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DOCTORAL STUDENTS COUNCIL PRODUCT

VOL.1,.NO. 2/3 YOU WRITE IT,WEPICK IT UP!

DECHNAN 1983/4

MERRY CHRISTMAS
MR. POLISHOOK

In the September 28, 1983 issue of
The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Irwin H. Polishook, president of The
Professional Staff Congress, con-
gratulated CUNY on its measure in
putting forth a mandate for retrench-
ment (dated May 1983) in case of
budgetary exigencies. "These
procedures," he said, "do not cancel
out the possibility of retrenchment,
but they do safeguard against an
abuse of potential emergency." In
another article, published in the
PSC Clarion, it was reported that

the publication of the CUNY document,
"Guidelines and Procedures for
Discontinuance of Instructional
Staff Personnel Mandated by Financial
Exigency," was responsible for the
AAUP lifting. their censure of CUNY's
retrenchment procedures. And,

around the same time, an article in
The New York News reported that
Chancellor Murphy hoped that CUNY
would not need to invoke the
retrenchment mandate.

Despite all these precautionary
measures in good faith, CUNY does
not practice what it preaches.

On September 1, 1983, nineteen
Graduate Assistant A's of the

Queens College English Department
received letters stating that,
"because of budgetary constraints,

it has beer deemed necessary to the
College administration that all but
two of our Graduate Assistant lines
be wiped out." This letter,
reappointing them as adjuncts, preempts
their signed contracts as Graduate
Assistant A's dated July 12, 1983, as
well as their reappointment papers
dated April 15, 1983. In base terms,
they are doing the exact same job,
with the same schedule, for almost
$3800 a year less salary.

The administration has allowed three
arguments to prevail. First, these
"translated" adiuncts "should be
grateful they have jobs."' Second, as
a "result of a state audit several
years ago, the Budget Office cut
supposedly ‘empty’ lines. These lines
belonged, in fact, to faculty on

‘leave who were replaced by adjuncts

who do not 'fill' a line. The
legislature restored the cuts, but
the Budget Office has refused to
release the funds, and the impasse
has persisted for two years. Until
(CONT'D ON PAGE 8)



(

recently the short-fall was made up

by CUNY, but they stopped doing so
this year. Faced with the need to

cut 71 lines the College administration
decided to convert Graduate Fellows to
Adjuncts in the English Department,
eliminating ten lines. In the mean-
time, the State has imposed added cuts
of 46 lines." And, the final

argument for cutting the graduate
assistantships and "translating"

them to adjuncts is that these people
are affected the least.

Only Queens College chose to retrench
by cutting graduate assistantships

and only the English Department was
affected this way.

Because graduate assistants have
yearly contracts, CUNY considers

them full-time employees, with
contracts renewable up to three

years. The Mandate specifies that the
retrenchment decision be made by an

ad hoc committee, that full-time
faculty be given six months notice, and
that the letter of notification be
sent by certified mail. These
nineteen graduate assistants were
notified of their contract loss one
week before classes began, not by
certified mail, and with no prior
indication that this would occur.

The graduate assistants presented a
grievance through the PSC based on the
Retrenchment mandate. The grievance
has been denied at the first step.
Lola Locker, designee for President
Cohn, argued that the cutbacks

(117 lines!) do not qualify as
retrenchment and, therefore, the CUNY
guidelines do not apply. Her

rebuttal also defined the $3800 a year
salary loss as a "disadvantage." These
semantic games are unconscionable. The
immediate financial hardships imposed
by this irresponsible decision seem
negligible in comparison to the
devastation on the morale of the
department. The trend which this
signifies is nothing less than the
continuing deterioration of society's
committment to educating citizens.

In the past, graduate assistantships
reflected the university's commit-
tment to supporting and educating
qualified people in all disciplines
for teaching and pursuing excellence
in scholarship. Assistantships were

a
8 CONT'D FROM PAGE 1)

reserved for those graduate students
who demonstrated excellence in
teaching. Assistantships are
defined by the PSC contract as
financial aid "similar to the
undergraduate work-study financial
aid plan." The elimination of
assistantships indicates that the
university's committment no longer
seems to exist. The primary concern
of state and city governments as
well as college administrations
appears to be balancing a budget
regardless of its disastrous short or
long term consequences which, like the
tumbling dominoes, affects the
teachers, students, quality of
education, and society.
The emphasis on balancing a budget
via total disregard for the profes-
sionals or the profession is demon-
strated by the national trend
wherein part-time faculty is increaging
and, in some cases, outnumbering
full-time faculty. Utilizing part-
time faculty does, indeed save the
university considerable amounts of
money. But, at what price? Part-
time faculty receive less than
poverty pay and none of the benefits
normally owed to a person engaged in
comparable, respected positions
outside academia. Most adjuncts
across the nation teach a class load
one half to two thirds of a full-time's
load and receive one fourth of a
full-timer's salary. The part-time
faculty's pay averages $5000 a year.
They receive no job security, no
pension benefits, no health plan. The
full-time faculty, in many instances,
do not consider part-time instructors
as colleagues, equal in status,
worthy to share their academic
expertise. Part-timers are alienated
not only from dreams of the future
but even in their daily reality.
Part-timers work loyally for a depart-
ment that is not loyal to them.
They are expected to maintain the
highest excellence in teaching while,
at the same time, expected to be
“grateful for having a job." Being
an adjunct has always been one of the
traditional ways to rise in the
ranks of academia; this is no longer
true. Once an adjunct, always an
adjunct.

(CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE)


NS SSA SAY NESE SAL EE NN Ee ES RE A EEE EES
(CONT'D FROM PREVIOUS PAGE) (CONT'D FROM PAGE 6) 9
Paradoxically, almost all part-time
faculty teach the required and
prerequisite courses, the very
courses which influence students'
decisions to continue in that dis-
cipline. The part-timers carry the
responsibility for training students
in the basics upon which they rely
through four years of college,
for is not the basic freshman curriculum
concerned with learning how to learn?
The challenge in academia for part-
timers is transformed into a
responsibility without commensurate
remuneration.

If the academic world continues to
perpetuate this trend of faculty
expendibility, the truly qualified
excellent instructors may opt to
choose careers outside academia

where their skills and expertise

are appreciated and rewarded
accordingly. This would be a tragic
situation because now, more than ever
before, excellent and committed
teachers in all fields, but especially
the humanities, are needed to curtail
the manufacture of students who are
more interested in degrees qualifying
them for careers rather than an
education qualifying them for life.

{[Note: On November 22, we retained an
attorney, Jerry Tauber, to represent
us in this grievance against Queens

College. ]

PoChoyZaccardo

Halima A. Bunnell



“ON-REPRESENTATION OR DECERTIFICATION?

All grad students employed in CUNY
in part time teaching or research posi-
tion-whether as adjuncts, fellows or
grad assistants-are 'represented' by
the faculty union- the Professional
Staff Congress. This may come as news
to some of you: virtually no effort is
made by ‘our union’ to inform us of our
"rights and benefits.' The reason for
this is clear: our status assures lAs no
rights and provides few benefits. Grad
students and all part-time employees
suffer from a kind of ‘internal exile,'
locked into a situation in which we are

non-represented, and, it seems, resented.

This situation was illustrated at
Queens College recently, when half of
the Graduate Assistants ‘A appointed for
1983-84 were mysteriously rescinded in
September, three months after the con-
tracts had been signed. These students

were forced to fall back on adjunct jobs,

with a substantial loss of income. When
they filed grievances with the P.S.C.
they were told, in short, that nothing
could be done for them.

In October, several G.S.U. members

met with the President of the Profession-

al Staff Congress, Irving Polishook in
an errozt to discuss some of the many
grievances and inadequacies which we
wanted addressed. The possibility of a
separate local for part-time employees/
adjuncts was raised. On all questions
Polishook remained inflexible and com-
pletely unresponsive.

Independent adjunct unions have
recently been organized in Oregon,
California, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
SUNY grad students are now successfully
completing the unionization process.
Adjuncts at Nassau Community College
recently won a strike, and significant
improvements in working conditions. Many
of us in the G.S.U. have concluded that
the only alternative to P.S.C. non-
representation is decertification.

Graduate Student Union
1433 East 102nd Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11236

The Graduate Student's Union is
having its next general meeting
on Monday, December 19th, from
5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Eighth
Floor Lounge. We will discuss:
1. election of a steering
committee; f
2. report on meetings with
lawyers and the P.S.C.;
3. the projected membership
and decertification
campaign.

Anyone who can't attend can drop

a line to:
Graduate Student's Union
1433 East 102nd Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11236

The G.S.U. is for you:

DSA PRESENTS :
DECEMBER 15

7:00-9:00 pm
THE REINDUSTRIALIZATION DEBATE:
CAPITAL AND LABOR RESPONSE TO

THE CRISIS. ROBERT LEKACHMAN,
AUTHOR OF GREED IS NOT ENOUGH.

ROOM 207 CUNY GRADUATE CENTER.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE
CONTACT BANJO AT 228-9763.