CUNY ALLIANCE           

CUNY's Faculty Poised to Suffer Yet Another Loss

University administrators are poised to take control of a faculty research program

Over the past few months, a "task force" directed by Vice Chancellor for Research Gillian M. Small has been considering changes to the PSC-CUNY research grant program. This decades-old program has benefited thousands of CUNY faculty members, especially our colleagues in the humanities and social sciences, for whom these grants are often the only reliable source of research support.

The proposed changes are radical: the draft plan places new restrictions on eligibility; eliminates intra-CUNY and national peer review; and shifts control of grant money from discipline-based faculty committees to college provosts who will direct the funds toward research priorities recommended by 80th Street. (Proposal)

Despite the pending loss of faculty governance of the research program, the current PSC leaders and the New Caucus-dominated Delegate Assembly to date have been silent. They have not alerted the membership about the threatened loss. Nor have they publicly denounced or attempted to stop the plan.

The PSC's inaction is as mystifying as it is troubling. PSC Executive Director Deborah Bell sits on the task force that proposed these changes, ones that appear to violate a contractual obligation which the union is charged with defending.

A call to action

The failures of PSC leaders shouldn't stop union members from acting now. But time is of the essence: the task force has not yet presented its final draft to the Chancellor. The CUNY ALLIANCE asks that you e-mail Vice Chancellor Gillian Small (Gillian.Small@mail.cuny.edu)
and Chancellor Matthew Goldstein (Matthew.Goldstein@mail.cuny.edu)
to let them know how you feel about these changes.

A time for change

PSC members have lost much during the nine years of the current union administration: salaries eaten away by inflation, the loss of retroactive pay, and degraded dental benefits, to name but a few. We've paid the price for distracted leadership for too long. This time we should raise our collective voices to stop another loss.

The CUNY ALLIANCE believes that we need a union leadership that focuses on protecting our rights in job-related matters, like the PSC-CUNY research grant program, rather than posturing about global politics.

What do you think?

To see the full slate go to: www.CUNYALLIANCE.ORG