ISSUES

 

ACADEMIC FREEDOM: The PSC has reaffirmed its commitment to academic freedom.  It does so in a period framed by the events of September 11, 2001, by U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by new government initiatives that have placed limits on civil liberties and intellectual inquiry.  As part of its commitment to academic freedom, the PSC has passed resolutions, created a new Academic Freedom Committee and encouraged other union committees, where it is appropriate to their work, to address these new assaults on civil liberties and intellectual inquiry. Click any of the headings below to go to the PSC Academic Freedom Pages.

academic freedom
OVERVIEW | RESOLUTIONS | LINKS |
RESOURCES | CALENDAR | ACTION ALERTS |
 

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PEACE AND JUSTICE: The PSC has reaffirmed its commitment to peace and justice in a period framed by:

• The events of September 11, 2001,

• U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan,

• New government initiatives that have placed limits on civil liberties and intellectual inquiry, and

• Federal funding priorities that favor "war and permanent militarization" and that mean "austerity for labor and disinvestment in education, health care, environmental safety and other human needs."*

The PSC has created a committee to work on  issues of peace and justice.  As part of its charge, the committee has created web pages to provide members with resources and information and to make connections with others doing this work.  Click on any of the headings below to enter these pages.

peace and justice
OVERVIEW | RESOLUTIONS | LINKS |
RESOURCES | CALENDAR | ACTION ALERTS |
| US LABOR AGAINST THE WAR |

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GLOBALIZATION, PRIVATIZATION, WAR: IN DEFENSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE AMERICAS.  The PSC has produced a pamphlet of the proceedings of its October, 2002 conference -- Globalization, Privatization, War: In Defense of Public Education in the Americas.  The pamphlet connects the dots between attacks on public education and globalization, privatization and war.  Click below to read the pamphlet:

• As a Word document
• As a PDF document*

We are at war in a world where there is more than one war going on. Besides the regional wars of bombs and blood, there is a global war on people’s needs. We feel it even here, in the richest country on the planet.

This war on us is taking the form of an assault on the public delivery of services such as health and education, voraciously privatizing them wherever possible. It is driven by neo-liberal economic schemes to increase profits and make working people pay the cost. As tax cuts for the rich limit resources for the poor, public universities like the City University of New York (CUNY) are forced to seek private sponsors and to outsource nearly everything from food to faculty.

From the Introduction

...an important premise of the conference and the articles in this pamphlet is that we cannot understand our own situation, right here in New York, here at CUNY—even at the bargaining table—without seeing ourselves as part of a larger political unit. Think of the way the weather map we know from the newspaper and the TV news reinforces national myopia: weather somehow stops at the US border, Canada and Mexico are voids. This conference used a different map, drawing deeply on the knowledge and history of scholars from Mexican and Canadian universities, as well as the US....  To fight for better contracts, more state funding for CUNY or greater access to education without an understanding of global politics is to go into battle willfully blind.

From the Preface by PSC
President, Barbara Bowen

*You will need an Acrobat PDF reader to view a PDF document.  Click HERE for a free download (Adobe Products Website)