CUNY

City University Of New York Union Votes To Divest From Israel

January 28, 2025 Olivia Wood, Tatiana Cozzarelli and James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice. Resist! BDS Movement, CUNY, Higher Education, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Thursday night, delegates of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), the union representing faculty, graduate assistants, and many staff titles at the City University of New York (CUNY), voted 73-70 in favor of a resolution for the union to divest from Israeli companies and government bonds, identify other potential investments for divestment, and recommend that the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) pension plan also divest its $100 million invested in Israeli companies and bonds. This is an important victory for CUNY workers and the movement for Palestine, setting an example for the broader labor movement.

Voices From CUNY: Why We’re Voting No On The Proposed Contract

January 4, 2025 Left Voice. Resist! Contract Negotiations, CUNY, Higher Education, New York (NY), Unions

The leadership of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC CUNY) union, which represents more than 25,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York, has once again agreed to a sell-out proposed contract and the membership are none too happy about it. Building a fighting union and winning a good contract begins with rejecting this memorandum of agreement and organizing students, faculty, and staff from the bottom up. Below, we reproduce several statements from members of the PSC CUNY on why they are voting no on this proposed contract.

New York’s Report On Antisemitism Is An Attack On The Palestine Movement

October 14, 2024 Tatiana Cozzarelli and James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice. Educate! Academic Freedom, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Campus Movement, CUNY, Genocide, Islamophobia, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine solidarity movement

The Fall 2024 semester has been marked by an onslaught of repressive measures against the Palestine movement and free speech on campuses. Professors have been fired, students have been suspended, and universities have banned pro-Palestinian groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP). At the City University of New York (CUNY), some community members are still facing felony charges after 28 people were initially charged with felonies for their participation in the City College encampment for Palestine last semester. Nearly 11 months ago, in the wake of October 7, and in the middle of a national attempt to equate the movement for Palestine with antisemitism, New York governor Kathy Hochul commissioned an investigation on antisemitism at CUNY.

CUNY Workers And Students Will Write A New Chapter Of Class Struggle

August 29, 2024 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. Resist! CUNY, Higher Education, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Student Activism

Another school year is starting at the City University of New York (CUNY). We’ll arrive on campuses that are dilapidated and falling apart. Broken elevators and escalators plague campuses across the city. Some departments are in a last-minute scramble to hire adjuncts for classes. It’s an affront to us as workers and to our students who deserve a quality education. Even though I’ve spent all week preparing for the semester, adjuncts and many others don’t get paid until two weeks into the semester. I have $30 in my bank account and I have to borrow money from friends again. Some adjuncts are on food stamps.

CUNY Encampment Felony Charges Could Set A Dangerous Precedent

July 2, 2024 Hebh Jamal and CHarlie Markbreiter, Mondoweiss. Educate! Campus Movement, CUNY, Israel, Legal System, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Palestine, Police, Repression

Earlier this month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped felony charges against nine pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at City College’s encampment on the fateful police raid orchestrated on April 30. Thirteen protestors, however, could still serve felonies, including up to nine years of jail. While organizers have faced legal threats nationally, CUNY students — who, in addition to being predominantly POC and working class, are consistently some of the most militant student intifada members — have been hit with the highest charges. This sends a message: when it comes to Zionist repression, the most vulnerable and most radical students will be the first to go. But the consequences of the CUNY 22 trial extend far beyond CUNY.

Columbia University Hind’s Hall Defendants Reject Deals

June 29, 2024 The Hind’s Hall 46, Mondoweiss. Resist! Campus Movement, Columbia University, CUNY, Israel, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Solidarity, Student Protests

We stand here today united by our action and the Palestinian cause. The state has attempted, once again, to divide us, dismissing some of our cases and offering others deals in accordance with their “outside agitator” narrative. As ever, we categorically reject this division as one drawn along arbitrary, classist lines meant to preserve the sanctity of Columbia University—not an institution “in the City of New York,” but always above and apart from it. All of us who took part in the liberation of Hind’s Hall were driven by the same necessity to escalate, to escalate for Gaza, to resist the savage genocide of our siblings in Palestine.

City University Of New York Workers Announce Wildcat Sickout

May 3, 2024 Left Voice. Resist! Campus Movement, CUNY, Israel, NYPD, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Police, Student Activism

In the evening of Tuesday, April 30, hundreds of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers from precincts all over New York City assembled in Harlem to raid both Columbia University and the City College of New York. The university presidents had invited the police force onto campus to forcibly remove the Gaza Solidarity Encampments at each school and the students at Columbia occupying “Hind’s Hall,” normally known as Hamilton Hall but renamed by student activists after a 6-year-old girl in Gaza who was killed by Israel tanks while surrounded by her dead family members in their car.

CUNY Workers Launch New Strike Campaign

February 14, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. Resist! CUNY, Higher Education, New York City (NYC), Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

As faculty, staff, and graduate student workers at the City University of New York (CUNY) approach one year without a contract, a new strike campaign is forming, fueled by outrage over decades of underfunding, low wages compared to other New York City schools, and fresh cuts to the university’s 25 campuses. Just last month, dozens of faculty were laid off right before the start of the semester — with full or nearly full classes getting cut from the schedule, leaving students in disarray — after the university ordered enhanced cuts at nine CUNY schools. Furthermore, Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed executive budget cuts CUNY funding by $528 million. Most of this decrease comes from the capital budget, which provides for building upkeep and other infrastructure costs, even though only eight percent of CUNY’s buildings are considered to be in a “state of good repair.”

‘Angry, Terrified, And Excited’: Adjunct On New Semester Amid Contract Talks

September 2, 2023 A CUNY Adjunct Faculty Member, Left Voice. Organize! Contract Negotiations, CUNY, Higher Education, New York City (NYC), Worker Rights and Jobs

As a CUNY adjunct starting this semester without a contract, I am filled with anger, terror, and excitement — a mix of reactions I’ll try to explain here. My anger predates our current contract struggle. Having taught at various CUNY campuses over the past six years, I’m furious about adjuncts’ working conditions and the resulting student learning conditions. As underpaid, expendable, and often invisible employees, adjuncts, who teach the majority of classes at the university, often find out our schedules mere days — or even hours — before the semester begins, and we are therefore forced to throw together syllabuses and assignments at the last minute.

CUNY Shuts Down Social Justice Center Over Pro-Palestine Exhibit

June 26, 2023 Left Voice. Resist! CUNY, Higher Education, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Zionism

Faculty and staff at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) in New York City have issued a statement (posted below) decrying the proposed closure of the school’s newly established Social Justice and Equity Centers (SJEC). The SJEC, which was founded only last year with a mission to offer programs, events, workshops, and training for and about historically marginalized and oppressed groups at the college, is planned to be closed on June 30. Although the administration told the Centers’ workers that they were being shut down because of a lack of funding, it’s highly unusual for a college to found a new center like this only to close it less than a year later.

Antiwar Coalition Chases Military Recruiters Out Of College Career Fair

June 20, 2023 Richie Merino, Workers World. Resist! Anti-War, CUNY, Military Recruitment, New York City (NYC)

The Bronx, New York City, New York - The Bronx Antiwar Coalition successfully chased U.S. Army recruiters out of a student career fair June 11. The fair was hosted by U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat at the City University of New York in The Heights (BMCC), in the predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights. The Coalition organized the anti-recruitment demonstration because BMCC is a popular college choice for Bronx high school students, given its close proximity. (Bronx Antiwar Coalition) As the military recruiters approached the fair’s entrance, the demonstrators forcefully chanted, “Military recruiters out of CUNY!” and “Money for college, not for war!”

NYC Mayor Adams Is Met With Boos At CUNY Law School Graduation

May 15, 2023 Michael Gartland, NY Daily News. Resist! CUNY, Eric Adams, Higher Education, New York City (NYC), Student Activism

New York City, New York - Mayor Adams was greeted with boos and turned backs during a CUNY Law School commencement address Friday — a day after City University students and professors protested against budget cuts laid out in the mayor’s most recent spending plan. Friday’s public demonstration, which was reminiscent of NYPD officers turning their backs on former Mayor Bill de Blasio, came as the current mayor was urging graduates to “get on the field and participate about improving the lives of the people of this city.” As he spoke, boos could be heard echoing throughout the auditorium, with dozens of graduates turning their backs.

Measuring The Value Of Student Housing

April 6, 2023 P. M. Campbell, Left Voice. Resist! CUNY, Higher Education, Housing, New York (NY), Student Activism

CUNY Hunter College’s Brookdale Residence Hall is home to over 600 Hunter College students, where residents have a unique opportunity to foster community through social, educational, and cultural programs. It is organized by Resident Assistants, and a quick commute from New York City’s cultural hotspots and classes. Brookdale is unique in its affordability among CUNY housing, costing students less than $10,000 per academic year, but the dorm is currently in danger. On October 13, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayer Eric Adams publicized the creation of an “Education Hub” at Brookdale Campus without mentioning that creating this Hub would require the ultimate destruction of the dorms located there.

CUNY Administration Cracks Down On Student And Worker-Run Food Pantry

March 20, 2023 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. Resist! Austerity, CUNY, Food Insecurity, Mutual Aid

Three years ago this month, the City University of New York (CUNY) pivoted to remote operations during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. When the university began to gradually reopen in-person operations after vaccines were widely available, dining services on many campuses — which students rely on for affordable meals — remained closed. At the same time, wages have not kept up with inflation, and budget cuts from the city and the state are gutting many of CUNY’s other services. Not only are affordable campus dining options important, but students and workers are struggling more than ever to afford basic needs.

CUNY Union Chapter Passes Resolution In Support Of Trans Rights

March 13, 2023 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. Organize! CUNY, State legislature, Trans Rights, Unions

In a March 10 chapter meeting, union members from the CUNY Graduate Center and the CUNY professional schools unanimously passed a resolution in support of trans rights, pledging support to all workers fighting the nearly 400 anti-LGBTQ bills currently under consideration in the United States, and committing to fighting for trans co-workers and students at the City University of New York. The full text is published below. Statements of support are always nice, but can often feel hollow. But as the author of this resolution myself, let me be perfectly clear: We are already working on organizing for expanded name change procedures in our union chapter, with plans to expand our demands to the other issues discussed in the resolution.

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