on the back.

12 OPINION Clarion | October 2007

Professional Staff Congress/CUNY61 Broadway, 15th FloorNew York, New York 10006

NonProfit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDNew York, N.Y.Permit No. 8049

First, take two minutes to sign up forthe PSC’s October 30 mass member-ship meeting. There’s a form on theunion’s website, www.psc-cuny.org –we want to know you’re coming!

Now you’ve got 13 minutes left.Use them to have a conversationwith just one colleague about howthe contract fight affects us all. Askif they know about management’sproposal to take away our salary

steps and replace them with raisesgiven at the college president’sdiscretion. It’s a recipe for favoritismand fear, but many faculty and staffdon’t even know that CUNY hasdemanded this sweeping change.

The PSC is standing firm in itsdemand for better salaries for all.Come on October 30 at 6:00 pm to letCUNY know where you stand – andask your colleague to join you.

Sign up and reach out

15–MINUTE ACTIVIST

‘Look Who’s Teaching at CUNY’PUBLIC RELATIONS, PUBLIC FUNDING

Why tell only part of CUNY’s story?

Bill

Fre

idhe

im

PSC retiree Bill Friedheim’s parody for the “Our CUNY vs. Their CUNY” event. (See pages 6 and 7.)