After
a month of protests from students, faculty and staff, the
president of Hostos Community College cancelled plans to drop the
school’s lowest-level courses in English as a Second Language
(ESL) and Spanish composition from the fall schedule. The action
came on the heels of an on-campus confrontation between students
and the New York Police Department.
“Action
by students, the PSC chapter and college governance told the
administration that they were out of sync with the rest of the
campus,” said PSC Chapter Chair Lucinda Hughey. “Free speech,
in more than one language, is alive and well at Hostos.”
PSC
First Vice President Steve London said, “We had clear
indications that there was pressure from 80th Street to implement
the proposal.” But as a result of faculty, staff and student
action, he said, “That was turned around.”
The
idea of dropping the two courses, ESL 1315 and SPA 2221, goes back
to last fall, when a four-person team appointed by Chancellor
Matthew Goldstein completed a confidential report on proposed
changes for Hostos, which has seen a decline in enrollment over
the last five years. The report concluded that Hostos could
expand its “market share” through “redirecting some of its
academic programs.” Among the changes recommended was that the
college “eliminate the lowest ESL level,” as well as
developmental instruction in Spanish, moving these students into
the noncredit College Language Immersion Program (CLIP).
But
CUNY’s central administration was not the only player that was
looking at Hostos’s future. For the last five months chapter
members and PSC officers have been back and forth between the
campus and the union’s office, in ongoing meetings on how to
deal with the loss in enrollment, curriculum issues and the
overall direction of the college. Since February, union officers
have raised Hostos issues with CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein
in the monthly Labor-Management Committee meetings and urged him
to come to the campus and meet with the college community. PSC
officers discussed the cancellation of the two courses with
Goldstein just hours before both were reinstated.
Students protesting
at Hostos on May
10
Picture Credit: Gary Shoichet
Students
had also been speaking out, meeting with college administration
and voicing their concerns about where Hostos is headed.
“Whatever we’ve accomplished, it never would have happened
without the students,” said Juan Preciado, chair of the
college’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Hostos
President Dolores Fernandez did not announce her intention to drop
the two courses until early April, said the PSC’s Hughey. The
move had “enormous implications,” she said, and the union had
to respond immediately. Along with other chapter leaders and
London, Hughey met with Hostos administration to express
the union’s opposition.
“The
administration said that they were going to ‘suspend’ the two
courses for the fall semester,” Hughey told Clarion, “and that
later on in the fall they would bring this action to the
College-wide Curriculum Committee and the Hostos College Senate
for their approval.” In other words, she said, “They wanted to
push it down our throats and later go through governance and have
us rubber-stamp it.”
“That’s
what had everybody so upset,” said Preciado. “How can this
just be a proposal when you already took the action?” Preciado,
members of the counseling department and other faculty members
formed a committee to develop an alternative proposal, while
students, faculty and staff began organizing against the move to
axe the courses.
“The
removal of these courses from the college means the removal of
these students from the college, thereby violating the principle
of open admissions,” said a resolution passed by both the Hostos
PSC chapter and by the College Senate in late April. Both bodies
called for a moratorium on the suspension of the two classes, an
idea that was a joint student-faculty initiative. “The
moratorium was a proposal that I made together with Professor
Gerry Meyer,” said Oscar Paul, president of the Hostos Student
Senate and president-elect of the school’s Student Government
Organization (SGO). The point, he said, was that “President
Fernandez cannot remove the class before consulting with students,
faculty and staff.”
The
growing opposition led to a special forum on May 3, sponsored by
the College Senate, that drew close to 300 people. “The only
person who spoke in favor of suspending these two courses was the
college president,” said the PSC’s Hughey. Student leader Paul
made what many described as a potent—and high-risk—threat:
“I said at that meeting that if students do not receive this ESL
course, we will not register in the fall—we will boycott.”
Hughey called it “a heavy-duty thing to suggest,” but
something that the administration could not afford to ignore.
Paul
explained that “this was not for ourselves, but for the people
who are coming behind us,” noting that most students taking
these courses next fall would be new to the college. “We want
the people coming from our communities to have the same
opportunities that we did,” he said. “If Hostos didn’t open
up this opportunity to me, I would not be able to speak to you in
English today.”
By
the following week President Fernandez said she was
“reconsidering” the idea of dropping the two courses in the
fall, but would not make a clear commitment. And so on May 9
students organized a demonstration to demand that the two courses
be retained.
They
began by circulating through the halls of Hostos, stopping at
different classrooms and inviting other students to join them.
Eventually a crowd of about 60 headed for President Fernandez’s
office to demand a meeting. Fernandez, they were told, was not on
campus. The students turned back down the hall—and that’s when
Lieutenant Joseph Dowling of the NYPD entered the picture.
Dowling,
who was reportedly on campus to take part in a seminar on domestic
violence, had followed the protesters to the president’s office.
When they left, students say that Lt. Dowling tried to grab hold
of Oscar Paul. A press release from the Student Government
Organization charges that Dowling was attempting an arrest—and
that he drew his gun.
While
Paul himself would not comment on the incident, his attorney, Ron
McGuire, said, “There are plenty of students who were witnesses
to the gun. I’ve talked to several and their stories are very
consistent.” McGuire said that “Oscar will be pursuing his
legal remedies.”
Sergeant
Gerry Falcon of the NYPD’s Department of Public Information
denied that Lt. Dowling’s gun had ever left its holster, saying
that the object in his hand was a walkie-talkie. She told Clarion
that Dowling had not attempted an arrest, but had approached Oscar
Paul because he was a leader of the demonstration. By all accounts
the protest was loud but peaceful—but according to the police
spokeswoman, Lt. Dowling “intended to tell them that if this
group continued to act in a disorderly fashion, they would be
subject to arrest.” The crowd of students would not let Dowling
move closer, she said—and with students “closing in” around
him, the lieutenant radioed for backup.
According
to Hostos Security, Lt. Dowling acted without any request or
authorization from Hostos officials—an apparent violation of
both CUNY and NYPD policies. Several officers raced to the campus
in answer to Dowling’s call and entered Building A, where the
president’s office is located. By that time students had
reassembled outside, and the protest continued all afternoon and
into the night.
The
next morning, PSC officers met with CUNY Chancellor Matthew
Goldstein. about the cancellation of the two courses, and formally
repeated the request that Goldstein come to Hostos and meet with
faculty, staff and students. “The union questioned him on who
had called police the day before, on who had the authority to do
that,” said PSC President Barbara Bowen. “We made it clear
that this was of grave concern.” Goldstein promised a report on
the incident, and said it would be made available to the PSC.
Thursday
afternoon students demonstrated against the plan to cut the
courses—and against the police action the day before. “¡Somos
estudiantes, no somos criminales!” they chanted—we are
students, not criminals. “We are not delinquents, we are
working,” Oscar Paul told Clarion. “The people who go to
Hostos are mothers who have two, three children. They are students
who are working very hard in factories, who want the opportunity
to do something in their lives.”
Later
that day students met with President Fernandez—and learned that
she had shifted her position. Reading from a prepared statement,
Fernandez said, “The Hostos community has spoken and their
voices have been heard. As a result, it has become clear that we
all need time to discuss and analyze the problems confronting
Hostos at greater length.” Fernandez pledged that ESL 1315 and
SPA 2221 would both be offered—at least for this fall.
“We
are extremely happy for this victory,” declared a student
government statement. But student leaders also warned that many
issues were still unresolved, and that they were prepared to
return to protest.
The
bottom line, said the PSC’s Hughey, is that decisions of such
importance must be made with the input of the college community as
a whole. “Eugenio María de Hostos Community College is not a
site to be colonized by 80th Street or anyone else,” she said.
“Neither faculty nor students are to be disrespected by others
who sneer that we can’t do it right. We are to be heard—and at
last our administration is listening.”