CUNY News In Brief (May, 2008)
by Advocate Staff
PSC still without a contract
The Professional Staff Congress union, which represents faculty and staff at CUNY, has now been without a contract for almost eight moths and has still not received any kind of monetary offer from the CUNY administration. This situation has sparked marches and campus actions across CUNY including a series of rallies at every CUNY campus during Contract Week in the second week of April.
PSC members are urging the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor to increase faculty wages, which the union claims are far below the national average; provide health insurance to graduate students who teach; and make sure that department chairs are not removed form the union.
Grad Center still without nurse practitioner
It is looking increasingly likely that the Graduate Center Health Services Center will not have a nurse practitioner until late summer or the beginning of next semester.
Although the Office of Student Affairs repeatedly told the GC Advocate that the situation would be fixed imminently, again and again their projected dates for a new nurse practitioner came and went.
Sources report that Student Affairs has made an offer to its first choice candidate and is currently waiting for a response.
If accepted the new Nurse Practitioner must then undergo no less than two weeks of training from Mt. Sinai, which is offered only once a month. The May deadline has already passed, so that makes mid-June the absolute earliest date that the new NP would be able to start work.
Graduate Center dorm approved by community board
The Queens Gazette reported on April 16 that Community Board 2, which represents the neighborhoods of Woodside, Sunnydale, and Long Island City, approved zoning for a six story student residence for Graduate Students and CUNY faculty in Hunter’s Point, Long Island City.
Although far from unanimous, the 21 – 10 vote in favor of approving the dorm paves the way for the Graduate Center to move forward with the next phase of finally providing housing for GC students.
A previous proposal was unanimously rejected by the board in March. The GC has been without a dorm for years.
