lClarıonNEWSPAPER OF THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS / CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 2008

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS l AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS l N.Y.C. CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL l N.Y.S. AFL-CIO l NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS

City, State slashfunds for CUNY

Members voted 93% in support of the new PSC-CUNY contract. The 37-monthdeal provides for 10.5% across-the-board raises, with more for those on the topstep and some lower-paid titles. Other provisions and side letters will establishdoctoral employee health insurance, 100 more conversion lines, professional

development money and a fund for paid parental leave. Implementation of someprovisions is immediate, while others – including retroactive pay – are likely totake some months. Above, at the American Arbitration Association, workersstacked ballots before the results were tallied. PAGES 2 and 3

OUR RIGHTSBUDGET

Banks ice outCC students

LOANS CUT BACK

New HEO OT rules

35-HOUR WEEK

Settlement onovertime pay

and comp timefor members.

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New contract’ssalary tables

RAISES

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Free speechfight at BMCC

A Bronx Community College student shares hisperspective on banks’ deci-sion to reduce their lending to community college students. PAGE 11

See how your salary willchange under the new col-lective bargaining agree-ment. The numbers foreach step and each title areinside. PAGE 8

A campus referendum atBMCC to defund NYPIRGkicked off a First Amend-ment struggle between PSCmembers and the BMCC administration. PAGE 6

Albany gouged $68.3 millionfrom CUNY’s budget thisspring and summer. Chan-cellor Goldstein’s commentsgave State lawmakers thegreen light. PAGE 5

AGREEMENT IS RATIFIEDAGREEMENT IS RATIFIED

CONTRACT VOTE: 93% YESCONTRACT VOTE: 93% YES

2 NEWS & LETTERS Clarion | September 2008

l I want to thank all of the activistswho fought so hard to win the lastcontract. We made some importantgains and are well positioned tostart mobilizing for the next roundof negotiations.

At LaGuardia’s Opening Sessions,Barbara Bowen was happy to an-nounce that this would be the firstyear under her administration thatwe are not negotiating a contract. Itseems that in a year when we arenot bargaining, it will be to our ad-vantage to organize for contract en-forcement. Since the contract is onlyas powerful as we make it, it is ourresponsibility to make sure that weuse it as much as possible.

Workload seems like an enor-mously important issue for us tomobilize around using as manystrategies as we can. CommunityCollege full-time faculty have begun

to organize themselves to addressthis issue, and I hope that other con-stituencies will do so as well.

Karen MillerLaGuardia Community College

Organizers deserve respectl At the Republican Convention,Governor Sarah Palin and formerMayor Rudy Giuliani both used theterm “community organizer” assomething to laugh at. Clearly theydo not understand nor respect thework of the thousands of communityorganizers working in urban neigh-borhoods and rural communitiesacross this country. Their ridicule ofthis honorable, skilled profession, towhich Barack Obama committedhimself after college, is an affront tothe millions of low-income and work-ing-class people who are struggling

to improve their conditions and bet-ter the lives of their neighbors.

Community organizers helpbring ordinary people together tocollectively solve problems. Theywork to improve housing, healthcare, schools, the environment andsocial services. They build and sup-port local leadership and help cre-ate the kind of organizations thatgive invisible people a voice in thepolitical process.

They work “in the trenches” forlong hours with too low pay to bringpeople out of poverty and despair,instill hope and opportunity, and cre-ate resources that strengthen neigh-borhoods. They are the glue thatkeeps many communities from dis-integrating and falling into decay.To Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani andJohn McCain: there are many waysto serve this country and to build a

secure America. We should honorthe work, dedication and compe-tence of community organizers.

Terry MizrahiHunter College School Social Work

The personal is politicall The religious right was known forcondemning teen pregnancy onmoral grounds. But they have flip-flopped; the 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential hopeful Gover-nor Sarah Palin of Alaska is withchild....She is accepted, supportedand praised.

I agree that when kids get intotrouble, families need our support,but I sense a racial double standard.I was more than stunned when Isaw a Republican delegate on TVwith a button on her hat that said, “ISupport Unwed Mothers.” These

same political forces showed nosuch accepting attitude when theychampioned punitive welfare “re-form” policies that penalize womenfor having children before marriage.While most mothers on public assis-tance have been white, the publicwrongly assumed most werewomen of color – and Republicansused vicious attacks on “welfarequeens” to win votes.

Republicans demand abstinence-only programs that prevent schoolsfrom teaching about contraception,abortion and safe sex. They cut ser-vices for pregnant teens. And Palinwants a Constitutional amendmentto criminalize abortion, including cas-es of rape or incest. Yet she told thepress, “We’re proud of Bristol’s deci-sion to have her baby” – a decisionshe would take away from others.

Some think that Palin’s daughtergot a pass on unwed teen pregnan-cy because her family is affluent,white and on the Right.

Mimi Abramovitz Hunter College School of Social Work

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | WRITE TO: CLARION/PSC, 61 BROADWAY, 15TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10006. E-MAIL: PHOGNESS@PSCMAIL.ORG. FAX: (212) 302-7815.

New contract is powerful–if we enforce it

JEAN KUBECKAssistant ProfessorPsychology

I voted for it. Why did I vote yes? Ithought it was pretty reasonableand compared well to SUNY’s con-tract and others in terms of salary.

The sick leave bank – that madesense to me, because when I workedin Colorado they had something likethat. You could donate sick days forpeople who needed them, and that’sthe essence of what this is doing. It’sa really good idea. And parentalleave is a huge step forward for indi-viduals with new kids, both formoms and for dads.

I would like to have seen some-thing more for City Tech, becauseour teaching load is still one morecourse than the other senior col-leges. In the last contract we camedown from five and four, to four andfour. I would have liked to have seenthis contract move us to four andthree.

How did you vote on the contract & why?Clarion’s Roving Reporter talks with members at City Tech

BARRY ANTOKOLETZAdjunct Lecturer Speech

I voted yes. Although it’s neverenough, it seems to be more thanprevious contracts. Given how hardit is to get anything out of the City,and the economic times we’re in, I’mglad to get it settled.

This union, they take it a step at atime, and each time they get bolderand bolder. History shows that theunion record is that whatever theydon’t get this time, they struggle fornext time.

For me, the salary increase is go-ing to total about 16% with the extraincrease on the top step – and that’spretty good. More full-time lines foradjuncts, that’s good.

My big sore point is unemploy-ment. The law should be changedso adjuncts can get unemploymentinsurance without any trouble. Ifyou don’t get a summer job, or aninter-session job, you should getunemployment insurance like anyother job.

JAQUI ELLIOTTSenior College Lab TechnicianBiology

I voted yes because I believe thiswas the best possible contract wecould get right now.

We got a lot of advances in thisagreement, like the paid parentalleave and the sick leave bank. If wewent back to the bargaining table,we could have lost many things thatwe had gained. We did not geteverything, but I thought it wasworkable.

The salary differential for CLTswith a master’s or doctorate – that’sa first, and we need it.

It would apply to everybody thatI know. And now that people areaware of this, it will encourage morepeople to go back to school and workfor those degrees.

For the future, my basic belief isthat by effective organizing and mo-bilizing across every title at CUNY,as well as the students, we can wina better contract and the public willbenefit. Let’s start working on itnow.

WENDY SCRIBNERAdjunct LecturerEnglish as a Second Language

I voted no. I voted yes on previouscontracts that had some of the sameproblems for adjuncts – but this timeI just felt more impatient.

We had no real gains on job securi-ty. Every term most adjuncts, includ-ing me, go through terrible stress notknowing how many courses we’llhave. I’ve worked in the CUNY sys-tem for 15 years – but until a few daysbefore this semester started, I didn’tknow whether I’d have enough class-es to keep my health insurance.

Also, giving the same percentagewage increase across the boardwidens the gap between adjunctsand full-timers. Personally, I’ll getthat extra increase on the top step –but most adjuncts won’t.

I felt that the small gains for ad-juncts, like conversion lines or the Pro-fessional Development Fund, weren’tenough to vote yes. I respect the unionand our leadership, but we need to domore to change the two-tier system.

PAT RUDDENProfessorEnglish

I voted yes – enthusiastically yes.This contract isn’t perfect, but itbreaks important new ground in anumber of areas, particularly thepaid parental leave fund. We’re thefirst public-sector union in New Yorkto get this, and people on my campusare very excited about it. That in-cludes some people who might other-wise have left the University.

It’s probably the most excitingthing in this contract – although theraises are pretty exciting, too!They’re not what we deserve, ofcourse, but they’re better than we’veseen in quite a while, especially forthe top salary step in each title.

Another good thing about theraises was the timing. With thisState budget deficit, if they’d takenlonger who knows what we wouldhave ended up with? Also the tim-ing was good because we aren’twaiting for years without any rais-es, as in the past.

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Interviews by Nick Jahr & Peter Hogness

By PETER HOGNESS & DANIA RAJENDRA

PSC members have ratified theunion’s tentative agreement withCUNY by a wide margin, in a votewith 93% in favor and 7% opposed.The results were announced on Sep-tember 3 by the American Arbitra-tion Association (AAA), whichcounted the ballots and oversaw theelection.

Altogether 6,764 members voted“yes,” while 480 voted “no.” Themargin of approval was somewhatgreater than the ratification of thePSC’s last contract in 2006, whichwon 87% approval.

CREATIVEThe new 37-month collective bar-

gaining agreement expires on Octo-ber 19, 2010. Under its terms, allfaculty and staff represented by thePSC will receive a total salary in-crease of at least 10.5%. Those whoare on the top salary step will get anadditional raise in October 2009, foran increase that totals 13.8% in thecase of top-step full-timers, or 16.7%for top-step part-timers. There areadditional increases for full-timersin salary ranges and Lecturers andfor some others at the lower end ofCUNY’s salary scales. (See belowand page 8 for more details.)

“The best thing about this con-tract is its creativity,” said PSCPresident Barbara Bowen. “In addi-tion to decent salary increases, itstretches the available dollars to

provide bigger increases at the topand the bottom of the salary scale,and includes some equity provisionsand advances we had sought foryears. This creativity was possiblebecause members organized. Theircampaigns, on issues like parentalleave or graduate employeehealth insurance, helpedshape the agreement.”

The union organizedaround the slogan “CUNYNeeds a Raise,” arguing thatuncompetitive salaries hadseriously weakened CUNY’s abilityto recruit and retain faculty andstaff. The targeted raises for the topsalary step were seen as a way tostart closing the pay gap betweenCUNY and comparable institutions,even if the total economic packagewas constrained by the “pattern”imposed on public employee unionsby New York City and State.

The contract includes a numberof other new provisions, and sever-al are detailed below. “But unionvictories are also reflected in whatis not in this agreement,” Bowentold Clarion. She noted that the PSCturned back management demandsto eliminate salary steps, removeelected department chairs from theunion, slash job security for those inthe Higher Education Officer seriesand introduce so-called “merit pay.”

PSC chapter chairs across CUNYsaid that their members were over-

whelmingly in support of the agree-ment. “I heard no one on campussay they wished it had been turneddown,” said Bob Cermele, chapterchair at City Tech and also a mem-ber of the union’s bargaining team.“I think members were very appre-

ciative of the contract.” Peo-ple generally felt that a ‘yes’vote was a no-brainer.”

“Most people on my cam-pus supported it,” said CarlWilliams, PSC chapter chairat John Jay. “They voted yes

and were eager for this settlement.”But that strong backing was notunanimous, Williams noted. “Therewere some adjuncts who stronglyadvocated for a no vote,” he said. “Ican understand their wanting bet-ter job security, and we will have topress on this issue in the nextagreement.”

NOT PERFECTOne of those was Michael Seitz, an

adjunct at John Jay. “I was terriblydisappointed,” Seitz told Clarion. “Ifelt I could not support it, so I joinedthe ‘Vote No’ campaign.” Basic job se-curity provisions for part-timers wasone of the PSC’s priority demands,but management took a hard-linestance against any changes.

Without gains in job security, ar-gued Seitz, “then at least the settle-ment should not worsen inequity inpay – for me that was sort of a last

straw.” The larger top-step increasefor adjuncts (see below) was de-scribed by union negotiators as afirst step in closing the gap in pay,but Seitz said this was not enough:“What we needed was something

that would benefit the whole com-munity of adjuncts, and this onlybenefits a minority.”

The adjuncts on the bargainingteam and the union’s ExecutiveCouncil all supported the agree-ment. “It was our opinion, havingbeen in the thick of negotiationsover the year, that this was thebest we could do at this time,” saidbargaining team member MarciaNewfield.” I voted ‘yes’ for the con-version lines, professional develop-ment funds, graduate healthinsurance and an extra percentageat the top.” Newfield and other ECmembers said that the PSC mustfind new ways to tackle adjunct jobsecurity. “We don’t have to wait forthe next contract fight to makeprogress in this area.”

TECHNOLOGYTurnout was about the same as in

the last contract vote two years ago,54% compared to 56%. Albert Sher-man, chair of the College Lab Techchapter, said that the new use of In-ternet and telephone-based votingsystems with secure passwordsmade it easier for members whohad been away for the summer tocast their vote before the deadline.“I’d like to see more use of electron-ic tools by the union in the future,”he said. “We can use technology tohelp democracy.”

A total of 1,846 members castvotes via the Internet and 1,069 vot-ed by phone, while 4,339 used thetraditional paper mail ballot.

Clarion | September 2008 NEWS 3

PSC members ratify contractWide support for 37-month deal

AAA workers opened ballots on Sept. 3.

Many provisions of the new con-tract are now in effect, while otherswill be implemented over the nextfew months.

The first question for many mem-bers is, “When will we get our rais-es and retroactive pay?” Inprevious contracts, this has takenseveral months, as the State andCity reprogram their computers andwork out details with CUNY centraladministration. If past practice is aguide, this money would be seen inmembers’ paychecks around theend of Fall semester, but the unionis working with CUNY administra-tion to see if it can be done sooner.

NEW BENEFITSThe first salary increase, of

3.15%, is effective as of a year ago,September 20, 2007. The second in-crease, 4% compounded, is effectiveOctober 6, 2008. Thus, bargainingunit members who were on CUNYpayroll on September 20, 2007, willreceive the entire value of the firstyear’s increase retroactively, plussome part of the increase that takeseffect this October 6.

Further pay increases in this con-tract include a 3% increase, com-

pounded, on October 20, 2009, and anadditional increase on that date tothe top salary step. (This extra top-step increase is 3.1% for full-time ti-tles with salary steps and 5.75% forpart-time titles with a step sched-ule.) The new salary schedules aredetailed on page 8.

COMMITMENTSOn doctoral employee health in-

surance, which was the subject of aside letter hammered out with thecontract settlement, CUNY has com-mitted to starting the new programwith the Spring semester. The PSCis pressing for an earlier start date,and the issue is under discussion.

A provision that took effect assoon as the contract was ratified isthe use of sick days to care forfamily members. Under the newcollective bargaining agreement,members who accrue sick daysmay use up to three days per yearfor the care of a family memberwho is ill. Bargaining unit membershave the right to use this benefitimmediately; if you wish to do so,

inform your department chair orsupervisor.

The contract also provides for es-tablishment of a “sick leave bank”and a system of dedicated sickleave days, through which memberswith accrued sick days can donatethem to others. The some-times complex details of howthese two new programswould function are still beingworked out; the union willnotify members as soon asthese benefits can be used.

The new contract providesfor CUNY to make the first ofthree annual contributions to theAdjunct Professional Develop-ment Fund effective September 28,2008. The committee that adminis-ters the fund will reconvene to re-view applications in mid-October.(Note that applications must be ap-proved before any grant-supportedexpenses are incurred.) The agree-ment provides for the HEO/CLTProfessional Development Fundto continue under the same termsand conditions as in the last con-

tract. (See psc-cuny.org/Profession-alDevelopment.htm for applicationsand details on both funds.)

Another side letter specified thatCUNY will create 100 new Lecturerlines, full-time positions drawingfrom a hiring pool of experiencedCUNY adjuncts. Just before Clarionwent to press, Chancellor Goldsteinannounced the allocation of the first

50 lines among the col-leges: as with the conver-sion lines created duringthe last contract, mostcolleges will receive threenew lines. The next stepis for presidents to allo-cate lines to departments,and then for departments

to do the hiring; the first 50 positionsare to be filled before the start of theSpring semester. Despite recentbudget cuts (see pages 5 and 12),CUNY has retained its commitmentto hiring for the first 50 lines duringthis academic year, with the balanceto be hired during 2009-10.

The new contract also contains afund for paid parental leave. Thisprovision was subject to enactmentof unrelated State legislation onfamily leave, and that legislation did

not pass. But there is a strong com-mitment to making this benefitwork, and discussions with the gov-ernor’s office have continuedthroughout the summer. The con-tract makes this provision effectiveSeptember 28, 2008, and the unionhas stressed that members who areexpecting children this fall cannotwait. We will update you as soon asdiscussions are finalized.

MENTORINGUnder the new contract, the PSC

and CUNY will create a pilot pro-gram on student mentoring, to op-erate on a limited number ofcampuses during the 2009-2010 aca-demic year. This program will be de-veloped in the current academicyear, and that process is still in itsearly stages. A number of membershave already contacted the unionwith useful ideas on how a studentmentoring program might best bestructured, and input from othermembers is encouraged. If you areinterested in contributing ideas forthis pilot effort, contact Kate Pfor-dresher at the PSC, (212) 354-1252 orkpfordresher@pscmail.org.

– PH

When new contract provisions take effectRaises, conversion lines & more

Professionaldevelopment,mentoring,and use of sick time

Targetedraises ontop salarystep

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4 NEWS Clarion | September 2008

By KARAH WOODWARD

On June 23, the CUNY Board ofTrustees unanimously approved theUniversity’s Master Plan for 2008-2012. Chancellor Goldstein toldTrustees that the plan “embracesand advances the core values of thisUniversity.”

University Faculty Senate (UFS)and PSC leaders said that whilethey support individual projectsoutlined in the plan, in many re-spects it neglects the vast majorityof CUNY’s students, faculty andstaff. “In several ways, the MasterPlan continues to move us awayfrom what CUNY used to stand for,which was opportunity and accessfor all,” said UFS Vice Chair LenoreBeaky.

“To meet its historic mission,CUNY must overcome major struc-tural problems caused first of all bya historic withdrawal of public fund-ing,” said PSC First Vice PresidentSteve London. “But the Master Planleaves those structural problemslargely unaddressed.”

PROBLEMS LOOM“Between 1990 and 2003, CUNY

lost, in real dollars, $2,154 per full-time equivalent student,” Londonnoted. While the new CUNY planaddresses the University’s capitalneeds in some detail, he said, theother structural issues caused bythis lack of funding are given short

shrift. “CUNY’s academic labor sys-tem relying on highly exploited ad-junct labor is not addressed.Recruitment and retention of full-time faculty are mentioned, but theplan voices no commitment to re-versing the long-term erosion ofsalaries or tackling the reduction ofteaching load, both of which are nec-essary for CUNY to become compet-itive and attract a new generation ofscholars.”

The new Master Plan puts specialfocus on the natural sciencesat CUNY, as well as nursingand teacher education. Itseeks smoother articulationbetween CUNY’s communityand senior college degree pro-grams and emphasizes con-tinuing the University’scollaboration with NYC’s De-partment of Education on var-ious pre-college programs. The planalso calls for founding a new Gradu-ate School of Public Health.

The document urges studying thecreation of a new community col-lege, probably in Manhattan. It alsocalls for a feasibility study on estab-lishing “an academic program inpharmacy” at CUNY, an idea pro-posed by the UFS. “The pharmacydoctorate is something we havebeen trying to realize within CUNYfor many years,” said UFS Chair

Manfred Philipp. “It was mentionedin this plan and that is entirelynew.”

But UFS and union representa-tives say that, unfortunately, thiskind of openness to faculty and staffinput is very much the exception,not the rule, in this Master Plan.

ADMINISTRATIVE“It is a heavily administrative doc-

ument,” said Beaky, “one that in gen-eral does not support faculty

governance and curriculumcontrol.” For example, shesaid, the plan does not de-scribe faculty’s role in thedesign of key initiatives likethe proposed School of Pub-lic Health or expansion of “2+ 2” degree programs thatlink senior and communitycolleges. But such initia-

tives need faculty participation intheir initial stages of development,said Beaky – not just limited consul-tation after their basic direction isset. “Faculty governance should beinvolved from the beginning, withcurriculum and program design ap-proved by faculty members.”

The new Master Plan heavily em-phasizes programs that are seen asmore selective or elite. In the sectionon hiring more full-time faculty, forexample, more than one-quarter of

the space is devoted to the CUNY-wide Honors College, which enrollsless than 1% of CUNY students. Theplan’s section on the Honors Collegeis as long as the section on commu-nity colleges, which enroll one-thirdof CUNY’s student body.

The detailed discussion of the Hon-ors College is not a problem in itself,said Philipp. What is of concern, hetold Clarion, is that the plan neglectsmajor areas of need. For example, theUFS had urged that the plan providemore resources for ESL and CLIPcourses and more support for thesestudents and those who teach them.“We need professional developmentfor faculty who teach ESL students,and the students need more tutorsand writing centers,” said Beaky. TheUFS also expressed disappointmentthat the plan did not ask for adjust-ments to New York’s Tuition Assis-tance Program (TAP), such asexpansion of part-time TAP, thatwould better address the realities ofCUNY students’ lives.

INVISIBLE ADJUNCTSThe terms “adjunct” or “part-time

faculty” are not mentioned once inthe entire Master Plan, and UFS rep-resentatives agreed with the PSC’scriticism of the failure to mentionthose who teach half of CUNY’sclasses. The UFS had urged that theMaster Plan include support forgrant applications and measures tosupport contingent faculty as acad-

emics, such as access to office space,computers and printers.

The Master Plan sets a goal of 70%of instruction at CUNY provided byfull-time faculty, a target that was al-so part of the 2000-2004 and 2004-2008Master Plans. In fact, CUNY has citedthis target since the mid-1990s – butthe years since have seen only mod-est progress.

CAPITAL PLAN“The 6,700 full-time faculty in Fall

2007 is far from the 11,000 full-timefaculty of CUNY in the 1970s, whenenrollment was comparable to to-day’s,” London said. The CUNY-wideaverage for undergraduate coursestaught by full-timers in 2004 was 48%,and the administration has not re-leased University-wide figures since.

The section on capital spending atCUNY drew more support fromunion and UFS representatives. Herethe Master Plan emphasizes the needto fund a backlog of projects for main-tenance and repair, to protect healthand safety at CUNY, and create goodlearning environments. The plan in-cludes a new emphasis on environ-mental sustainability.

CUNY’s Master Plan now goes tothe New York State Board of Re-gents, which will vote on final ap-proval of the plan this fall. TheRegents held public hearings beforevoting on the previous Master Plan,but have not yet committed to doingso this time around.

CUNY’sbiggeststructuralproblemslargelyignored

New Master Plan neglects most of CUNYSilent on funding shortfalls

By PETER HOGNESS

The newest member of the CUNYBoard of Trustees is Peter S. Panta-leo, head of the employment law di-vision of DLA Piper, the largest lawfirm in the United States. A memberof CUNY’s Business Advisory Coun-cil, he is the first trustee to benamed by Gov. David Paterson.Pantaleo was nominated on June 4and confirmed by the StateSenate soon after.

“I’m really enthusiasticabout the notion of high-qual-ity public university educa-tion,” said Pantaleo. “My dadwas an operating engineer,and I come from a fairly modest im-migrant family background. CUNYis a phenomenal idea that seems tobe working pretty well.”

HOTELS & GAMBLINGPantaleo has practiced corporate-

side labor law for many years, rep-resenting management in itsconflicts with employees and theirunions. Employers in the hotel andgambling industries have been aspecialty: for example, Pantaleo rep-resented MGM in its battle to pre-vent unionization of the MGMGrand in Las Vegas, then the largesthotel in the world.

DLA Piper describes Pantaleo’s

practice as “advising multinationalemployers on complex, politicallysensitive labor and employmentmatters.” He is one of two top exec-utives in charge of its global em-ployment and pensions group, headof its labor law division for the US,and managing partner of the firm’s

New York office. DLA Piper notes that

Pantaleo “has representedemployers confronted withtraditional union organiza-tion efforts as well as corpo-rate campaigns.” For those

who wish to maintain “a union-freeenvironment,” the firm says, Panta-leo’s division can provide a widerange of services: “When union ac-tivity arises, we work closely withthe company to combat organizingefforts and the election campaign.This may cover the entire spec-trum from advice on strategies,methods and techniques, to repre-sentation before the NLRB in unfairlabor practice charges.”

Unionized employers are advisedthat DLA Piper “provide[s] assis-tance in all aspects of the manage-ment-union relationship,” fromcontract negotiations to “union de-certification.”

“I personally represent unionizedemployers almost exclusively,” Pan-taleo stressed in an interview withClarion. “We represent some prettyunion-oriented, enlightened employ-ers. For example, casinos are prettyheavily regulated, and MGM Miragerecognized pretty early on that col-legial, cooperative relations with la-bor offer an advantage” in thatenvironment.

TWO SIDESPantaleo downplayed the extent

of his firm’s work in opposing union-ization and said he had negotiatedmany management neutralityagreements for union organizingdrives. “I’m a management laborlawyer,” he said. “But it takes twosides to have a collective bargainingagreement.” Speaking personally,he said, “I actually am a proponentof collective bargaining.”

In addition to union-managementrelations, Pantaleo directs the laborlaw group’s work on civil rights is-sues, retirement plans, and work-place health and safety. “Ourlawyers have represented corpora-tions that have been cited by OSHAin some of the most serious fatalitycases in the past 10 years,” the com-

pany notes. “Our defenses have in-volved the sophisticated use of ex-perts…when millions of dollars ofcorporate assets were at issue.”

Pantaleo often speaks at meetingsof health care employers, in additionto those in the hotel and gambling in-dustries. His firm says he is “recog-nized as an authority on EuropeanUnion social policy” and has writtenon EU regulations on gender discrim-ination and part-time work.

Formerly president of Verner Li-ipfert, a Washington law firm whosepartners included former Sens. BobDole and George Mitchell, Pantaleojoined DLA Piper when the twofirms merged in 2002. He receivedhis law degree at the University ofNorth Dakota in 1976, after earninghis bachelor’s degree at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin.

BIPARTISANPantaleo’s political donations have

been bipartisan. In 1999 he con-tributed to Elizabeth Dole’s and JohnMcCain’s campaigns for president,while in 2008 he gave to the presiden-tial bids of Chris Dodd and Joe Biden.By far his largest donations, howev-er, have been to his own firm’s Politi-cal Action Committee.

“Twelve of the 15 voting membersof the CUNY Board are current or re-tired corporate officers,” said PSCPresident Barbara Bowen. “Not oneis from an organization that repre-sents labor – though thousands ofunion members and their childrendepend on CUNY.” While the PSCwill judge Pantaleo based on his ac-tions as a trustee, Bowen said, his ap-pointment “raises a red flag.”

“With all the fabulous labor andcommunity leaders we have in NewYork, why appoint someone whomade his career and his moneyfighting against working people?”said Bowen. “It’s time for appoint-ments from the organizationswhose members have a stake in thefuture of CUNY.”

New CUNY trustee is lawyer vs. unionsPaterson’s first appointment

Peter Pantaleo

Why notrusteesfrom labor,PSC asks

By DANIA RAJENDRA

CUNY was hit with a $50.6 millioncut in State funding in August, afterthe Legislature approved reductionsproposed by Gov. David Paterson.The move came on top of $17.7 mil-lion in cuts that were part of theState budget passed last spring anda $5.9 million reduction in City aid tocommunity colleges.

The PSC fought the cuts hard, lob-bying lawmakers, asking membersto speak out and generating presscoverage across the state. “Opposi-tion among legislators to the gover-nor’s additional August cuts wasstrong,” said PSC First Vice Presi-dent Steve London. “Then, we heardthat CUNY managementsent the message thatCUNY could handle thecuts. This made further op-position difficult.”

Chancellor Goldstein indi-cated that more than half ofthe cuts will be covered bysurpluses from the FY08CUNY budget and the use of capitalfunds, for a net operating budget cutof $18.6 million. He said CUNY wouldcontinue hiring some full-time facul-ty “for replacement purposes and fornew positions already…in each col-lege’s financial plan,” as well as some“staff who provide direct services tostudents.” But he said the cuts wouldrequire a hiring freeze for all non-in-structional staff and strict limits onother spending.

“It’s preposterous to suggest thatCUNY can withstand this level ofcuts after two decades of fiscal star-vation and not be hurt,” said PSCPresident Barbara Bowen. “We feelthat it is absolutely the wrong signal

for the Legislature to send aboutCUNY’s ability to endure disinvest-ment by the State,” she told TheChief.

Goldstein said that there wouldbe no reduction of “direct studentservices” or course cancellations,but as Clarion went to press therewere reports at Brooklyn Collegethat some courses were axed due tocuts in the adjunct hiring budget.

FEW CHOICES“We weighed all the available op-

tions but there are precious fewchoices,” BC President Christoph

Kimmich told the Excel-sior, the college’s studentpaper. “What we have todo is (a) reduce the fundswe normally set aside forhiring adjunct faculty and(b) postpone or defer main-tenance, renovation, re-pairs, painting and the like.

This will probably have the effect ofreducing some courses we offernow….”

Citing a ballooning budget deficit,Paterson summoned legislatorsback for a special session in Augustand called for State spending reduc-tions of 7% across the board. Legis-lators did reject proposed cuts in theState’s base aid to both SUNY andCUNY community colleges and tothe State’s Tuition Assistance Pro-gram, reflecting these constituen-cies’ opposition to further cuts.

Albany corridors were buzzingwith speculation about why Gold-stein had backed off from firm op-position to the CUNY cuts. Top

SUNY administrators spoke open-ly about the State budget squeezeas “an opportunity” to win supportfor a new policy of permanent, an-nual tuition hikes, and some won-dered if the CUNY chancellor hadsimilar ideas.

Annual tuition increases are partof Goldstein’s “CUNY Compact”proposal for financing the Universi-ty, which calls for tuition increasesto finance the majority of the costsof programmatic increases. At theUniversity Student Senate retreatat the start of this semester, Gold-stein said bluntly that a tuition hikeat CUNY is necessary.

The PSC has strongly opposed tu-ition increases at CUNY. “In timesof economic hardship, investment inhigher education should be in-creased, not cut,” London said. “Tu-ition increases would put newfinancial burdens on our studentbody in an already difficult econom-ic climate and make retention andincreased graduation rates – someof CUNY’s important goals – evenharder to achieve. There is no sub-stitute for public funding.”

TUITION HIKESThe union has also pointed out

that past tuition hikes have oftenleft CUNY with less net revenuethan before: higher tuition has beenimposed along with cuts in Statesupport, which then reduced thebaseline for public funding in futureyears.

“The essence of the ‘Compact’ issupposed to involve an increase inState funding as a precondition for tu-

ition hikes,” said London. “At a timewhen we are starting the next budgetcycle $68 million in the hole, it wouldgo against the Compact’s own logic toraise tuition,” said London.

Last spring’s City budget didn’thelp CUNY students’ burdens. Cut-ting City aid to community collegesby $5.9 million and a 39% reductionin the Vallone Scholarships werebad enough. In some ways worsewas the City’s failure to meet Statecapital appropriations for CUNY,which left $157 million “on thetable,” including money badly need-ed for the replacement of Fiterman

Hall, the BMCC building destroyedon 9/11.

In May, 150 PSC members andstudents were joined by 14 CityCouncilmembers in speaking out atCity Hall against Bloomberg’s cuts.This grassroots lobbying got somesubstantial restorations: the Coun-cil restored $24.4 million to the com-munity college operating budgetand provided $10.6 million for stu-dent services and programs. Butwhile the picture was less bleakthan at the State level, the unioncalled the final City budget “disap-pointing.”

Clarion | September 2008 NEWS 5

Albany OKscuts afterCUNY signalsit can livewith them.

PSC Secretary Arthurine DeSola spoke against the State budget cuts on August 15.

State slices CUNY budget twiceCity leaves capital $ on the table

Dav

e Sa

nder

s

By PETER HOGNESS &KARAH WOODWARD

Comparing Barack Obama’s andJohn McCain’s positions on highereducation, one thing is clear: theObama campaign has given the top-ic a lot more attention. The McCaincampaign did not release a highereducation policy statement until Au-gust 15, and it adds up to six short,general paragraphs. Obama re-leased his months ago and it runsfor several pages, presenting a num-ber of proposals that are fairly de-tailed.

PELL GRANTSThe two candidates have different

views on student aid, the focus ofmost federal higher education poli-cy. When Obama was elected to theUS Senate, the first bill he intro-duced called for raising the maxi-mum Pell Grant from $4,050 to $5,100,and he supported subsequentchanges that raised it to $5,400. Onstudent loans, Obama favors endingfederal subsidies to private lendersand instead expanding the publicly

funded Direct Loan program, whichhe says costs less but provides thesame benefit. McCain has repeated-ly voted against increasing the PellGrant maximum; he supports con-tinuing the role of private lendersand in 2005 voted to allowthem to raise interest rateson some student loans.

Obama’s “American Op-portunity Tax Credit” wouldprovide a $4,000 educationcredit for students who com-mit to 100 hours of communi-ty service. The credit wouldbe fully refundable: low-income fam-ilies who pay less than that amountin taxes would still receive the full$4,000 benefit. McCain does not callfor any new tax benefits for highereducation. He says only that “existingtax benefits are too complicated” andthat more people would take advan-tage of them if they were simplified.

In one of their few points of agree-ment, McCain and Obama both saythat federal student financial aid hasbecome too complex. Obama callsspecifically for getting rid of the 127-question FAFSA application form.

He would replace it with a box tocheck on federal tax returns, allow-ing financial aid information to befiled automatically. McCain offersmore general support for “consoli-dating programs” and simplifying

the application form, butdoes not specify how.

Beyond student aid, Oba-ma proposes to boost directsupport to colleges. HisCommunity College Part-nership Program wouldprovide new grants to two-year institutions to analyze

which skills are in high demand inthe local job market and help pre-pare students for those jobs. It wouldalso support community collegesthat increase the number of studentswho attain their AA degree and/orthe number who transfer to seniorcolleges. McCain has no proposals toincrease direct aid to institutions ofhigher education.

Obama also supports doublingfederal funding for basic researchand praises the role that “institu-tions of higher learning have servedas the nation’s primary research

and development laboratories.” An-other funding priority for the Demo-cratic nominee would be a newprogram of grants for “outstandingearly-career researchers.”

MOCKING RESEARCHMcCain’s main comment about

federally funded research has beento highlight – and ridicule – a studyof grizzly bear DNA. “Three milliondollars to study the DNA of bears inMontana,” growls a McCain TV ad.“Unbelievable!”

Researchers at the US GeologicalSurvey say that in fact the study iskey to determining whether or notthe bears are still an endangeredspecies: barbed-wire stations in theforest snag fur from passing bears,and genetic fingerprinting then al-lows scientists to build an accuratepopulation count.

McCain’s higher education policystatement promises that “eliminat-ing earmarks would immediatelyand significantly improve the feder-al government’s support for univer-sity research” by avoiding thediversion of research budgets into

“pork barrel projects.” However, Mc-Cain has said that eliminating ear-marks will pay for tax cuts, UStroops in Iraq and a balanced budget.Given that in 2005, the Office of Man-agement and Budget put the totalcost of earmarks in the federal bud-get at $18.9 billion – less than the USspends in Iraq every two months –it’s not clear how much would be leftover for research funding.

Aside from earmarks, McCain’sWeb site says almost nothing aboutfederal research support; instead itemphasizes tax breaks for privatelyfunded R&D.

The differences in the two candi-dates’ approaches to these issuesmight be related to Obama’s 12years on the faculty of the Universi-ty of Chicago. But whether the rea-sons are partly personal or purelypolitical, Obama’s and McCain’sstands on higher education presenta study in contrasts.

The AFT, the PSC’s national affiliate, hasendorsed Barack Obama for president.Union members from New York will beworking to help him win, both locally andin other states. If you’d like to get involvedin the PSC’s efforts, contact Amanda DeJesus Magalhaes at adejesus@pscmail.org or (212) 354-1252.

Obama, McCain differ on higher education policy

Opposingviews on Pell Grants,researchfunds

6 NEWS Clarion | September 2008

By KARAH WOODWARD

In the final days of Spring semester,the administration at Borough ofManhattan Community College or-dered faculty and staff not to ex-press their opinions about a campusreferendum on student fees. But astrong response from the unionforced the administration to retreatfrom its original position.

“The PSC and its members fullyintend to continue to speak out onthis and other issues, regardless ofthe administration’s attempts to sti-fle free speech and public debate,”wrote PSC Chapter Chair RebeccaHill in a May 8 open letter. A monthlater, a new statement from the col-lege administration acknowledgedPSC members’ right to do so.

STUDENT REFERENDUMAt issue was a student referen-

dum on funding for BMCC’s chapterof the New York Public InterestGroup. NYPIRG is the largest stu-dent-directed advocacy organiza-tion in New York State and is activeon nine CUNY campuses.

At many colleges, students havevoted to support NYPIRG throughstudent activity fees. At BMCC, thegroup is supported by a $4 assess-ment that students have reaffirmedin repeated referendums sinceNYPIRG came to campus in 2003.Last Spring’s referendum at BMCCwould have defunded NYPIRG, di-

recting the money to a study abroadprogram instead.

NYPIRG tackles a range of issues,and many – such as fighting budgetcuts and tuition hikes at CUNY – al-so affect faculty and staff. BMCC’sPSC chapter has organized withNYPIRG on some of these cam-paigns: for example, in Mayand again in August the twogroups worked together onCity Hall protests againstCUNY budget cuts.

In response to the referen-dum, NYPIRG appealed tostudents for support andasked the PSC to make its voiceheard. Fifty union members signed astatement, which NYPIRG circulatedas a poster and leaflet. Ron Hayduk,a union delegate who has workedwith NYPIRG, also circulated hisown letter encouraging faculty tospeak with students and urge themto vote “no” on the referendum.

“The way the referendum wasframed was a little misleading,” saidHayduk, an associate professor ofpolitical science. “A lot of facultywere not clear that essentially thereferendum would defund NYPIRGcompletely, not just transfer somefunds to the student abroad pro-gram. I felt people needed to be bet-ter informed.”

On May 1, BMCC Vice President

Robert Diaz wrote to both the en-tire college staff and to Ron Hay-duk individually, citing studentelection rules and insisting that fac-ulty and staff must maintain “a pos-ture of neutrality” in the NYPIRGreferendum. Diaz wrote to Haydukthat his letter had “crossed the

boundary of freespeech” and was “notacceptable.”

“There is in fact norule prohibiting facultyfrom speaking out onreferenda such as theone to defund NYPIRG,”

stated Hill’s May 8 response, whichwas also circulated to BMCC facultyand staff. “We are part of the cam-pus community, and we have a rightto speak up about political decisionsthat will affect our lives here.” Theadministration’s gag order “violatesthe core rights of our members andthe entire community of BMCC,”said Hill.

PUBLIC ISSUES“Students have the right to orga-

nize a referendum on any of a vari-ety of public issues,” said CharliePost, associate professor of socialscience and the chapter’s grievanceofficer. “NYPIRG’s role is just one ofthem. If, say, the military were re-cruiting on campus, that might be

the subject of a student vote. Andfaculty and staff clearly have theright to express their opinion on anyof these controversies.”

Peter Zwiebach, the union’s direc-tor of legal affairs, told Clarion thatthe rules cited by Vice President Di-az on faculty neutrality did not apply– but that even if they did, they wouldbe unconstitutional. “These rulesclearly speak to elections for studentgovernment office, not a referen-dum,” Zwiebach observed. “Howev-er, the most important issue here isthat BMCC can not institute electionpolicies to limit the fundamental rightto freedom of speech.”

GAG ORDERUnion activists also pointed out

that management’s attempt to re-strict free speech was applied un-equally. For more than a decade, afaculty member at Brooklyn Collegehas advocated for an end toNYPIRG’s funding from studentfees on that campus, but he hasfaced no reprimands or censorshipfrom campus administration.

And at BMCC this Spring, the ad-ministration had in fact allowed fac-ulty to assist the anti-NYPIRGreferendum. Earlier in the semester,the first effort to get the student ref-erendum on the ballot had faileddue to lack of signatures. After theadministration gave the green lightto a second attempt, students sup-porting the referendum recruitedfaculty members to help them gath-er signatures. Hill’s letter noted thatthe administration knew about thispractice but took no action againstit, and she said this was a clear caseof “unequal treatment of facultyspeech, based solely on viewpoint.”

When the votes were in, NYPIRGwon by a comfortable margin andretained its funding. The followingmonth, BMCC management retreat-ed from its earlier stance and thegag order was withdrawn.

UNEQUAL“As a matter of First Amendment

law and consistent with shared gov-ernance, the faculty has a right tocomment on such matters,” wroteVice President Diaz in a June 10 e-mail message to the entire campus.However, the administration stillurged faculty to avoid commentingon political debates within the stu-dent body: “The administration be-lieves that campus civility andharmony are best achieved whenfaculty members do not inject them-selves into the internal affairs or dis-putes of the students,” Diaz wrote.

“The PSC is committed to defend-ing academic freedom and freedomof speech on campus,” respondedHill. “It’s a fundamental part of ourlives as scholars, and it is crucial tothe health of the University that fac-ulty can speak on issues that arecurricular and extracurricular.”

BMCC chapter wins free speechtussle with management

Pat A

rnow

First Amendment rights at issue

Solidarity begins at home

PSC members Avi Bornstein and Deeadra Brown brought their children to the Labor Day Parade on September 6.

Collegeadministrationacknowledgesfaculty’s rightto free speech

CSI moves to start construction on dormsCUNY announced in 2005 a plan tobuild a new 600-bed dorm on theCollege of Staten Island campus.At the June Board of Trusteesmeeting, the BoT approved a reso-lution to move forward with con-struction. The project will befinanced with $86 million in tax-exempt bonds.

Last February CSI administra-tion told the Staten Island Ad-vance that they hoped to breakground this fall and complete con-struction by the end of the Spring2010 semester. The dorms wouldconsist of two four-story buildingsand one five-story building. Theywould be the first student resi-dences on the commuter campus.

Almost-free tuition for recent vetsUnder a new State tuition benefitsprogram, veterans who served inIraq or Afghanistan will havemore help with tuition, CUNY an-nounced in July. Awards for veter-ans who attend CUNY this fall willbe set at 98% of tuition or $4,287.50,whichever is less, CUNY said onits Web site.

Governor Paterson suggestedcutting the benefit almost immedi-ately after signing it. When hecalled the Legislature back for itsspecial session, he proposed a 50%reduction to the program, but itwas exempted after negotiationswith legislators.

“It’s outstanding that New Yorkhas stepped up to get educationbenefits for veterans,” Iraq veteranPaul Rieckhoff told the Daily News,“but the federal government needsto step up and follow their lead.”

Sarah Palin & CUNY: parallel lives?While mayor of Wasilla, vice pres-idential candidate Sarah Palin or-dered the town’s public employeesnot to speak to the press withouther permission. LaGuardia PSCmembers might remember whatthat’s like.

In November 2005, LaGuardiaCommunity College President GailMellow told all faculty and staff toconsult with her office before talk-ing with reporters. (See Clarion,March 2006.) But LaGuardia facul-ty and staff didn’t take the decreelying down. With the PSC, theyfought this violation of their con-stitutional right to free speech andwon a “re-clarification” of the poli-cy, as a request, not a rule.

Baruch College’s administrationtried to impose the same edict in2006, but also backed off after afirm union response.

As mayor of Wasilla, Palin alsoexpressed interest in banning cer-tain books from the town library –and tried to fire the librarian, whohad vowed to resist. So far noCUNY colleges have shown inter-est in following this example.

CUNYIN BRIEF

By DANIA RAJENDRA

Overtime by employees in the High-er Education Officer series (HEOs)was the subject of a major agree-ment reached this summer betweenCUNY and the PSC.

The late July accord followedunion victories in a grievance and alawsuit on the overtime issue, withthe PSC charging that CUNY had violated both the union contract andfederal law. The violations? ThatCUNY management routinely re-quired HEO-series employees to workmore than the contractual 35 hoursper week – without compensation.

The union won a settlement in thelawsuit in April 2007 and won thegrievance three months later whenan arbitrator ruled in the PSC’s fa-vor. Following these decisions, thePSC and CUNY worked out the re-cent implementation agreement onhow HEOs can claim their time.

Now, all HEOs who work between35 and 40 hours a week should havethe extra time returned to them ascompensatory time off (or “comptime”). For overtime beyond 40hours, HEOs will get either comptime or pay at time-and-a-half, de-pending on their specific job.

IT’S THE LAWUnder the federal Fair Labor Stan-

dards Act (FLSA), most Assistants toHEO and many Higher Education As-sistants must get overtime pay after40 hours in a week. Most HE Associ-ates and Higher Education Officersare defined as “exempt” under theFLSA and will thus get comp timerather than pay for hours above 40.(See below for more details.)

As part of the agreement, mem-bers will get compensation for pastovertime worked between July 19,2007 (the date of the arbitration de-cision), and June 24, 2008, if they

submitted a valid claim by August24. Arthur Ecock, a HEO who worksin the CUNY central administra-tion’s computer center, turned in aclaim for 299 hours and 36 minutes.The numbers came from the Univer-sity’s own computing data, saidGreg Dunkel, a coworker and chairof the PSC’s Central Office chapter:“This is down to the minute of whenhe logged on, when he logged off.”

“I am a systems programmer,”explained Ecock. “I’m responsiblefor a wide variety of applications,such as the CUNY portal directoryservers.” When something breaks,he’s responsible for fixing it. “I aver-age 10 to 15 hours a week of over-time,” said Ecock. “We are severelyunderstaffed.”

Ecock has worked at CUNY for 28years, and he hopes that reckoningwith his overtime will push supervi-sors to hire more staff. “I am FLSAexempt, so my motivation is notmonetary,” he noted. “I could cer-tainly use the additional 40-plusdays of time off that 299 hours repre-sents. Adding it all up pushed me torealize that, really, I am working toomuch. It’s very easy to burn out,” hesaid. “You put in these hours andyou don’t get appreciated.”

IT’S A VICTORYGanga Persaud is an Assistant to

HEO, and one of nine PSC membersat LaGuardia Community Collegewho filed the grievance and the lawsuit. He’s proud of what they

achieved – a change that benefitsthousands of union members. “I justput in my timesheet for 42 hours ina week I recently worked,” Persaudtold Clarion. “That’s two hours ofpay and five hours of comp time. Itis a victory, because in the old dayswe would have gotten nothing forworking those hours.”

Some HEOs said that the possibil-ity of recouping their time helpedmake the long hours of registrationmore bearable this year. “Severalstudents waited from 10 am until 4:30pm to register,” said Higher Educa-tion Associate Peter Holoman, anacademic advisor in the Student Ad-vocacy and Support Services Centerat Medgar Evers College. “You justcan’t say to these people, ‘No, I’m notgoing to help you. I’m going homenow.’ Some of my coworkers didn’tleave until 9:30 pm.” As a campusHEO leader, he said, “I told them,‘Make sure you account for thattime.’” Just as important, headded, was to ensure man-agement was aware of hiscolleagues’ work hours.

The settlement coversovertime that is “assigned”– which means overtimemust be authorized, in advance andin writing, by an administrator des-ignated by the college president.When asked to work overtime,HEOs should request the authoriza-tion in writing, which should be pro-vided at least 48 hours in advancewhenever possible.

Overtime is also “assigned” whenit results from a specific project as-signed by a supervisor in addition toone’s usual responsibilities. A com-mon example would be when HEOsare detailed to work registration,which happens on every CUNYcampus.

“It’s just the reality,” says HEOChapter Chair Jean Weisman.

“Everyone has to work overtime atregistration.” But other situationsare less clear-cut. Old habits diehard, Weisman noted, and bothmanagement and union membersare accustomed to HEOs workingendless hours but getting nothingin return.

IT’S A CULTURE CHANGESo Weisman and others are en-

couraging HEOs to speak up, in or-der to get the compensation theydeserve. “We need to start changingthe culture,” she told Clarion. “Fortoo long, CUNY management hastaken advantage of our commit-ment to our students, our colleaguesand our programs. If there is morework to be done beyond 35 hours,we deserve to be compensated forthat time.”

“People are used to working OTand not saying anything,” agreedBob Nelson, deputy director of Stu-

dent Services and Informa-tion Systems at theGraduate Center. “The cul-ture says, don’t complain,just do it.” But his own sto-ry is a lesson, he said, in thevalue of bucking that trend.

Nelson began at the Graduate Cen-ter in 1979, and started to speak outabout overtime in late 1981. Finally,he said, his directors listened.

“Eventually,” he said, “the GC it-self was responsive. I got work-study help,” and later more staff.“That was great for me, and itmeant I had more time for myself,”said Nelson. “What I did with thattime was educate myself, and as aresult of that, I was promoted, and Igot more significant – and more sat-isfying – positions.” That time, andthat opportunity, should be avail-able to everyone, he said. “The cul-ture should be that there should beenough people here to do the job.”

Clarion | September 2008 NEWS 7

1. What is overtime? Overtime hoursare those a HEO-series employee isassigned to work in excess of his/herusual 35-hour workweek. If a super-visor assigns a HEO-series employeeto perform a specific project in addi-tion to his/her usual responsibilities,and the project requires the employ-ee to work beyond his/her regularlyscheduled 35-hour workweek for adefined period in order to completethe project on time, those excesshours are also overtime.

2. What is compensatory time? Com-pensatory time is time off equal tothe number of hours worked in ex-cess of the 35-hour workweek.

3. Who is eligible? All HEO-series em-ployees are entitled to compensatorytime. HEO series employees who are“non-exempt” under the Fair LaborStandards Act (primarily Assts. toHEO and HE Assts.) are entitled to

receive compensatory time for hoursassigned between 35 and 40 hours ina week and payment at the rate oftime-and-a-half for hours worked be-yond 40 in a week. HEO series em-ployees who are “exempt” under theFair Labor Standards Act are entitledto receive compensatory time for allhours assigned in excess of the 35-hour workweek.

4. How does compensatory time dif-fer from overtime payments? Over-time is payment for all hoursworked in excess of 40 hours in aworkweek as defined by the FLSA.HEO series employees who are“non-exempt” must receive pay-ment (not compensatory time) atthe rate of time-and-a-half for hoursworked in excess of 40 hours. MostAssistants to HEO and many HE As-sistants are “non-exempt” and eligi-ble for overtime payments. MostHEO Associates and Higher Educa-

tion Officers are “exempt” underFLSA and not eligible for overtimepayments from the University forhours worked beyond 40 in anyworkweek, but are eligible for com-pensatory time. If you are unsure ofyour status as either “exempt” or“non-exempt,” contact the HumanResources Director at your college.

5. What do I do if I think I am misclas-sified? The first step is to clarifyyour classification with the HumanResources Director at your college.Then, call the union and speak to aHEO grievance counselor to discussyour situation.

6. How do I earn compensatory time?When you are assigned overtimebeyond your 35-hour workweek andhave received written authorizationin advance and your time record re-flects the additional hours worked,you are entitled to receive compen-

satory time for hours worked be-tween 35 and 40 if you are “non-ex-empt.” If you are “exempt” you areentitled to receive compensatorytime for all hours worked in excessof your 35-hour workweek.

7. How do I use earned compensato-ry time? The earning and the use ofcompensatory time will be recordedbased on the contractual HEO “leaveyear” (September 1 – August 31) andwill be reported on a quarterly basis.Compensatory time should be sched-uled to be used as promptly as possi-ble within the quarter in which it isearned and must be used no laterthan 30 calendar days after the end ofthe quarter. It will be scheduled bythe supervisor in consultation withthe employee.

8. What if I am told to work in excessof my 35-hour workweek and my su-pervisor refuses to authorize over-

time? In these situations, immedi-ately contact a HEO grievance coun-selor for guidance.

9. What if I am given too much workto do in a 35-hour workweek and mysupervisor tells me I should be ableto complete this work within the 35-hour workweek? The contract pro-tects against members beingrequired to work an excessive num-ber of hours or being assigned anunreasonable schedule. Dependingon the circumstances, you may havethe right to file a grievance. Pleasecontact a HEO grievance counselorfor guidance in these situations.

To contact a PSC HEO grievancecounselor, call the union office Tues-day through Friday between 10 amand 4 pm at (212) 354-1252. A more de-tailed version of this Q&A is on theunion Web site at www.psc-cuny.org/HEO/HEO35hourWorkweek.pdf.

Answers to FAQs about HEO OT settlement

Agreement reached on HEO overtimeMembers file for money, time

Ganga Persaud spoke up about overtime and HEOs.

Changingthe cultureof donatingtime to CUNY

Gar

y Sc

hoic

het

8 NEWS Clarion | September 2008

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09

PROFESSOR$ 62,268 64,229 66,799 68,803

64,728 66,767 69,438 71,52167,285 69,404 72,181 74,34669,636 71,830 74,703 76,94471,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41882,820 85,429 88,846 91,51185,621 88,318 91,851 94,60689,082 91,888 95,564 98,43192,541 95,456 99,274 102,25395,997 99,021 102,982 106,07198,726 101,836 105,909 109,087

102,235 105,455 109,674 116,364

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR$ 50,321 51,906 53,982 55,602

52,301 53,948 56,106 57,79054,362 56,074 58,317 60,06756,713 58,499 60,839 62,66558,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13369,405 71,591 74,455 76,68971,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41882,136 84,723 88,112 90,75684,902 87,576 91,079 96,635

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR$ 38,801 40,023 41,624 42,873

40,321 41,591 43,255 44,55241,904 43,224 44,953 46,30243,981 45,366 47,181 48,59646,333 47,792 49,704 51,19547,995 49,507 51,487 53,03249,792 51,360 53,415 55,01752,144 53,787 55,938 57,61653,947 55,646 57,872 59,60856,024 57,789 60,100 61,90358,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13369,139 71,317 74,170 76,39571,732 73,992 76,951 81,645

INSTRUCTOR AND INSTRUCTOR NURSING SCIENCE$ 35,657 36,780 38,251 39,399

37,051 38,218 39,747 40,93938,501 39,714 41,302 42,54140,851 42,138 43,823 45,13842,929 44,281 46,053 47,43444,588 45,993 47,832 49,26746,943 48,422 50,359 51,86948,604 50,135 52,140 53,70550,266 51,849 53,923 55,54151,926 53,562 55,704 57,37553,583 55,271 57,482 59,20655,245 56,985 59,265 61,04357,342 59,148 61,514 65,267

INSTRUCTOR II$ 56,906 58,699 61,046 62,878

59,248 61,114 63,559 65,46662,065 64,020 66,581 70,642

LECTURER$ 36,595 37,748 39,258 40,435 41,435

38,027 39,225 40,794 42,018 43,01839,515 40,760 42,390 43,662 44,66241,928 43,249 44,979 46,328 47,32844,062 45,450 47,268 48,686 49,68645,765 47,207 49,095 50,568 51,56848,184 49,702 51,690 53,241 54,24149,890 51,462 53,520 55,126 56,12651,596 53,221 55,350 57,011 58,01153,300 54,979 57,178 58,893 59,89355,003 56,736 59,005 60,775 61,77556,710 58,496 60,836 62,661 63,66158,415 60,255 62,665 64,545 65,54560,122 62,016 64,496 66,431 67,43162,526 64,496 67,075 69,088 70,08864,933 66,978 69,658 73,907 74,907

LECTURER DOCTORAL SCHEDULE$ 41,024 42,316 44,009 45,329

42,632 43,975 45,734 47,10644,305 45,701 47,529 48,95446,719 48,191 50,118 51,62248,858 50,397 52,413 53,98550,558 52,151 54,237 55,86452,977 54,646 56,832 58,53754,680 56,402 58,659 60,418

$ 56,388 58,164 60,491 62,30658,090 59,920 62,317 64,18659,792 61,675 64,142 66,06761,501 63,438 65,976 67,95563,205 65,196 67,804 69,83864,913 66,958 69,636 71,72567,319 69,440 72,217 74,38469,724 71,920 74,797 79,360

DISTINGUISHED LECTURER$ 36,595 37,748 39,258 40,844

to102,235 105,455 109,674 114,104

CLINICAL PROFESSOR (New Title)$ 39,258 40,844

to109,674 114,104

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE$ 32,842 33,877 35,232 36,655

to96,737 99,784 103,776 107,968

RESEARCH ASSISTANT$ 31,897 32,902 34,218 35,244

33,141 34,185 35,552 36,61934,436 35,521 36,942 38,05036,817 37,977 39,496 40,68138,914 40,140 41,745 42,99840,589 41,868 43,542 44,84941,149 42,445 44,143 45,46742,032 43,356 45,090 47,841

COLLEGE PHYSICIAN$ 30,666 31,632 32,897 33,884

31,861 32,865 34,179 35,20533,103 34,146 35,512 36,57735,458 36,575 38,038 39,17937,532 38,714 40,263 41,47139,189 40,423 42,040 43,30240,025 41,286 42,937 44,22540,851 42,138 43,823 45,13841,685 42,998 44,718 46,06042,514 43,853 45,607 46,97643,343 44,708 46,497 47,89244,512 45,914 47,751 50,663

HIGHER EDUCATION OFFICER$ 62,268 64,229 66,799 68,803

64,728 66,767 69,438 71,52167,285 69,404 72,181 74,34669,636 71,830 74,703 76,94471,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41882,820 85,429 88,846 91,51185,621 88,318 91,851 94,60689,082 91,888 95,564 98,43192,541 95,456 99,274 102,25395,997 99,021 102,982 106,07198,726 101,836 105,909 109,087

102,235 105,455 109,674 116,364

HIGHER EDUCATION ASSOCIATE$ 50,321 51,906 53,982 55,602

52,301 53,948 56,106 57,79054,362 56,074 58,317 60,06756,713 58,499 60,839 62,66558,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13369,405 71,591 74,455 76,68971,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41882,136 84,723 88,112 90,75684,902 87,576 91,079 96,635

HIGHER EDUCATION ASSISTANT$ 38,801 40,023 41,624 42,873

40,321 41,591 43,255 44,55241,904 43,224 44,953 46,30246,333 47,792 49,704 51,19547,995 49,507 51,487 53,03250,484 52,074 54,157 55,78252,144 53,787 55,938 57,61653,947 55,646 57,872 59,60856,024 57,789 60,100 61,90358,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13369,139 71,317 74,170 76,39571,732 73,992 76,951 81,645

ASSISTANT TEACHER$ 19,209 19,814 20,607 21,225

19,944 20,572 21,395 22,03720,864 21,521 22,382 23,747

ASSISTANT TO HIGHER EDUCATION OFFICER$ 32,197 33,211 34,540 35,576

33,454 34,508 35,888 36,96534,759 35,854 37,288 38,40736,318 37,462 38,960 40,12937,670 38,857 40,411 41,62339,515 40,760 42,390 43,66241,928 43,249 44,979 46,32844,062 45,450 47,268 48,68645,765 47,207 49,095 50,56848,184 49,702 51,690 53,24149,890 51,462 53,520 55,12651,596 53,221 55,350 57,01153,300 54,979 57,178 58,89355,003 56,736 59,005 60,77556,710 58,496 60,836 62,66158,415 60,255 62,665 64,54559,888 61,774 64,245 66,17361,365 63,298 65,830 69,846

ASSISTANT TO HIGHER EDUCATION OFFICER II$ 58,569 60,414 62,830 64,715

60,002 61,892 64,368 66,29961,909 63,859 66,413 70,465

ASSISTANT TO HIGHER EDUCATION OFFICER I$ 33,870 34,937 36,334 37,424

35,388 36,503 37,963 39,10236,704 37,860 39,375 40,55638,501 39,714 41,302 42,54141,163 42,460 44,158 46,852

SENIOR REGISTRAR$ 62,268 64,229 66,799 68,803

64,728 66,767 69,438 71,52167,285 69,404 72,181 74,34669,636 71,830 74,703 76,94471,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41885,621 88,318 91,851 94,60689,082 91,888 95,564 98,43192,541 95,456 99,274 102,25395,997 99,021 102,982 106,07198,726 101,836 105,909 109,087

102,235 105,455 109,674 116,364

REGISTRAR$ 52,240 53,886 56,041 57,722

54,299 56,009 58,250 59,99756,439 58,217 60,546 62,36258,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13371,716 73,975 76,934 79,24274,483 76,829 79,902 82,29977,249 79,682 82,870 85,35680,020 82,541 85,842 88,41882,136 84,723 88,112 90,75684,902 87,576 91,079 96,635

ASSOCIATE REGISTRAR$ 44,560 45,964 47,802 49,236

46,312 47,771 49,682 51,17248,132 49,648 51,634 53,18350,484 52,074 54,157 55,78252,144 53,787 55,938 57,61653,947 55,646 57,872 59,60856,024 57,789 60,100 61,90358,787 60,639 63,064 64,95661,563 63,502 66,042 68,02464,323 66,349 69,003 71,07367,092 69,205 71,974 74,13369,139 71,317 74,170 76,39571,732 73,992 76,951 81,645

ASSISTANT REGISTRAR$ 36,595 37,748 39,258 40,435

38,027 39,225 40,794 42,01839,515 40,760 42,390 43,66241,928 43,249 44,979 46,32844,062 45,450 47,268 48,68645,765 47,207 49,095 50,56848,184 49,702 51,690 53,24149,890 51,462 53,520 55,12651,596 53,221 55,350 57,01153,300 54,979 57,178 58,89355,003 56,736 59,005 60,77556,710 58,496 60,836 62,66158,415 60,255 62,665 64,54559,888 61,774 64,245 66,17361,365 63,298 65,830 69,846

GRADUATE ASSISTANT A$ 18,825 19,418 20,195 20,801

19,545 20,161 20,967 21,59620,296 20,935 21,773 22,42621,362 22,035 22,916 23,60422,573 23,284 24,215 24,94223,424 24,162 25,128 25,88224,632 25,408 26,424 27,21725,484 26,287 27,338 28,15826,338 27,168 28,254 29,10227,193 28,050 29,172 30,951

GRADUATE ASSISTANT B$ 9,811 10,120 10,525 10,841

10,171 10,491 10,911 11,23810,547 10,879 11,314 11,65411,074 11,423 11,880 12,23611,683 12,051 12,533 12,90912,111 12,492 12,992 13,38212,723 13,124 13,649 14,05813,149 13,563 14,106 14,52913,578 14,006 14,566 15,00314,005 14,446 15,024 15,940

GRADUATE ASSISTANT C$ 14,319 14,770 15,361 15,822

14,860 15,328 15,941 16,41915,420 15,906 16,542 17,03816,218 16,729 17,398 17,92017,128 17,668 18,374 18,925

$ 17,768 18,328 19,061 19,63318,676 19,264 20,035 20,63619,317 19,925 20,723 21,34419,956 20,585 21,408 22,05020,599 21,248 22,098 23,446

CHIEF COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN$ 45,071 46,491 48,350 49,801

46,702 48,173 50,100 51,60348,400 49,925 51,922 53,47950,423 52,011 54,092 55,71552,182 53,826 55,979 57,65854,577 56,296 58,548 60,30455,870 57,630 59,935 61,73357,887 59,710 62,099 63,96260,569 62,477 64,976 66,92563,265 65,258 67,868 69,90465,943 68,020 70,741 72,86367,825 69,961 72,760 74,94369,707 71,903 74,779 79,340

SENIOR COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN$ 39,839 41,094 42,738 44,020

41,255 42,555 44,257 45,58442,726 44,072 45,835 47,21044,479 45,880 47,715 49,14745,999 47,448 49,346 50,82648,077 49,591 51,575 53,12249,422 50,979 53,018 54,60850,764 52,363 54,458 56,09152,112 53,754 55,904 57,58153,453 55,137 57,342 59,06354,794 56,520 58,781 60,54455,909 57,670 59,977 61,77657,024 58,820 61,173 64,905

COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN$ 33,300 34,349 35,723 36,795

34,443 35,528 36,949 38,05835,635 36,758 38,228 39,37537,050 38,217 39,746 40,93838,284 39,490 41,070 42,30239,962 41,221 42,870 44,15641,040 42,333 44,026 45,34742,112 43,439 45,176 46,53143,189 44,549 46,331 47,72144,264 45,658 47,485 48,90945,607 47,044 48,925 50,39346,949 48,428 50,365 51,87648,294 49,815 51,808 53,36249,639 51,203 53,251 54,84850,685 52,282 54,373 56,00451,728 53,357 55,492 58,877

ADJUNCT CHIEF COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN

$ 33.20 34.25 35.62 36.6834.54 35.63 37.05 38.1635.91 37.04 38.52 39.6840.09 41.35 43.01 44.3043.43 44.80 46.59 50.67

ADJUNCT SENIOR COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN

$ 28.57 29.47 30.65 31.5729.72 30.66 31.88 32.8430.89 31.86 33.14 34.1333.39 34.44 35.82 36.8935.91 37.04 38.52 41.89

ADJUNCT COLLEGE LABORATORY TECHNICIAN

$ 23.17 23.90 24.86 25.6024.07 24.83 25.82 26.6025.06 25.85 26.88 27.6928.37 29.26 30.43 31.3531.73 32.73 34.04 37.02

ADJUNCT LECTURER$ 58.68 60.53 62.95 64.84

61.02 62.94 65.46 67.4263.49 65.49 68.11 70.1566.32 68.41 71.15 73.2869.17 71.35 74.20 80.70

ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR$ 66.55 68.65 71.39 73.53

69.22 71.40 74.26 76.4871.99 74.26 77.23 79.5474.82 77.18 80.26 87.29

ADJUNCT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR$ 71.76 74.02 76.98 79.29

74.64 76.99 80.07 82.4777.63 80.08 83.28 85.7880.49 83.03 86.35 88.9483.28 85.90 89.34 97.16

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR$ 79.59 82.10 85.38 87.94

82.77 85.38 88.79 91.4686.09 88.80 92.35 95.1288.94 91.74 95.41 98.2791.75 94.64 98.43 107.04

NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT I AND II$ 35.21 36.32 37.77 38.91

36.61 37.76 39.27 40.4538.09 39.29 40.86 42.0939.80 41.05 42.70 43.9841.50 42.81 44.52 48.41

NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT III$ 39.93 41.19 42.84 44.12

41.54 42.85 44.56 45.9043.20 44.56 46.34 47.7344.89 46.30 48.16 52.37

NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT IV$ 43.06 44.42 46.19 47.58

44.79 46.20 48.05 49.4946.58 48.05 49.97 51.4748.29 49.81 51.80 53.3649.97 51.54 53.61 58.30

NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT V$ 47.75 49.25 51.22 52.76

49.66 51.22 53.27 54.8751.65 53.28 55.41 57.0753.36 55.04 57.24 58.9655.06 56.79 59.07 64.23

MEDICAL SERIES

MEDICAL PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)$ 79,930 82,448 85,746 89,210

to114,061 117,654 122,360 127,303

ASSOC. MEDICAL PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)$ 67,130 69,245 72,014 74,924

to100,225 103,382 107,517 111,861

ASST. MEDICAL PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)$ 54,336 56,048 58,289 60,644

to86,385 89,106 92,670 96,414

MEDICAL PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 102,958 106,201 110,449 114,911

to152,813 157,627 163,932 170,555

ASSOC. MEDICAL PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 90,164 93,004 96,724 100,632

to127,902 131,931 137,208 142,751

ASST. MEDICAL PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 79,930 82,448 85,746 89,210

to114,063 117,656 122,362 127,306

ADJ. ASST. MED. PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 169.14 174.47 181.45 186.89

175.91 181.45 188.71 194.37182.94 188.70 196.25 202.14196.89 203.09 211.22 217.55210.89 217.53 226.23 233.02

ADJ. ASSOC. MED. PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 197.51 203.73 211.88 218.24

205.44 211.91 220.39 227.00213.64 220.37 229.18 236.06227.63 234.80 244.19 251.52241.62 249.23 259.20 266.98

ADJ. MED. PROFESSOR (CLINICAL)$ 225.96 233.08 242.40 249.67

235.00 242.40 252.10 259.66244.40 252.10 262.18 270.05261.17 269.40 280.17 288.58280.66 289.50 301.08 310.11

ADJ. ASST. MED. PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)$ 104.57 107.86 112.18 115.54

108.76 112.19 116.67 120.17113.10 116.66 121.33 124.97129.51 133.59 138.93 143.10141.02 145.46 151.28 155.82

ADJ. ASSOC. MED. PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)

$ 132.97 137.16 142.64 146.92138.29 142.65 148.35 152.80143.82 148.35 154.28 158.91157.78 162.75 169.26 174.34171.79 177.20 184.29 189.82

ADJ. MED. PROFESSOR (BASIC SCIENCES)$ 161.38 166.46 173.12 178.32

167.86 173.15 180.07 185.48174.55 180.05 187.25 192.87191.28 197.31 205.20 211.35210.89 217.53 226.23 233.02

MEDICAL LECTURER$ 53,091 54,763 56,954 59,255

to82,141 84,728 88,118 91,678

ADJ. MED. LECTURER$ 29.00 29.91 31.11 32.04

to45.11 46.53 48.39 49.84

DISTINGUISHED LECTURER – MEDICAL SERIES $ 53,091 54,763 56,954 59,255

to152,813 157,627 163,932 170,555

LAW SCHOOL SERIES

LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR$ 81,937 84,518 87,899 91,450

to132,436 136,608 142,072 147,812

LAW SCHOOL ASSOC. PROFESSOR$ 69,767 71,965 74,843 77,867

to108,302 111,714 116,182 120,876

LAW SCHOOL ASST. PROFESSOR$ 59,623 61,501 63,961 66,545

to88,558 91,348 95,001 98,840

LAW SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR$ 35,689 36,813 38,286 39,832

to77,587 80,031 83,232 86,595

LAW SCHOOL LECTURER (per month)$ 4,094 4,223 4,392 4,569

to11,068 11,417 11,873 12,353

LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY PROFESSOR$ 62,268 64,229 66,799 69,487

to95,997 99,021 102,982 to98,726 101,836 105,909

102,235 105,455 109,674 147,812

LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR$ 50,321 51,906 53,982 56,163

to80,020 82,541 85,842 to82,136 84,723 88,11284,902 87,576 91,079 120,876

LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR$ 38,801 40,023 41,624 43,306

to67,092 69,205 71,974 to69,139 71,317 74,17071,732 73,992 76,951 98,840

LAW SCHOOL ADJUNCT PROFESSOR$ 81.88 84.46 87.84 91.39

to243.56 251.23 261.28 271.84

LAW SCHOOL ADJUNCT ASSOC. PROF.$ 71.65 73.91 76.86 79.97

to177.14 182.72 190.03 197.71

LAW SCHOOL ADJUNCT ASST. PROF.$ 65.53 67.59 70.30 73.14

to132.84 137.02 142.51 148.26

LAW SCHOOL NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT III$ 39.31 40.55 42.17 43.87

to79.70 82.21 85.50 88.95

LAW SCHOOL NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT II$ 42.99 44.34 46.12 47.98

to106.29 109.64 114.02 118.63

LAW SCHOOL NON-TEACHING ADJUNCT I$ 49.13 50.68 52.70 54.83

to146.13 150.73 156.76 163.10

DISTINGUISHED LECTURER – LAW SCHOOL$ 35,689 36,813 38,286 39,832

to132,436 136,608 142,072 147,812

RESIDENT SERIES

RESIDENT PROFESSOR$ 2,388 2,463 2,562 2,639

2,484 2,562 2,665 2,7452,583 2,664 2,771 2,854

RESIDENT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR$ 2,026 2,090 2,173 2,239

2,107 2,173 2,260 2,3282,192 2,261 2,351 2,422

RESIDENT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR$ 1,670 1,723 1,792 1,845

1,736 1,791 1,862 1,9181,805 1,862 1,936 1,994

RESIDENT INSTRUCTOR$ 1,433 1,478 1,537 1,583

1,491 1,538 1,599 1,6471,550 1,599 1,663 1,713

RESIDENT LECTURER$ 1,433 1,478 1,537 1,583

1,491 1,538 1,599 1,6471,550 1,599 1,663 1,713

CONTINUING EDUCATION TEACHER (H) MINIMUM$ 30.03 30.98 32.21 33.18

CUNY LANGUAGE IMMERSION PROGRAM –CONTINUING EDUCATION TEACHER MINIMUM

$ 33.81 34.88 36.27 37.36

The new contract’s salary schedulesBelow are the salary schedules negotiated under the new unioncontract for all CUNY titles in the PSC’s bargaining unit. Thefirst column reflects the salary steps on the last day of the pre-vious contract; the following columns reflect the increases tothe salary steps under the new agreement, ratified on Septem-ber 3 (see page 3). Educational Opportunity Center salaryschedules will be published after completion of negotiations onthe EOCs. See www.psc-cuny.org for answers to frequentlyasked questions in the special contract issue of Clarion, the newsalary schedule and other contract documents.

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09 3/19/10

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09In effect through Oct. 2010

ADJUNCT LECTURER ADJUNCT LECTURERCOURSE EQUIVALENT: 3 HOUR COURSE COURSE EQUIVALENT: 6 HOUR COURSE PLUS FOR 15 WEEKS* PROFESSIONAL HOUR FOR 15 WEEKS*

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09 9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09$ 2,641 2,724 2,833 2,918 $ 6,161 6,355 6,610 6,808

2,746 2,832 2,946 3,034 6,407 6,609 6,873 7,0792,857 2,947 3,065 3,157 6,666 6,876 7,152 7,3662,984 3,078 3,202 3,298 6,964 7,183 7,470 7,6943,113 3,211 3,339 3,631 7,263 7,492 7,791 8,473

* Per-course amounts are for illustration purposes only. Assumes 15 weeks of full pay (see April 2007 Clari-on, page 12).

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09 9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09 9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09

9/19/07 9/20/07 10/6/08 10/20/09

Clarion | September 2008 YOUR BENEFITS 9

Adjunct Professional Development FundBy PETER HOGNESS

The last PSC contract provided forcreation of an Adjunct Profession-al Development Fund – the firstgrant program at CUNY to supportpart-time faculty as academics.The program was highly success-ful, supporting a wide range ofscholarly, creative and educationalprojects. The number and qualityof applications was so great that,by late spring of this year, the mon-ey in the fund was dwindling and ittemporarily suspended acceptingapplications.

With the ratification of the newcontract, the fund has been re-newed. CUNY will make three an-nual payments to the fund of$500,000 each, and the committeethat administers its grants will re-sume meeting in mid-October.

CUNY’s adjuncts are a diversegroup, and so are the projects thathave been supported by the AdjunctProfessional Development Fund.Below are a few examples, in arange of disciplines. If they inspireyou to make a proposal of your own,information on how to apply can befound at the end of this article.

WRITINGDiane Sposito’s grant allowed herto attend the well-known Santa FeScreenwriter’s Conference in 2007.Sposito is a playwright who has be-gun writing for film and television;she teaches writing-intensive class-es in the speech, communicationand theater arts department at BM-CC, where she has taught for thepast six years.

“I think my theater work hasmade me a more vibrant and ener-gizing teacher,” Sposito told Clari-on, and she said that many of thepractical exercises and techniquesat the conference found direct appli-cation in her classes at BMCC.

“Writing is writing, and both stu-dents and professional writers canexperience that agony of feeling,‘Oh, it’s wrong, it’s wrong,’ beforethey even start.” Drawing on someapproaches from the conference,she said, “I’ve been able to navigatethat threshold with my students,and they’ve become much less ner-vous or afraid.”

“With creative writing, the start-ing point is getting them to feel com-fortable just saying something,” sheadded. “For many, it comes as a sur-prise that writing can be an act ofpleasure, something they really en-joy. A lot of kids are really, reallyafraid of it, often because they comein with spelling or grammar issues.Those are important to tackle, but toget there they also need to learn toenjoy the act of writing.”

Sposito’s own work as a writercomes into her classes at BMCC inanother way, she said: students of-ten ask her for guidance about purs-ing a career in writing for the screenor the stage.

Sposito is co-librettist on Heavenin Your Pocket, a production in thisyear’s New York Musical TheaterFestival, which she describes as

“the Sundance of musical theater.”With performances that runthrough September 28, she said it’sexciting not only for her but for herstudents as well. “I know for mystudents, I’m in some ways a rolemodel,” she said. “I’ve told them it’sbeen the culmination of a lot ofhard work and faith in myself. Ikept going and it paid off.”

FORENSIC SCIENCEDanielle Sapse has been an ad-junct at John Jay College since 2002.She’s a lawyer – but she majored inchemistry and worked in researchlabs as an undergraduate. Hergrant is supporting work that com-bines both parts of her background,in a project on the chemistry of fin-gerprint identification.

Some fingerprints “are easily de-tected on certain surfaces,” she explained. “Others, called latent fin-gerprints, are harder to detect. Latentfingerprints are invisible prints thatare formed by the transfer of perspi-ration from the finger ridges to an ob-ject.” There are various techniquesfor making them visible, such as theuse of the chemical ninhydrin, whichturns purple-blue when it combineswith amino acids that are found inperspiration. This process is fasterwhen heat is applied.

Sapse’s project involves using acomputer modeling program toidentify chemical analogs of nin-hydrin that might have some ofthe same properties, and thus beuseful in fingerprint identification.While not involved in experimen-tal work herself, she told Clarion,her calculations may suggest ex-periments valuable to othersworking on developing com-

pounds useful in forensic science.Sapse has been invited to give a

series of eight lectures related tothis work at the University ofRouen in France later thisyear. She has previouslylectured at Rouen on theuse of DNA in challengingpast criminal convictions.Sapse said she is proposinga new course on scientificevidence in court, and her currentresearch has contributed to herthinking about the design of thatcourse in several ways.

PHILOSOPHYChrysoula Gitsoulis has been teach-ing philosophy at CUNY since 1998 –first at Baruch and for the past fouryears at City College. She was three

years old when her parents migratedto the US from Greece, and she saidher family background helped sparkher early interest in ancient Greekphilosophy.

“At first I was partly motivatedby a desire to better understand myhistorical roots,” she told Clarion.“But after a while, I found it wasfascinating in its own right.” Overtime, her philosophical interestsmoved on to other times andplaces; she’s currently revising herdissertation on 20th century Anglo-American philosophy in the doctor-al program at the CUNY GraduateCenter.

Gitsoulis received support to pre-sent two papers at philosophy con-ferences in Greece this summer. Thefirst, delivered at the Athens Insti-tute for Education and Research,was on Wittgenstein and draws onher dissertation.

“The paper examines the poetic

quality of Wittgenstein’s philosophi-cal writing,” she said and how thestyle of his writing is related to thecontent of his work. “I argue that thispoetic quality can be traced to fourdistinct sources, and that it is neces-sarily bound up with his way of do-

ing philosophy – not justaccidentally connected.”

Her second talk, at ameeting of the Internation-al Association for GreekPhilosophy in Crete, wason “The Myth of Gyges

and the Possibility of Altruism,” tak-ing a section of Plato’s Republic asher point of departure. “It concernswhether altruism is a genuine phe-nomenon, or something that humanbeings masquerade at for hope of fu-ture benefit,” she explained. In thiscase, the paper had a direct relation-ship to her work in the classroom atCUNY, as she discusses these ethical

issues regularly both in introductoryphilosophy and in her course on hu-man nature.

HOW TO APPLYGrants from the Adjunct Profession-al Development Fund have support-ed a wide range of other projects,from anthropological fieldwork inRussia to graduate coursework incounseling psychology.

If you have a project in mind, youcan get application forms and moreinformation on the PSC Web site, atwww.psc-cuny.org/ProfessionalDevelopment.htm, or by calling Lin-da Slifkin at (212) 354-1252.

Applications are considered on arolling basis, and priority is given topeople who have not previously re-ceived support. The maximumgrant is $3,000; please note that ap-plications must be approved beforeany money is spent on the proposedactivity.

Supporting intellectual lifeD

ave

Sand

ers

Support forscholarship,resourcesfor research

Diane Sposito, a playwright who teaches at BMCC, attended a conference with her grant.

HEA reauthorizedOn August 15, President Bushsigned the reauthorization of theHigher Education Act (HEA) – fiveyears after its expiration.

The bill won wide bipartisan sup-port, passing the House 380 to 49and the Senate 83 to 8. New HEAprovisions in student aid includemaking Pell Grants available yearround, requiring more transparen-cy from lenders and simplifying theFAFSA application form.

Critics claim that costs associat-ed with new reporting require-ments – established to create moreaccountability – may prove bur-densome for some institutions.

Not included was text from thecontroversial right-wing initia-tive known as “the Academic Billof Rights,” which would limit aca-demic freedom by imposing gov-ernment monitoring of facultymembers’ political views.

AFT President Randi Wein-garten lauded the new law for mak-ing higher ed “more affordable,”with its Pell Grant improvementsand loan forgiveness for graduateswho work for the public interest.

NC CCs shut out undocumented studentsLast month, North Carolina an-nounced that undocumented stu-dents would not be allowed toenroll in its community colleges.The state is one of only a few thatdeny undocumented students theright to an education.

The State’s Board of CommunityColleges voted on the policy on Au-gust 15, codifying a motion broughtby Democrat Lt. Gov. Beverly Per-due, who is running for governor.

The State made the move in spiteof the conclusions of the federal De-partment of Homeland Security,which has said that federal law doesnot prevent public colleges from ac-cepting undocumented students.

In New York State, undocu-mented students who graduatefrom New York State high schoolscan attend CUNY and SUNY at in-state rates.

Midwest investsAs New York State responds to itseconomic slowdown by further un-derfunding public higher education(see page 5), states in the Midwesthave a proactive approach – rely-ing on their public colleges as “keyplayers in the long-term transfor-mation of their economies,” report-ed the Chronicle of HigherEducation. These states “look to[public higher ed] to provide need-ed work-force training and spawnnew industries,” the story said.

“The path to economic securityand stability runs through the col-lege campus,” said Larry Isaak,president of the Midwestern High-er Education Compact.

Several Midwestern states havehad tough economic years, but lim-ited or avoided cuts to higher ed.

HIGHER EDIN BRIEF

By RON HAYDUKBMCC

In August, Governor Paterson calledthe Legislature into session to consid-er imposing a strict cap on local prop-erty taxes. It was a fake solution to areal problem, and the Assembly did

the right thing in rejecting it.Property taxes are crushing many belea-

guered homeowners, particularly outside ofNew York City, and they need relief. But capping property taxes – without regard tolevels of income and wealth – is a wrong-headed policy that has been tried in otherstates and resulted in disaster for publicschools. In California, Illinois and Massachu-setts tax caps led to massive teacher layoffs,larger class sizes and lower student successrates. Most NY localities’ school budgets areabout 50% funded by property taxes.

A SOLUTIONCalifornia, for example, had one of the na-

tion’s best public school systems untilProposition 13’s tax cap was adopted in1978. A generation later, the RAND Corpo-ration found that California had the second-worst teacher to student ratio in the nationand national test scores were lower thanevery state but Mississippi and Louisiana.

The tax cap idea is not only bad forschools, it also fails to give relief to thosewho need it most. A cap would only limit therate at which levies increase in the future,doing nothing to ease the burden for seniorsand working families who already sufferfrom unaffordable property taxes.

Thankfully, there is a better way. It’s atried and true method that is finally gettingsome attention in Albany: tax the rich! Well,at least tax them somewhat more than we dotoday. This summer, after a vocal organizingcampaign by the Working Families Party,several key unions and community groups,the New York State Assembly passed a pro-gressive “circuit-breaker” bill instead of theregressive right-wing tax cap.

PROGRESSIVEIf enacted into law, the “circuit-breaker”

proposal would deliver a targeted propertytax cut based on family income and pay for itby modestly rolling back some of the incometax giveaways that have gone to New York’swealthiest families in the last three decades.

The rich would pay somewhatmore, while middle- and low-incomehomeowners would pay less.

The roughly 26,000 millionaireswho live in New York would seetheir income tax rate rise by a mere1.75%, but that would generate morethan a billion dollars a year.

In the midst of rising unemploy-ment and a home foreclosure crisis, thecircuit-breaker plan would give millions ofworking New Yorkers a tax break exactlywhen they need it most. It’s a fair and pro-gressive way to give property tax relief toworking families and low-income seniors,without denying public schools the fundingthey need to provide a sound education. It includes a similar rebate for renters, whichwould enhance both equity and economic activity.

New York’s right wing is afraid of thisidea. The conservative New York Sun, for example, warned its well-heeled readers“Millionaire’s Tax at Heart of Battle for StateSenate.” The paper noted that the proposalis highly popular – supported by 78% of NewYorkers in a recent poll.

THE WEIGHT OF HISTORYThe circuit-breaker idea would be a good

start – but a fully progressive tax policywould have to go further in addressing theunderlying problem. In the last threedecades, starting under Gov. Cuomo andcontinuing under Gov. Pataki, the wealthi-est 1% of New Yorkers have seen their tax-es cut in half. The tax burden has beenshifted downward to the middle and work-ing classes. Sharp reductions in federalschool aid and State revenue sharing haveled to higher property taxes as localitiessought to keep municipal governments andschools afloat.

Meanwhile tax cuts for the rich meantfunding cuts for public services, from afford-able housing to public universities. NewYork also imposed rising “user fees,” fromtransit fare hikes to tuition increases atCUNY and SUNY. (“User fee” is a conve-nient euphemism for regressive taxation:these are essentially taxes levied only onthose who depend on public services.)

These changes in tax and spending policy

are partof the reason that today,out of all 50 states, New York has thegreatest disparity in income between the top1% and the bottom half of its population. Wehave seen the rich get filthy rich, while therest of us are left to fend for ourselves.

FAIR STRUCTUREReturning to New York State’s tax struc-

ture of a generation ago, while adjusting taxbrackets and the personal exemption to re-flect inflation, would result in the vast major-ity of taxpayers paying less than we dotoday, while New York would gain severalbillion more in revenue. Public services thathave been slashed could get a sorely neededboost. For CUNY, a fairer tax structurecould make it possible to reverse decades ofdefunding of the University.

For CUNY to get what it truly needs –enough support to create good conditions forteaching, learning and research at every col-lege – will take more than a marginal in-crease in public funding. The NYSCommission on Higher Education concludedthat the State’s public universities have faceda chronic problem of too little investment andcalled for several billion dollars in new

spendingto reverse that trend.But it’s very unlikely that CUNY andSUNY will win that kind of gain if every oth-er public service is being cut or only seeingslight improvement.

New York’s public sector has been starvedfor many years. Until we secure an increasein State and City revenue, CUNY will be incompetition with health care, housing, parksand libraries for scarce public resources.That’s a losing game – especially when theeconomy is contracting.

What CUNY needs is a broad shift in thepolitics of New York State, so that privateprofit and the privileges of the wealthy arenot sacred and public needs are more highlyvalued. It’s a big lift, but one that could makea tremendous difference in our quality of life.We have the numbers; it is a matter of orga-nizing our political strength.

BROADER VISIONThe PSC can’t create this kind of change

on our own. We can only do so as part of alarger movement. That means taking actionas part of a broad coalition – faculty andstaff, students and family members – thatlooks to unite working people based on ourcommon interests. Mutual support amongunions and community groups isn’t pie in thesky. Rather, it’s the only pragmatic way towin what CUNY really needs.

While working hard to mobilize our mem-bers, the PSC has also taken part in laborand community coalitions. This has in-creased our political clout in Albany and atCity Hall. Our political action work – largelyfunded by members’ COPE contributions –now includes an exciting new initiative,CUNY Rising, which aims to forge longer-term alliances with students, alumni andcommunity groups. This holds great promisein helping to change debate and politics inNew York State. (For more information, see the legislative and solidarity pages atwww.psc-cuny.org.)

Attacking regressive taxes and promotingprogressive tax policy is one practical way toadvance these goals. It focuses attention on areal problem and points to a viable solution.And in so doing, it can contribute to a broad-er vision for New York’s shared future.

10 OPINION Clarion | September 2008

Tax fairness and CUNY’s futureSTATE POLITICS

78% of NY approves of taxing top 1%G

rego

ry N

emec

Friday, September 26: 6:00 pm / La-bor Goes to the Movies presentsWithin Our Gates, OscarMicheaux’s 1920 silent film madein response to D.W. Griffith’s in-famous Birth of a Nation (1915).Oscar Micheaux, an early AfricanAmerican filmmaker, made inde-pendent films for 30 years entire-ly outside the Hollywood system.Censored by some states due toits scenes of murder, lynchingand rape, the film provides an in-cisive look at American race rela-tions from one of the pioneers ofAfrican American filmmaking. Inthe PSC Union Hall, 61 Broadway,16th floor, $2 suggested donation.Contact Albert Muñoz at the PSC,(212) 354-1252 or amunoz@pscmail.org. No RSVPs.

Friday, October 3: 4:00 pm / First Fri-days meeting of the PSC Part-TimePersonnel Committee. At the PSCUnion Hall, 61 Broadway, 16thfloor. For more information con-tact Marcia Newfield at revolu@earthlink.net.

Monday, October 6: 1:00 pm / PSC Re-tirees Chapter Meeting. At thePSC Union Hall, 61 Broadway,16th floor. In the first session PSCPresident Barbara Bowen willspeak on “The State of theUnion.” During the second ses-sion, retirees will be divided intogroups by pension plan, andspeakers from TRS and TIAApension systems will explain newplan choices recently made avail-able under the two plans.

Monday, October 6: 4:00 pm / PSCPension Committee Meeting. The

PSC Pension Committee is com-pleting a long study of pension is-sues. We want to be aware of allthe issues, including yours. Pre-sent your concerns at this openhearing. For more informationcontact the committee’s chair, Peter Jonas, at Peter.J.PSC@gmail.com.

October 17-19 / CUNY Social Fo-rum. The CUNY Social Forumaims to lay the foundation for acohesive cross-CUNY studentmovement by examining issuesand planning actions rooted inCUNY’s historic mission to servethe diverse working people ofNYC and its status as an urbanuniversity dedicated to produc-ing knowledge that contributesto the public good. For more in-formation, go to www.cunysocialforum.com.

Monday, October 20: 6:00 pm / PSCSolidarity Committee Meeting. Atthe PSC office, 61 Broadway, 15thfloor. For more information, con-tact Jim Perlstein at jperstein@bassmeadow. com.

Tuesday, October 21: 6:00 pm / PSCWomen’s Committee Meeting. Atthe PSC office, 61 Broadway, 15thfloor. For more information, con-tact Marcia Newfield at revolu@earthlink.net.

Saturday, October 25: 9:30 am / Inter-national Committee Meeting. Formore information contact RenateBridenthal, rbriden1@juno.com.

Monday, October 27: 6:00 pm / HEOChapter Meeting. At the CUNYGraduate Center, 34th Streetand 5th Avenue, Room C203/204.

CALENDAR

Clarion | September 2008 OPINION 11

By KESI FOSTER

The American Dream deferred –that was the message from na-tional lenders when they movedto significantly reduce theirlending to students who attend

community college. Education is the greatequalizer, but there was no equality in theirdecision: they targeted community collegesfor cuts while extending their lending pro-grams at distinguished four-year schools.

According to The New York Times (6/2/08),the following lenders have started turningaway from community college students:Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust andPNC. In the case of Citibank, it has stoppedoffering loans to all community college stu-dents in the state of California. Citibank gavean odd explanation: a spokesperson said thebank has “temporarily suspended lending atschools which tend to have loans with lowerbalances and shorter periods over which weearn interest.” In other words, communitycollege students borrow too little money andpay off our loans too fast.

SAFETY NETOther banks cite default rates and the low-

er earnings of community college students.This might sound like solid reasoning were itnot for the facts (duly pointed out in the arti-cle) that colleges can only take part in federalloan programs if they have low default ratesand that government insurance covers 95% ofthe value of student loans. Thus there is min-imal risk involved for the lending companies.

We’ve been told that a college degree willset a person on the path for success. Noteveryone takes the same path, however.People enroll in community college for manydifferent reasons. Some didn’t get the gradesin high school to qualify for a four-yearschool, while others have to work full-timeand need the flexibility that community col-leges offer. Most simply cannot afford to en-roll in a four-year school. I am one of them.

After high school, I enrolled in St. John’sUniversity because I got decent grades inhigh school and I was expected to go to col-lege. I had no understanding of what I want-ed to be in life and didn’t grasp theimportance of the college experience and ahigher education. I pretty much picked a major out of a hat and then spent my firsttwo semesters skipping one too many aclass. By the summer, I decided not to enrollfor the Fall and took a full-time job instead. Itwasn’t anyone’s fault – in truth, I was notready to attend college and made my deci-sion accordingly.

Yet in my household, education has alwaysbeen stressed, and so I knew that I would re-turn to college. After a few years of working, Imatured a great deal and had a better sense ofwhere I wanted to go in life. So I reapplied toSt. John’s and was accepted once again. Iquickly realized, though, that my situationhad changed dramatically. The tuition wasnow double what it had been whenI left, and I did not qualify for finan-cial aid since I was no longer a de-pendent but the sole taxpayer.(New York’s Tuition AssistanceProgram is mainly designed foryoung people supported by theirparents and provides poor supportfor independent working adults.)With little choice, I turned to thebest alternative available: commu-nity college.

FIRST IMPRESSIONSAt first I was discouraged.

There is a stark difference be-tween the administration of St.John’s and that of my new school,Bronx Community College.Whereas it took only about 30minutes to sign up for classes atSt. John’s, it can take a whole dayat BCC. And they may even askyou to come back due to somemysterious hold on your recordthat can be taken care of only bya faculty member whose schedulenever overlaps with your own.During registration, I have askedthe same question three differenttimes and gotten back three com-pletely different answers. Therewas also this sense of stigma Iwas carrying around, that some-how an education at a communitycollege is inferior – some peoplerefer to it as “the 13th grade.”

After attending for more thanthree semesters now, I would saythe administration of the school has im-proved some, but it is still in disarray. In thisand other ways, basic resources at the col-lege are badly lacking. It seems not a singlefunctioning water fountain can be found onthe entire campus, though there are sodamachines in every building. The heating andAC systems are hit or miss, and the menu atthe food hall is less than appealing.

As for the education, however, I couldn’thave been more wrong. It has been rigorous

and very well rounded – great preparationfor any baccalaureate program.

I was embarrassed to qualify only as afreshman even though I was legally oldenough to drink – that is, I felt that way until Igot to class and met my classmates. The beau-ty of community college is the student body.Many of us have returned to community col-

lege as a second chance to achieve ourgoals. I met single mothers, fathers,

grandmothers, first-generation im-migrants and people of all nation-

alities, the majority clearlyfocused and very eager to

learn – all of us strivingequally to get a piece of the

American Dream, usingcommunity college as

the springboard. When people would raisetheir hands to answer questions, you wouldhear West Indian accents, Eastern Europeanaccents, East Indian accents, Latino accentsand some I just couldn’t place. Since I was stillworking, the flexible schedule was a necessityfor me. Like me, many classmates came toclass right after their full-time jobs. I don’tthink most of us could afford to leave our jobs,and without community college we couldn’tcontinue our higher education.

The student body at community collegesshould be an inspiration to America. When Isee a single mother who takes care of herchildren, works a full-time job, and finds timeon the nights and weekends to attend school,I am inspired to continue despite at times feel-ing overwhelmed. Yet when it was discoveredthat lenders were turning their backs onthese hardworking students, America didn’tblink an eye. Since the credit industry is nowturning its back on us, should we considerturning our backs on the banks when theywant the government to bail them out?

LEVELING THE FIELDOr perhaps we should do as economist

Dean Baker recently suggested: that Congressimpose a strict cap on management compen-sation of $2 million a year, including salary,bonuses, stock options and personal use ofcompany jets, as one of the terms of thebailout. As Baker says, “This can be a goodfirst step toward reining in the outrageoussalaries at financial institutions that havecome at the expense of ordinary workers. Wecan apply the same salary caps for managersat other financial institutions that feed at thegovernment trough.” He notes that under thecurrent bailout, which naturally was writtenby the banks themselves, “the government is

explicitly subsidizing the pay of in-competent bank managers.”

And if our financial institutionsare going to cut back on collegeloans, why not downsize lendingat the distinguished four-yearschools? After all, students at thewealthy four-year schools havefar more net worth than those at-tending community college. Also,since so many students at commu-nity college work full-time, I betwe’re actually paying a great dealmore in taxes than students atprivate four-year colleges.

When it was discovered that alocal congressman, my local con-gressman, was hoarding rent-stabilized apartments, it became aweeklong media circus, with newsconferences and special featureson the 6 and 11 o’clock news. Itseems like you can’t turn on thenews without a politician conven-ing a press conference to defendtheir indefensibly corrupt behav-ior. Yet when it comes to the cor-ruptions of the big banks, thegovernment rushes in to save

their skin – that is, their bloated salaries –and the media looks the other way.

CONSPIRACY?In many inner cities and low-income com-

munities, too many students fall through thecracks before they even get a chance to at-tend community college. As a society, wecan’t allow even more holes for them to fallthrough. What happens to people whenmore unnecessary obstacles are placed infront of them on their path to success?

The big banks want us to help them out intough times, after having made extremely ir-rational lending decisions. But when weneed help to pursue a very sound and ratio-nal course, the attainment of a college de-gree, America’s politicians sit in the back ofthe classroom and nod off to sleep, squander-ing yet another chance for us to improveourselves.

It makes one wonder if that might be thewhole plan.

Kesi Foster was raised in New Rochelle, NY,and is currently a student at Bronx Communi-ty College. He can be reached at kesibfoster@hotmail.com. This article was originally pub-lished online at CommonDreams.org.

Community college studentsneed not apply for loans

HOW THE BANKS SAY ‘THANKS’

Our reward for saving the credit industry?

Newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York, collective bargaining representative of the CUNY instructional staff. Vol.37,No.7. PSC/CUNY is affiliated with the American Associationof University Professors, National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers (Local 2334), AFL-CIO, the New York City Central Labor Council, and New York State United Teachers. Publishedby PSC/CUNY, 61 Broadway, 15th floor, New York, NY 10006. Telephone: (212) 354-1252. Website: www.psc-cuny.org. E-mail: phogness@pscmail.org. All opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarilythose of the PSC.PSC OFFICERS: Barbara Bowen, President; Steven London, First Vice President; Arthurine DeSola, Secretary; Michael Fabricant, Treasurer; Stanley Aronowitz, Jonathan Buchsbaum, Lorraine Cohen, JohnPittman, Nancy Romer, University-wide Officers; Robert Cermele, Vice President, Senior Colleges; Kathleen Barker, Marilyn Neimark, Alex Vitale, Senior College Officers; Anne Friedman, Vice President,Community Colleges; Jacob Appleman, Lizette Colón, Susan O’Malley, Community College Officers; Iris DeLutro, Vice President, Cross Campus Units; Donna Veronica Gill, Steven Trimboli, Vera Weekes,Cross Campus Officers; Marcia Newfield, Vice President, Part-Time Personnel; Susan DiRaimo, Diane Menna, George Walters, Part-Time College Officers; Peter Jonas, James Perlstein, Retiree Officers;Irwin H. Polishook, President Emeritus; Peter I Hoberman, Vice President Emeritus, Cross Campus Units.STAFF: Deborah Bell, Executive Director; Chris Aikin, Director, Organizing; Faye H. Alladin, Coordinator, Financial Services; Dorothee Benz, Coordinator, Communications; Debra L. Bergen, Director, ContractAdministration & University-wide Grievance Officer; Nick Cruz, Coordinator of Organizing; Kian Frederick, Coordinator of Organizing; Barbara Gabriel, Coordinator, Office Services and Human Resources; KatePfordresher, Coordinator, Research & Public Policy; Diana Rosato, Coordinator, Membership Department; Clarissa Gilbert Weiss, Director, Pension and Welfare Benefits; Peter Zwiebach, Director of Legal Affairs.

Editor: Peter Hogness / Associate Editor: Dania Rajendra / Designer: Margarita Aguilar / Proofreader: Nicole Lisa / Reporter: Karah Woodward / Intern: James Long© 2008 Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

Clarion SEPTEMBER 2008

Gre

gory

Nem

ec

By BARBARA BOWENPSC President

In midsummer, Governor Paterson announced thatNew York State would face a$6 billion budget deficit nextyear, and called the Legisla-

ture back to Albany for an emer-gency session. The only lastingsolution to New York’s frequentbudget shortfalls is to restructurethe tax system for greater fairnessand more revenue. But Patersonhas so far refused to consider evensuch short-term solutions as a tem-porary surcharge on New York’smillionaires and resorted instead togouging the budgets of health careand higher education.

CUTS OK’DA centerpiece of his proposal was

a $50.6 million cut to CUNY – partof a program of 7% reductionsacross the board. But for CUNYthat cut comes on top of a $17.7 mil-lion cut this spring and two decadesof underfunding before that – arecord that has earned New Yorklast place among the 50 states inthe trend of per capita spending onpublic higher education.

Initially, many legislators ap-peared willing to resist the gover-nor’s CUNY proposal. But as theAugust 18 session neared, they received word from ChancellorGoldstein that CUNY could, in Gold-stein’s words, “minimize the im-pact” of the reduction. Goldsteintold legislators, as he wrote later inhis public message, that this hugecut to CUNY’s budget could be ab-sorbed by unused reserve funds, a“temporary vacancy control pro-gram” in administrative hiring, vari-ous other one-time cuts and an $8million cut to the “Other than Per-sonnel Services” budget (OTPS).

Albany got the message, and thecut to CUNY passed by a landslide,with only 10 members of the Assembly and six of the Senate dissenting. Several legislators Ispoke to afterwards used the samephrase: their own opposition melt-

ed because Goldstein “agreed to”the cut.

Both the Legislature and thegovernor should be held account-able for undermining CUNY onceagain, but special responsibilityfalls on CUNY’s central adminis-tration. While I appreciate Gold-stein’s pledge not to cut facultyhires and not to renege on the 100new Lecturer positions agreed towith the contract, as well as hislimitation of most of the cuts to thereserve, the message his adminis-tration sent to Albany gave the leg-islators permission to cut CUNY.

Perhaps at 80th Street, wheresupplies never run low and salariesfor management are well into thesix figures, a multimillion dollar cutin OTPS funds does not feel like acrisis. But people on the campusesknow that CUNY cannot afford acut of even one dollar to its budget,much less $50 million. For us, theimpact of the cut will not be mini-mal. Few things create more dailymisery than the lack of equipment,books and supplies, and some cam-puses have made even sharpercuts, cancelling courses because oflack of funds. Chancellor Goldsteinmay think that CUNY can do with-out that $50 million, but I doubt thatmany of us would agree.

RECOMMENDATIONSInstead of returning the $50 mil-

lion to Albany, Goldstein could havepreserved the OTPS budget, re-moved the freeze on administrativehiring, restored the courses can-celled because of lack of funds, andput the reserve funds to good use –addressing some of the routine in-dignities of CUNY life. These aresome of the things on my own list:lFix every leak in every ceiling inevery CUNY building, eliminating thehundreds of white plastic buckets thatappear whenever there is a heavyrainfall and the growth of mold. l Establish a two-year pilot pro-gram to cut class size in half, then

measure the effect on student reten-tion and achievement, faculty satis-faction and research productivity.l Provide a major infusion of fund-ing to the PSC-CUNY researchawards and other professional development funds, quadrupling the money available for researchsupport.l Triple the amount of travel mon-ey available to support participa-tion in academic conferences andthe reassigned time for unspon-sored research.l Supply a “cultural passport” toNew York City for every student –not just those in the Honors College.l Create a fund to support recruit-ment of a faculty as diverse as thestudent body.

l End, once and for all, CUNY’s in-defensible failure to pay adjunctsat five colleges for the full amountthey earn during the fifteenthweek of the semester.l Experiment with hiring ade-quate numbers of staff in the regis-trar’s office, financial aid and otheroffices that serve students. l Fund the college libraries sothey can catch up on book acquisi-tions stalled by years of budgetcuts. l Spend a few million dollars to in-stall drinking fountains in everyCUNY building – and make surethat all of them are working.l Stop nickel-and-diming us with efforts such as buying low-qualitytest tubes. Upgrade equipment inscience labs on every campus.l And what about a little fund forchalk, so we no longer have to car-

ry our own supply if we want to in-dulge in such luxuries as writingon a blackboard?

SO MUCH MOREMy list only scratches the sur-

face, and even so, $50 million couldnot do all of this at once. I haven’teven touched on the major struc-tural problems that require per-manent funding, such as salaryimprovements, adjunct equity,health benefits and manageableteaching loads. But I bet that al-most anyone who works or stud-ies at CUNY could come up with a list of their own that wouldquickly add up to $50 million ormore.

Telling Albany that CUNY canabsorb a budget cut without painis not the way to end the patternof disinvestment. I understandthat Goldstein’s position on thebudget was part of a strategy, perhaps to secure a lighter cut the next time around, perhaps tomake tuition increases – long apart of his agenda – appear in-evitable. Either way, it is not astrategy for transformation; it is astrategy for getting by – and as always, getting by with less.

WRONG STRATEGYThe only way to break the cycle

of poverty-level funding for CUNYis to name the crisis and honestlychronicle its effects. When NewYork’s Commission on Higher Ed-ucation concludes that the Statehas shortchanged CUNY andSUNY by billions of dollars, advo-cates for CUNY should demandfull funding – not give the greenlight to budget cuts. Accepting thecut just normalizes the pattern ofinadequate funding and opens thedoor to more budget cuts in the future.

When the hard budget choicescome in the next round, ChancellorGoldstein should take the positionthat a cut of any size is intolerable.If he cannot imagine what CUNYneeds, we can – and $50 million isjust the beginning.

12 OPINION Clarion | September 2008

Professional Staff Congress/CUNY61 Broadway, 15th FloorNew York, New York 10006

NonProfit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDNew York, N.Y.Permit No. 8049

We suspect that everyone atCUNY is carrying around a mentallist of what could have been done with the $50 million CUNYreturned to the State this August.Perhaps Chancellor Goldsteinneeds ideas. Send your ownpersonal wish list to Goldstein,

along with the message that nexttime budget cuts are discussed in Albany, CUNY should take theposition that not a single dollarshould be cut. The union Website, www.psc-cuny.org, has aletter ready for you to send and toamplify with a list of your own.

What’s on YOUR list?

15–MINUTE ACTIVIST

What I would have done with $50 millionLOST OPPORTUNITIES

Cuts will be felt on campus

Gre

gory

Nem

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