November newsletter
In this edition….the fight for office space at Brooklyn College, the struggle intensifies at College of Staten Island, solidarity for Columbia Workers, turning up the heat in the New Caucus, organizing against CUNY debt, and more!
Brooklyn College Adjuncts Fight for Office Space
As we return to campus for the Spring semester, it’s clear to many that we cannot go back to the way things were pre-COVID. Adjuncts have rarely had access to safe, dignified office space at CUNY. With ten or twelve adjuncts crammed into a space meant for four, malfunctioning or totally absent computers and printers, and little privacy to meet with students, most of us accepted these conditions as the status quo, along with poverty wages and lack of job security. Adjuncts at Brooklyn College are fighting back, saying “NO” to suggestions from admin that we simply meet with students in loud, crowded cafeterias, that we risk our health and safety in dilapidated, poorly ventilated adjunct “offices,” and that we continue to normalize a dysfunctional instructor/student dynamic. The Brooklyn PSC chapter is engaged in ongoing negotiations to convert the old Bookstore in Boylan Hall to permanent adjunct office space, which could accommodate up to 185 adjuncts with proper semi-private cubicles, computers, and printers. While sitting atop millions in CARES Act funding, so far administration has been non-committal, and is merely taking our plan for the space as “advice.” But we know that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, and adjuncts and union comrades are beginning to prepare escalation strategies for our return in Spring if admin backslides on the desperate need for safe accommodations. If you’re a Brooklyn adjunct who wants to join the fight for actual office space, contact: tomorgnyc@gmail.com
CSI Action Committee update
After another massive rejection of CSI President Fritz's top-down authoritarian governance plan, the president announced his resignation, effective the end of the calendar year. In December 2020, an overwhelming majority of the Faculty Senate voted "no confidence" in President Fritz's leadership. Regarding the new misgovernance plan, there was a vote last Spring, and Fritz lost. Then this Fall, students, faculty and staff at CSI came together in a referendum where 87% voted the plan down. While the effort at CSI has been commendable, CSI still has a long way to go if it actually intends to join students, staff, and contingent and full-time faculty in the struggle for a better CUNY. During the push for referendum votes, there was a call to "get the adjuncts involved" and a flurry of emails and calls, but it was a little too opportunistic. Many of the full-timers did not actually want to discuss adjunct exploitation or make a serious pledge to fight it.
We see this contradiction in other ways too. The CSI chapter has organized two events in response to the PSC Palestine Resolution, which is positive, but there are two problems which must be mentioned. One: the decision of who would speak at these events was made by the CSI EC without input of the rank-and-file. The Action Committee was explicitly kept out of the discussion. We suggested Jeff Schurke, a scholar of the AFL-CIO's—especially the ATF— long collaboration with US imperialism, including in backing Israel, as a speaker. Our meeting was called 'unofficial' by chapter President George , who mocked us by calling us the Big Action Committee. The other problem is that the CSI EC asked Cary Nelson to speak, who was a leading defender of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign's decision to fire Steven Salaita over his support for Palestine, and opposed the AAUP's decision to censure the university because of this decision. The top down organizing of the event crystalizes the larger problems in our union that has undermined building a real fightback against the ruling class attacks we have been facing for decades, and that are intensifying.
Columbia University Student Worker Strike
Watch RAFA member Giacomo’s rallying speech on the picket line here
On Wednesday, November 3, graduate students at Columbia went on strike after several rounds of bargaining over their new contract. Student Workers of Columbia, a UAW- affiliated grad teacher union, authorised the strike back in September. Their main demands are for a living wage, full healthcare, recourse to external arbitration for dealing with sexual harassment and bullying, and the ability to organise all titles recognised by the National Labor Relations Board. This is not the first time the Student Workers have struck this year; in fact, it’s just one more chapter in the story of struggle with Columbia management, who have failed to improve conditions during COVID, including access to the full range of healthcare benefits. In addition, most Columbia grad students live in Columbia-owned housing, so an enormous amount of their paychecks goes directly back to the university.
The good news is, however, that the turnout for their inaugural strike rally was huge, and consisted largely of undergrads. Since then, the picket has been robustly attended, and supported by many members of faculty (who themselves cannot, as tenure-stream private university professors, legally form a union). Even this internal support, however, won’t be sufficient for the student workers to win at Columbia. The administration has already sought scab labor from among its own staff, but also from external sources. They changed the usual schedule for distribution of stipends in order to make a strike that much harder. As academic workers on the bottom margin of vulnerability, we must show support to the strikers in whatever ways we can. RAFA and the PSC are organising a number of visits to the picket line as well as donation drives. If you’d like to help, email us at rafa.cuny@gmail.com.
Uniting our Union Slate in the New Caucus
A group of nine reform-minded comrades, including two RAFA members, ran on a slate entitled Uniting Our Union for Governing Board in the PSC New Caucus (NC), an election that only happens every three years. The New Caucus has been the leadership electoral caucus of the PSC since 2000. Only by joining the NC can PSC members vote in the election for Governing Board, whose members propose the New Caucus slate for the Executive Council of the PSC every three years (further, they had to join the NC by September in order to vote in this November election). No more than half the GB can consist of current EC members. Given the current absence of a competing electoral caucus, the New Caucus effectively decides on who runs for PSC office.
The nine members of the Uniting Our Union slate
You can read more about the slate members and their points of unity here. Candidates on this slate have been heavily involved in a number of organizations designed to push the PSC in a more militant and anti-racist direction. These range from official PSC committees such as the Anti-Bullying Committee, the Anti-Racist Committee, the International Committee, and the Membership Retention Crisis Committee, to PSC-adjacent groups such as the Cross-campus Strike Readiness Committee and the Cross-CUNY Working Group Against Racism and Colonialism (and, of course, RAFA).
Congratulations to the four members of Uniting Our Union who succeeded in winning seats on the Governing Board: Stuart Davis, Rulisa Galloway-Perry, Amy Jeu, and Glenn Kissack! All slate members, including those who lost, received an outpouring of support, reflecting an earnest desire for change and transformation in the caucus. In a 100-person meeting, the lowest-ranking candidate still received almost 40 votes. We at RAFA hope that through elections like these and by embracing a new wave of rank-and-file activism, the New Caucus will continue to live up to its promises of standing up for workers’ rights and social justice unionism.
Campus Workers Organizing Against Debt
In April of 2021, the Graduate Center Chapter PSC budget committee organized a Debt Reveal event, unveiling CUNY’s significant institutional debt and its social and racial ramifications. Not only do payments towards CUNY’s debt comprise more than a third of student tuition, but this debt means that decision-making at CUNY is driven by credit rankings. To get a high credit ranking, CUNY has to emphasize attracting high-revenue students, cut spending, market and brand itself, reduce barriers to raising tuition, place finance executives on the Board of Trustees, and control labor costs. Since the Debt Reveal, CUNY workers have been participating in a series of national debt events with The Public Higher Education Network and Labor Notes, engaging in popular education and organizing a national movement against institutional debt in higher education. These events included workshops on “Organizing Around the Other College Debt Crisis” and “How We Are Organizing Around Campus Debt: Practical Ideas and Resources”. On November 30, the latest workshop, “How Debt Robs Us and How to Take What is Stolen Back” will demonstrate how debt leads to shutting down programs, firing faculty, undermining democratic governance, and shifting even more debt burden to students - and how to take this information and use it to organize. Register here.
December 11 March from LaGuardia to CUNY Law
The PSC-CUNY is organizing a march for “A People’s Budget, A People’s CUNY” with students, families, and allies: “It's time for a New Deal for CUNY and a budget that's worthy of CUNY, a people's university. Time to end the racialized austerity and tuition hikes, the faculty and staff shortages, and the adjunct exploitation.” Even if your faith in Democrats and legislative lobbying as a union strategy has been tested, we urge you to turn out for this march - not only to show public support for the New Deal For CUNY, but also to be with and talk to fellow union members and build towards collective power that will enable us to put real muscle behind our demands. Join RAFA sign-making party on Friday, Dec. 10.
Adjunct Testimony, New York City Council Higher Education Committee on Adjunct Faculty Employment
Watch the full November 12 City Council hearing here.
On the Poverty of Adjunct Life:
Honestly, I'm angered that we live in a world where you are asking me, an overworked, underpaid Adjunct, to give even more of my time to make a testimony about how I am being exploited. You should know this already! It is obvious to anyone who looks. My fiance and I are living in my mother's house for the second time(!) since the pandemic hit. She has had no job for two years. I have barely been able to support us on my adjunct salary. We can not afford rent! And forget about getting married and having kids. We can not afford to have a wedding. My fiance has an infertility issue and would need (proper) health insurance to see a specialist. I have no job security nor is there hope of a full-time position. This is not because of laziness on my part. Since the pandemic, I have published an article in a major journal and have two more forthcoming. That makes four articles in all. Shouldn't that be enough for a job? And, not to toot my own horn but, giving credit where credit is due, I am a beloved teacher by students and colleagues (just check RATE MY PROFESSOR as well as my teaching evaluations!). All this to say, the situation is obvious and it is well past time that something be done. How many more times do I need to yell: "I AM BEING ABUSED!!!!"? We need a Free CUNY and the end of adjunctification! We need to rebuild crumbling infrastructure. For adjuncts this means simply "equal pay for equal work." It is outrageous that adjuncts do the same work as 'full timers' but get paid a fraction. This needs to end. I hope that the conscience of whoever reads this is pricked and that you are spurred to action! A fight is coming against the neoliberalization of the university. Which side are you on? We need a massive reinvestment to make CUNY the People's University it was always meant to be.
In Solidarity with Workers Everywhere,
Christopher Santiago
Adjunct at CSI