Defending Education
Upcoming Contract Negotiations
The current PSC contract expires in October 2010. The Adjunct Project and CCU (Cuny Contingents Unite) are working together to determine what demands should be included on the agenda at the upcoming union contract negotiations. We’re already planning for the next round of bargaining; the kick-off will be a meeting with the PSC and Barbara Bowen at the Graduate Center (room 9205) at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, April 6, to discuss priorities for the next contract and how GC students can be part of the collective bargaining process.
Proposed CCU contract demands were circulated by Abe Walker on the CCU-Discussion list on February 5, after they were approved by the Coordinating Committee. If you would like to receive a copy of that posting, please write to [email protected]
The next Adjunct Project meeting is March 25, and the monthly CCU meeting will be held on Friday, March 26, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, in the Political Science Thesis Room, inside Room 5200 at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Barbara Bowen and other officers will visit every campus this semester to begin a union-wide conversation about bargaining the next contract with CUNY. These meetings will be the membership’s chance to hear directly about issues that have already emerged for the upcoming negotiations and to discuss their own concerns and ideas.To find out when and where the meeting is at your home campus, go to: www.psc-cuny.org
Recap: March 4th Day of Action to Defend Education
On March 4, the National Day of Action to Defend Education, students across the nation gathered for mass protests against budget cuts, tuition hikes, increased class sizes, and school closings. In New York, over 1800 students, teachers and advocates gathered together to protest on the steps of City Hall to protest the mayor’s management of the school system; at Governor David Paterson’s office to protest $1.4 billion in cuts to state education funds, including $466 million in cuts to state funding for city education; and over 250 protesters made it all the way to the MTA hearings at FIT to protest the potential loss of free student MetroCards (with 5000 petitions in tow).
Students, parents, and teachers rallied on the steps of New York City Hall to protest the impending closure of nineteen failing city schools and the expansion of charter schools. 400 students at Hunter College staged walkouts and three protesters were arrested after marchers clashed with campus police. About sixty protesters entered the seven-floor main building in a failed attempt to occupy it; two people were arrested by security officers at the college and charged with trespass, criminal mischief and possession of graffiti instruments, and a thirty-seven-year-old man was charged with disorderly conduct. Students also walked out of classes at the New School and New York University.
Nationally, tens of thousands protested. Many were objecting to recent budget cuts and showing solidarity with students in California, who protested a 32 percent increase in tuition. Oakland police arrested about 150 people after protesters climbed onto a San Francisco Bay area freeway during the afternoon commute, shutting it down for about an hour, police said. More than a hundred such events in at least thirty-two states joined the grass-roots campaign, which had been in motion since demonstrations last fall in California.
The protests garnered substantial media attention. In response to student protestors, the chairman of the MTA agreed to meet with them to hear about how the loss of free student MetroCards will impact their lives. As a result, Chairman Jay Walder has agreed to postpone the vote on the MetroCards until June (rather than mid-March, as expected). It was an important victory, demonstrating that New York students will not accept having to sacrifice for an MTA budget crisis not of their own making.
Part-Time Adjunct Faculty Survey
The Spring 2009 Faculty Experience Survey (FES:09) of full-time faculty and part-time adjunct faculty was conducted by the University Faculty Senate of The City University of New York during the Fall of 2009. The following is an excerpt from the report:
“In reviewing the data, very few readers will fail to note that the differences among campuses in the satisfied columns range from 20 to 70 or even 80 percentage points between campuses. These differences merit our attention and concern…. A handful of campuses merit special attention because they consistently perform in the bottom 25th percentile of satisfaction on a number of issues.
“In the current study, faculty voice strong opinions about their campuses. On a substantial number of campuses, faculty are discontented. Full-time faculty are often split on a number of matters and that is predictable given the wide disparities between campuses.
“Across CUNY, on a few issues, faculty are generally content…. similarly to CUNY full-time faculty, part-time faculty expressed considerable satisfaction with many aspects of their jobs and their faculty and staff relationships at CUNY in the University-Wide report.
“… In order to solve problems that faculty have given voice to, a willingness to engage and dialogue with faculty, to advocate for their campuses, to become creative in solving areas of discontent, and also to preserve valued achievements would foster mutual governance. The City University of New York will be well-served if faculty opinions documented in this report are vigorously addressed.”
Some statistics of interest to part-time Adjunct faculty:
- University-wide, 85 percent of part time adjunct faculty are not graduate students, and 71 percent are over the age of forty-six;
- 27 percent said they had no office space;
- Over 10 percent do not receive timely notification of their reappointment;
- 29 percent usually did not, or never, received notification of their schedule for the following term before the end of the previous term;
- over 30 percent disagree or strongly disagree that they have adequate facilities to meet privately with students;
- 18 percent are dissatisfied with health insurance;
While 70 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with their position at CUNY, 23 percent are very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their salary.
As the March 4 protests and media coverage indicate, we have the potential to make important changes in the compensation, job security, health insurance coverage and overall satisfaction of full and part-time faculty at CUNY. If GC students can make the time to attend the meetings for upcoming contract negotiations, and educate themselves on the most important issues of the day, collectively we can—and will—make a difference.
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