CUNY News in Brief
by Advocate Staff
Hunter Cafeteria Workers Win Settlement with AVI!!!
The strategic Affairs Department of UNITE HERE! has reported that the Hunter College Cafeteria workers have agreed to a settlement with their employer AVI Foodsystems Inc. The new settlement ends weeks of protest and a planned boycott by Hunter College students, both of which were used to put pressure on AVI to settle.
In an email sent to workers and the Hunter College community Ian Mikusko of UNITE HERE! said:
“The contract is signed and will take effect pending a ratification vote which will be held next Friday. It was approved unanimously by the leadership committee of the workers that represent their co-workers at the negotiations. In related news, the AVI workers at Sarah Lawrence College won a card-check neutrality agreement today as well!
“Now that the workers have won what they needed (again, pending ratification), there’s no reason to boycott the AVI cafeteria at Hunter College on Thursday; so as far as the workers and the union are concerned the boycott is officially off. Please spread the word to people you communicate with about such things.
“The build-up to the boycott seemed to have a huge influence on the company’s eagerness to settle. When we showed them the boycott pledge sheets (with over 1000 signatures — probably well over) several members of the AVI negotiating team got visibly rattled — it was the only point in the negotiation where the AVI people seemed to lose their cool. In my opinion, the threat of an impending boycott was a huge factor in winning a good contract today.
“To sum it up: the workers are happy with their hard-fought contract…It was awesome to see how much support the workers had from the Hunter College and CUNY community.”
Highlights of the new contract include:
The workers will continue to receive free family health benefits that will include employer contributions for this past June, July, August, September and October, months during which AVI previously expected workers to pick up the tab.
AVI will contribute $35/week (’09-’10), $37/week (’10-’11), and $40 per week (’11-’12) for each employees UNITE HERE union 401k retirement plan (as opposed to the AVI company 401k plan which the workers rejected).
The workers will receive a $500 lump sum payment this year, a $.43 per hour raise next year, and a $.43 per hour raise the following year.
CUNY Law Found Harboring a Bunch of Hippies
According to a new review of the nation’s law and business schools, CUNY Law at Queens College boasts the most liberal students in the nation. This assessment, published by the fine folks at the Princeton Review, is based on student surveys collected from 172 law schools across the country. “We don’t believe one law or b[usiness] school is best overall,” said Robert Franek, publisher of the guidebook. “We report rankings in eleven categories and we tally them largely from our unique student surveys to help applicants decide which of these academically outstanding schools will be the best match for them.”
And that’s not all! Fortifying its reputation as a home for over-the-hill leftists still further, CUNY secured the number one ranking for the nation’s oldest law school student body. It also captured top ten rankings in faculty diversity (seventh) and “best professors” (tenth). Unfortunately, it didn’t do so hot in other key categories, such as “quality of life,” “best career prospects,” or admissions standards, but whatever. The important thing here is that CUNY showed those smug, latte-sipping future leaders of our country at NYU and Columbia who’s got the most heart.
CUNY’s Community Colleges Abandon Open Admissions Policy
For the first time in its history, the City University’s family of community colleges has abandoned its open admissions policy. The decision comes down just as record numbers of applications are flooding the two year colleges — a phenomena many credit to Barack Obama’s recent announcement that his administration considers community colleges the backbone of the American labor force — while Governor David Paterson is pushing for a massive budgetary spinal tap to the tune of $9.9 million. Talk about a bait and switch!
The funding cuts have paralyzed the ability of CUNY community colleges to provide a quality education while still accommodating the rapidly increasing number of new students, according to Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, leaving the system with a “moral dilemma” of choosing between maintaining academic excellence and shutting its doors to eager students. The president of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Antonio Perez, agrees. Speaking with the New York Times, Perez noted that the current situation facing the two year school is “like trying to stop a large ship in the middle of the ocean. I expect we will be turning away students next semester as well.”
CUNY Can’t Fund its Community Colleges, but Opens New School in East Harlem
At the exact same moment that CUNY’s community colleges are suffering the rollback of nearly $10 million in funding, the system is celebrating the grand opening of the Lois and Samuel Silberman School of Social Work in East Harlem. The school, which had been housed in midtown, will be relocated to its new digs thanks to a generous $30 million gift from the Silbermans, and a $100 million allocation from the State Legislature.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony attracted a high profile audience, including CUNY’s Darth Goldstein, the city’s recently-crowned mayoral kingpin Michael Bloomberg, and lame duck governor David Paterson, who took time out from his slash and burn campaign against state funding for public education to attend. Said Paterson, “We should all be proud that one of the country’s top public social work schools is located right here in New York. Thanks to the generous gift of the Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund, we can be sure that the School of Social Work at Hunter College will remain strong for years to come. Moving the School of Social Work to East Harlem will give its students and faculty — as well as those at the new CUNY School for Public Health — the opportunity to engage with a vibrant, diverse and growing population in need of the vast array of services Hunter offers. Today’s groundbreaking showcases a public-private partnership at its best.”
What is this new School for Public Health, you ask? Well, according to the propaganda mill at 80th Street, the newest blossom on the CUNY family tree will “open with master’s and doctoral programs in 2010 – 2011, and will be the only school of public health in the nation with an urban focus. This is especially important in a world where the population is increasingly urban, and predicted to be more than 75 percent urban by 2030. The school will focus on new ways to prevent and control health problems in urban populations while training practitioners to implement these solutions in New York City and other urban centers. It will offer community-based doctoral and master’s degrees in disciplines including epidemiology, biostatistics, social and behavioral science, health care administration and policy, and environmental health, as well as selected undergraduate degrees. Attracting students who live and work in the communities it is designed to serve, the School of Public Health will produce graduates with the knowledge and skills to grapple with the serious health care disparities facing the poor, minorities and immigrants.”
CUNY Lets Domain Name Drop
For an institution that prides its self on pinching pennies and making money, CUNY really dropped the ball this past month when they failed to renew one of their domain names — CUNY.com — which was promptly picked up and sold by NameJet.com to an eager bidder. The price tag attached? $30,000.
Industry analysts were left scratching their heads. “Why would a cash-strapped city and school system just let this domain drop instead of selling it?” asked TheDomain.com.
The GC Advocate was wondering the same thing. The paper attempted to reach our Dark Lord of the Chancellery, Matthew Goldstein, for some answers only to find out that his Highness is currently in San Diego, attending the 1132nd Annual Gathering of the Sith.
Leftover PSC Funds for the Taking
Listen up: PSC/CUNY Adjunct Professional Development Grant monies are waiting to be seized. Grants of up to $3,000 per academic year are available to adjunct faculty who are teaching six or more classroom contact hours in the semester and to continuing education teachers who are teaching a minimum of twenty hours per week. Complete eligibility criteria can be accessed through the PSC website at http://www.psc-cuny.org/PDF/AdjConEdProfDevGuidelines.pdf. The grants can be used toward research, courses, conferences, field studies and other activities that will enhance your professional development.
The PSC/CUNY Adjunct Professional Development Fund is one of the initiatives the Professional Staff Congress won in the last contact. It represents the first time in CUNY’s history that a professional development grant program has been offered to adjuncts and is one of the first such programs in the country.
A grant application can be downloaded at http://www.psccuny.org/PDF/AdjConEdProfDevApplication.pdf. Read the enclosed guidelines carefully. Completed applications should be mailed to: Adjunct PDF, PSC/CUNY, 61 Broadway, 15th floor, NYC 10006. Grant awards will be made after review of your application by a panel that includes your peers and that meets once a month during the academic year. You will receive written notification of whether your project has been approved.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login
