Dear Museum of the City of New York,

Your recent award for Chancellor Felix “Felo” Matos Rodriguez strikes one as puzzling. From the perspective of employees of the City University of New York, the “leadership” Felo demonstrated was absent, misrepresented, and unaware. In light of recent events and actions by the administration of CUNY, we also find many of the policies you praise to have been halfway gestures not fully executed.
“Without his leadership…” CUNY would likely have suffered more than we already did. However, many faculty found out that the university was closing by a tweet from Andrew Cuomo (whose interest in sustaining CUNY is demonstrably little). Indeed, the idea that CUNY closed “...the first week of March…” is morbidly laughable when considering how many of us were still entering the building on Monday, March 15th, including professional staff. Was Felo concerned with “keeping faculty, staff, and students” safe when so many have died and suffered as a result of the late shutdown?

When Felo mentions that CUNY purchased laptops for students, he leaves out that vice presidents of some campuses were asking faculty and staff to volunteer to hand these laptops out during the beginning of April when the pandemic was at its peak and approximately 1,500 were dying within a 24-hour period.

Those praising Felo mention how he has thought of “students in need of childcare” but what about the adjunct faculty (making up more than 60% of the teaching faculty at CUNY) who have zero access to childcare of any kind?

If Felo is concerned with CUNY being a “beacon of hope,” why in the midst of pandemic and economic disaster is CUNY under his leadership raising tuition, laying off adjuncts, and increasing class sizes? Who is the “we” mentioned here? It doesn’t sound like it includes the most vulnerable of our CUNY community. It is this community, these people, who truly represent “resilience and collective action”, so please listen to us when we raise questions and concerns about the real actions of Felo and the consequences of his actions.

It is really wonderful (trust us) to be part of the mission of “supporting New Yorkers” more than many institutions of the state and city (such as the NYPD). However, if Felo truly supports such a mission, there should be some resistance and pushback on his part against the austerity measures preemptively and cruelly administered by CUNY Central against adjunct employees.
The way to make CUNY “stronger and more equitable” is to sustain CUNY by taxing those who can easily afford to pay more as well as reconsidering budget priorities and championing education over militarized policing.

Rank and File Action (RAFA)