Feb. '06 Clarion
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WORKING G OVERTIME HEOs file grievance Workers start Clarıon a class action for fair pay. PAGE 11 NEWSPAPER OF THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS / CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK FEBRUARY 2006 BAD FAITH ? The PSC bargained in good faith, and expected the same from CUNY. But two demanded a bargaining session with direct City and State participation, and months after the two sides agreed on a “conceptual framework,” CUNY may reiterated that members need real raises, a solution to the Welfare Fund cri- be indicating it will be unable to deliver City and State support. The union sis and advances on equity issues. PAGES 3 & 11 STATE BUDGET ACADEMIC FREEDOM LOSING GROUND BENEFITS Pataki’s plan Hunter Senate Faculty salaries Pensions falls short releases report in NYC are down under fire Governor Pataki’s proposed The Hunter College Senate’s From NYU to CUNY, faculty The right wing has set its budget would mean bigger Select Committee on Acade- make, on average, less than sights on pension plans. tuition hikes and a gap in mic Freedom released its NYC elementary school Does this mean a secure state funding for SUNY and findings, sparking a campus teachers. It is a race to the retirement will become a CUNY. PAGE 2 conversation. PAGE 7 bottom. PAGE 5 thing of the past? PAGE 10 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS G AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS G N.Y.C. CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL G N.Y.S. AFL-CIO G NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS 2 NEWS & LETTERS Clarion | February 2006 Governor’s budget fails CUNY By PETER HOGNESS PSC presses for more state dollars goal to [have] 70% of courses taught ition of “full-time” study from 12 to by full-time faculty.” Between 2002 15 credit-hours – a move that would Governor George Pataki unveiled and 2004, the percentage of instruc- prevent many CUNY students from his state budget blueprint on Janu- tion by full-time faculty at CUNY’s getting a full TAP award. Such ary 17, a $111 billion proposal that senior colleges did not go up – it changes would cut spending on puts a high priority on tax cuts. The went down. TAP by $190 million. plan calls for decreasing state rev- In response, the PSC urged fund- The smaller tuition increase pro- enue by $16 billion over the next five ing for an additional 600 new full- posed by CUNY administration is years, a formula that would spell time lines, for a total of 800. This to- based on an indexing plan that trouble for CUNY. tal includes 500 lines “to convert Chancellor Goldstein put forward State funding for the operating long-serving adjuncts to full-time po- last Fall. The chancellor has called budget of CUNY’s senior colleges sitions,” London said. Many adjuncts for a “compact” with the state, in would be set at $775.3 million, an in- have taught at CUNY for years, he which Albany would cover the Uni- crease of 2.1%. This is less than the noted, and “they excel at their pro- versity’s mandatory costs, while rate of inflation, and CUNY officials fession” but are not given adequate “modest” annual tuition hikes go to say it would not be enough to cover pay or recognition. These conver- fund new positions and programs. mandatory cost increases. sion lines would help to meet those needs, and would also address the INFLATION e t t SHORTFALL e s i needs of CUNY’s students, he said. Pataki’s budget plan supports the o N To address this shortfall, the These 800 new lines and related idea of annual tuition hikes – and in e s i governor is proposing a tuition W support positions would the future, would let CUNY - l hike of 7.5%, or $300, at CUNY’s se- E cost $25 million, which Lon- Big gap in raise tuition without leg- nior colleges. The executive budget PSC First Vice President Steve London testified in Albany on January 30. “There don said was “a reasonable islative approval and allow also asks for a $500 hike at SUNY, is no substitute for public funding” of CUNY, he told lawmakers. investment” in light of a CUNY/SUNY different tuition rates at dif- and includes changes to the Tu- budget surplus currently funding ferent campuses. But de- ition Assistance Program (TAP) in the treatment of CUNY has been well-funded public university.” estimated at $2-3 billion. spite the talk of “indexing,” ways that would disadvantage stu- particularly unfair. “In 2003 CUNY CUNY’s administration has asked “Spending this year’s state surplus Pataki’s proposed tuition increase is dents. At the community colleges, senior colleges were only funded at the State Legislature for $36 million on billions of dollars more in tax far above inflation – and it provides state aid per full-time equivalent 55% of SUNY state-operated col- more than the amounts proposed by breaks for the wealthy is the wrong for above-inflation tuition hikes in student (or FTE) would rise by leges” in terms of funding per FTE, Pataki. CUNY’s proposal still in- choice,” he argued. any future year when state funding $100, or less than half of what he said. In 1990, this figure was 81%. cludes a tuition increase, but a for CUNY is cut. CUNY had requested. In other words, this disparity is not smaller one, and includes spending WRONG CHOICES “In other words,” commented State budgets that shortchange only large – it is growing. on new initiatives such as 200 addi- The governor’s budget echoed London, “the compact is violated at CUNY are part of a long-running tional full-time faculty lines. The his past proposals to hold back a the outset.” Far from being based on trend, PSC First Vice President Steve RACIAL IMBALANCE PSC supports the University’s re- portion of student’s financial aid political realism, he argued, this London testified at a January 30 com- “It is hard to imagine that the quest for additional public support, grants through TAP. In his current shows that the compact is a losing mittee hearing in Albany. He told leg- CUNY/SUNY funding gap doesn’t but argues that it is not enough. plan, colleges would be required to strategy that lets state government islators that since 1990, state funding have something to do with race,” “In the last three years, student “pre-finance” TAP aid to students off the hook. “There is no substitute for CUNY has dropped by 31% in real London added, noting that 72 per- enrollment at CUNY has increased who have a GED instead of a high for public funding,” London said. He dollars while tuition has doubled. cent of CUNY students are non- by the equivalent of two additional school diploma, money that the urged full public funding of CUNY’s New York’s support for public white. “Along with all other New colleges,” London said. Because hir- state would make up only after the budget needs, instead of “making higher education is inadequate York State residents, they deserve ing has not kept pace, “the Univer- student had completed 24 credits. our already overburdened students across the board, London said – but an equal opportunity to attend a sity has been losing ground in its Pataki would also change the defin- bear extra costs.” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | WRITE TO: CLARION/PSC, 25 W. 43RD STREET, FIFTH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10036. E-MAIL: [email protected]. FAX: 212-302-7815. It’s time to modify the Taylor Law G When Mayor Bloomberg chas- Therefore I suggest that the Tay- Finally, the City itself would ben- saw missiles hurled at us: once an all recoiled at a loud clang just over tised TWU members before their lor Law be amended to provide “cost efit by having better relations with egg thrown from the thirteenth floor our heads and a thud on the ground a strike, pointing out that other City of living increases” while municipal its employees and their unions. We of an apartment building landed on few yards away. Some selfish thug unions have waited three or more employees wait for a new contract could then all work together to the boot of the African-American had thrown a car speaker at us from years without a contract to reach a to be negotiated. provide better services for all New bus driver I was talking to. He said it the highway. It hit a metal structure settlement, I was deeply offended by The public would benefit because Yorkers. felt like a brick had hit his toe. Other and bounced harmlessly away, but it his implicit use of our unfortunate there would be fewer strikes. Man- Robert Cowen workers showed me the egg splash- could have killed someone. plight as a role model. agement would have more incentive Queens College es on the wall behind us, and said a The mechanics’ steward, Irish- Of course it is the Taylor Law to start bargaining in earnest before potato was thrown the day before. American like me, had us all take penalties imposed on unions and contracts expire. Union members The next day a young PSCer had cover under the highway itself. As their members that make it possi- could better plan their financial fu- On the line with the his eight-year-old daughter on the we stood there a little stunned for a ble for the City to drag its feet ture while living in an increasingly transit workers line with us, and while a mechanic moment, it felt like war had been de- in negotiating contracts with its expensive city.