G BROOKLYN Two new organizing goals Clarıon Chapter pushes for on-campus child care and NEWSPAPER OF THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS / CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK MARCH 2006 curriculum changes PAGE 5

BENEFITS Buying insurance for long-term care What you need to know to figure out whether you or your family need long- term-care insurance. It’s expensive, but so is long-term care. PAGE 10

ALBANY PSC members push legislative agenda Union members went to Albany to press state lawmakers to restore more funds for CUNY, as well as tackle prob- lems in the laws governing pensions and unemployment insurance. PAGE 6 t e h c i o h c S y r a G CUNY WEEK IN TATALKSLKS WIWITHTH CUNYCUNY,, CICITY,TY, STASTATETE CUNY and the Katrina connection Hurricane Katrina hit Dillard Univer- PPSCSC PUSPUSHH FOR FINFINALAL DDEALEAL sity in New Orleans fast and hard. But Dillard has also suffered the “slow- PSC members held an early-morning demonstration on February 16, before a bargaining session at the City’s motion disaster” of inequality in edu- Office of Labor Relations. After CUNY backed off from a framework it had approved in November, union cation, with effects familiar to those at members and supporters turned out to say it’s long past time for management to come through. Above, CSI City University. CUNY Week, March student Wanda Calamia and PSC member Craig Topple. PAGES 3 AND 8 27-31, looks at the link. PAGE 7

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 | March 2006

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. What it takes to break a bad ‘pattern’

G The PSC and CUNY management ship – but still couldn’t break a bad activity. If these unions are “elimi- had better act locally, or your “island about the quality of service they pro- agreed to a contract framework in pattern. Is there anything that can? nated or weakened, we may become of privilege” will continue to shrink. vide. We’ve featured patient photos November, but New York City and How about a coalition of municipal an ‘island of privilege’ in the eyes of Steven Weisblatt and interviews about issues such as State objected. They said the deal unions joining hands, locking arms, other workers,” Hyland wrote. York College staffing, public funding for health went beyond the patterns for other and marching to the bargaining table The island metaphor also applies care or the little things from union public workers – and they’re right. as a unified force? That is the only to a comparison of the conditions members that can humanize a pa- It’s a credit to the union that we got way we have of ensuring that the facing the 9,500 contingent faculty More on students tient’s hospital stay. CUNY to agree to these terms. “pie” for economic settlements with with the conditions facing full-time G Clarion is an excellent publica- I hope that such coverage helps Even the stunted deal now on the our employers is large enough to ac- faculty at CUNY today. tion. You once asked me how it conscientious members who are de- table is as good as or better than commodate all our needs. How we The “island of privilege” exists at could be improved, and I am writ- voted to good patient care see that settlements for police, teachers or slice it can be left to the respective this very moment in the PSC’s own ing with a suggestion: I don’t see the union shares their concerns. To other city unions. unions, but we can only force a big- backyard. As a CLIP instructor, I enough in Clarion about students. the public, I hope it accurately pre- The problem is, none of these con- ger pie if we bargain together. see the island from an overcrowd- The students in the journalism sents the union as having a heart, as tracts were good ones. The nail in la- The PSC leadership has long sup- ed, listing, third-world ferry which classes I teach at CCNY’s Center for being a fully rounded institution in- bor’s coffin was the substandard pat- ported this. Will other unions climb isn’t ever going to make it to the is- Worker Education are wonderful. terested in more than just bread and tern set early on in this round of mu- aboard the solidarity train? land, and nobody is undertaking a They’re diverse, articulate, motivat- butter. nicipal bargaining. The PSC had a Bill Henning rescue mission. ed and smart, making huge sacrifices Substitute the idea of education smart, open leadership, a democrat- City College While the organizing and educat- to earn their BAs. I’m sure students for health care in the above para- ic process and a mobilized member- ing in “right-to-work” states is in- at other CUNY facilities are similar. graphs, and I think it’s just as true An injury to one… valuable, the financial and human In my work at 1199/SEIU, the for members of the PSC. So I’d sug- G As PSC Treasurer John Hyland resources of the PSC, AFT, and health care workers’ union, we’ve gest more coverage in Clarion that Write to Clarion argued in the February Clarion, NYSUT must be used right here, tried to regularly feature patients in lets us see and hear the students when the American Federation of right now. Go ahead, spend our mon- the union’s magazine. They’re the who are at the heart of our work. Letters should be no more than Teachers uses our dues money to or- ey helping other nascent unions and reason for health care workers’ jobs. Dan North 150-200 words in length, and are ganize and educate teachers’ unions worker groups around the world, Our members care about their pa- City College subject to editing. across the country, it’s a worthwhile but while you think globally, you tients as individuals, and they care (Former editor, 1199 News) Demolition for Fiterman

By PETER HOGNESS & LETICIA TAYLOR Contaminated inside & out

Since September 11, 2001, the “We are concerned, along with that the agency’s comments should scarred, empty structure of Fiter- our neighbors in lower Manhattan, be completed by late March. man Hall has loomed over lower that the work be done safely,” said The CUNY/DASNY plan is based Manhattan – but that may be about Joan Greenbaum, co-chair of the on environmental testing of Fiter- to change. CUNY is about to release PSC Health and Safety Committee, man’s interior that began in Septem- a plan for how Fiterman’s 15 stories in testimony at a February 27 city ber, after a decontamination facility should be torn down, with new con- council hearing. The PSC is part of a was built to allow for safe entry and struction to follow. The first phase local alliance, the WTC Community- exit of environmental consultants. of work could start this spring. Labor Coalition, that has acted as a But although that testing was large- Fiterman Hall had provid- watchdog on cleanup and ly completed last fall, the results ed space for classes at Bor- Too damaged reconstruction issues. have not been released. “All of us ough of Manhattan Commu- to repair CUNY and the Dormi- need to know exactly what contami- nity College, just south of tory Authority of the nants are in the building,” Green- the college’s main building. The col- State of New York (DASNY), which baum told the February 27 hearing. lapse of World Trade Center 7 left carries out most CUNY-related con- “And we need to know what proce- gaping holes in Fiterman’s south struction, have developed a decon- dures will be used to contain [them] wall, and the building was too dam- tamination and deconstruction plan when demolition takes place.” aged to repair. and sent it to the federal Environ- Soon after September 11, the PSC While the large debris has been mental Protection Agency. That urged CUNY to replace, not repair, removed, Fiterman’s interior con- plan is not yet public, but when the Fiterman Hall. CUNY agreed, but tains contaminants such as lead, EPA is finished with its review, the State did not until last year. s r e mold and dioxin. High levels of diox- both the plan and the EPA’s com- d n a

INSURANCE DISPUTE S

in, a potent carcinogen that can be ments will be posted on the e v a produced by burning plastics, were web at www.lowermanhattan.info/ The biggest cause of delay in re- D found in dust sampled from inside construction/project_updates/ placing Fiterman was a dispute Fiterman Hall will be torn down – but a cleanup must come first. the building in 2002. fiterman_hall_39764.asp. After a with the insurance company, FM chance for public response, said Global, which was settled in 2004 Fiterman’s place will take two years overcrowded. The college resorted COMPLICATED DASNY spokesperson Claudia Hut- for $90 million. Of that sum, $27 mil- and cost about $125 million, she to temporary trailers, put up parti- This means that dismantling ton, decontamination work will lion was reportedly used to help added. However, last September, tions in common areas to carve out Fiterman is more complicated than a then begin. pay for temporary classroom space Vice Chancellor Emma Macari told some replacement classrooms and normal building demolition – it can- “The PSC will monitor CUNY’s for BMCC. the NYC chapter of the American rented space nearby.. not just be knocked down, but must plans for the demolition of Fiter- DASNY estimates that cleaning Institute of Architects that the total Those who work or study at BM- first be decontaminated before it is man,” said Greenbaum. “But who up Fiterman and tearing it down of all rebuilding costs would exceed CC are eager for the process of re- taken apart. Without a careful ap- will monitor the EPA?” She said that will cost between $18 million and $22 $200 million, of which $187 million placing Fiterman to get started. proach, explained PSC Health and the agency’s track record on air million. “Decontamination is expect- had been secured. “Space is an issue here all the time,” Safety Officer Bob Wurman, “the quality and cleanup in lower Man- ed to take five to six months, and de- The loss of Fiterman’s class- commented Jane Young, chair of concern is that the dust would be re- hattan has been “dismal.” The construction five months,” said Hut- rooms had a big impact on BMCC, a the BMCC’s PSC chapter. “We’re leased into the neighborhood again.” EPA’s Wendi Thomi told Clarion ton. Putting up a new building in campus that was already severely busting at the seams.” Clarion | March 2006 NEWS 3 City, State nix framework

By PETER HOGNESS Key elements of the union’s agreement include all bargaining Friction at contract talks March 1 counter-proposal include: unit members, including faculty in On February 16, the PSC bargain- February 16 offer had less money for tenure is typical of colleges and uni- G Providing all newly hired junior Continuing Education. ing team met with representatives salary increases. Also missing, com- versities that provide much more re- faculty with a full year of paid re- G Across-the-board raises must not of CUNY, the City and State – and pared to November, were raising sab- search support than CUNY,” PSC search time, beginning when the exclude faculty at CUNY’s Educa- the union’s prediction was soon batical pay to 80% and some equity President Barbara Bowen noted. tenure clock is extended. While man- tional Opportunity Centers, and pro- confirmed. improvements. The PSC called for restructured agement has accepted an expansion fessional issues at the Hunter Cam- Although CUNY negotiators and Across-the-board pay raises fol- contributions to the Welfare Fund, of junior faculty research time, the pus Schools must also be addressed. the union had agreed last November lowed the settlement with SUNY’s and for funding for all of the equity in- union wants this time arranged to al- on a framework for a new contract, union, United University Pro- creases that had been part low a full year at both senior and SOME AGREEMENT University management had failed fessions: a lump sum of $800 City, State of the November frame- community colleges. The two sides remained in agree- to win city and state backing for the in the first year, pro-rated for work. The union’s bargain- G Reorganize some funds in manage- ment on several equity improve- deal. At the February 16 session, adjuncts; a 2.5% raise in the won’t break ing team outlined how both ment’s offer, including a proposed ments worked out in November on CUNY officially told the union that second year; 2.75% in the pattern these changes could be done $500 for employees with “permanent” issues such as faculty counselor an- management was withdrawing its third year; 3% in the fourth “within the economic pack- status and some of the retroactive nual leave, reduced teaching load at support for the framework it had year; and $800 added to base pay on age management presented,” Bowen pay, to stabilize the Welfare Fund re- City Tech, research time for newly previously approved. the last day of the contract, after a said in a report to members. serves and increase sabbatical pay to hired library and counseling faculty ten-month extension. This adds up The next bargaining session, on 80%. The union argued that this ap- and higher minimum pay for CLIP OFFERED LESS to an average across-the-board in- March 1, began with management proach would provide a longer-term faculty. Also remaining was union City and state representatives crease of about 9.5%; a portion of rejecting the idea of additional fund- benefit to employees than the $500 acceptance of a change of three days had indicated they could not accept retroactive pay from the first and ing for improved sabbaticals. They because it would not disappear when to the start of the fall semester and the November package because it second years would go toward stabi- also rejected the union’s proposed a given employee leaves CUNY or re- the extension of time to tenure (ex- was richer than those they had lizing the Welfare Fund reserves. changes to management’s formula tires. While strengthening the Fund, cept for CLTs and Hunter Campus agreed to with other unions. Togeth- for Welfare Fund contributions. it is unlikely that this level of funding Schools). Previous management de- er with CUNY negotiators, they pro- MORE FUNDING Management’s stance presented would allow for restoration of the mands for concessions, including posed a contract with a smaller eco- In response, the PSC urged man- the union with “a difficult choice,” dental benefit. slashing HEO job security and re- nomic offer. agement to secure additional funding Bowen said in a March 2 report: G Include two equity provisions that moving department chairs from the The biggest change from the No- to retain the increase in sabbatical “work within this inadequate frame- had been agreed to in the fall: paid union, are no longer on the table. vember framework was that man- pay to 80%. In November, the union work or walk away from the table sick days for part-time CLTs and The next session was scheduled agement’s proposals did not include had agreed to support extending the with no contract.” She said the PSC non-teaching adjuncts (who current- for the following week. Union nego- an increase of more than 3% to the time to tenure from five years to sev- bargaining team decided to work ly get none), and the proposal for 100 tiators would then see, said Bowen, economic package, which it had pre- en, in exchange for the raise in sab- within the economic package now full-time conversion lines for eligible “Whether management is seriously viously agreed to in exchange for an batical pay and doubling reassigned offered by management, to try to part-time faculty. (See also page 20.) prepared to agree to a settlement additional office hour from full-time time for scholarship by newly hired find a “principled and imaginative” The union also demanded that the that moves closer to our goals.” (See faculty. Without this 3%, CUNY’s junior faculty. “The longer time to route to a settlement. addition to base pay at the end of the www.psc-cuny.org for updates.) PSC says,‘Settle now’ By DANIA RAJENDRA Members join downtown picket More than 200 PSC members joined a morning rally before the bargain- sentatives from the City and the distinguished professor of history ing session with the City, State and State. The PSC had demanded to at John Jay. “The bottom line is CUNY management on February meet directly with all three after that if CUNY really wants to be a 16. Union members voiced anger at weeks of frustration over manage- great university, then it must pay management’s failure to secure city ment’s failure to finalize a settle- what a great university pays its fac- and state approval for the contract ment based on the terms it agreed to ulty and staff.” framework that was worked out in in November. “Low salaries are an attack on the November. Under the headline, “CUNY facul- quality of education for CUNY stu- “I’m here to show support for the ty want a deal,” the morning daily dents,” said Lloyd. negotiating team. We’ve been more Metro described union members’ Part-time PSCers had a strong t than reasonable and patient,” said discontent. A CUNY spokesperson presence at the demonstration. Some e h c i o

Sarah Durand, an assistant profes- responded that bargaining had been put on elephant masks and handed h c S

sor of biology at LaGuardia. complicated by the different out peanuts, representing the y r a patterns of state and city la- “That wages adjuncts work for. Oth- G RAISES OVERDUE bor contracts. In the bargain- ers wore stickers that de- Associate Professor Gerardo Renique teaches history at City College. “We haven’t had a contract in ing that led up to the Novem- money scribed adjuncts as the three years, and that’s outrageous,” ber framework, however, is ours!” “CUNY canaries.” When the Several part-time activists told tive members, and to protect our said Suzanne Wasserman, a higher CUNY indicated that its nego- old “canary in the mineshaft” Clarion they had come to the rally benefits,” said Patricia Bramwell of education assistant at the Graduate tiating positions were guided by fell ill, they explained, it warned min- despite unhappiness with the pro- the Retirees Chapter. Center. “The City really just shows both of those patterns. ers to beware of toxic air. Adjuncts’ posed framework. Michael Seitz, a disrespect for union members.” “I’m here to put pressure on the conditions, they said, are a warning who has taught at CUNY for 18 STUDENT SUPPORT Both Wasserman and Durand said University administration, the City for the whole university. years, said that top adjunct con- A number of students added their that raises for CUNY faculty and and the State to start caring about “The governor, the mayor and cerns like job security were not ad- voices as well. “Your working condi- staff are long overdue. “It’s not right” education,” said Pat Lloyd, an assis- CUNY are treating the whole union dressed. “I’m here out of solidarity,” tions are our learning conditions,” to go three years without a raise, tant professor of chemistry at KBCC. like adjuncts,” said Mike Vozick, of commented Seitz. PSC negotiators declared a sign held by CSI student Wasserman told Clarion. “That mon- Other union members agreed that the science department at BMCC. He said that management has stub- Wanda Calamia, who described her- ey is ours!” the mayor and governor must step carried a sign reading, “No to take- bornly resisted any structural im- self as a “huge advocate for public Members marched in two picket up to the plate. aways in health care.” Vozick said, provements for part-timers, even education.” She was there with her lines outside the NYC Office of La- “The cutback in adjunct health bene- those that would cost little money. husband, Craig Topple, a PSC mem- bor Relations, distributing leaflets RESOURCES fits has hurt, and we know there is a Retirees were also a visible part ber and a Higher Education Assis- to downtown commuters. “The City and State say they val- threat of a bigger cut. It’s a terrible sit- of the picket line, demanding a tant at CSI. “It was one of our first At the negotiating session, CUNY ue education for working people in uation to be in, to have to defend ben- prompt and fair contract settle- demonstrations,” said Calamia – but management was joined by repre- New York,” said Jerry Markowitz, efits that are already inadequate.” ment. “I’m here to support the ac- she says it won’t be their last. 4 NEWS Clarion | March 2006 “Academic Bill of Rights” comes to New York

By PETER HOGNESS ABOR would have required ap- asserted it [the story] as true and & DANIA RAJENDRA Hearings in Pennsylvania proval of the state Senate as well. didn’t correct it!” Pennsylvania lawmakers held Academics who testified pointed On January 9, the “Academic Bill of (ABOR) “proposes some sort of polit- introduced at the start of the year. hearings in the fall and in January, out that part of the essential nature Rights” made its debut in New York. ical oversight into both curriculum New York State United Teachers re- but Armstrong has yet to produce of being a college professor is The Deputy Majority Leader of the and faculty personnel decisions.” sponded, and convinced three of the the letters. The hearings have teaching students to make careful New York State Senate, John De- As the civil liberties coalition bill’s original nine sponsors to with- demonstrated no abuses thus far, arguments based on clear docu- Francesco, and eight other senators Free Exchange on Campus declared draw their support. leading the AAUP to call ABOR “a mentation. Those who appeared in- introduced a bill that would enforce in a recent policy statement, “Pas- “NYSUT got on this right away,” solution in search of a problem.” cluded the AAUP’s Joan Scott and “intellectual diversity” in the state’s sage of such measures, even when said the PSC’s First Vice President, Temple Association of University universities through legislative the provisions are not made manda- Steve London, “and their quick action NO EVIDENCE Professionals President William means. tory, would be an invitation to tie up had an effect.” The New York chap- The January hearings did gener- Cutler. “Too often, students find many institutions of higher education in ters of the American Association of ate some news when Horowitz ad- While the determined response of college classes biased or one-sided,” an endless round of public hearings University Professors were also mitted that he lacked evidence for academic leaders and fair-minded asserted the sponsors of S.6336 – and and litigation, in which non-acade- quick to contact their State Senators some of his most often repeated sto- legislators has blunted the impact of they want the New York State Leg- mics would decide whether enough and urge opposition to the legislation. ries of bias, including the charge the Pennsylvania hearings, the hear- islature to do something about it. balance was achieved in the reading At present the bill seems to have lost that a Pennsylvania biology profes- ings do illustrate how the ABOR Similar legislation has now been list of a particular course.” momentum, and has only been intro- sor forced his class to watch Fahren- campaign can set the agenda for introduced in half the states in duced in the State Senate. To have heit 9/11 just before the 2004 elec- public discussion, even if its advo- America. Couched in deliberately AMONG FRIENDS any chance of becoming law, it would tion. Horowitz has repeated this un- cates have a hard time turning their neutral-sounding language about When New York’s ABOR was in- first have to pick up significant sup- substantiated anecdote numerous model bill into law. “Legislative en- “fostering a plurality of methodolo- troduced in January, it was in a port in the New York Assembly – and times, and it remains up on his web- actment of ABOR is beside the gies and perspectives” or “making sense coming home. The national at the moment that seems unlikely. site FrontPage.com. “I can’t investi- point,” commented Bill Scheuerman, students aware of other viewpoints,” campaign in favor of ABOR was The bill’s backers took a different gate every story,” he told Inside president of SUNY’s United Univer- these proposed laws aim to get gov- launched by right-wing pundit David tack in Pennsylvania. Rep. Gib Higher Ed, saying he had heard sity Professions. The real goal, he ernment in the business of regulat- Horowitz, who says he first got the Armstrong (R-Lancaster) com- about this one from a legislative said, “is to scare college administra- ing thought among college faculty. idea when he came to New York in plained that he had received some staffer. Horowitz said his critics tors and faculty so they are less like- “This legislation supposes that December 2002 and met with arch- 50 reports of political bias against were “nitpicking” and missing the ly to raise tough questions or discuss there is a widespread problem of fac- conservative SUNY Trustee Can- college students and demanded ac- larger picture. “Is there anybody out controversial issues in the class- ulty members discriminating against dace de Russy, SUNY Provost Peter tion. But instead of trying to get here who will say that professors room.” students based on their political Salins, and SUNY Board of Trustees ABOR adopted as state law, Arm- don’t attack Bush in biology class- The PSC’s Leberstein agrees. views,” said Steve Leberstein, chair Chair Thomas Egan. “I was sort of strong pushed for statewide hear- rooms?” he asked. “Each ABOR proposal sets the stage of the PSC Academic Freedom Com- among friends,” Horowitz told the ings on the political climate at Penn- But at the hearings, academics for legislative or other investigations mittee. “But there is absolutely no ev- Chronicle of Higher Education. “It al- sylvania’s public universities. The and politicians alike took issue with into the purported problem,” he told idence that this is true.” As a remedy lowed me to think out loud.” proposal for hearings required ap- Horowitz’s sweeping claims. Rep. Clarion, “and this country has a long to this supposed problem, Leberstein But the New York bill, S.6336, has proval from the state’s House of Larry Curry, (D-Montgomery) chas- history of such investigations being said, the Academic Bill of Rights had some rough sailing since it was Representatives only, whereas tised Horowtiz, telling him, “But you used to silence dissenting views.” “Intelligent design” backers plan to use ABOR

By PETER HOGNESS – or for grading students.” not Creationism,” Kabbany cites a “Teach the controversy” Luskin particularly praised provi- string of anti-evolution books as David Horowitz declares that his sions of ABOR that would give stu- “just a minute example of publica- “Academic Bill of Rights” has noth- dents legal muscle in complaining tions arguing against evolution, us- ing to do with teaching “Intelligent about professors’ when students feel ing scientific evidence.” She criti- Design” in science classes. “It would their own views are not being given cizes Time magazine for “presenting not force teachers to teach unscholar- enough weight. “We have had cases evolution as a fact, rather than an in- ly, scientific points of view like Holo- where professors literally said, ‘If you creasingly controversial theory,” caust denial or Intelligent Design,” write against evolution you will be and concludes that the evidence of a Horowitz told a legislative committee graded down,’” Luskin told Clarion. relationship between apes and hu- in Pennsylvania. “All of these claims “That is outrageous!” mans is “very shaky and unproven.” are demonstrably false.” Horowitz himself is anxious not For those who think that Intelli- Students for Academic Freedom, to appear anti-evolution. A couple gent Design is not science, Kabbany which Horowitz founded to cam- of ABOR provisions even explicit- has a warning: “This particular de- paign for the Academic Bill of ly focus on the humanities and so- bate is not going to go away.” Pub- Rights (ABOR), insists, “We have cial sciences (though most cover lishing attacks on evolution, she r asserted publicly multiple times e all academia). concludes, is part of “FrontPage’s v r a T that since creationism is not a scien- But it turns out that fight for intellectual freedom n o tific theory, it has no place being R Horowitz’s arm’s-length Many and debate.” taught in a science course.” Pennsylvania Rep. Gib Armstrong (R-Lancaster) supports “Intelligent Design.” stance toward Intelligent legislators These articles were written But proponents of “Intelligent De- Design is a fairly recent de- in 2001, before Horowitz start- sign – an essentially religious view of described by Horowitz as “the spon- the teaching of evolution with velopment. His web-based support ed his campaign for ABOR and human origins – are enthusiastic sor of the Academic Bill of Rights in lessons on Intelligent Design, the magazine FrontPage.com both began to style himself as “fair about ABOR. They see it as a valuable Pennsylvania,” has also introduced Discovery Institute says that features articles such as and balanced.” Kabbany is tool in the fight they care about most. legislation to require the teaching of schools (including universities) “The Scientific Case Against Evolu- now a news reporter in San Diego “My interest in having an Academ- Intelligent Design (ID)in science class- should “teach the controversy.” Its tion.” A regular FrontPage colum- County. Close association with oppo- ic Bill of Rights is that it would allow es. In fact, 10 out of the 12 legislators method is to attack evolutionary nist, Lowell Pointe, complains that nents of evolutionary theory doesn’t true freedom and diversity of opinion signed on to that bill are also sponsors theory, cause a fuss – and then say, “leftist teachers and their labor suit Horowitz’s current purposes – it to explore Intelligent Design,” said of Armstrong’s ABOR legislation. “Look, there’s clearly a controversy. unions demand that Darwinian evo- throws into stark relief the kinds of Pennsylvania state legislator Paul The Seattle-based Discovery In- Shouldn’t we teach both sides?” lution be taught in science class- problems that arise when academic Clymer. “Students should learn from stitute is the most prominent orga- This approach is tailor-made to rooms where alternative views, decisions start to be made by legisla- more than just one theory.” nization promoting ID as a scienti- take advantage of ABOR’s legal re- such as Biblical Creationism or Intel- tors instead of faculty members who “In the name of diversity, would it fic theory. The institute does not quirement for a “diversity” of opin- ligent Design, are excluded by law.” are experts in their fields. not be fair to have another theory support the Pennsylvania ID bill, ex- ion among college faculty. “We com- One such article on Horowitz’s Apparently Horowitz has, in his introduced, such as Intelligent De- plaining that legislators should not pletely support that,” said Casey web site is particularly interesting own way, discovered that it’s more sign?” Rep. Clymer told Clarion. “mandate the teaching of Intelligent Luskin, who heads the Discovery In- because it was written not by a effective to “teach the controversy.” “We should make sure that students Design.” But the Institute loves the stitute’s program in Public Policy columnist, but by FrontPage’s own After all, if you blow enough smoke, are exposed to different theories.” Academic Bill of Rights. and Legal Affairs. “We think there associate editor Jennifer Kabbany. you might convince people that Pennsylvania Rep. Gib Armstrong, Instead of attempting to replace should be no litmus tests for hiring In “Intelligent Design Theory is there’s a fire. Clarion | March 2006 NEWS 5

Oops!...she did it again Mellow memo can’t muzzle members By CLARION STAFF ment rights,” said PSC Chapter ing. The letter underscored that the low, instead receiving a letter from tion “changes the substance of the Chair Lorraine Cohen. “I know that union would defend any member CUNY General Counsel Frederick memo,” said Frank. Last November, LaGuardia Commu- we have a right to speak to the press who was the target of retaliation un- Schaffer – who took pains to re-char- “It’s a victory for free speech and nity College faculty and staff were – and the administration has no legal der this illegal policy. acterize the e-mail policy statement for the union,” concluded Cohen. surprised to receive an e-mail from authority to tell us not to, or require “It’s pretty straightforward,” as “not mandatory” but merely “sug- This was the latest in a string of re- President Gail Mellow insisting that us to consult with them first.” PSC’s Director of Legal Af- gestive.” Mellow’s “suggestions” treats and reversals for LaGuardia all faculty and staff consult with her After Cohen discussed the First fairs Nathaniel Charny told were “a far cry from the mandatory college management, on issues office whenever they communicate media memo with others in Clarion. “The courts have policy of the NYPD,” said Schaffer – ranging from annual leave to pro- with the press. “In a crisis,” Mellow the union, PSC Executive Di- Amendment consistently recognized and he specifically disavowed the motions to unilateral imposition of concluded, “all communication rector Deborah Bell wrote to rights that public employees have idea of any disciplinary action. a dress code. should come from my office.” Mellow to demand that the reaffirmed an interest in being able to “We’re satisfied,” Bell told Clari- But the policy was short-lived. policy be retracted. Bell express their views, and RETRACTION on. “CUNY is now on record as Days after a strong response from pointed out that “a similar require- the public has an interest in their in- “In effect, he’s retracting it,” com- characterizing Mellow’s policy as a the PSC, CUNY said that the memo ment imposed by the commissioner formed opinions. These are strong mented Michael Frank, a member suggestion and not mandatory. PSC would not be enforced. of the New York City Police Depart- interests that cannot be outweighed of the LaGuardia PSC chapter’s ex- members on every campus have ment was an unconstitutional in- by a college president’s interest in ecutive committee. “Normally, if the legal right to speak to the press VIOLATION fringement on the union’s and union controlling what the press know management tells you that you in their private capacities about “This memo seemed like an obvi- members’ free speech rights,” ac- and when they know it.” ‘should’ do something, it isn’t just a matters on and off campus, without ous violation of our First Amend- cording to a 2001 federal court rul- The PSC got no response from Mel- suggestion.” Schaffer’s interpreta- fear of discipline or retaliation.” Brooklyn College tackles two organizing goals

By MARIYA GLUZMAN major? But in fact, providing these ment was seeing talented junior fac- Brooklyn College Child care & four-credit courses challenging courses has had the op- ulty leave for other colleges – an posite effect, Bermanzohn said: stu- alarming trend throughout the The PSC’s Brooklyn College chap- dents really appreciate and enjoy school. Four-credit classes allow fac- ter has launched two campaigns them. ulty more freedom “to do the full this spring – organizing for on-cam- The four-credit courses in politi- range of things academics are sup- pus child care for faculty and staff, cal science often combine lectures posed to do to help students.” Kent and making four-credit courses and labs, and focus on honing stu- says, and thus help the school to re- standard at Brooklyn. dents’ skills in research and schol- main competitive. “Organizing is a continuous arly analysis. Several examine a “[Four-credit] courses are cer- process,” says Carolina Bank Muñoz, specific policy issue in depth, allow- tainly a lot more involved,” notes an assistant professor in the socio- ing students the time to explore the Bermanzohn. “They take more logy department. “It doesn’t end with intricacies of policy analysis. Such preparation and more work on the contract negotiations.” experience can be invaluable in the part of the faculty and the student.” “We’ve heard from junior faculty future, whether students decide to A major expansion of such classes that the lack of child care is an im- work in the field after graduation requires “a huge commitment,” pediment to their being on campus or pursue an advanced degree. Bermanzohn says, but one that will and conducting research,” says pay off. “Preparing students better chapter member Alex Vitale. “We FACULTY BENEFIT is the motivation.” intend to work with the existing Faculty would also benefit from “Thus far, those faculty who children’s center to explore the is- the proposed shift – first, have discussed the idea are sue further.” because this deeper study A matter of excited about the possibili- creates a more intellectual- faculty ty,” says Duboys. “But to CHILD CARE ly stimulating environ- make it happen, the faculty n

a prerogative,

According to Bank Muñoz, m ment, both for students must push for it,” advises z u l G

Brooklyn College has one of the and the instructor. Four- chapter Wilson. a y i best child care centers in the city. r credit classes also make it “This is a matter of faculty a

M says. The Carleton Washburne Early more possible for faculty to prerogative,” says Duboys, Childhood Center provides excel- Scott Dexter and Carolina Bank Muñoz are organizing for on-campus child care spend time on research – important noting that CUNY’s governance lent care and education for children and four-credit courses at Brooklyn College. in itself, but also something that en- rules give faculty authority over four months to 10 years of age, and riches undergraduate education. curriculum. serves as the laboratory school of the academic experience for the stu- “I felt Professor Seeley did a bril- A full-time faculty member is re- the college’s School of Education. dents,” says Joseph Wilson, director liant job in breaking down and ex- quired to teach an average of 21 WELL WORTH IT Currently, however, the center’s fa- of the college’s Graduate Center for plaining the concepts and nuances credits a year, averaged over three To move to a four-credit stan- cilities and programs are available Worker Education. of such a difficult intellectual sub- years. More four-credit classes dard, departments have to decide only to students. Of some 3,000 courses that Brook- ject,” says philosophy major and re- mean this obligation can be met the changes they want to make to It is CUNY Central that says on- lyn College offers, only about 440 cent graduate Reginald Davis with fewer classes. While more time their major and minor require- campus child care is for students are at least four credits. Tibbi about the course he took in episte- must be spent on each class, there is ments before consideration by the only, so “we will need to work to- Duboys, chair of the PSC’s Brooklyn mology. “After all the long and dif- less administrative “overhead.” college’s Faculty Council. Re- gether with [other] campuses...to College chapter, says there is a ficult reading assignments, I under- The number of hours per class designing individual department change this,” said a March chapter growing national trend to make stood why it was a four-credit would increase to facilitate a more curricula will take some doing, as statement. Funding is another chal- four-credit courses the norm rather course.” concentrated focus on fewer classes, will shifting the core curriculum to lenge, and the chapter plans to than the exception. making teaching more productive – four-credit courses. This effort will work with the college administra- The first and most obvious bene- SUCCESS in several ways. A shift to four-cred- involve some administrative and tion and the Early Childhood Cen- fit of having more four-credit cours- Sally Bermanzohn, chair of the it classes can also offer scheduling scheduling changes, but this ad- ter “to develop a workable plan to es is that students get to spend more political science department, says advantages. ministration is “favorably dis- finance this endeavor.” The next time with their instructors and that when her department first de- Improving faculty recruitment posed,” Wilson says. meeting on this campaign is set for delve more deeply into the subject cided to make certain four-credit and retention is a major reason that This entire process can take up to March 21. they are studying. seminars required for majors they the college’s philosophy department three years, but proponents argue it The chapter’s other campaign, re- Students who have taken four- wondered, “Are we shooting our- began offering four-credit courses, will be well worth it: “I think it’s a designing the curriculum around credit courses at Brooklyn agree selves in the foot?” Would students says PSC member Edward Kent. win for both faculty and students,” four-credit courses, would “enrich that the extra time matters. shy away from a more demanding Too often, Kent says, his depart- says Wilson. 6 NEWS Clarion | March 2006 CUNY retreats in Travia leave case By CLARION STAFF earned the right to Travia leave and Drops objection over a member’s age was eligible to collect it regardless In January, CUNY management of when her retirement benefits backed down from its effort to deny who have decided to retire from not for CUNY to decide. If you are Liebov told Clarion that Charny kicked in. a retirement leave of absence to an CUNY, using one-half of their accu- vested in a CUNY retirement plan and grievance counselor Charles employee on the grounds that she mulated sick time. Liebov satisfied and you give notice of your retire- Molesworth had both done “excel- NO LAW SAYS 55 was too young. This was the latest the few obligations under the con- ment from CUNY, you have the lent” work in preparing the case. “I Faced with an arbitrator’s rejec- in a line of unsuccessful efforts by tract – she was a member of the re- right to Travia leave.” believe that CUNY would not have tion of CUNY’s age 62 rule, manage- CUNY to undermine PSC members’ tirement system, she met the eligi- On the eve of the arbitra- settled were it not for the ment is now trying to insist that right to retirement leave, which is bility requirements for service re- tion that would have decided If you are case presented by Charny bargaining unit members must be guaranteed by the union contract tirement, and she announced her in- Liebov’s claim for the paid re- vested and and Molesworth,” she said. 55 years old to receive retirement and state law. tention to retire from CUNY. When tirement leave, CUNY capitu- “I felt very well represent- leave. CUNY’s Director of Employ- management denied her application lated, agreeing to pay her the give notice, ed.” Liebov noted that she ee Benefits Leslie Williams recent- GUARANTEED for Travia leave because she was full amount. The Liebov arbi- Travia leave was paid the entire amount ly stated this policy in a memoran- After more than 25 years teaching not yet 55 years old, Liebov turned tration case was settled im- of her Travia leave. dum to all human resources direc- at the Hunter College Campus to the PSC for help. mediately after PSC threat- is yours. CUNY had previously at- tors. Neither the contract nor state Schools, PSC member Amy Liebov ened to subpoena a former tempted to limit retirement law, however, contains any such had decided to retire from CUNY. CUNY MUST PAY high-ranking CUNY administrator leave for most members of TIAA- requirement. She did not plan to sit at home: she Clarissa Weiss, PSC Director of whom CUNY had found eligible for CREF to those age 62 or older, a po- “We have filed a grievance on the wanted to continue in her profes- Pension and Welfare Benefits, told Travia leave prior to age 55. sition decisively rejected by arbitra- new Williams memorandum, in sion, and her one-semester retire- Clarion why the age 55 rule is im- “Although this settlement does tor David Stein in a 2004 decision which we challenge CUNY’s at- ment leave was going to give Liebov proper. “The question is not whether not constitute a legal precedent,” that granted retirement leave to tempt to impose an age 55 rule,” said the economic cushion she needed as you will be collecting your pension, noted PSC Director of Legal Affairs Rose Starr, a professor at the PSC Director of Contract Enforce- she transferred to her next position. but whether you have earned the Nathaniel Charny, “CUNY is now Hunter School of Social Work. ment Debra Bergen. “In the mean- Retirement leave (also known as right to it,” Weiss said. “Many facul- on notice that we will challenge CUNY emphasized that Starr would time, if you are denied retirement “Travia leave”) is a paid leave of ab- ty retire from CUNY and go on to their attempt to exclude those under not be eligible to receive retirement leave based on this so-called rule, sence of up to one semester that can teach at other institutions, and when 55 by calling witnesses to prove dis- health benefits until age 62 – but the you should contact a union griev- be taken by full-time PSC members they start collecting their pensions is parate treatment.” arbitrator ruled that Starr had ance counselor immediately.” Pensions, unemployment top PSC agenda

By ELLEN BALLEISEN Cecelia McCall. “Our bill has the commission to recommend ap- Bronx CC Members take it to Albany support of the Assembly Labor pointees to the governor and mayor. Committee – and its chair, Susan “We want to ensure that trustees This spring, dozens of PSC mem- John, is the bill’s chief sponsor.” are independent, that they can take bers are traveling to Albany to lob- Other elements of the PSC leg- an objective view and put the Uni- by for fair funding for CUNY. But islative agenda for 2006: include versity’s interests ahead of political the union’s legislative priorities legislation to achieve the CUNY concerns,” McCall explained. “State for 2006 go beyond the annual bud- Master Plan’s goal of hav- and city employees will in- get battle, in which the PSC is ing 70% of instruction pro- Working evitably be faced with too pressing for millions in restora- vided by full-time faculty; many conflicts.” tions and 800 new full-time lines. barring the governor and closely In the PSC’s lobbying in Al- They include several key pieces of mayor from appointing with bany, the union works closely legislation, with unemployment in- their own employees to the with its affiliate, New York surance and pension equity at the CUNY Board of Trustees; NYSUT State United Teachers. “As head of the list. and ending the burden- the organization representing some “ethics law” requirement all K-12 and higher education teach- PENSION EQUITY that is inappropriately applied to ers in New York, NYSUT has a lot On the pension front, the union is most full-time faculty, compelling of political leverage,” said Eileen pushing legislation that requires them to file reports about their Moran, co-chair of the PSC’s Leg- CUNY to take over the 3% employ- personal finances. islative Committee. “The PSC has ee pension contribution for mem- been working hard within NYSUT e t t MULTI-YEAR PLAN e bers of TIAA-CREF and other pro- s to make higher education as much i o N grams in the Optional Retirement Although the 70% mark for in- of a priority as K-12.” e s i

Plan, after they have 10 years of ser- W struction by full-timers is part of - l vice. This would correct an inequity E CUNY’s 2004-2008 Master Plan, the TAX REFORM dating to 2001, when the state legis- State Senator Diane Savino (second from right) among PSC members. University is nowhere close to To be successful, Moran added, lature eliminated the 3% employee meeting this target. In fact, noted the PSC and NYSUT must also look pension contribution for Tier Four McCall pointed out: “It is only fair employment if they are not work- McCall, the proportion of instruc- beyond the details of CUNY’s bud- TRS members with 10 years’ ser- for TIAA-CREF members to re- ing, just as entertainers and carpen- tional hours taught by full-timers at get. “As public employees, we can’t vice. About 25% of the full-time in- ceive comparable treatment.” ters can.” CUNY is on the decline (see page accomplish any goals without tax structional staff belong to TRS, PSC members also focused on Such barriers to unemployment 20). The PSC is proposing a multi- reform,” she said. “We need to while about 75% belong to the ORP. comparable treatment for adjuncts. compensation for adjunct faculty year plan for adding new full-time change the current tax-cutting Current New York State law makes are doubly unfair, Newfield says, lines that would achieve that goal mentality.” Along with other KEEP PUSHING it very difficult for adjuncts with a because even with a reappointment and maintain it into the future, in- unions, NYSUT and the PSC are “Senator Robach, who chairs the fall reappointment letter to receive letter adjuncts may find that their cluding conversion of adjunct posi- backing a proposal to restore the Civil Service & Pensions Commit- unemployment compensation if class is cancelled due to enrollment tions to full-time lines. tax rates and personal exemptions tee, has encouraged us to continue they do not get a summer class. or funding cuts. The PSC supports strong ethics in effect in 1972, with the appropri- pushing for this bill,” said McCall. “The unemployment requirements requirements for public officials, ate adjustment for inflation (see “He thinks our chances have got- for educators are different from the RECOGNITION said McCall. But the financial report- Clarion, January 2006). With these ten better – and this year, with a $3 ones all other workers have to When the PSC first raised this is- ing requirement for CUNY faculty is changes, 19 out of 20 New Yorkers billion state surplus, we are mak- meet,” says Marcia Newfield, PSC sue a few years ago, legislators both “unnecessary and intrusive” would pay less in taxes than they ing it a top priority.” The 2001 Vice President for Part-time Per- were unaware of the problem. “Now for faculty and their spouses. As for do today, but the State would have change was the equivalent of a 3% sonnel. “This is unfair – CUNY ad- it is a recognized issue in Albany,” the Board of Trustees, the PSC sup- nearly $8 billion in additional raise for eligible members of TRS, juncts should be able to collect un- says PSC Legislative Coordinator ports the formation of a blue-ribbon revenue. Clarion | March 2006 ESSAY 7

CUNY AND DILLARD: SISTER UNIVERSITIES Katrina in slow motion

By JONATHAN BUCHSBAUM destruction of New Orleans does not simply and other members of the continue – the destruction mounts. With PSC COMMITTEE FOR CUNY WEEK each week that passes, the damage done by an act of nature becomes a smaller and marks the sixth year smaller part of the whole catastrophe. in which the Profes- The background to those mounting social sional Staff Con- disasters is the same as those that plague 2006 gress has dedicated CUNY: systematic public disinvestment. a week in the spring to creating a greater The reason such destruction can proceed public focus on CUNY’s historic mission. on such an obscene scale in New Orleans is That mission is to provide access to an ex- the same reason the city and state adminis- cellent education for all New Yorkers. trations think they can systematically de- What was the City University of New York? fund CUNY: cities are not all-white suburbs. In 2001, we called the event “Teach CUNY.” Cities are where more people of color live. Teach CUNY included teach-ins, forums and The flood waters hit Dillard fast and hard, the proclamation of “CUNY Day” by the New but the reason its survival is now on the line York City Council. This year, the Executive has more to do with decades of inadequate re- Council of the Professional Staff Congress sources. What’s happened at CUNY could be asks faculty, staff and students to “Teach described as “Katrina in slow motion.” This CUNY Again.” At a time when the PSC is year’s CUNY Week combines a focus on our once again fighting to win an equitable, liv- own institution with a union-wide campaign able contract – to defend and/or win back to raise funds for Dillard and the displaced those critical terms that make up the clichéd public school teachers of New Orleans. phrase, “a decent contract” – everyone in New York City needs to know more about SISTER U. s t h

what CUNY was, what CUNY has become, Dillard University in New Orleans is our g i L

n and what each New Yorker has a right to de- sister institution – except it isn’t. And every- r e h t

mand that CUNY become once again. thing about why Dillard isn’t already our sis- u o S / l

Once upon a time, the City University of ter institution is what the struggle for CUNY l i H

New York was the best this country had – including our struggle for an equitable, liv- n o s k done so far in creating a model for a publicly able contract – is about. c a funded urban university. Once upon a time, Dillard, too, was a mod- J Our students and every other New Yorker el for an urban university. Dillard University in New Orleans has felt the effect of both social and natural disasters. need to know that there was a time when Dillard was a model for an urban universi- CUNY’s tuition could attract students, not ty because Dillard did not bar the door to The audacity and mean-spiritedness of op- creasingly compelled to see the war as an en- drive them away. It could attract students students because they were black. position to public education in Louisiana may emy of the poor and attack it as such.” because tuition at CUNY was free. Today, the combined effects of flood waters, be a little different. But the impulse to deny “For the sake of those boys, for the sake of Our students and every other New Yorker broken levees and 130 years of discrimination taxpayer funds to schools attended by large this government, for the sake of the hun- need to know that there was a time when have put the very survival of Dillard Universi- numbers of people of color is not peculiar to dreds of thousands trembling under our vio- faculty members were respected for what ty intp question. Of all the higher education in- Louisiana or to the South, and that is starkly lence,” he declared, “I cannot be silent.” they did in the classroom, for what they said stitutions on the Gulf Coast, Dillard suffered clear here at CUNY. CUNY instituted tuition Today, the invasion and continued armed and wrote, for the research they did. the greatest devastation. And just as our gov- after the color of the student body darkened. occupation of Iraq consumes men and women Our students and every other New Yorker ernment abandoned Dillard and the people of Once tuition was in place, it went up – and and skills and money like a biblical plague of need to know that there was a time when staff New Orleans in the flood, they have largely CUNY’s public funding fell. Today CUNY locusts, leaving nothing but straw in its wake. members were respected for the programs they been abandoned in the reconstruction as well. gets one-third less state money than it did 15 led, for the students they assisted, for the labs In 1869, when Dillard was originally found- years ago, while tuition has doubled. SUNY’s PLAGUE they ran, for what they created or discovered. ed, Louisiana was in the midst of a different state-operated colleges, where the student The war is the enemy of the residents’ re- reconstruction – one that our government body is mainly white, are also underfunded. claiming of New Orleans, cradle of so much RESPECT eventually allowed to fail. We must not allow But compared to CUNY, they receive almost of the vitality of our culture. The war is the Our students especially need to know there today’s reconstruction to fail as well. twice as much state aid per student. This is enemy of the Iraqi reconstruction of Iraq, was a time when CUNY salaries could attract In law, Dillard was not and is not a “public” not because CUNY students somehow cost one of the cradles of all civilization. staff and faculty, not drive them away; urban university. Yet it has always worked less to educate – it is because they are being The war on Iraq is the enemy of public ed- a time when CUNY’s full-time faculty in the public interest and has always had a denied an equal education. ucation, at CUNY as surely as at Dillard Uni- numbered 11,000, not 6,200; public mission. But even after the end of slav- As the government slashed CUNY’s fund- versity. The war takes far more from schools a time when CUNY’s part-time faculty ery, African-Americans did not belong to the ing, the salaries and working conditions for than every available dollar: there is no were paid enough for teaching each class “public” recognized by Louisiana’s state gov- CUNY’s faculty and staff began to decline as greater cruelty to education than the killing that they did not have to jump on the sub- ernment. What they had once done in secret well. As long as CUNY’s students are assigned and maiming of children and young people, way as soon as class ended to rush to anoth- during slavery, now they might have had a a discounted education, those who teach them Iraqi and American. CUNY will never get er college to teach their next; limited right to do – read to their children at will be given discounted pay and benefits. back the public financial support it is due a time when CUNY staff and faculty could night, own books, keep a Bible. But to pursue while the war rages in Iraq. concentrate wholly on the challenges and their studies, the black citizens of Louisiana WAR ECONOMICS Millions “tremble under our violence” in joys of our work – a time when we did not had to pay for their own education. Not long after he took office in 1963, Lyn- Iraq today. Hundreds of thousands of home- have to worry about cuts to our medical and That is the true meaning of the neutral- don Johnson’s Democratic administration less New Orleans residents scattered to the dental care benefits, or larger deductibles and sounding phrase, “historically black colleges “declared war” on poverty. At the same winds also tremble under the violence of the co-pays forced on us by the combined weight and universities”: “historically denied public time, Johnson’s administration poured thou- war in Iraq. Everyone aware of CUNY’s dire of the CUNY, city and state administrations. monies.” The fact that some historically sands of 18- and 20-year-olds and billions of situation should be trembling as well. For To “Teach CUNY Again” means to see black colleges became officially “public” and dollars into America’s vain attempt to con- the sake of our students, for the sake of our CUNY anew, to see it whole, all its problems started receiving public support did not quer Vietnam. It quickly became evident, government, we cannot be silent. and all its potential, potential as great as that change the basic picture: even the public and writers who have described the period Teach CUNY. Teach Dillard. of each one of our students. “Teach CUNY “historically black institutions” were never have repeatedly reconfirmed, that the shoot- Teaching CUNY is Teaching Dillard. Again” is a time to instruct and to open up given equal treatment. ing and killing war had swallowed up every Teach CUNY Again. new perspectives, in which we ourselves CUNY has been systematically underfund- good intention about poverty. Vietnam learn along with our students and colleagues. ed. Dillard University was never funded by “drew men and skills and money like some For more information, or to contribute online To see CUNY anew we have to look in the the city of New Orleans or the state of demonic, destructive suction tube,” noted with a credit card, visit www.psc-cuny.org/ mirror. Louisiana in the first place. Dr. Martin Luther King in 1967. “I was in- KatrinaFund.htm. Checks may be sent to: Gulf Right now that mirror is south; that mirror Coast Relief Fund, c/o PSC/CUNY Federal is New Orleans; that mirror is our sister insti- Credit Union, Room 311, 25 West 43rd Street, tution, Dillard University. New York, NY 10036. Materials for Teach CUNY Six months after Hurricane Katrina, the Teach CUNY Again: March 27-31 Again will be available at www.psc-cuny.org. 8 OPINION Clarion | March 2006

NEGOTIATIONS Straight talk about the contract

By BARBARA BOWEN their homework, or University leadership PSC President lacked the political will and political clout to make that settlement stick. Both the City and his has been a hard season of col- the State responded that the framework lective bargaining, and I know CUNY forwarded to them for approval was too that you are angry at CUNY’s fail- rich. When we sat across the table from repre- ure to agree to a decent contract. sentatives of the mayor, the governor and The hundreds of e-mails you have CUNY on February 16 and March 1, they made Tsent in response to my recent reports often it clear that they would not budge beyond the convey your support for the union bargain- “patterns” they have forced other unions to ac- ing team, but they also speak of frustration: cept. Despite budget surpluses in the billions of at the poverty of the economic offer, at the dollars in both the City and State, their pat- need to use any retroactive pay to stabilize terns are below the level of inflation. That their the Welfare Fund, at management’s failure to agenda is to reduce employees’ real salaries bargain in good faith. and benefits couldn’t be clearer. Why has it been so difficult to achieve even our modest goals? How can CUNY PATTERN BARGAINING management countenance a settlement that 4) “Pattern bargaining” of this kind is espe- is clearly inadequate? The reason is as stark cially damaging to CUNY. First, because as this: the City and State are exercising CUNY is funded (poorly) by both the City and their power to force public employee unions the State, the PSC contract has to be ap- in New York to accept substandard con- proved by both. That means that both the u a e t tracts, and CUNY management is supporting City and the State police our contract – down t i u G them. At the March 1 bargaining session, we to the last penny – to make sure it does not d u came face-to-face with that power. Through exceed the agreements reached with other J the limits they put on our economic package, unions. Even though another 3% for the PSC a proposed settlement. But the bargaining part and a willingness to meet our final the City and State demonstrated that they might not seem so much, in management’s team is charged with the responsibility of demands. It’s now up to them to come to are actively opposed to providing adequate eyes it is an additional 3% for every other pub- recommending contract settlements, and its the table with an offer that will allow us to salaries and benefits to CUNY instructional lic employee union. That’s why they say no. conclusion was that it would serve mem- settle this contract. staff – if it means exceeding the punitive 5) Second – and this is a point the City and bers’ intrests best to move ahead within the 11) I can’t imagine a more important deci- “pattern” of contract settlements they have State need to understand – the whole idea of City and State patterns. sion for a union than the one we confront to- forced other unions to accept. And CUNY a bargaining “pattern” based on the local 8) The proposal we put on the table on gether. We have reached the limit of what management, far from being our advocate, market is nonsense for a university. All of March 1 would maintain parity with the can be achieved across the bargaining table; has lined up right beside them. the other public employee unions in the city salary increases achieved in this round at we will not win a better economic package have employers that recruit locally – teach- SUNY, for total salary increases of about by simply asking for more, or even by orga- PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ers, firefighters, police. CUNY recruits na- 9.5% over four years and 10 months. In addi- nizing one more rally. We also will not win it That’s why the fight has been so long and tionally, and even internationally. Pattern tion, it would provide some relief for the alone. Look at the effort made by the coura- hard. It’s not a trivial fight. Every public em- wage increases don’t make sense. They are Welfare Fund, but probably not enough to geous workers in the TWU: even a strike ployee union in New York City has either ac- guaranteed to leave CUNY unable to offer restore the dental benefit. Money for the that crippled the city for three days has not cepted an inadequate contract or is still with- salaries that compete in a very different Welfare Fund reserve would be created by a yet succeeded in breaking the stranglehold out a contract at all, as are the school princi- market. one-time allocation of a portion of the of the State. It’s clear that an even more pals, nurses, fire officers, the PSC and others. 6) The total package of just over 12% of- retroactive cash to the Welfare Fund; the powerful campaign would be needed. This is a moment that calls for straight fered by CUNY, the City and the State sim- percentage of salary increases would not be talk and real analysis – about city and state ply does not contain enough money to pro- affected. HIGH STAKES power, and our own. It calls on everything vide for all three of the union’s goals: salary 12) For the PSC, such a campaign would we know as people engaged in a political increases of at least 10%, restoration of Wel- SETTLEMENT PROPOSAL mean, at a minimum, gaining serious student world and committed to the project of public fare Fund benefits and improvements in eq- 9) The union’s proposal for an immediate support, forming a united front with other higher education. What won’t help is magi- uity and working conditions. That’s especial- settlement is described more fully on page unions, building our capacity for job actions cal thinking: denial of the political reality ly true because the union would not accept 3, and it’s clear that even within frustrating and asking our national and state affiliates that impinges on our contract, or belief that the increase in the tenure clock without ad- constraints, it includes some breakthrough for resources to mount a nationally visible a few different words at the bargaining table ditional sabbatical pay and research time, elements. Sabbaticals at 80% pay would campaign. Waiting for a different governor would expand the economic offer. In the spir- both of which add costs. (Refusing to accept mean, for the first time, that many of us or mayor alone is not the answer; CUNY was it of offering you real information, even the tenure change would result in an even could actually take them. Additional paid deeply de-funded under Governor Cuomo, when it’s difficult to hear, I summarize smaller package.) The union negotiating research time would support junior faculty, and pattern bargaining has been upheld by where we stand. team has squeezed the fairest settlement who already face heightened demands for Democrats and well as Republicans. It will 1) From the beginning, the strategy of the proposal we can out of the package, but how- research and who would, in the future, op- take more than a slightly friendlier face in of- PSC contract campaign was to create so ever you divide it, 12% or so over more than erate under a seven-year tenure clock. The fice to break through a system whose effect much pressure on our direct employer, Chan- four years leaves several areas short. proposal for 100 new full-time lines for is to wreck the University. cellor Goldstein and the CUNY Board of 7) The question faced by the bargaining which our longest-serving adjuncts could 13) To win even the union’s modest goals Trustees, that they would be forced to agree team was essentially one of timing: is this apply is a major step in the right direction, this round – let alone transformative salary to an acceptable framework for the contract. the moment when the PSC is best positioned as are the proposals for simple but hard-to- advances or a livable courseload or a rever- to embark on the extended fight it would win things, like paid sick days for non- sal of the adjunct system – would demand a GAINS IN FRAMEWORK take to force a better contract out of the teaching adjuncts and a reduction of the 26- level of union militancy and risk-taking 2) As far as it went, that strategy worked. State and City? Should we try to achieve the hour teaching load at City Tech. that New York has not seen in at least a The PSC mounted the most ambitious cam- best agreement we can within these para- 10) What’s not there in the proposed set- generation. It’s a fight worth making. But paign the union had ever undertaken, and in meters and start right away to build a differ- tlement is also significant. Among manage- we have to decide, as a union, whether the November 2005 CUNY agreed to a conceptu- ent kind of fight for the next round, or ment’s dearest demands were reductions in moment is now. As we continue to press al framework that, while not spectacular, should we refuse the parameters and begin job security for HEOs and the removal of management to meet our final terms and was arguably richer than many settlements that fight now? The answers turn on an as- department chairs from the bargaining settle this contract, the union will engage in reached by other public employee unions in sessment of the current political moment, unit. We forced both off the table. At the broad, democratic discussion about the New York. The union’s escalating campaign the forces that would stand with us in such a March 1 bargaining session, the union kind of fight it would take to break through – pickets, rallies, picket captains, thousands fight and the will of the union membership. made it clear to management that if we the concerted power of City and State. The of e-mails and faxes – moved CUNY off their Ultimately, you will make that decision were willing to work within their “pattern” stakes are high – we’ve invested our acade- insulting 1.5% offer and far beyond their yourselves when you vote on ratification of we would expect some flexibility on their mic careers in CUNY, and our students “take-it-or-leave-it” proposal of 6.25%. The have invested a part of their life-chances. I package they agreed to in November was think the question should be not whether worth more than 15%. A summary of where we stand we do it, but when. 3) But either CUNY’s negotiators did not do Clarion | March 2006 OPINION 9

HEALTH CARE CRISIS Rx:Organize state bystate

By LEONARD RODBERG, ROBERT PADGUG years ago was supposed to provide “univer- and other members of the sal coverage” through state subsidies for PSC HEALTH CARE REFORM COMMITTEE low-wage employers. But because it is com- pletely voluntary, and its subsidies are inad- he escalating crisis in employer- equate for many low-wage workers, the plan based health insurance has has far fewer enrollees than its advocates meant rising costs, declining had expected. And by leaving in place the coverage, and shifting of costs vast bureaucracy of HMOs and the private from employers to workers. But insurance industry, such measures fall short Teven as the number of uninsured grows by a when it comes to cutting costs. million or more each year, there is no real In California, a proposal that would have action in Washington to reform our health required employers with more than 50 work- care system. In this non-responsive federal ers to provide insurance for their employees climate, state-level initiatives are coming to was defeated by a narrow 51-49 percent ref- the fore. Some focus on prescription drugs, erendum vote. The AFL-CIO is now backing while others tackle the lack of insurance more limited employment-based measures coverage. in some 30 states; these “Fair Share” propos- In a move that has grabbed headlines, als would require Wal-Mart and other “big some states are encouraging residents to buy box” chains with thousands of employees to prescription drugs from Canada. Cities were cover their workers. Such a proposal was first to take this step, starting with Spring- just approved in Maryland, over the gover- field, Mass., which estimates savings of about nor’s veto. 30% as a result. Illinois has led the formation of a network with Wisconsin, Kansas, Mis- MORE MEASURES souri and Vermont, through which residents Measures aimed at big chains could help can purchase Canadian drugs via a single slow the growth of low-wage giants like Wal- website or toll-free number. Several other Mart, and might lessen the competitive pres- states have similar programs, and their num- sures now accelerating the decline of private, ber is growing. employer-based insurance. But they would do little to help workers who are uninsured. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS In the Bush Administration’s ill-conceived But these state programs are for individual drug plan for senior citizens, government purchases only, and require participants to bargaining with pharmaceutical companies pay the entire cost out-of-pocket. The federal for lower prices is prohibited. Many states, government insists that buying drugs from however, are taking this simple, logical step Canada is illegal – and while it has generally to reduce drug costs for their Medicaid pro- not prosecuted individuals, bulk purchasing grams. Kentucky estimates that its Medicaid by the states themselves would likely be a program saved $42 million in 2005 by partici- u a target for legal action. In 2003, New Hamp- e pating in a nine-state purchasing alliance t t i u

shire announced that it would buy drugs from G that won lower prices.

d u

Canada for prisoners and some Medicaid re- J The state of Maine has gone further. Man- cipients – but it never followed through. ufacturers who refuse to participate in a As cross-border purchases have grown, cover every Californian. Studies by the port for similar proposals. But statewide sin- statewide discount plan have their brands Canada has started to consider restricting Lewin Group have shown that such a “sin- gle-payer measures have to compete with placed on a “prior authorization” list, which them. Clearly, everyone in the US can’t buy gle-payer” proposal would save billions of other reform plans that would reaffirm our requires physicians to prescribe competitors’ their drugs from Canada. And there’s no rea- dollars through administrative simplification current uncoordinated multi-payer, employ- products, where available, for Medicaid pa- son why we should. “Why are [drugs] cheap- – elimination of the complex billing systems ment-based approach to health insurance. tients. In other words, Maine is using the er up north?” asked Robert Kuttner in the that now burden hospitals and physicians, considerable power of the state Medicaid Boston Globe. “Because Canada has a policy and reduction of insurance claim processing COMPETING PLANS program to lower the cost of drugs for the of controlling drug prices through its national costs and profits – as well as through bulk In Massachusetts, the State Legislature non-Medicaid uninsured and low-income. health insurance system…It’s not the drugs purchasing of drugs and other products. A has been contending over rival proposals we should be importing – it’s the policy.” In single system that covers everyone would al- that would, in one version, require employ- PROGRESSIVE ACTION several US states, activists are organizing to so create strong incentives for prevention, ers to provide insurance for their employees In New York, a bill proposed by Assembly- do exactly that, with a broader reform of how which could reduce the cost of care. and, in the other, require individuals to buy man Dick Gottfried aims to negotiate the American health care is financed. Advocates in Vermont, Massachusetts, insurance if their employers didn’t provide lowest possible drug prices for an even larg- Perhaps the most advanced plan for sys- Illinois and New Mexico are organizing sup- it. In Maine, the Dirigo Plan passed two er group of people. A.6336 would create a tem-wide reform is moving forward in Cali- giant pharmaceutical pool for New York’s fornia. Introduced by State Senator Sheila state, county, and some city employees, plus Kuehl, a Democrat from Santa Monica, legis- individuals and groups, such as union wel- lation is moving through the State Legisla- Improving health care policies and fare funds, that desired to join. ture to create a statewide system of public So far no state has made major headway health insurance for all services that would drug prices one state at a time in addressing America’s lack of good, cost-ef- ficient health care coverage. But the ferment of proposals at the state level is significant. Canada’s national health insurance Clarion MARCH 2006 system began in the single province of Saskatchewan. The groundwork for the Newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York, collective bargaining representative of the CUNY instructional staff. Vol. 35, No. 3. PSC/CUNY is affiliated with the American New Deal was laid in New York State in the Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers (Local 2334), AFL-CIO, the New York City Central Labor Council, and New York State United Teachers. Published by PSC/CUNY, 25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036. Telephone: (212) 354-1252. Web site: www.psc-cuny.org. E-mail: [email protected]. All opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarily those of the PSC. 1920s and early 30s. State action on today’s PSC OFFICERS: Barbara Bowen, President; Steven London, First Vice President; Cecelia McCall, Secretary; John Hyland, Treasurer; Stanley Aronowitz, Jonathan Buchsbaum, Susan O’Malley, John Pittman, crisis in American health care has a similar Sheldon Weinbaum, University-wide Officers; Michael Fabricant, Vice President, Senior Colleges; Robert Cermele, Janice Cline, Nancy Romer, Senior College Officers; Anne Friedman, Vice President, potential, to show the way for progressive Community Colleges; Samuel E. Farrell, Andrew McInerney, Shirley Rausher, Community College Officers; Iris DeLutro, Vice President, Cross Campus Units; Arthurine DeSola, Steven Trimboli, Vera Weekes, Cross Campus Officers; Marcia Newfield, Vice President, Part-Time Personnel; Susan DiRaimo, David Hatchett, Diane Menna, Part-Time Personnel Officers; Irwin H. Polishook, President Emeritus; Israel action on a national scale. Kugler, Deputy President Emeritus; Peter I. Hoberman, Vice President Emeritus, Cross Campus Units. STAFF: Deborah Bell, Executive Director; Mary Ann Carlese, Associate Executive Director; Faye H. Alladin, Coordinator, Financial Services; Debra L. Bergen, Director, Contract Administration & University-wide If you are interested in working with the PSC’s Grievance Officer; Nathaniel Charny, Director, Legal Affairs; Barbara Gabriel, Coordinator, Office Services and Human Resources; Diana Rosato, Coordinator, Membership Department; Sharon Toomer, Coordinator, Communications; Clarissa Gilbert Weiss, Director, Pension and Welfare Benefits. Health Care Reform Committee for real Editor: Peter Hogness / Assistant Editor: Dania Rajendra / Designer: Margarita Aguilar / Intern: Fernando Braga change in New York State, contact Francine © 2006 Professional Staff Congress/CUNY Brewer at [email protected]. 10 BENEFITS Clarion | March 2006

CALENDAR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15: 6:00 pm / Racial Diversity Committee meeting, at the PSC office, 25 West 43rd St., 5th floor. Plan for long-term care Contact Sabrine Hammad, sham- [email protected], 212-354-1252. By PETER HOGNESS & DANIA RAJENDRA In case of severe impairment or incapacitation THURSDAY, MARCH 16: 6:00 pm / Health and Safety Watchdogs meeting, at the If you’ve got aging parents, or if you PSC office, 25 West 43rd St., 5th floor. know someone who’s been unable to care for themselves after a serious ac- MONDAY, MARCH 20: 9:00am–3:00pm/ cident or illness, you may find your- Women’s Committee hosts a work- self wondering whether you should shop on “Women and the Iraq War.” have long-term-care insurance. For info, write to nchase391@ aol.com. There are 3,500 people who have long-term-care insurance through SATURDAY, MARCH 25: 9:30 am / Inter- the PSC/CUNY Welfare Fund. But national Committee meeting. Con- this is just one of the many policies tact Renate Bridenthal, RBriden1@ available, and the coverage they juno.com for location. provide can be very different. How do you decide whether this is some- SATURDAY, MARCH 25: 10:00 am / CLT thing you need – and if so, how general meeting and leadership should you choose a plan? workshop. Lunch provided. CUNY Grad Center, Rm 4102. RSVP to FIRST, WHAT IS LONG-TERM CARE? [email protected]. Long-term care is not care that is delivered in a doctor’s office or hos- SATURDAY, MARCH 25: 7:00 pm / Cele- pital. It’s not short-term rehabilita- u a e t

brate the 30th anniversary of the tion. It’s the help an individual t i u G Save Hostos Movement, a student might need for an extended period d u and community struggle to save Hos- of time to live his or her normal life J tos Community College from being after becoming severely impaired closed. $7 suggested donation. At Long-term care can be provided at time job, and often turns out to be too While you can lock in a lower premi- will be more expensive. If you have Hostos Community College, Grand home, or in a nursing home, assisted much for any family member, no um rate by buying younger, that low- limited assets, using Medicaid may Concourse at 145th Street. living facility or an adult day care matter how willing they are. rate policy may not cover forms of be a better option than buying a re- center. Long-term care is defined as A common – and mistaken – as- care that are developed in the future. stricted policy on your own. MONDAY, MARCH 27 – FRIDAY, MARCH 31 assistance with the activities of daily sumption is that Medicare will (Assisted-living facilities, for exam- Teach CUNY Again: PSC members living – such as bathing, eating, toilet ple, did not exist when many current WHAT TO LOOK FOR will discuss years of underfunding or dressing – in the event of chronic policies were sold.) Consumer Re- If you decide to buy long-term- of public education, the events dur- disease or cognitive impairment. YOUR BENEFITS ports suggests that most people con- care insurance, check the provider’s ing and after Hurricane Katrina, and sider buying coverage around age 65 financial health. Some are shaky, political realities connecting them. WHAT IS LONG-TERM-CARE but before age 70 (after which costs which puts you at risk of losing your See www.psc-cuny.org for details. INSURANCE? cover any long-term-care needs. and your odds of flunking the quali- coverage just when you need it. Long-term care is expensive, and Medicare does cover some long-term fying physical both increase). Look carefully at what is covered THURSDAY, MARCH 30: 6:30 pm / CCNY getting more so. According to the care, but with severe limitations. For – whether it includes assisted-living Center for Worker Education shows federal government, the annual av- example, its nursing home coverage REALISTIC IDEA OF COSTS facilities, the types of services or Brownsville: Black and White at erage cost of a semi-private room in is only available if you have first On the other hand, if you develop number of hours per day that are 99 Hudson St., 6th floor. Screening a US nursing home is more than been hospitalized and then need a chronic disease (like diabetes) or covered for home care, etc. followed by panel discussion with $60,000 – and going up by about 5% a skilled-nursing care, and it requires are hurt in a severe accident, having What does it take to qualify for Clarence Taylor and Paul Becker. year. If that trend continues, in 2032 a daily co-pay of more than $100 af- purchased long-term-care insurance benefits? Consumer Reports recom- that average annual cost will be ter the first 20 days. And it only lasts at a younger age could make a huge mends looking for a policy that goes MONDAY, APRIL 3 6:00 pm/ HEO-CLT $190,000. Long-term-care insurance for 100 days per incident. difference in your quality of life. into effect when you are unable to do Grant Committee will review appli- can help you to meet these costs. Medicaid, the health insurance Second, be sure to get a realistic two “activities of daily living” on your cations. For info, call Linda Slifkin at Typically, neither health insur- program for the poor, does cover understanding of the costs of long- own, one of which should be bathing. 212-354-1252. ance nor disability insurance covers long-term care coverage, but partici- term care. Insurance will do you little Some policies are more restrictive. long-term care. Many people assume pants must “spend down” all their good if it is not enough to pay for the See whether a policy has “infla- FRIDAY, APRIL 7: 12 pm – 5:30 pm / Sur- they don’t need it because they are assets – i.e., become poor – to qualify. care that you need. You can call care tion protection,” and whether it is viving and Thriving at CUNY: A too young – although more than 40% facilities or home-care agencies that enough to ensure that your benefits professional development workshop of those who need some kind of long- HOW SHOULD I DECIDE IF I NEED IT? you might want to use, and check keep pace with the fast-rising cost of for junior faculty. At 25 West 43rd term care are younger than 65. Oth- First, be clear about why you their costs against the coverage pro- long-term care. While this could St., 19th floor. Party to follow. Con- ers expect that if they need such would want long-term-care insur- vided by policies you’re considering. sharply increase the premium you tact Jeremy Borenstein, jboren- help, family members will be their ance. If your main concern is care in Third, understand the costs of must pay, without it your policy stein@ pscmail.org, 212-354-1252. caregivers. But providing long-term old age, you may not want to buy long-term-care insurance. Make may not provide the care you need. care can be more effort than a full- coverage when you are younger. sure you could afford to continue And always compare premiums. FRIDAY, APRIL 7: 4:00 pm / “First Fri- paying the premium if you are living One place to start is by looking at day” part-timer meeting. At the PSC on a lower income in retirement. the policy available through the office, 25 West 43rd St., 5th floor. Some policies offer ways to recoup PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund. Since Contract Marcia Newfield, mnew- Research experience needed some of your past payments if you 1988, the Fund has sponsored long- field@ pscmail.org. are unable to pay the premiums lat- term care coverage through the Which projects will get PSC/CUNY year term. (The allotment can be er – but of course, policies with such John Hancock Life Insurance Com- FRIDAY, APRIL 7: 6:00 pm / Labor Goes research grants? You decide! used for any purpose covered in the provisions will cost more. pany. More than 3,500 members are to the Movies shows Burn! At CCNY The University Faculty Senate current PSC-CUNY Award Guide- Consider the possibility of a premi- currently enrolled – but only you Center for Worker Education, 99 will nominate a pool of candidates lines except summer salary.) Chan- um increase. Once you buy coverage, can decide if it would be the best Hudson St., 6th floor. For more infor- from among CUNY’s full-time facul- cellor Goldstein appoints the final you will not be hit with an individual choice for you. mation, contact Dania Rajendra, ty to lead award panels in these dis- University Committee on Research increase on your policy alone, but in- [email protected]. No RSVPs. ciplines: Anthropology, Chemistry, Awards (UCRA) candidates in late surers can ask regulators for permis- INFORMATION RESOURCES Computer Science, Education, June and the three-year appoint- sion to raise rates on all their long- For more information on deciding MONDAY, APRIL 10: 6:00 pm / Women’s Health and Human Services, Health ments begin in early September. term-care coverage at once if costs about long-term-care insurance, Committee meeting, at the PSC Sciences, Psychology, and Sociolo- Please send your CV to Kathryn exceed the premiums. check the following: office, 25 West 43rd St., 5th floor. gy. (Panels in other disciplines will Richardson, UFS Research Commit- Finally, evaluate what kind of www.consumerreports.org/cro/ be named in 2007 and 2008.) tee, 535 East 80th Street, Room 110, coverage you could afford. Long- personal-finance/longterm-care- MONDAY, APRIL 10: 6:00 pm / Solidari- In exchange for this service, you NY, NY 10021 or to Stasia.Pasela@ term-care insurance policies can insurance-1103/overview.htm ty Committee meeting, at the PSC will receive intellectual excitement, mail.cuny.edu. For more informa- vary widely in the percent of costs www.aarp.org/research/longterm office, 25 West 43rd St., 5th floor. collegiality, and an in-service allot- tion visit www.soc.qc. edu/ufs and or type of services that are covered. care/ Contact Jim Perlstein, jperstein@ ment account of $6,000 to fund your www.rfcuny.org/PSCCUNY, or call And like other kinds of insurance, www.ltcfeds.com/ltc_basics/over bassmeadow.com. own research during your three- Stasia Pasela at 212-794-5538. coverage that has fewer restrictions view.html Clarion | March 2006 PSC ELECTION MATERIALS 11 PSC elections – April 2006 Vote for union-wide officers The PSC is holding union-wide elections this slates. They are printed in accordance with ment from the slate as a whole. Candidates low in 2008. The next election for union-wide spring. Ballots will be mailed to eligible mem- the PSC’s election rules, which guarantee all may also purchase advertising space, with offices will be held in 2009. bers’ homes by the American Arbitration As- candidates access to union publications in or- slates allowed to purchase up to one page You are eligible to vote if you have been a sociation (AAA) on April 3. Completed ballots der to put their views before the members. each. PSC member in good standing for at least four must be received by the AAA by 5 pm on April Each candidate for PSC office is given a cer- PSC elections occur on a three-year cycle. months when ballots are mailed out on April 24, and will be counted the following day. tain number of words for a statement; candi- In 2007 there will be elections for chapter- 3. If you have not received your ballot by On the following pages are statements and dates running on a common slate may pool level positions in half of the union’s chapters, April 10, contact the AAA at 800-529-5218 for advertisements from candidates and their this amount and devote some of it to a state- and chapter elections in the other half will fol- a duplicate ballot. CUNY ALLIANCE candidates for delegates to New York State United Teachers and American Federation of Teachers conventions

Ellen Ackrish Baruch Merle Edwards Medgar Evers David Leveson Brooklyn John Robinson NYCCT Patricia Allaire Queensboro Mona Fabricant Queensboro Reisy T. Litvay-Sardou LaGuardia Guillermo Rocha Brooklyn Jean Claude Bailey Hunter Jonas Falik Queensboro Cindy Lui Kingsboro Gerald Roskes Queens Colley Baldwin Medgar Evers Ronald Forman Kingsboro Michael Maller Queens Lydia Rosner John Jay Michael Barnhart Kingsboro Alfonso Garcia Osuna Kingsboro Gerald P. Mallon Hunter Howard Ross Baruch Joyce E. Barrett Baruch Donna Genova BxCC Theodore Markus Kingsboro Jonathan B. Rosser John Jay Dorothy Beatty Medgar Evers Christos Giannikos Baruch Frank Marousek John Jay Anna Jo Ruddel Baruch Barbara Brauer Queensboro Wallace Goldberg Queens Edward Martin Kingsboro Bharat Sarath Baruch William Burger Kingsboro David Gordon BxCC Yvonne McCallum Medgar Evers Charles Scott NYCCT Lloyd Carroll BMCC Elizabeth Gordon Queensboro Lynn McCormick Hunter Fern S. Sisser Queens Madalena Carrozzo Kingsboro Elba Grau Kingsboro Lilia Melani Brooklyn Dereck Skeete Medgar Evers Edward Catapane Medgar Evers Fred Greenbaum Retiree Edward Molina Queensboro Earlean Smiley Medgar Evers Arthur Chikofsky Staten Island Peter Gutmann Baruch Shailaja Nagarkatte Queensboro Brad Stoller Hunter Sheila Chustek Queensboro Cliff Hesse Kingsboro Elizabeth Nercessian Queensboro Martin Teplitzky Lehman Terry Cole LaGuardia James Hladek Staten Island Michael Nisbett Hunter Walter Wang Baruch Edvige Coleman York John Huntington NYCCT Rhona Noll Retiree Paul S. Weiss Queensboro Vaughn Columbine Baruch Samuel Hux York Stanley Ocken CCNY Robert Weiss Queens James T. Como York Gerald L. Itzkowitz Queens Ann O’Farrell Retiree Sherman Whipkey Staten Island Gregory D. Crosbie Hunter Matthew Johnson Baruch Peggy Ogden Retiree Jennifer Whitehead Queens Lisa Decker Hunter Michael Johnson LaGuardia John H. O’Neill Hunter Lisa S. Wong Kingsboro Walter Dixon York Jacqueline Jones Brooklyn Joseph Onochie Baruch Patricia Woodard Hunter John Donoghue NYCCT William Jones Hunter Harini Patel Medgar Evers Rina Yarmish Kingsboro Robert Dottin Hunter David Klarberg Queensboro Sandra Peskin Queensboro Jason Young Hunter Ilze Earner Hunter Bernard Klein Kingsboro Stanley Rabinowitz Kingsboro Mohamed Yousef Staten Island Chuck Eberle NYCCT Marianne LaBatto Brooklyn Rishi S. Raj CCNY Arthur Zeitlin Kingsboro

NEW CAUCUS candidates for delegates to New York State United Teachers and American Federation of Teachers conventions

Julie Anderson Queensboro James Davis Brooklyn Peter Hitchcock Baruch Norma Peña de Llorenz Hostos Jean Anyon Grad. Ctr. Iris DeLutro Queens John Hyland LaGuardia Jim Perlstein Retiree Jay Appleman Queensboro Arthurine DeSola Queensboro Peter Jonas Retiree Michael Perna Hunter Stanley Aronowitz Grad. Ctr. Scott Dexter Brooklyn Laura Kaplan Hostos Sharon Persinger BxCC Alice Baldwin-Jones CCNY Leonard Dick BxCC Glenn Kissack Hunter HS Vasilios Petratos Staten Island Carolina Bank Muñoz Brooklyn Susan DiRaimo CCNY David Kotelchuk Retiree Maureen Pierce-Anyan Queens Kathleen Barker Medgar Evers Tibbi Duboys Brooklyn Steven Leberstein Retiree Marianne Pita BxCC Steven Barrera York Gregory Dunkel Central Office Penelope Lewis BMCC John P. Pittman John Jay Ann Batiuk Grad. Ctr. Hester Eisenstein Queens Patrick Lloyd Kingsboro Charles Post BMCC Barbara Bowen Queens Michael Fabricant Hunter Steve London Brooklyn Ernest Richardson John Jay George Brandon CCNY Samuel Farrell LaGuardia John Maerhoffer Queens Nancy Romer Brooklyn Thomas Brennan BxCC Alan Feigenberg CCNY Nichole McDaniel BxCC Julius Rosenthal Kingsboro Mary Alice Browne NYCCT Michael Frank LaGuardia Shelly Mendlinger Brooklyn Patricia Rudden NYCCT Jonathan Buchsbaum Queens Shirley Frank York Diane Menna Queens Wendy Scribner NYCCT Harry Cason Staten Island William Friedheim BMCC Maria Mercedes-Franco Queensboro Sigmund Shen LaGuardia Robert Cermele NYCCT Anne Friedman BMCC John Mineka Lehman Ellen Steinberg Hunter Nora Chase Retiree Donna Veronica Gill Hunter Eileen Moran Retiree Steve Trimboli Lehman Holly Clarke John Jay Ralph Giordano Staten Island Gary Morgan NYCCT Santiago Villafañe BxEOC Coleen Clay York Mariya Gluzman Brooklyn Michael Neal BMCC Alex Vitale Brooklyn Janice Cline York Tami Gold Hunter Marilyn Neimark Baruch George Walters LaGuardia Lorraine Cohen LaGuardia Mark Goldberg Hunter Marcia Newfield BMCC Vera Weekes Medgar Lizette Colon Hostos Marci Goodman Queens Anthony O’Brien Retiree Jean Weisman CCNY William Crain CCNY Joan Greenbaum LaGuardia Susan O’Malley Kingsboro Robert Wurman Retiree Frank Crocco Lehman David Hatchett Medgar Evers Terry Parker LaGuardia Jane Young BMCC Kyle Cuordileone NYCCT Ronald Hayduk BMCC Phillip Pecorino Queensboro 12 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – CUNY ALLIANCE Clarion | March 2006

Adverstisement Clarion | March 2006 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – CUNY ALLIANCE 13 CUNY ALLIANCE INTEGRITY AND LEADERSHIP

We’ve joined together as the CUNY ALLIANCE in order to pro- Adjunct faculty. We are committed to increasing the base pay vide the membership with an alternate slate, and an alternative The Welfare Fund for part-time faculty. Adjuncts, especially those with long-term vision, for the union in the April Executive Council elections. The Alliance will also serve your interests by competently man- service to the university, deserve improved job security, work- We are a group of your colleagues who want to provide union aging the Welfare Fund, something that our opponents have ing conditions, and access to professional development resources. representation that is committed, first and foremost, to the failed to do. The New Caucus have not been good stewards. HEOs, CLTs, Librarians. HEOs, CLTs and Library faculty all needs and well-being of CUNY’s faculty and staff, full-time and When they took office, they inherited a reserve of $ 15.4 million. deserve increases in annual leave and development opportunities. part-time, active and retired. We intend on changing the lead- Today the reserve is less than $2 million. As reserves dwindled, Counselors. We will fight to protect the rank of Faculty ership and the direction of the PSC. We believe the leadership so did our benefits. For example, our opponents eliminated a free Counselors. should focus on the interests of its members: our salaries and $50,000 term life insurance policy and switched to a dental plan Continuing Education. We will insist on a salary scale for benefits, our working conditions, grievances and job security. that requires us to pay $623 for root canals that were previously Continuing Education Teachers. cost-free. They have already approved a plan to impose a $400 The Alliance has members from across the university, and our deductible on individuals (and $800 for families) for prescription slate includes representatives from sixteen campuses. Among drugs, contingent on Fund reserves falling below $1 million. Negotiating with the University our candidates are two current, and three former, chapter The goals of the Alliance’s platform are ambitious. We intend chairs; a founding member of the PSC and former member of According to a 2005 NYC Comptroller’s report, the Welfare on going into serious and sustained negotiations with the uni- the Executive Council; members of campus chapter executive Fund in 2003 ran a deficit of $3.4 million on revenues of $26.4 mil- versity. While we recognize that the union and the universi- committees; grievance officers; and others with years of expe- lion and was at risk of insolvency in one to two years. The Wel- ty are natural opponents in the collective bargaining process, rience in, and commitment to, the union. fare Fund avoided bankruptcy this year only because the uni- we do not believe that demonizing the administration is a pro- versity agreed to a transfer of professional development funds. ductive strategy. We want, and will get, better benefits, wages Asking for such a concession was not a good position for a union and working conditions by tough and tenacious negotiating, Responsible Unionism in the middle of contract negotiations. We realize that with ris- not by theatrics and empty strike threats. We pledge to stay The Alliance promises responsible unionism. The bad judgment ing costs for insurance, difficult choices have had to be made. at the bargaining table for as long as it takes to get an agree- of the current Executive Council is clear. For months, they pro- However, we have never been told how our money was being ment that substantially advances our members’ interests. We moted a job action, despite no signs of interest among large allocated. Members have a right to know exactly how some $29.8 are prepared to deny the university a contract unless and un- parts of the membership. Last spring, they asked the Delegate million dollars a year are spent while benefits are reduced. til we meet that goal. Assembly to authorize a strike referendum; only after this were When elected, we will survey the membership about priorities, informational pickets held on the campuses. The poorly attend- shift funding accordingly, and negotiate for greater investments ed pickets revealed the membership’s lack of support for New for the Fund. We will strive to restore your benefits in the most The CUNY Alliance Means Leadership Caucus policies and weakened the Union’s bargaining position cost-effective ways with the best possible providers. The central issue in this election is leadership. Our platform in the eyes of management. Without solid faculty support, a and proposals are only a small part of achieving our goals. They strike would not only fail, it could do serious harm to the union. must be modified through the bargaining process in any case. Retirees’ Welfare Benefits The problem has been that the PSC cannot reach the goals There should be no distinction between the benefits of retirees broadly shared by the entire membership – substantial gains The Contract and active faculty and staff. This is a principle that the current in salary and improvements in benefits and working conditions Our first priority is to negotiate a successful contract with the officers overturned when they applied to retirees a $50 de- – because of the poor judgment and the misplaced militancy of university, one that will include substantial increases and im- ductible for prescription drugs. A small amount, but a danger- our opponents. provements in wages, benefits and working conditions. As you ous precedent. The contributions that retirees have made to well know, we’ve been without a contract since October 2002. In- CUNY entitle them to equal consideration and benefits. We are We cannot afford another three years under New Caucus offi- flation and the cost of living in the New York region have eaten committed to negotiating a better benefit package for retired cers who care more about global politics than they do about away at our salaries: in the last forty months, PSC members and for active faculty and staff. union business. There is an alternate future: choose the CUNY have lost 12.5% in purchasing power. Those at the top of their Alliance, and we will devote our energy to negotiating fair con- scales have not seen a raise since August 2001. Nor will we ac- tracts and to protecting your benefits. cept the further erosion of our benefits. Our opponents have Our Commitment to Individual Groups paid lip service to the same goals, but have failed to honor them The Alliance recognizes that many constituencies make up the VOTE CUNY ALLIANCE, and – as yet – have failed to make meaningful progress in PSC. In consultation with them, we will identify and address achieving them. their needs. FOR AN EFFECTIVE UNION

FOR PRESIDENT unionism. Attention must be refocused on salary, compensation, (CWC), Lilia organized the class action suit Melani et Al. v. the benefits, grievances, job security and working conditions, and BHE in federal court. It is still the largest and most successful Rina Yarmish, a Professor of Mathe- on improved relationships with state and city officials, the press suit charging a university with sex discrimination: $8 million matics at Kingsborough Community and the public. was distributed among all women faculty and staff based on College, has been Chair of the Depart- longevity, several millions more were distributed to women ment of Mathematics and Computer with individual cases of discrimination, and hundreds of women Science since 1997. She served as Uni- FOR FIRST VICE PRESIDENT were promoted. Nearly one hundred CUNY students have been versity Faculty Senator representing Lilia Melani’s commitment to our awarded the Melani Scholarship, which CWC established. She KCC from 1994 to 1997 and as PSC union has moved her to run for office helped create the Women’s Studies Program and the Women’s Chapter Chairperson from 1998 to the again. Her union experience is exten- Center at Brooklyn College. Lilia wants to use her considerable present, after a 3-year term as chapter sive and seminal. She was a founder of skills and experience to restore the PSC as an effective union. Vice Chair. Rina was a long-term mem- the PSC; member of the first PSC Exec- ber of the Board of Trustees of the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund utive Committee, of several contract- during the presidencies of both Professors Polishook and negotiating committees and of the Cen- FOR SECRETARY Bowen, and served as Treasurer of the Welfare Fund for many tral Grievance Committee; Brooklyn Mona Fabricant is a Professor of Math- years. She has been KCC representative to the Welfare Fund College Chapter Chairperson; delegate ematics at Queensborough Community Advisory Council for over a decade. She thus has comprehen- to the Delegate Assembly; and griev- College and Co-Director of TIMEQCC, sive understanding of the Welfare Fund, its operation, and its fi- ance counselor. As a member of the Executive Council, she an NSF-funded program to prepare fu- nances. A product of CUNY, Rina received her BA in Mathemat- helped plan, voted for, and participated in the activities leading ture secondary school mathematics ics from Queens College and her MS (Applied Mathematics) and the membership to the strike votes of 1972 and 1973. The mem- teachers. From 1993-2002 she served as PhD from New York University. She has authored three books bership’s overwhelming support of the Union leadership forced Chair of the Department of Mathemat- on programming languages; her book Assembler Language Fun- CUNY to sign a contract. The two strike referendums were part ics and Computer Science. Mona served damentals has been translated into both Russian and of a carefully orchestrated plan involving informational pickets, as the founding secretary of the CUNY Malaysian. She has published extensively in the fields of pro- mediation, fact-finding, and the support of politicians and stu- Council of Mathematics Chairs (1995 - gramming languages, mathematics, and mathematics educa- dents. Despite this successful example of how – and when – to 1999). She received the QCC Award for Excellence in Faculty tion. Her experience as department chair and with the PSC and use a strike threat, the New Caucus amateurishly authorized a Scholarship (2002), the Mathematical Association of America the Welfare Fund, along with extensive and detailed under- strike referendum; they followed up with poorly attended infor- Metropolitan New York Section Award for Distinguished Col- standing of issues affecting our professional lives, makes her mational pickets which revealed how little support the strike lege or University Teaching of Mathematics (1997), and the New eminently qualified to assume the leadership role in the PSC at threat had to CUNY administration and declared their strategy York State Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges this very critical time. Rina believes that the PSC should focus a success! The real result – no contract and a weakened union. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Mathematics Educa- on the needs of its members – particularly bread-and-butter Founder and Coordinator of the CUNY Women’s Coalition tion (1992). She has published numerous articles and co- 14 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – CUNY ALLIANCE Clarion | March 2006

authored two textbooks, including Advanced Mathematics: A pers in differential topology, in dynamical systems, and in con- so served for many years as a Senator (including as parliamen- Precalculus Approach, which won the Text and Academic Au- tinuous computational complexity. He has received grants from tarian and as vice chair). In opposing the hegemonic presump- thors Association Excellence Award (Texty, 1994). She was the the NSF and the PSC-CUNY grant program; has been a review- tuousness, the ideological expropriation of legitimate union Co-PI on several U.S. Department of Education grants to im- er for Math Reviews, Foundations of Computational Mathemat- functions, and the vanities and posturing of our current self-pro- prove the teaching of calculus and provide research opportuni- ics, and other journals; and served on the PSC-CUNY math pan- moting, exhibitionistic, power-mongering non-leadership, he ties in mathematics for undergraduate students. For CUNY to el. His political point of view was shaped by a summer spent as supports recovery of transparency, professional employment grow in stature, it must attract top faculty and staff. This can on- a voter registration volunteer for the Mississippi Freedom De- standards of compensation, workload, quality-of-life, of genuine ly be accomplished if the PSC focuses on its mission to provide mocratic Party in the Mississippi Delta in 1965. In 1970, Michael due process, and the efficient delivery of union services. competitive salaries and excellent working conditions for its fac- was one of the organizers of an attempt to form a union of teach- ulty and staff. ing fellows at Harvard. As the child of a NYC public school James Hladek is a graduate of Cooper teacher, he is a second generation member of the AFT. He is a Union and Pratt Institute. He is present- certified instructor and holds a fifth-degree black belt in Aikido. ly an Associate Professor in the Depart- FOR TREASURER Michael believes the PSC should focus on issues of bread-and- ment of Engineering Science and Howard Ross graduated from the butter unionism and leave world politics to other organizations. Physics at the College of Staten Island. A Bronx High School of Science and Co- Professional Engineer, James holds two lumbia University, A.B. and Ph.D. He Michael Barnhart is a Professor of Phi- United States patents. He joined Staten taught at Yale, Vassar and is currently losophy at Kingsborough Community Island Community College in 1972 as a Professor of Economics and Finance at College. He teaches courses in all areas member of the Mechanical Engineering Baruch College. Howard served as a of philosophy, but his research centers Technology Department. James has con- consultant to the United Nations Devel- on issues in comparative philosophy centrated much of his academic effort to developing and improv- opment Program and the government and ethics about which he has written ing the laboratory-based courses in his department and has been of Greece and as Visiting Professor to numerous articles and published a a primary participant in the accreditation process of four differ- the People’s Republic of China and to Russia. Howard was book, Varieties of Ethical Reflection. He ent programs. James has fifteen years of consulting experience Baruch’s Chapter Chair to the PSC for two terms as well as is also active in the University Faculty with various corporations, both in the USA and abroad. Four Chair of the department. His current research focuses on pro- Senate where he is Chair of the Acade- years were spent working with Staten Island high schools in the ductivity and employment and tracking the changes in produc- mic Policy Committee. Michael serves as Kingsborough’s PSC- world’s largest competition for students – the internationally ac- tivity due to technological and non-technological forces, 1960 to CUNY grievance counselor and as a delegate to the Delegate claimed FIRST Robot Competition. His sculpture has been accept- the present. Past research was in the area of industrial organi- Assembly. ed for juried exhibition by the Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, zation and the behavior of prices over the business cycle and an- PA and by Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY. titrust behavior. He is currently teaching macroeconomics. As Terry Cole graduated cum laude from treasurer who monitors revenues and expenditures, Howard Lehman College with a B.A. in English John Huntington is an Associate Pro- pledges truthfulness, transparency and accountability so that (with minors in Black Studies, Psychol- fessor of Entertainment Technology at members will have no doubt how their dues and fees are spent. ogy and Education), and was a member City Tech. He also is a visiting Associ- The treasurer’s reports will be informative and, he trusts, en- of the first class to enter the college un- ate Professor at the Yale School of Dra- lightening and reflect the changing economic and financial der Open Enrollment. He has an M.A. in ma, where he teaches entertainment forces which determine how we live. Creative Writing from City College and control systems and show control. is ABD at the Graduate Center. He be- Huntington’s book, Control Systems for gan his teaching career in NYC high Live Entertainment, was the first on the FOR UNIVERSITY-WIDE OFFICERS schools and taught for twenty-eight topic of entertainment control and show Edward Catapane is a Professor of Bi- years at LaGuardia Community College, spending his first year control and continues to be the leading ology at Medgar Evers College. He was as an Adjunct Teacher at the Queensborough House of Deten- book in the field. Mr. Huntington has published more than forty Chair of the Department of Biology for tion before moving into a full-time position in the college prop- articles, one of which – “Rethinking Entertainment Technology thirteen years. He has been heavily in- er. At LaGuardia, he has participated in a number of student- Education” – won USITT’s Herbert D. Greggs Merit award in volved in grant-funded programs de- centered activities, at times being the mentor for the 2004. He has sound designed over twenty productions in New signed to increase the number of under- Bangladesh Club, the Dominican Club, the Student Government York City and regional theatres, like Seattle Rep, and has given represented individuals completing un- Association, the literary magazine and the college newspaper. more than twenty-five master classes, workshops, presenta- dergraduate degrees in sciences and He also has served on LaGuardia’s College Senate, Tenure Re- tions, papers, and talks at conferences and trade shows through- going on to graduate and professional view Committee, and Personnel and Budget Committee. He out the United States. Mr. Huntington studied technical design, schools in biology and medicine. He al- presently serves as one of the Directors of the Composition Pro- production, theatre engineering and sound at the Yale School of so has an active physiology research program, with over one gram and continues to publish and make presentations on race, Drama (MFA) and Ithaca College (BFA). He is a member of Lo- hundred articles and presentations on his research work. Ed- religion and popular culture. He has also written a series of po- cal #1 IATSE. ward has been an active member of the PSC during his entire ems, short stories and plays. thirty-year CUNY career, initially serving as a Chapter Mem- FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNITY ber-at-Large, then as Vice Chair and currently as Chapter Chair since 1998. He also has been active in the college’s Faculty Sen- FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR SENIOR COLLEGES COLLEGES ate throughout his career and has been an Executive Member Rishi S. Raj has been teaching Mechan- Ronald Forman began his CUNY ca- for most of his tenure. ical Engineering at City College for the reer more than forty years ago at past thirty years, where he also served Brooklyn College. Following his Bache- Lydia S. Rosner is an Associate Profes- as a dean. Rishi served on the City Col- lor of Science and Master of Arts in sor of Sociology at John Jay College of lege Senate for more than fifteen years Mathematics degrees, he continued his Criminal Justice. She has served on the and also served on the CUNY Senate. studies at New York University’s Sociology Department Personnel and He served as a Distinguished Fellow of Courant Institute of Mathematical Sci- Budget Committee for many years, the ASEE-US Navy, NASA, and a technical ences. While at NYU, he began his College Council, the Faculty Senate, specialist in the U.S. Army. Rishi has teaching career as a lecturer and ad- and various other college and universi- written four books: Science and Logic of junct professor at Brooklyn College be- ty committees. A child of the labor the Absolutely Pure, Balance, Turning Point, and Applied Chem- fore taking a faculty position at Kingsborough Community Col- movement and a born and bred New istry. He was recently appointed by the Governor of the State of lege in 1969. Ronald currently teaches mathematics and statis- Yorker, she attended NYC public NJ to serve on the State Board of Engineers and Land Survey- tics at KCC and for the last six years has served on the Execu- schools, Hunter College, and received her Ph.D. from the CUNY ors. He was also the founder and president of the Society of In- tive Committee of Kingsborough’s chapter of the Professional Graduate Center. Lydia is a criminologist with a specific inter- dian Academics in America and has lectured extensively in In- Staff Congress. He has served as the chapter Grievance Officer. est in migration. Her book, The Soviet Way of Crime, examined dia, Russia, Australia, Israel, UK, Germany, Canada, Holland, He also served as Mathematics Coordinator for the College Now the migration from the USSR to Brighton Beach and the trans- Belgium, and the US. program. Ronald has had an attachment to CUNY for his entire ference of migrant behavior patterns, both criminal and non- life: his father, Dr. William Forman, was a mathematics profes- criminal, to the new environment. She has consulted with the FOR SENIOR COLLEGE OFFICERS sor at Brooklyn College for sixty years, two of his sons were stu- Organized Crime Task Force, appeared on both national and in- dents at the College of Staten Island, and a third son attended ternational TV, broadcast for the Voice of America, and pub- James T. Como, Professor of Speech Hunter College High School. For the last seven years, he has lished both here and in Russia. She is particularly interested in Communication at York College, found- hosted a radio program on WKRB-FM that traces the history of global organized crime and migration patterns. ed the Speech discipline in 1968. His American popular music. books, articles, lectures, radio inter- Michael Maller is a Professor of Math- views, and television appearances deal- FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE ematics at Queens College. He received ing with the English scholar and reli- his BA from Columbia, his MA from gious author C. S. Lewis are widely OFFICERS Harvard (philosophy), and his Ph.D. known. He has also written on rhetoric Lloyd Carroll is a graduate of Columbia from the University of Warwick. and the rhetorical culture of Peru, University (BA, Economics, 1979) and Michael has been at Queens College where he has lived and visited with the NYU Graduate School of Business since 1980. He previously taught at USC some frequency. At York he is Chair of the Department of Per- Administration (MBA, Accounting, and Northwestern, and as an adjunct at forming Arts, a position he has held for several years. James al- 1981). He received his CPA license in Hunter College. He has published pa- so served on numerous standing and ad hoc committees. He al- 1983. He joined the accounting faculty at Clarion | March 2006 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – CUNY ALLIANCE 15

Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1985 and has migrants of Hispanic origin. Guillermo has written a number of was an assistant principal in a junior high school. He also served as Chair of the Accounting Department since 2000. He articles in Hispanic newspapers in the tri-state area. served as interim principal for the 2001-2002 school year. has written numerous articles that have appeared in such pub- lications as The New York Daily News, Crain’s New York Busi- Elizabeth S. Gordon, Director of Infor- Ellen Ackrish is an Adjunct Lecturer ness, Accounting Today, The Queens Chronicle and The Nassau mation Systems at Queensborough of Mathematics at Baruch College. Observer. Community College, has worked with During her thirty years as an educa- CUNY for over twenty years in HEO tor, she has had extensive experience David Gordon teaches history at Bronx non-teaching positions and for seven on both sides of the bargaining table. Community College and the Graduate years in adjunct teaching positions for Fifteen years into her career, she Center. He received his B.A. from both Continuing Education and credit- earned a Master’s degree in Industri- Brooklyn College and his M.A. and bearing courses. She holds an MA in Ur- al and Labor Relations. She taught at Ph.D. in History from Brown Universi- ban Affairs from Queens College. Eliza- a two-year proprietary college, then ty. David authored two books, Mer- beth joined CUNY as a computer pro- served as Director of Academic Af- chants and Capitalists: Industrializa- grammer and supplemented her work with adjunct teaching po- fairs and finally as Executive Director tion and Provincial Politics in Mid- sitions at Lehman College and Bronx Community College. In of the college. As a teacher, she served on the union’s execu- Nineteenth Century France and Liberal- 1991 she became Manager of Computer Services at CUNY/CIS. tive committee and was elected Chairperson, during which ism and Social Reform: Industrial In 1997 she transferred from the Central Office to Queensbor- time she negotiated two contracts. Later as both Academic Growth and Progressiste Politics in France, 1880-1914, as well as ough Community College where she served as a Project Manag- Director and Executive Director, she represented manage- a number of articles on French and African history. He has er and, subsequently, the Director of Information Systems. Eliz- ment in further negotiations. She has had extensive experi- taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the Uni- abeth has seen the university adjust to fiscal and technological ence in arbitration, mediation, and other forms of Alternate versity of California at Riverside, where he was a union organiz- changes. Through the changes, her position has been consistent: Dispute Resolution, including testifying before the labor er; and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. David also the dedicated men and women who serve the university deserve board. taught for two years as an exchange professor at Kaohsiung the university’s respect and loyalty. By providing a secure work Teachers University, Taiwan, and was a seminar director at the environment, educational opportunities, and opportunities for Colley Baldwin is an Adjunct Lectur- Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris. He has participated in numerous advancement, the union can help maintain a motivated team of er of Physics in the Department of student and faculty study abroad initiatives. David has pledged professionals. Physical, Environmental and Comput- himself to the restoration of the union welfare fund and especial- er Sciences of Medgar Evers College ly a reasonable dental plan. He believes that we have lost too Dorothy V. Beatty has been a resident as well as an Adjunct at the Borough of many benefits under the present leadership and that it is time of Crown Heights, Brooklyn for the last Manhattan Community College. His the union concentrates on the basic needs of its members. thirty-five years. She attended Medgar research includes ultra-high–vacuum Evers College and received a Bachelor technology investigating ultrathin In- Alfonso J. García Osuna (Havana, 1953) Degree in Business Administration in var alloy films with applications to mi- is the Chairperson of the Department of 1986. Since 1984, Dorothy has worked in croelectronics and storage devices as Foreign Languages at Kingsborough Com- the Office of the President (three years) well as practical laboratory and re- munity College. He received his Ph.D. and been Assistant to the Payroll Office search experience in atmospheric studies of stratospheric (1989) from the Graduate School and Uni- (three years), Federal Work Study Co- aerosols in the New York City area and practical laboratory versity Center of the City University of ordinator (eight years), Academic Advi- experience in chemiluminescence physics with application to New York. He has published several arti- sor in the Worker Education Program (three years), and Stu- metal cluster research. Mr. Baldwin was a research associate cles in scholarly journals; among his most dent Advocacy and Support Service Center (present). She was with Medgar Evers College, in collaboration with the Goddard recent books are Incidents of Travel on the a member of DC 37 until she was promoted to Federal Work Institute of Space Studies, in which capacity he led a team Road to Santiago (1998), The Cuban Filmography, 1897-2001 Study Coordinator in 1990, at which time she joined the Profes- mapping the spatial distribution of stratospheric aerosols in (2002), and La filmografía cubana, 1897-2003 (2003). He also reg- sional Staff Congress. She was elected and is presently serving the New York City area. He is active in the union at Medgar ularly participates in learned conferences in the United States as First Vice President of Medgar Evers College Alumni Asso- Evers College and understands issues facing adjuncts in and around the world. Because of his chosen field – the Classic ciation, Inc., Executive member of Medgar Evers College Coun- CUNY. sources of Spanish Renaissance Literature – he has attained a cil, and Vice President of Medgar Evers College Higher Educa- solid working knowledge of Koine Greek, Latin, and Italian, and tion Organization. Dorothy is a strong advocate for faculty, staff FOR RETIREE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL is also fluent in Spanish regional languages. and students rights. She has received over fifteen appreciation awards for dedicated, invaluable, and outstanding services ren- OFFICERS FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR CROSS-CAMPUS dered to the students, the college and the community. Sheila Chustek has been teaching Mathematics as an Adjunct Lecturer CHAPTERS FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR PART-TIME in the Mathematics and Computer Lisa M. Decker is a HEO Associate at Science Department of Queensbor- Hunter College where she has been PERSONNEL ough Community College since 1993. the Director of Distance Learning Frank W. Marousek has served in a She is the recipient of the President’s since 1996. Completing her graduate variety of non-instructional and in- Award for Excellence in Teaching by work at Kent State and Virginia Com- structional roles at John Jay College. an Adjunct Faculty in 2002 at Queens monwealth Universities, Lisa has Over the past twenty-five years, he has College, where she also taught from more than fourteen years of experi- served in the Office of Special Pro- 1982 until she retired in 2003. At ence in the delivery of training and in- grams, The Admissions Office, the Divi- Queens College she taught Mathe- struction using a wide range of dis- sion of Student Services and the College matics and Physical Science in the Adult Collegiate Educa- tance learning technologies. As the Di- Now Program. As an adjunct faculty tion program. She was also awarded the honor of Adjunct rector of Distance Learning at Hunter College, she has led the member in the Department of Law Po- Lecturer of the Year in 1990 by the ACE Student Association. development of distance learning initiatives in videoconferenc- lice Science and Criminal Justice Ad- Her book, Physical Science - An Introduction to Our World, ing, blended learning, and the newly emerging technology of ministrations at John Jay College for over ten years, he has was published by Kendall/Hunt and is still being used at the web casting. Lisa has supported the development and delivery taught courses in Introduction to Criminal Justice/Police Stud- college. Ms. Chustek served on the Immersion Curriculum of thousands of hours of distance learning instruction and ies, Police Organization and Administration, The Police Manag- Task Force Committee and the Numeracy Across the Cur- training while providing training to faculty across disciplines er, Investigative Function, The Police and the Community, and riculum committee. After receiving her award, she was cho- in the use of instructional technologies. Lisa has taught grad- Police Community Relations. Frank has been a member of The sen to chair the President’s committee to select future teach- uate special education courses both at Virginia Common- New Programs Committee, the Standards Committee, Graduate ers of excellence at the college. Prior to joining the CUNY wealth University and the University of Georgia. She brings a and Undergraduate Admissions Committees, the Retention faculty, Ms. Chustek taught Mathematics with the NYC unique perspective on both HEO and faculty issues facing our Committee and the Graduate Studies Committee. Recently, as Board of Education and was a computer programmer for Union members. part of a five-month John Jay College/Bramshill Police College several years. (England) Scholar Exchange Program, he taught and conduct- ed research in the area of police/community diversity issues, John Donoghue is a Professor Emer- FOR CROSS-CAMPUS OFFICERS and assisted in the development of a National Centre of Excel- itus at NYCCT. He graduated from Guillermo Rocha is a Senior Laborato- lence in Diversity. His primary areas of interest are proactive, Boston College with an AB & MS. His ry Technician in the Geology Depart- policing, community/police relations, management and orga- Ph.D. from NYU is in Architectural ment at Brooklyn College. Guillermo nized crime. History; his dissertation, selected as has worked for the College Now Pro- one of the ten best in 1977-78, was pub- gram as a lecturer for the past 8 years. FOR OFFICER FOR PART-TIME lished by Arno Press. John taught at This program gives struggling students Merrimack College, New Hampshire an opportunity to achieve higher stan- PERSONNEL Technical School, University of Rhode dards and aspire to a college education. Martin Teplitzky has been an Island, SUNY, and over 39 years at Guillermo finds this a very rewarding Adjunct in the Mathematics NYCCT. He served for over twenty activity because he has the opportuni- Department at Lehman College for years in the Faculty Senate, including six years on the Exec- ty to change the life of a young person who otherwise would over twenty years. He retired as a utive Committee. John has been involved in the PSC since it have no possibility of entering college. Guillermo has also tak- supervisor from the NYC was founded, serving on the Executive Committee and as en on other issues such as the discriminatory treatment of im- Department of Education in 2003; he Chapter Chair. 16 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – NEW CAUCUS Clarion | March 2006

Adverstisement

“Retirees are actively involved in the life of the union and are members of most, if not all, PSC committees. They gladly participated over- whelmingly in the contract campaign.” Irwin Yellowitz, History Professor Emeritus, CCNY, and Chair PSC Retirees Chapter

“New Caucus leaders have been consistently responsive to the needs of junior faculty; fighting for more full-time faculty lines, sponsoring orientations and professional development workshops for new faculty and encouraging active participation in the union. The 12 hours of reassigned time in the last contract was a great breakthrough.” Penelope Lewis, Instructor, Social Science Dept, BMCC

“The New Caucus leadership of the union negotiated the paid profes- I’m Voting sional hour that benefits many adjuncts and added the three part-time representatives to the Executive Council. I also support their commit- ment to social justice.” Wendy Scribner, Adjunct, English Dept, NYCCT

“Under the leadership of the New Caucus, the PSC is finally addres- sing the full range of HEO contributions to CUNY and the challenges New Caucus we face in our daily working lives.” Joshua Brown, Executive Director, American Social History Because... Project/Center for Media and Learning, The Graduate Center “The New Caucus is navigating us through very hostile anti-union waters. At Hostos, the New Caucus leadership of the PSC has played an absolutely crucial role in defending faculty and enforcing the con- “This is a team that does not buckle under pres- tract.” sure and comes up with out-of-the-box creative Norma Peña de Llorenz, Chapter Chair, Hostos approaches to obtain faculty and staff needs. As “Working as a grievance counselor both at Kingsborough CC and at the central office, I have been so impressed by the New Caucus a science and engineering representative, I great- leaders' dedication, intelligence, caring and imaginative hard work. They have totally supported the union’s grievance work and won a ly appreciate the advances made for released number of important decisions. They have also staunchly defended the rights and benefits of retirees.” time for new faculty, the strong stand taken to Norah Chase, Retiree, KCC

increase support for sabbaticals, and willingness “New Caucus leaders offered me a forum to advocate on behalf of CUNY faculty, staff and students of color. The Diversity Committee and to bargain for the seven-year tenure clock.” the Executive Council planted the seeds that hopefully will grow Shelly Weinbaum, CUNY Distinguished Prof. of Engineering, Elected member of all through the increased participation of members of color at the local three U.S. National Academies: Science, Engineering, and Medicine chapter level and in the leadership.” Samuel Farell, Lecturer, LaGuardia CC

“I support them because I believe in solidarity, standing with all mem- “As one of the members of the Welfare bers of the union: full-timers, part-timers, retirees, new hires, CLTs and HEOs. This union leadership has proven that they represent all of Advisory Council representing the Baruch us not just a privileged few and will struggle against injustice in the workplace and in the world.” College Chapter of the PSC, I have seen first- Susan A. Farell, Coordinator, Sociology Area, Co-Director, Women's hand the professional manner with which the Studies, KCC “The leadership of the New Caucus has been energetic, vigorous, and members of the New Caucus carry out their savvy with a whole lot of integrity to boot. Now, more than ever, I see no reason why the union needs to change leadership.” responsibilities. Their approach to the issues Frank Kirkland, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Hunter College

confronting the Fund is fiscally prudent and “The New Caucus leadership of the union has fought for the protec- morally responsible.” tion of academic freedom across the university when the right of fac- ulty to speak their minds has been under attack across the country.” Terrence F. Martell, Saxe Distinguished Professor of Finance, Director, Weissman Gerald Markowitz. Distinguished Professor of History, JJ and the Center for International Business, Baruch College Graduate Center.

“Through the PSC Legislation Committee, I have worked with dozens of City Council members and their staff on behalf of the PSC on issues “It is a pleasure and relief to work with the related to higher education, civil rights. These activities have led to the passage of important pieces of legislation that improve the conditions PSC leadership, who understand the impor- of our lives and reflect PSC's political access and clout in City Hall.” tance of the electoral process. I see candidates Ron Hayduk, Asst. Professor, Social Sciences, BMCC “The New Caucus has set a place at the table for part-time faculty. We for public office who once laughed at the PSC still have a ways to go, but now we have a fighting chance of winning our right to be treated as professionals and to have equity with our full- now come to see me and ask what they need time colleagues.” to do for our support and endorsement.” Vincent Tirelli, Adjunct, Political Science, Brooklyn College Ken Sherrill, Professor, Political Science, Hunter College To read other voices of support, visit our website at www.newcaucus.org Clarion | March 2006 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – NEW CAUCUS 17 THE NEW CAUCUS: HONESTY, SUBSTANCE, IDEAS In less than six years, the New Caucus has changed the face equipping the union office with computers, systematizing tiative to provide $4 million in scholarship funds to CUNY’s of the union – and begun to change the university. We made records of union membership, creating interactive listservs, neediest students. a promise to you when we were first elected in 2000 and then updating the website, redesigning the Clarion. re-elected overwhelmingly in 2003. We have kept that promise. Partly by expanding union democracy: now literally thou- A Record to Be Proud Of sands of CUNY faculty and staff are involved in the life of the The New Caucus welcomes a contested union election – elec- The New Caucus pledged that we would bring democracy and union, giving the union far greater power than “the feeble tions are healthy for unions, they clarify what is at stake. As energy to the PSC, that we would expand the union’s intellec- strength of one.” Under our leadership, members in democra- the leadership caucus, we are proud to run on our record. We tual and political reach – and that by doing so, we would make tically elected bodies debate and determine union policy, and are happy to discuss how we have aggressively defended the PSC a more effective union. The record bears us out: un- then take responsibility for carrying it out. More members members’ rights and academic freedom, how we have devel- der New Caucus leadership the PSC has won a series of victo- have voice, too: the New Caucus added representatives to the oped a network of 400 member-organizers across the campus- ries large and small that have tangibly improved life at CUNY. executive council from retiree, part-time and professional staff es, how we have joined the proud labor initiative of opposing If you received a long-overdue salary increase in the last con- constituencies. the war in Iraq, how we have helped to secure millions of dol- tract; if you have benefited from full-paid research time for ju- lars of restored funding for CUNY. We invite our challengers nior faculty; if you have witnessed a strong defense of acade- Above all, we’ve been successful because we understand a to debate us openly. We invite them to compare their record mic freedom at CUNY; if you have noticed hundreds of fundamental political reality: As long as unions operate in a of achievement on the campuses to ours; we invite them to dis- CUNY’s neediest students receiving tuition support – you political and legal climate that is hostile to the interests of cuss what qualifies them to lead the union. have experienced the work of the New Caucus. working people – and as long as academic unions operate in a climate hostile to investment in public education – we will We have a record of fighting and winning in the real world. have slim chance of success. The only real way to end the Our Opponents Anyone can make promises; the New Caucus has delivered: prevailing culture of scarcity at CUNY is to change the We think you will find that our opponents have no record. Lack- forces that are determined to keep CUNY poor. ing both a history of accomplishments and a coherent political  Salary increases in the 2000-2002 contract that were analysis, they have resorted to the debased but familiar tactic the best for the PSC in a decade. of throwing as many lies as they can at us and counting on some  A reversal of the twenty-year trend of declining Changing the Conditions of them to stick. The real danger our opponents represent, aside State and City funding for CUNY. Among those forces are the City and State. Why has it been from the distastefulness of their tactics, is to our individual and  A more than 50% increase in union membership. so difficult to achieve a decent contract in this round of bar- collective professional lives. First, with a history of being no-  Active campus chapters that win victories on issues gaining? Not because of personalities, but because of labor shows in the union positions they’ve held, they offer no assur- such as workplace safety, faculty computer access, laws that favor management, CUNY’s failure to advocate for ance that they wouldn’t be equally lazy in representing you in timely pay for adjuncts, movement up salary steps. faculty and staff, and City and State governments that have top leadership. Second, their political message, though it may  A landmark legal victory on the right to bargain in- explicitly targeted labor. That’s why the PSC under New Cau- sound like common sense, is naive – or worse, disingenuous. tellectual property rights. cus leadership has taken a leading role in seeking reforms to  A vigorous defense of academic freedom. the Taylor Law. As long as New York State’s labor law fails to They say the PSC can advance by taking a “bread-and-butter”  The first-ever paid research time for CUNY junior create a level playing field and makes strikes by public em- approach to unionism and being cooperative with manage- faculty. ployees illegal, union members will not have the power they ment. They offer a list of goals (strangely similar to the New  The first-ever paid office hours for CUNY adjuncts. need to win good contracts. Caucus platform), but provide no analysis of how to achieve  The first-ever professional development funds for them. Slogans do not win contracts, and it is no trick to coop- CUNY staff. Why have we had to fight so hard to restore Welfare Fund erate with management when cooperation is in our mutual in-  Protection of members’ rights to Travia leave benefits? Without minimizing CUNY’s historical under-fund- terest. Under New Caucus leadership the PSC has worked pro- through an arbitration victory. ing, it’s because union-won healthcare has been targeted by ductively with CUNY management on budget and legislative  A major legal victory on pensioning overloads. private and public employers, and because the national rate issues in Albany and City Hall. But where union and manage-  Legislation passed defending the rights of immi- of inflation for prescription drugs has soared to more than 15% ment interests diverge, it’s a fantasy to believe that unions grant students to in-state tuition. annually. The PSC under New Caucus leadership has engaged succeed by being “nice” or “concentrating on the contract.”  Legislation passed permitting the 20,000 CUNY stu- in intense collective bargaining and member mobilization to You don’t win major battles by refusing to address the condi- dents on welfare to continue their classes. demand support for our Welfare Fund. But we have also be- tions that make those battles difficult. We believe that CUNY  Maintenance of prescription drug benefits for active come a leading voice nationally for a labor campaign for uni- faculty and staff deserve a union leadership that is unafraid and retired members, health insurance for eligible versal healthcare. If union members continue to be the only of serious political analysis and offers more than loyal oppo- adjuncts in the face of underfunding of benefits. group in the country with health insurance, we will remain a sition to management.  A principled, energetic fight in this round of bar- target for conservative interests who claim we shouldn’t be gaining for a contract worthy of our members. better off than other employees. But if labor campaigns to make healthcare universal, our own benefits will be safer. Now More than Ever If the PSC needed principled, progressive leadership in 2000 A Leadership with Vision Effective unions do political work, and the PSC under New and in 2003, it needs such leadership now more than ever. What’s remarkable about this record (not so remarkable if Caucus leadership has been effective in the workplace be- What we didn’t know when we first won election was how the you think about labor history) is that the leadership with cause of the political work we have done beyond it. political climate would change. In six years we have seen a strong political vision is also the leadership with the best war that has drained the public budget for education and record of making economic and professional gains. The truth healthcare, a national right-wing campaign to control the po- is that the PSC under New Caucus leadership has been suc- Restored CUNY Funding litical affiliations of faculty in academic departments, an in- cessful on economic issues because of – not in spite of – a vi- Take CUNY’s budget. For almost twenty years, public funding crease in the number of witch-hunts of progressive faculty, sion of what the City University and the city itself could be. for CUNY had been in a downward spiral. The New Caucus and a fierce assault on workers’ rights to everything from er- The New Caucus stands for the freedom to teach and the free- came into office determined to reverse that pattern. We began gonomic standards to healthcare to pensions. dom to learn. We stand for access to higher education for “the by working to elect officials who had demonstrated support children of the whole people,” in the words of CUNY’s found- for CUNY, and succeeded in helping to bring a noticeably dif- This is not the climate in which to pretend that PSC members ing document. We stand for the possibility of a university in ferent attitude to CUNY in the City Council. For the first time will be better off with a union that sticks its head in the sand. which all faculty and staff have the support and the profes- in the union’s history, the PSC developed an independent bud- The way to advance our interests is to fight back against the sional autonomy to do our best work. We stand for the still- get proposal for what the University needs. (In the past, the real opposition to those interests. That means not turning radical dream of truly public education, where new knowledge PSC had just followed along with management’s plan.) We did away from political reality at the moment of crisis, but rather is created in partnership with our astounding, complex, urban the research to find out exactly what our proposals would redoubling our efforts both within CUNY and without. The student body. cost. We organized hundreds of members to visit their elect- New Caucus, which has a record of keeping its promises, gives ed representatives in Albany and their local offices, and hun- you our commitment that we will rise to the tough occasion of That vision, coupled with a new level of commitment and dreds more to demonstrate at the State Capitol. We notified this political moment and go forward in our fight for faculty professionalism, has empowered the New Caucus to each legislator of the number of CUNY students in his or her and staff, for a university worthy of our work: achieve gains on issues like pensions, salaries, research district. We established personal relationships with key leg- time and intellectual property – even during one of the most islators in Albany and City Hall. We generated 104,453 post- 1. We will finish the fight for the best contract we can achieve. anti-union periods in recent American history. How have cards to the Governor demanding additions to CUNY’s oper- we done it? ating budget. 2. We will build on the struggle for this contract and develop the militant political force that will be needed to break Partly by a commitment to high standards – financial trans- The result was a restoration of the disastrous 2004 State bud- through the contract “patterns” of both the City and the State parency, real organizing, rigorous office practices, top-level get cuts to CUNY, a City budget that has dramatically in- – deepening our coalitions with students, community groups staff hires. Simple things that were actually not so simple: creased CUNY funding every year since 2002, and a PSC ini- and progressive organized labor. 18 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – NEW CAUCUS Clarion | March 2006

3. We will defend academic freedom, under assault both na- member of the professional staff at Queensborough. She is a also been involved in the PSC’s peace and justice work, estab- tionally and at CUNY, as the bedrock condition for intellectu- HEO Cross Campus Officer, a member of the PSC Executive lishing a committee at John Jay. al work; we insist that there is no academic freedom for any Council, and the Delegate Assembly. Arthurine chairs the of us when some of us, especially part-timers, do not have its HEO/CLT Professional Development Fund Committee where Nancy Romer, professor of psycholo- protections. she focuses her efforts on assisting college laboratory techni- gy at Brooklyn College and director of cians and members of the professional staff to receive funding BC’s Community Partnership, which 4. We will expand on our success in increasing public funding for professional development activities. She has joined the organizes faculty and students to pro- for CUNY. PSC lobbying team to advocate in Albany on behalf of the stu- vide after-school programs for low- dents and faculty. She is committed to forwarding and advanc- functioning Brooklyn high school stu- 5. We will deepen the culture of organizing on campus and ing the goals and objectives of the New Caucus. dents, is currently a Senior College Of- continue to enrich the life of the union. ficer on the PSC Executive Council, chairs the union’s Peace and Justice 6. We will take the leadership role in state and national cam- FOR TREASURER Committee, and has been a co-chair of paigns for legislation to reverse the underfunding and corpo- Michael Fabricant is a professor and the Contract Campaign Committee. Outside of CUNY, she rate control of higher education. executive officer of the Ph.D. Program serves on the national steering committee of US Labor in Social Welfare and is currently PSC Against the War and of United for Peace and Justice. 7. We will continue our strong defense of members’ individual Vice President for Senior Colleges. He and collective rights, our commitment to supporting the intel- has been a faculty member at Hunter lectual lives of all faculty and staff, our transparency and hon- College for twenty-six years. Mike has FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR SENIOR COLLEGES esty with you. authored numerous articles and five Robert Cermele, associate professor books. He is presently writing a book of mathematics at NYCCT, has been The New Caucus is now more than ten years old. Hundreds of entitled “Building Parent Power in on the faculty for thirty-four years and CUNY faculty and staff, with many other calls on their time, the South Bronx to Transform Public a PSC member for thirty-three. He is have dedicated their political lives to the project of making Education.” He has also served as the Treasurer of the Nation- serving his second term as PSC chap- CUNY the great public university the people of New York City al Coalition to House the Homeless and Community Access ter chair, was twice elected to the Ex- deserve. Like all serious thinkers, we dwell in possibility, but United, an agency serving the disabled. Mike has a long ac- ecutive Council as a Senior College Of- also in the reality of what it takes to make political change. We tivist history on issues ranging from housing and homeless- ficer, and is a member of the Delegate are prepared to continue that work in your service. We ask ness to resisting interventionist U.S. foreign policies. During Assembly. In March 2003, Bob became you for your support. the last six years he has been a member of the PSC’s Negoti- a Trustee of the Welfare Fund and ating Team, Executive Council and Delegate Assembly. Mike subsequently the Fund treasurer. He is a representative to the has consistently argued that the basis for building the power University Faculty Senate, serving on its Budget Advisory of the PSC is to make a greater investment in organizers and and Status of the Faculty committees. FOR PRESIDENT organizing. Barbara Bowen, elected president of the PSC in 2000 and overwhelmingly FOR SENIOR COLLEGE OFFICERS reelected in 2003, has brought tangi- FOR UNIVERSITY-WIDE OFFICERS Kathleen Barker is a professor of psy- ble improvements to members’ pro- Stanley Aronowitz is a Distinguished chology at Medgar Evers College. She fessional lives. The first contract ne- Professor of Sociology at the CUNY has served on MEC’s College Council, the gotiated under her leadership won Graduate Center and director of University Faculty Senate, and the lat- PSC members their best salary in- CUNY’s Center for the Study of Cul- ter’s Executive Committee, and the Sta- creases in more than a decade and ture, Technology, and Work. Before tus of the Faculty Committee. She has new benefits that testify to Bowen’s vision for CUNY: junior joining the graduate faculty in 1983, taken grievance training in order to faculty research time, adjuncts’ paid office hours, and profes- Stanley spent eight years as a union serve MEC members. Her scholarly work sional development grants for staff. A serious scholar who organizer, was associate director of focuses on invisible workers, largely earned her Ph.D. in English at Yale, a member of CUNY’s Mobilization for Youth on the Lower women in male-dominated professions, doctoral faculty, and a prize-winning teacher, she has a East side and director of Park East evolving labor conditions and the rise of contingent work, ex- prodigious appetite for work, a history in the labor move- High School (the first experimental secondary school in pertise that she brings to her PSC work. She is co-editor of ment, and a strong belief in grass-roots organizing as the key the city), and taught at Columbia; University of California, Contingent Work: Changing Employment Relations. to a union’s power. She has earned a national reputation as Irvine; and University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has pub- a thoughtful and principled advocate for public education lished prolifically. Marilyn Neimark, professor of ac- and organized labor. The PSC is strengthened by her election counting and co-deputy chair of the to leadership posts in the statewide teachers’ union, New Jonathan Buchsbaum, a professor of Department of Accountancy at Baruch York City’s two major labor boards and to a vice-presidency media studies at Queens College and College, is vice-chair of Baruch’s PSC in the American Federation of Teachers. in the Graduate Center’s Theatre De- chapter and a member of the PSC Fi- partment, is PSC chapter chair at nance Committee. For the past ten Queens and a member of the PSC Ex- years, she has co-hosted and co-pro- FOR FIRST VICE PRESIDENT ecutive Council. His scholarly work fo- duced “Beyond the Pale: Radical Jew- Steve London, first elected in 2000 and cuses on political film, most recently ish Culture and Politics,” a weekly pro- reelected in 2003, is associate professor on the political economy of French cin- gram on WBAI radio, and she is co- of Political Science at Brooklyn Col- ema and on filmmaking in Nicaragua founder of the grassroots activist group Jews for Racial and lege. A founder of the New Caucus, in during the 1980s. As head of the Labor Economic Justice. the 1990s he served three terms as Goes to the Movies committee, he has organized and run the Brooklyn College’s chapter chair and PSC’s monthly film series since its inception in 2002. Alex Vitale, an assistant professor in as a University Faculty Senator. He Brooklyn College’s Department of So- has molded contract enforcement into Lorraine Cohen is a professor of soci- ciology since 1999, is a fourth-genera- a professional, effective, member-ori- ology at LaGuardia Community Col- tion unionist. After doctoral work at ented operation. Under his leadership, the PSC has won signif- lege. As co-chair of the PSC Women’s the CUNY Graduate Center, where for icant arbitration and legal victories, including the precedent- Committee, she has led the union’s two years he was co-chair of the Doc- setting NYS Appellate decision affirming bargaining rights campaign to bring back to CUNY stu- toral Students Council and worked to over intellectual property. As a Welfare Fund Trustee, he led dents on public assistance forced to improve conditions for CUNY ad- the effort to preserve benefits and heads the response to drop their education for Workfare. juncts, he served on the PSC Delegate CUNY’s academic freedom violations, the union’s research, Currently chapter chair at LaGuardia Assembly, the Brooklyn College chap- preparation of NYS budget proposals for CUNY, and serves on and a member of the Delegate Assem- ter’s executive committee and the PSC Solidarity Committee. the Negotiating Team. As a NYSUT Board Director, he has in- bly, she is a staunch anti-racism fight- His research focus is policing and urban politics. He is a con- creased the focus on the higher education agenda and gained er believing in grassroots organizing and the development of sultant to NYACLU on policing political demonstrations. more resources for the PSC. Co-editor of two books, Steve a labor movement that fights for a progressive social and po- brings his expertise to the union’s work. litical agenda. FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNITY

John P. Pittman is associate profes- COLLEGES FOR SECRETARY sor in the Department of Art, Music, Anne Friedman, professor of develop- Arthurine DeSola is a Higher Educa- and Philosophy at John Jay College. mental skills at Borough of Manhattan tion Assistant in the Counseling De- His philosophical research has been Community College, is PSC Vice Pres- partment at Queensborough Commu- on German critical theory and ident for Community Colleges and rep- nity College. A member of the CUNY African-American philosophy. Active resents the community colleges on the community for over twenty-five years, in the New Caucus since 2000, he has Negotiating Team. In 1997, she co- she has extensive experience, having been a member of the Delegate As- founded the Community College Con- served as tenured faculty at La- sembly since 2002 and a member of the ference, advocating for this con- Guardia Community College and as a Executive Council since 2004. He has stituency. She is on AAUP’s Communi- Clarion | March 2006 PSC ELECTION MATERIAL – NEW CAUCUS 19

ty College and NYSUT’s Community College Committees, and has devoted fourteen of those years to curity and pension benefits for adjuncts, lobbying in Albany has served on the UFS Executive Committee since 1997. She is the PSC. A tireless in-house grievance to extend unemployment benefits to this constituency. Away committed to collective and democratic work to build a strong, counselor for the past three years, she from CUNY, she is the Director of the Kingsbridge Heights effective union. is also currently an alternate HEO rep- Community Center homeless shelter. resentative to the Delegate Assembly and a member of the Contract Action David Hatchett has been an adjunct FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE OFFICERS Committee. Participating in the work lecturer in English at a number of Jay Appleman, professor of mathe- of the PSC has helped her to grow as CUNY campuses, primarily Medgar matics at Queensborough Communi- an activist who intends to contribute Evers. Before CUNY, he was a free- ty College, has served as QCC’s to the success of the union. lance journalist who wrote for Crisis, chapter chair since 2001, revitalizing the journal of the NAACP. For sever- the PSC departmental representa- Steve Trimboli, a senior laboratory al years, he served as an organizer of tive structure, and is currently im- technician in the Department of Bio- part-timers at Medgar Evers and plementing the appointment of a di- logical Sciences at Lehman College, Hostos Community College. In 2005 versity advocate. He chaired the has been an active member of the Col- he was elected to the Executive PSC Elections Committee, whose lege Laboratory Technicians chapter Council as a Part-time Officer. He is committed to working rules were revised during his and the PSC since the early 1980s. A with the Diversity Committee and the PSC’s Part-time Orga- tenure. Currently, he is on the PSC Legislation Committee member of the PSC Contract Negotiat- nizing Project as well as the Medgar Evers Labor Committee and a delegate to AFT and NYSUT conventions. He will ing Team, he is also on the union’s Ex- and Faculty Senate. work to develop cohesiveness among CUNY’s six commu- ecutive Council and the Delegate As- nity colleges. sembly, serves as grievance chair of Diane Menna has been an adjunct the CLT chapter and on the HEO/CLT Professional Develop- lecturer in English across CUNY for Lizette Colón, a counselor at Hostos ment and the Grievance Policy committees. Steve has con- over 20 years, primarily at Queens Community College, has spent twen- tributed importantly to achieving significant gains for cross- College. A member of the Executive ty-three years at Hostos in various campus members. Council and Part-timers Affairs roles. As a member of the chapter Ex- Committee, she is currently a mem- ecutive Board, she has been active Vera Weekes, assistant director of ber of the Higher Education Council with the staff in assuring their rights the Caribbean Research Center at of NYSUT. Both on her campus and under the contract in the face of an in- Medgar Evers College, is a cross-cam- CUNY-wide, she has been active on trusive administration that acts first pus officer and Executive Council PSC committees: Elections, Health and consults later. She feels that it is member of the PSC, a grievance coun- and Safety, Constitution Review, and urgent for CUNY faculty to organize selor, a member of the Grievance Pol- the Contract Steering Committee and has been a grievance and demand a working environment where “we are valued, icy Committee and co-chair of the Leg- counselor for adjuncts. Before the New Caucus, she was re- respected, and are not afraid to demand our rights.” islation Committee. Since 1995 she has luctant to join a “ma and pa” union that did not represent the worked tirelessly to assist displaced interests of part-timers. Susan O’Malley, a professor of Eng- citizens from the island of Monserrat lish at Kingsborough Community Col- who were granted temporary protected status in the U.S. She FOR RETIREE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL lege, teaches at the CUNY Graduate lobbied for legislation to adjust their status, winning the sup- Center and at the City College Center port of both NYSUT and AFT. OFFICERS for Worker Education. She is a univer- Peter Jonas is a retired Associate sity-wide officer for the PSC, chairs FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR PART-TIME HEO from LaGuardia Community the University Faculty Senate, and is College. As an active member of the a CUNY Faculty Trustee. She has PERSONNEL Retirees’ Chapter Executive Commit- served on the PSC’s Legislative, Open Marcia Newfield, adjunct lecturer in tee, he led the fight to gain timely re- Access, and Academic Freedom Com- the English Department at Borough of bates of Medicare Part B contribu- mittees. Susan is also a founder of Radical Teacher and has Manhattan Community College, was tions for TIAA members. In the PSC published extensively. elected Vice President for Part-Time Delegate Assembly and the PSC’s Personnel in 2003 and initiated First state and national affiliates, he con- FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR CROSS-CAMPUS Friday meetings of the Delegate As- tinuously works for improved fund- sembly Part-Timer’s Committee. She ing for CUNY, better federal and state support of health ben- CHAPTERS is on the Contract Negotiating Team efits, an improved COLA for TRS members, and pension eq- Iris DeLutro, a HEO at the J.S. Mur- and the Women’s, Grievance Policy uity for active and retired TIAA-CREF members. phy Institute for Worker Education and Academic Freedom Committees. and Labor Education, was elected Vice Other activities include: grievance counselor, representative Jim Perlstein is a member of the President of the Cross Campus Chap- to the Welfare Advisory Board, and member of adjunct advi- Executive Board of the Retiree ters in 2003. She is Vice Chair of the sory committees of AFT and AAUP. Chapter. Jim taught American and HEO Chapter, a member of many PSC European history as a full-timer at committees and the Negotiating CUNY, primarily BMCC, for 43 Team, serving also on NYSUT’s High- FOR OFFICERS FOR PART- years. He is an Alternate Delegate to er Education Council and Board of Di- TIME PERSONNEL the PSC Delegate Assembly and co- rectors. She worked with the AFT’s Susan DiRaimo began her career at chairs the PSC Solidarity Commit- Advisory Committee to develop a publication about best prac- CUNY in 1981 as an Adjunct Lecturer tee, coordinating PSC work on com- tices for professional staff. She was a 2005 AFT honoree. of English as a Second Language at mon issues with sister unions and CCNY. She has also taught at Lehman with community, advocacy, and student groups. He serves College and Bronx Community Col- on the union’s Grievance Policy Committee and represents FOR CROSS-CAMPUS OFFICERS lege. She is co-chair of the PSC Open the union at the City Council, lobbying for immigrant rights. Donna Veronica Gill is the Coordinator of Scholarship Op- Access committee and a part-time offi- His resolutions on behalf of human rights have been acted portunities at Hunter College. A part of CUNY since 1986, she cer who has worked to achieve job se- upon by NYSUT.

PSC ELECTION REMINDER Make sure to cast your vote!

 April 3: ballots mailed out by American Arbitration Association (AAA).

 April 10: If you are eligible to vote and have not received a ballot by April 10, call AAA at 800-529-5218 to request one.

 April 24: All ballots must be received by AAA, which is supervising the vote, by 5:00 pm. 20 OPINION Clarion | March 2006

FULL-TIME HIRING Adjunct conversions help all

By STEVE LONDON instructional hours taught by full- CUNY is building in incentives for effectiveness and research produc- ly, City University employs ap- PSC First Vice President time faculty is on the decline. presidents to reach the 70% goal, tivity. It has a negative impact on proximately 7,500 teaching ad- In 2004, according to figures re- and college presidents are evaluat- faculty’s professional lives, and juncts – up by 1,300 since 2000. hat do 500 conversion leased by the CUNY budget office, ed on their progress toward meet- damages recruitment and retention. Adjunct faculty are hard-working, lines for long-serving the senior colleges stood at 48.5% ing the goal. As a result, presidents This problem can be truly solved competent, and do half of CUNY’s adjuncts have to do full-time instruction; at the compre- and colleges are being discouraged only by adding more resources – undergraduate teaching. The vast Wwith full-time faculty hensives, the figure was 43.4%. In from providing full-time faculty that is, more full-time lines. majority are adjunct lecturers who reassigned time? The answer is, both cases, the share of undergrad- with “discretionary” reassigned do the bulk of the core and founda- plenty. As CUNY management uate instructional hours taught by time or time-based compensation ADJUNCT CONVERSION LINES tional instruction in the University. struggles to meet its stated goal of full-time faculty had dropped by ap- for supervision of internships, doc- While the University should re- On a semester-by-semester or an 70% full-time faculty instruction, proximately 2% since 2002. The toral and master’s theses, indepen- main committed to obtaining more annual basis, they are evaluated, ob- one method it is using to reach this community colleges did see an in- dent study and other instructional regular full-time faculty lines, the served, and reappointed. goal is squeezing full-timers’ use of crease of seven percentage points activities – so that faculty spend 500 conversion lines should be part Yet both our students and reassigned time. A more effective during the same time period, finish- more time in the classroom. of the mix as a way to move more adjunct faculty are short-changed method for achieving the 70% goal, ing 2004 with 49.7% of instructional Full-time faculty have also experi- quickly to the 70% goal. This pro- by CUNY’s current labor practices. one that builds a stronger universi- hours taught by full-timers. enced the withdrawal of reassigned posal will draw upon an existing Because adjunct faculty too often ty, is to hire long-serving adjunct pool of experienced move from one college to another, faculty into full-time positions. faculty who have they have little time to counsel stu- The PSC has proposed, as part of taught our students dents. Beyond the professional this year’s state budget for CUNY, for many years, un- hour negotiated in the last con- the addition of 800 new full-time dergoing continu- tract, adjuncts are not paid to meet faculty lines and additional support ous evaluation with students, do curriculum work positions. This number is divided and observation, or write letters of recommenda- into two parts: 300 lines to be dis- and offer them the tion. This hurts both students and tributed among the colleges for opportunity for full- the development of educational regular searches and 500 full-time time status. policy by our departments. lines reserved for long-serving Converting to adjunct faculty. full-time positions SHORTCHANGED in this way is rela- We estimate that approximately MASTER PLAN’S 70% GOAL tively affordable. 1,500 or more adjunct faculty rely on Another 100 conversion lines are Right now, CUNY teaching for their sole source of in- also under discussion in the cur- pays approximate- come. CUNY maintains that adjunct rent contract negotiations. ly $28,000, includ- faculty are hired “at will” – and that This plan would allow eligible ing modest benefit no matter how much they have m long-serving adjuncts to apply for o costs, for 27 teach- proven themselves, they can be de- c . i u

full-time lecturer positions (with r ing hours of ad- nied employment “for any reason, - i .

the possibility to earn a CCE) or w junct lecturers. or no reason at all.” Adjuncts are w tenure-bearing professorial titles, w These 27 teaching paid poverty wages, eligible for few as appropriate. Hiring from within hours constitute a benefits, and not integrated into the this pool would follow normal de- In CUNY as a whole, 47.7% of time for a range of activities that are full-time-equivalent (FTE) position. professional life of the institution. partment procedures, and ad- undergraduate instructional hours vital to any healthy university: com- That is, to hire in a full-time lecturer CUNY, in part for financial rea- vancement possibilities would fol- were taught by full-timers in 2004 – mittee assignments, unsponsored position, 27 hours of current adjunct sons and in part as management low current CUNY Bylaws and an increase of just 1.7% in two research majors, student counseling teaching, or one FTE, will be re- philosophy, has an interest in state education law. years. While it is essential to con- and advisement and administrative placed by the new full-time line. maintaining this part-time, contin- There is no doubt that we need tinue to add hundreds of regular work. In order to meet the 70% goal, Moving a currently teaching ad- gent work force. But employing thousands more full-time faculty to full-time faculty lines in this and fu- reassigned time, especially for un- junct to a full-time lecturer position more adjunct faculty makes the deliver the quality education our ture budgets, given current bud- sponsored research, has been with- in this way will add between $15,000 70% goal harder to achieve, and students deserve. Even with the getary realities, progress has been drawn from full-time faculty to and $20,000, including benefits, to leads management to put the addition of over 600 full-time lines painfully slow. Basically, CUNY is squeeze them to teach more classes. University costs. This means CUNY squeeze on full-time faculty. in the last few years, we have actu- treading water. Unless CUNY changes course, this can add 100 new full-time positions It is time for CUNY to move away ally lost ground in the senior and pressure is certain to get worse. for less than $2 million. The PSC’s from this exploitative practice, and comprehensive colleges. Largely SQUEEZING THE FULL-TIME FACULTY But squeezing time out of full- budget proposal is for 500 new posi- to make adjunct conversions a leg- because of increased student en- Meeting the 70% goal is part of time faculty will only produce mar- tions at a cost of $9 million. This is islative and bargaining priority. It’s rollment at most CUNY colleges the chancellor’s “Performance ginal gains toward the 70% goal – an affordable way make progress time to do this for the sake of quali- the percentage of undergraduate Management Process.” Centrally, and in the end it will harm their towards the 70% goal. Also, in a ty education, and for the sake of CUNY budget approaching $2 bil- fairness. Creating an opportunity lion dollars, this initiative is com- for substantial numbers of these Professional Staff Congress/CUNY paratively inexpensive. dedicated, long-serving faculty to NonProfit Org. Adjuncts have been teaching our win full-time status is an important 25 West 43rd Street U.S. Postage New York, New York 10036 students for years. CUNY and our step toward making CUNY the uni- PAID students depend on them. Current- versity that our students deserve. New York, N.Y. Permit No. 8049

15–MINUTE ACTIVIST Make gains in Albany The PSC initiated two pieces of legisla- other Optional Retirement Plans; after tion that would make a real economic 10 years, CUNY, rather than the em- difference. Both could pass this year – ployee, would make the 3% contribu- but only if legislators hear from you. tion. The second would allow ad- Go to www.psc-cuny.org, to send in- juncts in CUNY and SUNY to collect stant faxes to your representatives. unemployment insurance, just as oth- The first bill would bring pension equi- er workers do, when they are not em- ty to participants in TIAA-CREF and ployed in the summer.