City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works The Advocate Archives and Special Collections 11-1991 The Graduate Student Advocate, November 1991, Vol. 3, No. 3 How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_advocate/41 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Graduate Student Volume 3 City University of New York NOVEMBER 1991 Number3 Art History Students Serve Notice to ,_ CUNY Administration For over four years students in the Graduate-School Ph.D planning" has gone unfulfilled. Thus far. most of the plan­ • • • program in Art History have attempted to avert sweeping ning has taken place behind closed doors, without input [Editor's note: The following text was presented changes in their department. Readers of The Advocate are from the students. Excluded from the planning process, familiar with the ongoing struggle between students and to the CUNY Board of Trustees at the November Art History students were forced to form their own com­ 18th meeting for entry into the official record.] administration over changes in the Art History department mittee to confront the expansion issue. that, if finally implemented, will radically alter the scope Thus far, students have limited their struggle to the • • • and direction of their program. Students have now re­ department.Executive Committee, though their represen­ On behalf of the editorial staff of The Graduate Stu­ tained Matthew Hagopian Esq. as legal counsel and have tatives have formally contacted' and negotiated with the ... dent Advocate, the student newspaper of the CUNY formally notified the department, the Graduate School and late President Proshansky, the former Acting Preside.1t Graduate Center, I hereby register my protest CUNY administrations, as well as the New York State Cahn, and CUNY Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds. In her against the continued hiring of "contract guards" at Commissioner of Education, Thomas Sobol, that the pro­ September 11th letter to President Horowitz, which was the CUNY colleges. A case in point is the current posed changes must conform to statewide guidelines. publicly circulated, the students' DSC representative Mi­ request (see item 48) for Brooklyn College. Regulations developed by the office of New York's gnon Nixon states that the "expansion" has bee'n "pro­ My objection is threefold. First, whether this Commissioner of Education state that all new doctoral moted by the late President Proshansky and Provost Ste­ practice, which I believe now constitutes a definitive specializations must be specifically reviewed and ap­ ven Cahn not only in the face of student opposition, but in hiring pattern, is sanctioned by the leadership of the proved in a formal process. Finally, any changes must be possible violation of New York State law." Despite the guards' union, Local 328, and even if these actions approved by the Commissioner. Guidelines state that a Art History students' persistence and insistence that their fall within the scope of the current contract, the net proposed specialization "must show evidence of careful objections to the proposed changes be addressed and for­ effect is to bust the union. As this newspaper, and planning indicated by clear definition of the goals of the mally recognized, the department and the administration many of our student groups have repeatedly stated specialization and the implementation of a reviewing sys­ of the Graduate School have ignored them. Indeed, for and demonstrated, notably in the Spring '91 strike, tem devised to estimate the success of students and faculty approximately three years the department has added fac- .. we are deeply concerned about the fate of the staff in ~<,hieving,~us;fi_gq~&,., .• " ~ W.IJ~ ,a committee has been ulty and altered~ourse offerln sin onier \o emmace--0 - ·- - -- . ~ udget an so-ca operations requests system has been established to evaluate the feasibility of These actions have been interpreted by the students as such as item 4B are used to dilute the strength of expansion. An ad hoc com!llittee of faculty from the De­ an attempt to bypass the formalized process established by their unions. partment of Art History rejected the idea of expansion, on New York's Education Law. Their retention of counsel is Second, the guards represented by Local 328 the grounds of a lack of adequate funding. Nonetheless, an attempt to regain tl}e right to due process and demo- are not only members of a-union which we support, the Commissioner's mandate for "evidence of c~eful continues on page 2 but are also members of our community. As such they are responsive to the needs and mores of a vital university community, and are, finally, accountable to the university. If something goes wrong, or there is a security mishap, the university is directly responsible. We will not tolerate the introduction of guards who are not responsive to our needs, as CUNY students and as members of a community, but simply follow The CUNY administration is acting to centralize and development of a CUNY Police Cadet program, which orders dictated by the maintenance of "security". strengthen CUNY's security force, which may culminate woul~ involve student police cadets on patrol with New 'This kind of arrangement will, ultimately result in per­ in granting CUNY's security guards arresting powers. York City police officers was also encouraged. sonal injury to students. After the Spring strike, Yan- Already 40 new public safety officers have been hired, Currently, the University relies heavily on contracts kee Security, and at the request of Steven Cahn/ who will holct" a new level of campus security supervisory with a number of private guard services, colloquially Floyd Moreland, placed plainclothes guards at the jobs. CUNY's new guards are taking a training course at known as "rent-a-cops", which include Bell, Burns, Ecco, Graduate Center who were abusive and intimidating. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The pilot program Guardian, and Yankee. These guards are not CUNY em­ This cannot continue. will be initiated at John Jay College and three Brooklyn ployees, nor are they civil servants, and they do not have Third, I question the ongoing calls for more CUNY campuses: Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn Col­ the same authority as police officers or peace officers. CUNY security. These calls, which the trustees lege, and New York City Technical College. While many of these services are run by former police couch in characterizations of CUNY students as The administration is acting upon recommendations officers, their guards do not go through an extensive back­ criminals and vandals, mimics a paranoid and au­ made in a report issued last semester by the CUNY ground check, nor do they receive a high level of training thoritarian policy of "guns before butter", which our Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Campus Security or staff development. Many current guards; having heard own city is now enduring. Furthermore, the call for and Community Service. The report, obtained by Student about this report and the pilot program, are worried that additional security comes at a time when the 80th Leader News Service, calls for the, "Implementation of a the reorganization of security will result in them being Street administration, on behalf of the trustees, comprehensive, system-wide approach to campus secu­ layed-off and replaced by guards who have peace officer seems determined to abridge our civil rights, notably rity." The report recommended that "selected CUNY se­ status. [see The Human Cost] to bar us when we attempt to attend public board curity ... should have officer status." The ten member Chancellor's Advisory Committee meetings, and, most recently to annul our democratic The reasons the report gives for the necessity of se­ on Campus Safety and Community Service is chaired by attempts to reform our government the USS. For the lected guards having peace officer status is that, "The Medgar Evers College President Edison 0. Jackson, and record, the Graduate School DSC will carry through availability of CUNY peace officers will provide flexibil­ includes Kingsborough Community College President on its threat to call for the resignation of administra­ ity of response and action within the campuses, because Leon Goldstein. Borough of Manhattan Community Col­ tors on the USSERC in order to ensure that a fair and the peace officers are empowered to make arrests based lege President Augusta S. Kappner. as well as John Jay fully democratic USS Chair serves for the upcoming upon probable cause for criminal activity." While peace President Gerald W. Lynch and Dean James Curran. electoral year. We will insist on our democratic rights officers will have arresting power, "Peace officer status Other members include City College Vice President no matter how many guards are hired, now m_atter does not, in itself. confer the .authority to carry firearms. George McDonald and Prof. EleanQr Lundeen, Brooklyn how many cops you summon. The carrying of firearms on a campus is regulated by Uni­ College professors James Levine and Robert Kelly, and versity policy." former University Student Senate Chair, Gregario Mayers, Respectfully submitted, The committee wants to see the University's security who is now employed in the Office of the President at program reorganizt:.: so as to limit the reliance on outside Medgar Evers College. Andrew Long securityTrrms,.and increase the level of training of the Editor, The Graduate Student Advocate University's security force. The report also calls for the Ian McGowan is the City Editor of the Student Leader flews Service Page2 November 1991 "This new policy has had a demoralizing duties which require such legal privileges. ... Ian McGowan ... effect on our guards," said one CUNY se­ "We've done a lot of things that private prior to his tenure at the Port Authority, curity supervisor who asked to remain an­ security are not allowed to do, like "stop As part of Chancellor Reynolds· plan to Inspector Elique worked for Newark Inter­ onymous.