Breaking News:
CUNY Announces
New Bargaining Stance
James
Davis and Joseph Entin, Brooklyn College
James
Davis reading "Breaking News"
(Associated Press) – Manhattan - Matthew Goldstein,
Chancellor of the City University of New York,
called a press conference this afternoon to announce
that the University is taking a radically new stance
in its bargaining with the Professional Staff
Congress, the union that represents CUNY’s faculty
and staff. “It is clear to me,” he stated, “that
the best way to build the kind of top-quality,
nationally-competitive, student-oriented university
we aspire to be is by giving our faculty the best
contract possible. I, of course, have long held this
view, but recent events have convinced me that we
need to put such an ambitious plan into action right
away, during the present round of contract
negotiations.”
Goldstein, who appeared
uncharacteristically disheveled, almost shaken, said
that in the last few days, he had held extended
meetings with several new faculty members from
campuses across the university. “After meeting
face-to-face with junior faculty members, I feel as
if something in me just snapped. How is it that, for
several years running, we have had no provisions for
parental leave? How can we claim to be a top-flight
university if our faculty cannot afford childcare,
or approach the possibility of home ownership? If
90% of our junior faculty are eating peanut butter
and jelly for lunch, what does that say about the
overall health of our university?” Apparently,
hundreds of junior faculty members had inundated
Goldstein’s office with faxes narrating their
personal stories. They then converged on his place
of work, demanding a meeting with him which was said
to have lasted 36 straight hours. “Our new faculty
members are a remarkably persuasive group,” the
Chancellor stated in reference to the meeting, which
one member of his staff referred to as “harrowing.”
Also present at the
meeting were department chairs from several
campuses. Asked why so many chairs had accompanied
their junior colleagues, Chancellor Goldstein
explained, “They showed me long lists of what they
called casualties of our austerity contracts –
talented young faculty who had left CUNY after a
year or two to take positions with budgets for
research and smaller class sizes.”
Goldstein described his
meetings as “sobering” and “humbling,” and he said
that he had received assurances from state and city
officials that he would have the authority he needed
to make an ambitious proposal at the bargaining
table. Goldstein stated that, as a first step, he
would seek to increase faculty and staff salaries by
roughly 40% over three years. “Such an increase,” he
explained, “would merely bring salaries in line with
levels during the 1970s, when the university was
compensating its workers on a par with other New
York city area institutions of higher education.”
Faculty and staff who
had gotten wind of what was virtually a surprise
press conference jumped up and down and stomped
their feet. “Wow,” said Joan Smith, assistant
professor of English at Brooklyn College. “Does this
mean the university is actually going to put its
money where its mouth is? Will I actually be able to
afford the dental crown work that I’ve been putting
off for three years?”
Goldstein said that the
public campaign to promote the university by
highlighting a select group of star faculty and
small academic programs was an ill-conceived plan
hatched by “a bunch of corporate PR hacks.” “We’ve
always wanted to make all of CUNY an honors college,
to treat all our faculty like ‘distinguished
professors,’ and now we may have the chance.”
