Category Archives: Take action!

Free the Funds: Let’s push CUNY to release the $54.7 million in Federal funding

Dear Colleagues,

Act this week to ‘Free the Funds’: Let’s push CUNY to release the $54.7 million in Federal funding that has been earmarked for John Jay to support the college’s mission. This institutional aid – almost $900 million for CUNY colleges altogether – has disappeared into CUNY’s maw; the Chancellor has yet to provide the funds to the colleges, or any indication of how they will be used.  Some of us have already sent a letter to the Chancellor calling for the release of the funds; you can do so here: https://www.psc-cuny.org/issues/free-funds-letter .

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From the Chairs, 8th March 2021.

Colleagues —   What happens in the budget process in Albany this week will determine much of the fate of our university, and of our John Jay College.  The time to advocate is NOW!  Any one who attended our Chapter meeting a week ago learned from Paul Narkunas and Susan Kang — from our JJay Chapter EC, and from Jen Gaboury — Chair of the Hunter College Chapter and member of the PSC Legislation committee — how crucial the budget deliberations this year are for the future of CUNY and the possibility of a New Deal for CUNY.  Slides.   Right now, you should know about the virtual meetings that you and your students could all join — many of them in the next 72 hours — to help this university get the support our students and we really need. Continue reading →

From the Chairs – February 4th, 2021

Colleagues —  Despite the pandemic and the budget austerity imposed by Albany, CUNY’s Spring ’21 semester is underway. The fight continues for full funding, for pedagogically appropriate class sizes, for the teaching and learning conditions our students need and deserve.
Tomorrow, Friday morning (at 10 AM), the PSC holds a press conference announcing the filing of the New Deal for CUNY legislative package, aimed at instituting a budget framework to assure the funding and fiscal health of CUNY, while expanding the counseling staff and teaching faculty of the university and eliminating tuition. It’s an exciting vision whose time has come. If you’d like to be part of the zoom press conference, to show support for the New Deal legislation, you can do by registering here.

You can also easily personalize or just send a letter to the Chancellor and the CUNY Trustees, calling on them to “release the funds!” provided to the university by the CARES Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA).

And do please sign — if you haven’t already — the online petition for smaller class sizes at CUNY .

Mark your calendar:  we have scheduled two John Jay College PSC Chapter meetings — for Tuesday, March 2nd (register here ), and for Monday, April 19th.  Our March meeting will feature the fight for a New Deal for CUNY. 

One last thing:  organizing to assure our funding and to be ready if management makes poor choices is vital now, so we want you to converse with another chapter member on the issues facing all of us this month.  Your department representative – you can find their name in our chapter website — would love to hear that you are ready to help us call some of your colleagues.  Or just join us in our zoom-based calling sessions on Tuesday afternoons at 4. Organizing colleagues  is meaningful and worthwhile.

Please let us know if you have questions, or special concerns or issues you think we should address.  You can reach us at JJayPSC@gmail.com

best wishes for a successful semester,

John & Zabby

From the Chairs: Mobilizing for CUNY

A reminder of two events this week related to battles we need to wage for the integrity and the future of CUNY and of our college.  Also, beyond this week’s events, we note the challenge posed for all activists and all members of the PSC by the threat of cuts to the university and by a resolution calling for mobilizing the entire union to defend CUNY and our college in the face of budget deficits.
The first event is a city-wide town hall on a funding proposal to be unveiled for CUNY, the New Deal for CUNY.  That town hall zoomeeting takes place on Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7 PM. Please register here for this important meeting to show your support for full funding for CUNY, and to hear details of a campaign to assure the future of CUNY funding by, among other things, increasing the tax on the wealthy and super-wealthy.

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From the Chairs, 18th September 2020. Members, we need your input!

Greetings, colleagues — we know you’re plenty busy, but … we need your input, and invite your activism and participation!  Below, you’ll find details on the following PSC chapter and CUNY-wide events and opportunities:

  • Our first chapter meeting is on Monday the 21st, at 1:40-2:55pm;
  •     Tell Cuomo instantly: it’s time to tax the rich to save CUNY and address the crisis in NYS;
  • Give testimony for an upcoming hearing on the Online Learning Training – unfair time & enrollment demands, and inadequate pay;
  •   This month only, get affordable catastrophic medical insurance for yourself & your family;
  • Speak out about the consequences of over-stuffed classes for an upcoming Clarion piece;
  • Learn about the PSC-CUNY contract & the grievance process  (Wednesday, Sept. 30th).

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