The College of Staten Island Overworked & Underpaid Faculty
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The Award-Winning Political Arts Magazine of the College of Staten Island/CUNY Summer 2008 www.ThirdRailMag.com The College of Staten Island Overworked & Underpaid Faculty w « T C H OUT! Ptnrm 'm TV % I i f I r v i . \ V" A I f V N I P ^ o ^ r a p h ^ o e * SUBM IT, or DIE. G et P ublished in T h ird R ail M agazine! SUBM IT YOUR: POETRY iS PHOTOGRAPHY iS ART ^ FICTIO N m P R O S E m PO LITICAL DISCOURSE iS PHILO SO PHICAL TREATISE iS CULTURAL C R ITIC ISM For m ore in fo rm a tio n ca ll us at 7 1 8 - 9 8 2 - 3 1 0 5 or subm it in one o f the fo llo w in g ways: SNAIL M AIL: E-MAIL: D R O P O F F Third Rail M agazine m ail@ ThirdRailM ag.com IN PERSON: c/o College o f Staten Island R o o m 2 3 1 in the Campus 2800 V ictory Blvd, iC -207 O N T H E W E B : Center or in our m ailbox Staten Island, N Y 10 3 14 www.ThirdRailM ag.com located in Room 1 C -207 (Student Governm ent O f f i c e ) contents SUIVIIVIER 2 0 0 8 n i Subm it, Or Die 0 4 Litany o f a Student’s Static 0 6 Overujorked 8- Underpald 0 8 Barbara Boujen’s Open Letter W Chancellor Goldstein's Response 12 Boujen’s Analysis o f CUNY’s O ffe r 15 CUNYElltePav 10 Serpentine 17 Join Third Rail 18 On th e Road To A Gasless Future 2 3 To D e stro y 2 4 Ira q UJar Index 26 Film Revleui: Son o f Ram bow 30 Ferry Fish 3 2 College Vegetarian S ta rte r K it 42 Letters to the Editors Gasless Future Film Reuleuu 4 4 Bullpen: CSrs Nikki Saint Bautista explores MostUJanted Son of Rambouu the giobai race to fuel the cars of the future T h ird R a il Tiie CsBsge «! Satei isiaaa AThird Rail Ovsrwsfked & linSerpaiS Faculty THE COLLECTIVE CSrs o n l u {in reuoluing order) ANTHOWVVlViRITO - auuard-uiLnnlng ' * . Armed Secuntv Detaii JOSEPH BRUSH 'csial . Business, Manager' student publication Undsrpiud St^ T&s, kuika ritrt' ^CHUNHOiVll Pacifist Meditator MEREDITH FOGELWI AN ' Poetry Editor MICHAEL GUAUIERI The Nation. Distribution Manager THIRD JEFFMCGRAHAM ,, V ;l\lon-Fiction Editor W ® M k s MICHAEL MILEV RAIL. V Stalinist Bureaucrat TJ.RILEV . Associate Lditor " IVIAG WIKKISAIWT BAUTISTA Ponderei’ of AU Things NEILSCHULDINER Layout 0 Design - KATHLEEN VANMANEN Secretary ' ■ CONTRIBUTORS MONETTEGRAJO ILLYAGELLER JOHN ELLIOTT PETA RONALD B. MCGUIRE, ESQ. & THE CUNY EMERGENCY LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Legal Department PROFESSOR BRIAN COGAN Faculty Advisor CONTACT E-MAIL: maUpThlrdRallMag.com [ UJEB: i ujuiujThlrdRailMag.com ? SNAIL MAIL; Third Rail Magazine c/o Collegeof Staten Island 2800 Victory Boulevard Campus Center Room 207 Staten Island. NY 10314 ! MAGAZINE OFFICE: Room 231 on the 2nd floor of the CSI Campus Center TELEPHONE: 718-982-3105 718-982-3104 fVIEfVIBER a? Third Roii Magazine is published by itie students of the College of Staten Isbnd, Opinions expressed herein are those of the writers ond are not necessorily shored by Third Rail Magazine stoff or the College of Staten Island, Third Roil Magazine is funded by the student activity fee of the College of Stolen Island of the City ^iniversity of fie'.v Yori-;. Third Rail Magazine is not a publicotion of the College of Staten Island or The City University of Nev.- York, The College of Staten island and The City University of tJevv Yor!, are not responsible for the contents of Third Rail ."agazine. „, . Monette C}rajo; freeze •■ '-^-t v,‘- W W i ^ - 3 . •£■ '> " jn V-* ■ l^ fl-;'. :^'V . ■■ !| hr--«V '.J ■■ '■■ V ‘ :; :li 8 : 8 Bp “fli’ -5TV BBHin3i!Si5i^Bj^WSP|MBTO ■^ v \ >> - ? v \ \ \ n d r i b b l e CSI AN D S j N E W S COVER STORY "WE WANT A CONTRACT!" chants protesters outside of CSI's Campus Center one sunny afternoon in late spring. "When do we want it?" shouts Barbara for a new professor, they typically pick six Bowen, president of the professional out of 400 applicants to be interviewed. staff o f Congress (PSC), th e union th a t According to the PSC, often all six people represents CUNY faculty and staff. interviewed get taken away by other colleges because they offer better salaries "NOW!" replies the rally. and benefits. A variety of union workers from CSI's What's at stake for the students? campus - professors, college assistance, Advisement can only be done by full administration workers - attended the time professors. Also, adjuncts have a demonstration in front of the campus difficult time developing strong working center and rallied to expose the fact relationships with students due to the that they have been working without transitory and unstable nature of their a contract since September. One of the contracts. primary concerns of the protesters is that professors and other workers do not The system is also unfair to adjuncts: get fair raises and adequate healthcare highly educated adjuncts get treated benefits. The PSC argues that CUNY does worse than many workers whose jobs only not want to negotiate a fair contract that require a high school diploma. There is no would ameliorate these problems. job protection, and salaries are only about $25k a year Bowen and her PSC colleagues claim that college professors at nearby public After the rally, an adjunct professor, who institutions make 20 percent more than wished to remain anonymous, explained CUNY professors: "Since 1971, the salary the reason for these low-salaries: steps for CUNY faculty and staff have lost "We have to wait forever to get an offer. between 27 percent and 51 percent of Then, we get half a percentage increase, their value when adjusting for inflation. w hich is w ell below in fla tio n ' CUNY salaries are now thousands of dollars behind salaries at other public "There's health care, but only if we don't universities in the region, such as the get sick. They can fire you from being sick University of Connecticut and Rutgers, and not going to class. In America, when it and totally uncompetitive nationally." comes to work, you don't really have any A ri Bowen believes that "it is an abuse of lAISE! [the workers'] loyalty to expect [them] to "In Germany and France, education continue giving [their] all to CUNY w ithout is free and you are covered if you are even discussion of a raise." not employed. There's no such thing as economic rights here.' Another problem outlined by the union members is that 60%, of teachers in CUNY One rally chant really hits home for many are adjuncts, which is well above the students, "Our work conditions end up national average. This is because CUNY being our students' conditions. Our does not offer competitive enough salaries working conditions are your learning and therefore have difficulty recruiting conditions. faculty. When CUNY schools are looking X ' i Reporting by Nikki Saint Bautista, ' JeffMcGraham &Neil Schuldiner CSI A N D E NEWS COVER STORY Ll. An Open Letter On The Contract To Matthew Goldstein, CUN Y Chancellor From Barbara Bowen, PSC President Dear Chancellor Goldstein; real thing. And that takes decent salaries— across the board. Your salary proposal in this round o f bargaining is to take away The PSC-CUNY contract expired on September 19, 2007. our negotiated salary steps— which represent the only financial It is now nearly six months later, and your representatives incentive many programs can offer— and instead force us to have still made no financial offer to the faculty and compete over scraps o f “merit pay.” Your proposal would do professional staff. We understand that C U N Y must nothing to alleviate the crisis; for all but the chosen few, it would gain authorization from both New York C ity and make the crisis worse. The faculty and staff are not interested in New York State for any financial settlement with illusory answers to the salary problem. Many o f us, especially the PSC, but it is an abuse o f our loyalty to expect us to the newly hired, the part-time, those w ith families and those continue giving our all to C U N Y without even discussion at the lower end o f the salary scale, are having trouble simply o f a raise. The C ity and State have now settled or are close to making ends meet. A ll o f us, whether we are at the top or the settling contracts with other public employee unions. C U N Y bottom o f the salary scale, are frustrated because our salaries are needs to come to the table w ith an offer. below those for comparable positions elsewhere. The only way to advance toward nationally competitive salaries at C U N Y is I am writing this open letter to give voice to the needs of to provide across-the board salary increases above the level of C U N Y faculty and staff and to advance the process o f settling a inflation. contract that addresses those needs. The best way to transform the students’ learning conditions is to transform our working Having waited this long for a financial offer, the faculty and conditions. staff expect the offer you bring to the table to be large enough to begin the restoration o f our salaries and address other urgent C U N Y ’s salaries have reached the point o f crisis.