KY a Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York
Crreg 25 West 43rd Street New York, New York 10036 212/354-1252

OFFICERS

Irwin H. Polishook
President

Howard Jones
First Vice President

Geraldine Chapey
Secretary

Irwin Yellowitz
Treasurer

Joyce E. Barrett
Norman Bindler

Gerald Grayson

Sharad Karkhanis

Belle Zeller
University-wide Officers

Martin Kaplan
Vice President
Senior Colleges

Alvin Bachman

Phyilis Gold Gluck
Mohamed Yousef
Senior College Officers

Pearl Gasarch
Vice President
Community Colleges

Donald Davidson
Thomas Edwards
Katherine Stabile
Community Coliege Officers

Harold Wilson
Vice President
Cross Campus Units

Peter Hoberman
Peter Jonas
Cross Campus Officers

Susan B. Prager
Vice President
Part Time Personnel

Belle Zeller
President Emeritus

Marion Starling
Treasurer Emeritus

STAFF

Arnold Cantor
Executive Director

Aaron Alexander
Associate Executive Director

Shirley Goldman
Coordinator,
Administrative Services

Daniel Kaminker

Director, Contract
Administration & University-
wide Grievance Counselor

Diana Rosato
Coordinator, Membership
Department

D. Nicholas Russo
Director. Legal Affairs

Carol Sims
Associate Director,
Communications

Clarissa Gilbert Weiss
Director, Pension
and Welfare Benefits

October 21, 1986

Dear CUNY Adjunct:

The misuse of the adjunct position has become a deep and wide-
spread problem of American higher education nationally. The reasons
are clear: reductions in student enrollment and in federal aid and
the threat of further reductions have forced colleges and universities
to trim their budgets. Among the exigencies they have resorted to,
one of the most prevalent has been to decrease the number of full-time
positions, increase the number of part-timers and diminish or sustain
their already poor working conditions and compensation.

Nationally, adjuncts have been powerless to protect their interests
against this onslaught.

At CUNY, these problems emerged earlier--with the city’s fiscal
crisis of 1975-76--but were confronted much more effectively than
elsewhere--by the union. Building on terms and conditions of adjunct
employment that were already among the best in the country, the
union has won salary increases for adjuncts in every contract nego-
tiated since then. Today, minimum CUNY adjunct salary rates substan-
tially exceed the average rates nationally.

In addition, each contract negotiated by the PSC has improved
the other conditions of adjunct employment at CUNY. The current
contract, for example, provides employer-paid health insurance benefits
and tuition remission, which very few adjuncts enjoy anywhere else
in the country. The previous contract expanded the course load oppor-
tunities--and income potential--of adjuncts by fifty percent. These
benefits, as well as the due process rights of CUNY adjuncts, are pro-
tected by contract and by a union organization that is affiliated with
the labor movement and that is highly proficient, professional and
experienced in the redress of grievances and the protection of legal
rights.

No separate organization, isolating the vulnerable interests of
adjuncts and competing against the rest of the professional staff, can
legitimately promise comparable strength. It can only threaten the
hard-fought gains won by the union for CUNY’s adjuncts.

ve

Howard L. Jone
First Vice President

Sincerely,

HJ/rcf
Opeiu #153

American Association of University Professors
American Federation of Teachers Local 2334 « New York State AFL-CIO
New York State United Teachers « New York City Central Labor Council