Fall 2021
Committee on Review
Professor Andrew Arlig of the Standing Committee reported that the Standing Committee on Review has examined the minutes of the Faculty Council submitted to them and approved these minutes.
Remarks From Professor Carolina Bank Munoz, PSC–CUNY Chapter Chair
Good afternoon, everyone. It's good to see so many of you here today. I know that faculty, staff, and students are beyond exhausted with the pandemic. And while there are many challenges and unknowns ahead, I'd like to focus on the incredible things that we have accomplished together over the past six months and what I believe is a hopeful budget cycle for us in 2022.
First, and perhaps most importantly our well-deserved and past-due raises were included in our October 7 paychecks! And we have another contractual wage increase on November 15! Our final contractual raise of this contract cycle will be November 1, 2022.
Other important victories that we were able to achieve at the university level were the remote work agreement, union representation on the reentry boards at all CUNY campuses and mask mandates. On our own campus we successfully completed three health and safety walkthroughs this summer with the participation of over fifteen union members and over 150 members who filled out the survey on health and safety concerns. Additionally, we successfully pushed the administration to hire some of the adjuncts who lost their health insurance during the peak of the pandemic.
How were we able to achieve these victories?
We listened, we organized, we engaged in cross-title solidarity, and shared concerns and strategy across union chapters. It has never been more important or more urgent to get involved in your workplace with your union! Time and time again, we show that the collective strength of our members is what forces CUNY to do the right thing. This has been true during the pandemic and will certainly be true in the years to come.
What’s next?
Going into the spring semester, health and safety remains one of the union's top priorities. As we move toward more in-person instruction, we will continue to push for a safe working environment, responsiveness to variants, flexibility, and accommodations.
This year, we have a tremendous opportunity to fight for the CUNY we want and pass A New Deal for CUNY. A new governor, mayor, and city council represents a political opportunity we have not had for decades. Our capacity to pass a great budget in the state, one that represents real funding for CUNY and makes up for decades of deferred maintenance also directly ties into the expiration of our contract in February 2023. We shouldn't have to fight for good ventilation, adequate temperature control, windows that open, and competitive wages, yet we have had to push for all of these things because the CUNY administration has imposed a system of austerity for years. Now is our opportunity to significantly change our working conditions for the better. We hope that all of you will get involved in the contract campaign we will be rolling out in the next few months.
I'd also like to announce an exciting initiative that the BC Executive Committee has been working on over the past month, UNION WEEK! We have never had a cross-title, campus wide conversation about what it means to be a member of our union, the structure and processes of our union, social justice unionism, and the contract campaign. We will also discuss the resolution passed at the June delegate assembly. Please save the dates: November 3, 5, 9, and 12, from 12:30 to1:30 via Zoom. We will be sending out more details in the next week.
Finally, we hope to see many of you at the October 20 chapter meeting. You can see upcoming meeting dates and upcoming resolutions in our delegate assembly at http://pscbc.blogspot.com/
President Anderson's Address
The president gave a State of the College Address, which included college news, a description of faculty and alumni excellence and enrollment challenges facing the college.
Questions and Answers
Q&A focused on campus preparations for fall semester, CUNY Vaccine Policy for students, support for faculty and staff, and enrollment.
The meeting was adjourned at 2 p.m.
