Tag Archives: cuny

Home, Labor Studies, Urban Studies

On Escalation, Dying-In and the Fight to Fund CUNY

By David Unger

“C-U-N-Y…Don’t Let CUNY Die!”

Over the past few years, we have been lying down on the pavements of New York. In Grand Central Station, in front of Barclay’s Center, in the middle of streets in Brooklyn, near Union Square, in Harlem and in the Bronx.  We have been asked to lie down — to Die In — in order to demand recognition of Black Lives, to condemn violence against and killing of people of color, many of whose names are by now familiar in a tragic way: Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin…and on and on. 

Many times, everyone has been asked to die in, to lie down.  Other times, white allies have been asked to stand in silence.  Either way, the impacted communities have been calling the shots and leading the way. 

At times, the die-ins have been done by “other groups,” including the Fight-for-15, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), and others, marching in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and calling out the intersection between racial and economic violence. Each time, no matter what intersections have been highlighted, the violence against people of color has been the primary concern of the actions. Continue reading On Escalation, Dying-In and the Fight to Fund CUNY →

Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News

Gov. Cuomo Announces State Will Fully Fund CUNY Next Year

In a reversal from his recent vow to defund the CUNY system by shifting $485 million in costs onto New York City, Gov. Cuomo’s office announced yesterday that New York State would pay the full $1.6 billion CUNY budget next year, after all. This funding is contingent on the hiring of a management efficiency expert, who will identify new opportunities for cost-cutting.

While heralded as good news by some, many argue that it’s still far from enough. From Gothamist:

“Of course it’s good for CUNY not to face a reduction, but that is just the starting line,” PSC CUNY President Barbara Bowen told Gothamist. “If all that has been accomplished in this budget season is that CUNY is back to where it started in funding, that is not enough…it’s not enough just to say CUNY was saved from a gigantic, devastating cut.”

Yesterday, more than 500 people demonstrated outside Cuomo’s office in midtown Manhattan, demanding that the final state budget, due April 1st, include increased investment in CUNY and fund contracts for the 35,000 CUNY faculty and staff members who they say have worked for years without a raise.

Protestors were confined by police to pens across the street from the office, chanting “C-U-N-Y, don’t let CUNY die,” but dozens exited the pens and staged a die-in directly outside the office building. They laid down in rows, blocking the building entrance, and after police issued three warnings, 41 people were arrested, including Bowen and City Council member Inez Barron, who chairs the City Council’s committee on higher education.

Read the full post at Gothamist.

Photo by hjjanisch via flickr (CC-BY-ND).

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CUNY On Strike?

By Sarah Hughes

If you’ve been around Murphy recently, you’ve probably heard rumblings about the PSC contract battle. As a labor school, Murphy Institute faculty, students and staff study and put into practice the fight for labor rights. Now, as members of the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY and AFSCME District Council 37, Murphy community members are in a fight for fair labor conditions all our own. To give a bit of context, we’ve assembled an explainer. Read on to learn how we got here — and where things might be headed.

What’s going on with CUNY?

Since 2010 CUNY workers, faculty and staff, have been without a contract. Our union, the Professional Staff Congress, has been working the regular routes to a contract: members have written countless petitions and letters, endorsed a pro-labor mayor, endorsed the governor, lobbied for a new, labor-friendly chancellor, held mass meetings and rallies, got arrested and lobbied tirelessly in Albany.

In the meantime, Gov. Cuomo and the legislature has underfunded CUNY to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and is threatening something much more drastic this spring. Continue reading CUNY On Strike? →

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Open Letter from CUNY Foundation Board Chairs to State Government

Foundation Board Chairs from all of the CUNY colleges and professional schools penned an open letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the members of the State Assembly and Senate concerning the present budget situation at CUNY. This letter ran in the New York Times today and is copied in part below.

We write to you as the volunteer leaders of the boards of foundations supporting every college of The City University of New York (CUNY). Along with the hundreds of New Yorkers who serve on our boards, and the thousands of generous donors who last year contributed over $250 million to the University, we are deeply concerned — more concerned than we have ever been — about the health, future and continued independence of CUNY. We are calling on you now to support this vitally important institution.
Continue reading Open Letter from CUNY Foundation Board Chairs to State Government →

Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News

Put to the Test: CUNY Faculty Considers Strike Vote As Cuomo Toys With University’s Future

This article was originally featured at the Indypendent.

By Peter Rugh

Hundreds of people swamped 42nd Street one day last November, forcing police to shut down a section of the busy thoroughfare. These weren’t tourists or Broadway ticketholders gone mad, but professors from the City University of New York (CUNY) and their supporters, 53 of whom were arrested for sitting down and blocking the doors of CUNY’s administrative headquarters. 

“We took matters into our own hands,” said James Davis, a member of the English Department at Brooklyn College since 2003. “It might seem like an ironic statement given that the cops tied our hands behind our backs, but we were making a strong public statement in opposition to CUNY’s austerity regime.” 

With 278,000 degree students enrolled in more than two dozen undergraduate and graduate schools, CUNY is the nation’s largest urban university system. Since it was founded in 1847 as the Free Academy of the City of New York with a mission to “serve the children of the whole people,” CUNY has served as a gateway to opportunity for working-class students. That continues to this day with 75 percent of undergrads being students of color and more than half coming from households earning less than $30,000 per year. Since the 1970s CUNY has been the largest granter of degrees to students of color in the United States. Continue reading Put to the Test: CUNY Faculty Considers Strike Vote As Cuomo Toys With University’s Future →

Home, Labor Studies

Interpretations of Work: New Calendar From CUNY, NYTimes

The CUNY/New York Times in Education 2016 calendar was just released. Called “Working People,” it’s a beautiful and informative document that lifts up work and workers, serving as a piece of art, journey through history, and useful calendar all-in-one.

From CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken’s introduction to the calendar:

Work. It’s what most of us have to do to earn the money we need to live. Ideally, it’s also what we enjoy doing. For some of us, it defines who we are and aspire to become.

The poets, lyricists, authors and union leaders you’ll find in the 2016 CUNY/ New York Times in Education calendar and website expand upon the changing interpretations of work throughout the history of the United States.

Working People is the 13th such collaboration between The City University of New York and The New York Times in Education. This year we’re pleased to welcome a new partner, the New York City Central Labor Council, whose president, Vincent Alvarez, and policy associate, Alexander Gleason, enthusiastically joined in developing this project.

There’s a good deal of practical wisdom in these pages, whose under lying theme is that all workers need to be valued, respected and treated with dignity.

Read the full introduction and check out the calendar here.