I Want to Believe
by Advocate Staff
“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.” — Tacitus (on the Roman Empire)“Evidence is worthless if you’re dead.” — Dana Scully, The X-Files Late last month, in an attempt perhaps to investigate the possibility of impeachment and to examine and try to understand the unprecedented national failures of the […]
Class Struggle and the PSC
by TSmith
The contract recently negotiated by the PSC leadership gives part-time employees less than nothing and actually increases the inequality in the two-tier CUNY adjunct labor system. Certainly, we must vote this contract proposal down. Beyond that, however, there are broader political questions at stake. What should we do about the New Caucus? Many of us […]
Tech Fee: Let Students Decide, by Gregory Donovan and Rob Faunce
by Gregory Donovan and Rob Faunce
On July 21, The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York approved an increase to the Student Technology Fee (STF). Full time students at the Graduate Center will now be billed $100 and part time students will be billed $50 per semester. The DSC has a number of concerns that we feel must […]
Grad Students, Job Security, and Health Care
by Jessie Goldstein and Renee Mcgarry
Entering this new school year, it may seem like we got everything we asked for last year. After writing letters, calling the Chancellor, the President, legislators, and a large rally, the latest communications from the PSC and CUNY indicate that soon health insurance for doctoral student CUNY employees will be in our hands. Of course, the […]
Of Earth Monsters and Adjunct Lecturers
by Renee McGarry
Where other cultures have an earth mother, the Aztecs have an earth monster. Their creation myth takes all our ideas about this familiar paradigm and goes topsy-turvy. The female creature from which the earth grew doesn’t nurture her people but terrifies them and demands ritual sacrifice. Quite frankly, this image is what made me fall […]
CUNY News In Brief (September, 2008)
by Advocate Staff
Cuts to CUNY Budget: As part of Governor David Paterson’s effort to trim New York State’s budget by $1 billion, legislators approved a package of spending cuts directly impinging on the welfare of CUNY students. In addition to significant cutbacks in Medicaid, the state corrections department, and other local assistance programs, CUNY suffered a $26 million […]
Summer Fling
by EMock
I’ll never forget approaching the field in Prospect Park last summer for a friendly game of Graduate Center Humanities-on-Humanities softball. I squinted in the sun, searching for the group to which I belonged. Looking to the left, I saw a group of athletic teenagers sprinting with ease around their diamond. On the right, a number of corporate-by-day players, whose company uniforms […]
China, New York, and the American Way
by Justin Rogers-Cooper
What does the success of the “genocide” Olympics mean for the future of US politics, and even for the election in November? At first glance, this may sound like a minor foreign policy issue. After all, didn’t George Bush basically agree with people like Steven Spielberg about the need to “honestly” criticize the Chinese regime? Isn’t […]
The PSC’s “Adjunct Problem” : The Proposed Contract and the Future of Cuny’s Biggest Union
by Advocate Staff
On July 1st 2008 the delegate assembly of the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY voted overwhelmingly to approve sending the proposed contract settlement between the PSC and the City University of New York to the larger union membership for a final ratification vote. Although the majority of the delegates in attendance supported passing the contract on to […]
Neoliberalism and its Discontents
by RSaute
Amsden, Alice H. 2007. Escape From Empire: The Developing World’s Journey Through Heaven and Hell. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 210 pages. Cloth. $27.50 Chang, Ha-Joon. 2008. Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism. New York: Bloomsbury Press. 288 pages. Cloth. $26.95 Why aren’t all countries rich? It is […]
