CUNY News In Brief (November, 2008)
by Advocate Staff
Breaking News: Chancellor Goldstein Receives Hefty Pay Increase
In answer to recent state-led cuts to the CUNY budget, the Board of Trustees tightened its belt still further by bumping Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s annual salary by $55,000 (a 14 percent increase). This brings the chancellor’s yearly pay to just under $500,000 a year. When his housing stipend (!!!) is thrown into the mix, the chancellor’s total income amounts to an additional $100,000 per annum.
Those concerned that the Trustees might have forgotten to reward the chancellor’s gallery of underlings, fret not. According to the Professional Staff Congress, a whole slew of vice-chancellors and other assorted henchmen also received pay hikes. Most raises were of a five-figure nature, ensuring that none of the top executives would be left out of the $200,000 annual salary club. But don’t worry: most won’t have to suffer increased taxes under the Barack Obama plan.
CUNY Law Students Defend Democracy
With the John McCain campaign going down in flames, CUNY Law students are organizing to ensure that democracy doesn’t get taken down with it. On November 4th, a group of seventy-five students will disperse to various polling stations throughout the city to protect the voting rights of those targeted for disenfranchisement.
The students intend to station themselves in predominantly poor and minority neighborhood precincts, where they will “enhance access to voting and to prevent the use of unlawful practices, such as demanding proof of citizenship, turning people away without photo identification when it is not required, or restricting access to language interpreters,” according to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which sponsors the movement. Participating students have received training in voting rights law and poll monitoring.
CCNY Student Activists Finally Get Their Day in Court
Just when you thought the bad old days of the Rudolph Giuliani years were dead and gone, their ghosts have returned to haunt former student activists at City College — and just in time for Halloween!
On October 27th, a federal jury began hearing a case that dates back a decade involving student activists that took on former CCNY president Yolanda Moses. Three students filed a lawsuit against Moses for installing surveillance equipment inside the college’s Morales-Shakur Center, home to campus and community activist groups. At the time, local organizations were mounting a campaign against the Giuliani administration’s attack on equal access to CUNY education.
In response to the lawsuit, Moses nullified student elections that would have been captured by a slate of activist students, prompting yet another lawsuit. A federal judge has already determined that Moses violated the First Amendment rights of the students through her actions. The jury has been charged with determining whether or not the violation of constitutional rights was “objectively reasonable” within the context of the period.
HIP HIP Hooray!!!
Adjuncts sick, literally, of not being covered by health insurance can finally breathe a sigh of relief. As of this month, adjuncts and graduate assistants (with A,B, or C designations) enrolled as full-time doctoral students are now eligible for low-cost health insurance coverage. According to the Office of the Provost, eligibility requirements demand that adjuncts “earn at least $4,112 a year in one of those titles. If they are employed for just one semester, they must earn at least $2,061 to be eligible.”
Moreover, “adjuncts (or non-teaching adjuncts) are eligible in the semester in which they are teaching or otherwise working, as long as they earn at least the minimum amount for plan coverage. Students who are enrolled in the health insurance plan in the spring semester will be covered over the summer as long as there is an expectation that they will remain eligible in the fall.”
Students concerned about the fine print of eligibility are encouraged to contact Anne Ellis in the Provost’s office for more information by email at aellis@gc.cuny.edu, or by phone at (212) 817‑7284.
