CUNY News In Brief (May, 2010)
CUNY-TV Wins Big at the NY Emmys
Congratulations are in order for the fine folks running CUNY-TV. The broadcasting arm of the CUNY system, located here within our very own building, cleaned up at the annual New York Emmy awards this April, taking home four awards for excellence in programming. CUNY was recognized in particular for two of its shows—“Nueva York” and “We Are New York”—that, according to CUNY senior vice-chancellor Jay Hershenson, “focus on quality-of-life issues impacting immigrants, utilizing television as an educational tool.”
“Nueva York” was recognized by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Emmys, as being the best magazine program on the air this past year and for producing the best episode of TV in 2009. “We Are New York” won Emmys for Best Writer and Best Photographer.
John Jay Offers Students Real Life Lesson on Putting the “Criminal” in Criminal Justice
While CUNY-TV was busy kicking ass at the New York Emmys, administrators at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice were being recognized for their own recent activities by the US Department of Justice. On April 14, federal authorities brought suit against the school for engaging in discriminatory hiring practices targeting noncitizens authorized to work in the United States. According to the Department of Justice, John Jay violated provisions of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act by demanding extra authorization from over one hundred job applicants in the last two years alone instead of simply accepting regular work eligibility documents allowed by law.
The New York Times reports that the “suit seeks civil penalties of $1,100 for each individual and unspecified measures to overcome the effects of discrimination. It also seeks compensation for each person affected, including the woman who set off the investigation when she complained in 2008 to the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. She called the special counsel after she was fired from her job as a part-time computer lab assistant at the college.” The woman, who refuses to be publicly identified, was fired after John Jay demanded she produce a green card in order to continue being employed. When she refused, the college issued her walking papers.
For its part, John Jay admits wrongdoing in this instance, and has agreed to settle the suit as quickly as possible. The college marched its PR head in front of reporters to assure them that John Jay “reaffirm[s] our commitment to providing employment opportunities to immigrants who are authorized to work in this country.” The spokeswoman also promised that the college would institute a “comprehensive training program”—whatever that means—to ensure that discriminatory practices are eradicated from John Jay’s hiring process in future.
John Jay Discriminates Against Immigrants AND Adjuncts
While we applaud John Jay’s commitment to ending discrimination, we are less impressed by its commitment to education. A few weeks ago, adjunct faculty members in the departments of sociology and computer science were put on notice that letters of reappointment would not be forthcoming from the college for fall 2010 for any adjunct faculty, and that indeed all adjuncts would be receiving letters of non-reappointment, a crass violation of the spirit animating CUNY’s contract with the PSC.
The Advocate has gotten hold of an email sent to members of the sociology department, which
we reprint below:
Dear Sociology Department Adjunct Faculty Member,
As President Jeremy Travis’s letter of April 13th indicated, there is great uncertainty over the financial state of John Jay College next year and there will be a number of changes instituted to reduce costs. It is likely there will be fewer classes than before. At present we do not know how many course sections we will have available for adjunct assignment in the fall and therefore cannot send out letters of reappointment. All adjunct faculty in the sociology department are getting this note, and all will be receiving a letter of non-reappointment from Provost Jane Bowers. We will keep you posted on course availability when we know our situation for the fall. Meanwhile, it would be prudent to consider other options for Fall 2010. If we are able to offer you one or two classes we will let you know as soon as possible. We are hoping that this is a temporary situation.
Best regards,
Susan Opotow, Chair,
Appointment Committee Adjunct
Andrew Karmen and Barry Spunt,
Committee Members”
Best regards, indeed. Apparently John Jay faculty didn’t take getting fucked on their backs, prompting a follow-up letter from Opotow, Karmen and Spunt explaining just why it is they feel compelled to act like such pricks:
Dear Part-Time Colleagues [Oh! Now they’re colleagues!!!],
We would like to make it clear the reasons for the non-reappointment letter. As we stated in our email to you of 4/20/10, there is great uncertainty over the financial state of John Jay College next year and there will be a number of changes instituted to reduce costs. We are also expected to have an increased number of graduate teaching fellows who are prioritized by the college over adjuncts in terms of teaching. This will mean we may have fewer course sections to offer. We very much value the contribution of our adjunct faculty and are already trying to do everything we can to resist a reduction in the number of the courses but this is the situation we are faced with.
As the situation becomes clearer we will be starting the process of reappointment. We are sorry if this is causing you any anxiety. Please bear with us in this period of uncertainty. We are working to save as many positions as we can and will let you know of any new developments as soon as possible.
Andrew Karmen, Susan Opotow, and Barry Spunt
On Friday April 30th, at a joint meeting of the CCU and the Adjunct Project to discuss the threat of more layoffs, members voted for a resolution that included plans to hold a demonstration in front of John Jay College sometime early this month. Keep an eye out for more information regarding this protest. Those who would like know more or who would like to participate should contact the Adjunct Project at:
[email protected]
Union Waivers Leave CUNY Labor Split
Inherent tensions between full-time and adjunct labor pools within the Professional Staff Congress were on display this past month as a dispute over waivers allowing adjuncts to exceed their teaching loads came to a head. The PSC-CUNY contract contains provisions designed to shield part-time faculty from being stuck with full-time loads. Normally, adjuncts are limited to nine-credit workloads per semester, per college, with an allowance of one extra course at a second college (of no more than six credits). Adjuncts looking for additional work traditionally must apply for a waiver from the union allowing extra courses to be added to their already burdened schedule. And traditionally, the union has approved waiver requests.
The union announced several months ago that waiver requests will no longer be accepted moving forward, a policy change the union argues will force colleges to create more tenure-track faculty positions. Adjuncts, unsurprisingly, disagree, arguing that the union’s new position on waivers will only limit their access to income, and lead to the creation of more adjunct positions, not the creation of increased tenure-track slots.
The position of adjuncts was expressed succinctly in a letter of complaint issued by CUNY Contingents Unite. According to the CCU statement, the union’s new position on waivers not only harms adjunct laborers, but undermines solidarity within the union itself. “It does not help the union to callously tell those already on the bottom to take the lumps, grit their teeth and somehow find a way to get by,” the letter argues. “Nor can those who are barely getting by with waivers just find other jobs, especially in the present economic crisis.”
The PSC’s Barbara Bowen responded by noting that she understands the predicament faced by adjuncts. “We are aware, I feel it very acutely that when you stop a labor abuse, you have to pay special attention to your own members who have something to lose by stopping that abuse,” she said. “Somebody who had been teaching four courses and getting a waiver could have come to count on that income. That is a blow to the individual and there’s no denying that.” Nevertheless, Bowen argued that the new policy ultimately serves the best interest of adjuncts by preventing CUNY from hiring adjuncts on a full-time basis while only offering them part-time pay.
While adjuncts argue that the union’s best intentions will not come to pass, they also see that the new policy does nothing to dismantle the current, two-tiered system of salary discrepancies between part- and full-time CUNY faculty. As Inside Higher Ed recently noted, “the anger at CUNY is not just about the union’s policy but also about the process by which it decided on its strategy. Adjuncts who are critical of the shift in thinking say they never had a chance to tell the union why they like waivers. And many adjuncts noted that in a union meeting and in a union publication, union leaders have compared the issue of the caps to child labor laws. Comparing adjuncts to children was called ‘patronizing,’ among other terms. These adjuncts noted that—even if union leaders disagree with their decisions—they are adults capable of making a choice on whether teaching another section is in their interests. One adjunct who asked not to be identified said that “it is infantilizing to pretend that this is like a seven-year-old in the coal mines.”
Bowen acknowledges adjunct disgruntlement, but shot back that the PSC is fighting for faculty rights on two separate fronts, and that a freeze of teaching waivers was critical to adjunct protection. Says Bowen, “One can push very hard for long-term change and still have commitment to addressing the needs of those affected in the short term.”
One Response to “CUNY News In Brief (May, 2010)”
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All adjuncts at John Jay should now file en masse for unemployment, as the letter of non-reappointment should now unquestionably qualify them to receive it for the summer, as well as the fall if they are not
re-employed. CUNY has an ugly history of trying to fight unemployment claims, but these should be undeniable.