CUNY Adjunct Alert (March 1999)
Item
CUNY Adjunct Alert
Produced by CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
P.O. Box 1360, NYC 10163 212/780-2155 http://www.soc.qc.edu/adjunct
Vol. 2, No. 6 March 1999
- Irwin’s Rules of Order
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Delegate Assembly, our union’s policy-setting body which, under the leadership of
President Irwin Polishook, consistently refuses to follow any parliamentary procedure (including its adopted Robert’s Rules
of Order, really outdid itself at its January meeting. In a predictable vote along caucus lines, the Delegate Assembly rejected
proposals 1) defending CUNYTALK and the First Amendment rights of faculty members; 2) supporting the recruitment of
new members and of members’ rights to recruit; and 3) supporting objective external vote counting for all contract ratifications
and referenda. Setting aside the indefensibility of rejecting these resolutions--the DA was informed that active recruitment
efforts (unknown to CAU’) were currently underway on certain campuses, and we’ve had the Malthusian arguments against
enforcement of agency fee for adjuncts thrust at us for years--it was the manner in which these sound resolutions were defeated
that is particularly outrageous. In each case, after the resolution was offered to the body, it was debated, and amendments were
offered by the body and accepted by the makers of the motions. In each case it seemed clear that, as amended, the resolutions
would pass. But in each case, in a new flagrant violation of parliamentary procedure, Polishook, at the conclusion of the
debates, offered these resolutions only as originally written, not as amended by the body as is proper. Inevitably, in each case
the motion failed. Polishook consistently refuses to appoint a parliamentarian for the body, as is proper, and has at times even
arrogated the duties himself. When germane passages from Robert’s Rules are read from the Assembly floor to the body, they
are typically ignored nevertheless. It seems time for CUNY faculty--perhaps led by the part-timers--to demand that its union
conduct its business fairly, properly abiding by established parliamentary procedure. Robert’s, not Irwin’s.
CAU! Wins Northstar Grant
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! applied to the NorthStar Foundation
for $2000 to pay for the expense of printing the Adjunct
Alert. They were so impressed with the justice of our
cause and our current activities that they awarded us
$3000! We still need to raise more money for literature for
our referendum campaign; we need to get our point of view
out to all the members of the union, so please continue to
send your contributions to CAU! at the address above.
Referendum Alert! Deadline Extended! Be sure to get
all the signatures you collected to CAU! by March 15. On
Thursday evening, March 18 we will hold a press conference
when we
before the PSC Delegate Assembly meeting,
deliver the petitions to the PSC. Come join us at 7pm at the
GSUC (33 W 42nd St). Until then, keep collecting!
Letter to the Editor
[edited to fit allotted space]
Something Is Holding Us Back? The Massachusetts-born
social historian and critic, W.E.B. DuBois, is often quoted
for writing this statement: “...the problem of the twentieth
century is the problem of the color line” (1903).
But for me, his most “unAmerican” statement was
made thirty-two years later when he wrote Black
Reconstruction in America (1860-1880), subtitled “An
Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk
Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in
America.” His Reconstruction book is primarily a class
discussion, hence the first two chapters are titled, “The
Come to the Next Meeting of
CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
Friday, March 26 @ 3pm
Room 400 25 W 43rd St
next Friday meetings: April 30, May 21
DUES DEDUCTED FROM LUMP SUM $
As of January 1999, the new union dues are $138.42 (up
from $133.20). The amount of $7.69 is deducted from each
paycheck. Computer systems can’t differentiate lump sum
payments, so if by the end of 1999, your deductions come
to more than $138.42, call the PSC (212/354-1252) and
speak to Diana Rosato to apply for a refund.
This issue of Adjunct Alert was produced by the Newsletter Committee. Back issues of Adjunct Alert may be found at our website.
Black Worker,” and “The White Worker.”
CUNY faculty, whether full or part-time workers, too
often skirt our mutually unresolved questions of class and
caste within the political and economic structure where we
cont'd on next page
EE 515
WS” ya?
Letter to the Editor cont’d
earn our daily bread, also called wages. Possibly it is due
to the way most of us were trained, are rewarded or not
rewarded (receive raises, get hired, promoted, even fired).
Some of us even remember that there were firings of
teachers in the late ‘50's and early “60's, from the not-yet-
CUNY system, for being “too radical.” Court cases ensued
and ultimately litigation was won, even back pay rendered.
But the dialogue became soft.
But a truth long buried will rise again. Class
questions haunt all negotiations bétween faculty and
administrators. We teach in classrooms and the “C & C”
denials are present in ail “union” discussions and contract
terms. Something is holding all of us back. With only two
official political national parties driven by capital, I do not
anticipate coalition politics in America, such as are
presently active in either France or Germany. Yet
ideologically, ideas coupled with activism were
historically, and are presently, needed within the CUNY
system. Is it just consciousness that is holding us back?
-Myrna D. Bain
Conference Alert! The third annual conference of
the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, COCAL
(formerly The National Congress of Adjuncts, etc.) «will
take place in Boston on Friday evening, April 16 & all
day Saturday, April 17. There will be adjuncts from
CUNY participating and we hope to have many more
in attendance. Call 212 780-2155 to join our trek to
Boston. Check out the COCAL _ website
omega.cc.umb.edu/~cocal for location and scheduling
info. Also check out Gary Zabel and Harry Brill’s
article on the latest adjunct organizing news for the
electronic journal Workplace www.workplace-gsc.com
Why You and Your Colleagues
Should Support the CAU! Referendum
Why should full-timers vote yes on our referendum to
include adjuncts in the union on the same basis as full-
timers? Won’t adjuncts take over the union?
SUNY’s union has had automatic deduction of the agency
fee for part-timers since 1977, but only 60% of their part-
timers have joined The percentage joining at CUNY
would probably be similar.
Won’t fuli-timers be voting against themselves if they
include adjuncts in the agency shop?
It is very much in the interest of full-timers to improve the
situation of adjuncts because having a second tier
undermines the first tier by increasing the pool of low-paid
labor, thus obviating the need for higher paid faculty. The
reduction of CUNY full-time staff lines by 5,500 in the 20
years is proof enough. Other unions--most recently the
pilots’ union at American Airlines--have recognized this.
Ours should too!
Isn’t it unfair to adjuncts to deduct a fee from every
piddling paycheck they receive?
What’s really unfair, not to mention patronizing and
paternalistic, is to have full-timers making decisions for
adjuncts. Let us have a voice and a vote!
Won’t adjuncts demand a greater share of the CUNY
pie and leave less for full-timers?
We are convinced that the union will be stronger if
adjuncts join in proportion to their numbers because a
larger union will have more power in Albany. Besides,
what kind of group represents workers without giving
them any say?
CAU! Party Alert! 6pm Friday, March 5th at 10-
52 46th Road, Long Island City, just over the East
River, accessible by subway. Call our voice mail for
directions (212-780-2155). Free Edibles. $5 plus cash
bar to benefit CAU!.
Academic Labor Deja Vu?
According to Jonathan Zimmerman History News Service,
“By now, everyone has probably heard horror stories
about freshly minted academics who can’t find gainful
employment in academia. Some of them serve as ‘adjunct
faculty members,’ the migrant poor of the modern
university. . . . As the Right will argue, most of these
people are ‘in transition,’ shifting their jobs to meet new
workplace realities. The Left counters with its own market
strategy, calling upon graduate schools to limit the number
of students they admit. Once we reduce supply, its
argument goes, demand will shoot up. . . . No magic
market will do that trick. Only government--dare I say it?--
can perform it. . . . It has happened before. During the
1930's . . . the so-called ‘white collar’ New Deal...
provided jobs for artists, actors, and especially writers. . .
If the federal government were to employ academics today,
what useful work could they perform? Our civic discourse
is So constricted--so beholden to market mechanisms, and
so blind to public possibilities--that we almost never ask
this question. [Let us know what you think. -Ed.]
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! Contacts
Baruch Jim Feast 718-449-0677
BMCC Shirley Rausher 212-721-0099
Bronx CC Ingrid Hughes 212-254-0635
Brooklyn Vinny Tirelli 212-642-2143
CCNY Rob Wallace 212-650-8179
CSI Harry Cason 212-838-1374
Hostos Anna Lopez 212-427-3874
Hunter Mark Halling 718-596-0654
Hunter Soc. Susanna Jones 718-243-0660
John Jay Michael Seitz 212-229-9180
Kingsborough CC _ Jerry Karol 718-330-0916
La Guardia Costas Panayotakis 718-852-2069
Lehman Kyle Cuordileone 212-491-2653
Medgar Evers Eric Lehman 212-674-1767
NYC Tech. Wendy Scribner 212-982-0097
Queens Eric Marshall 212-642-2143
Queensborough CC Howard Pflanzer 212-496-7452
York MikeVozick 212-874-7650
Produced by CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
P.O. Box 1360, NYC 10163 212/780-2155 http://www.soc.qc.edu/adjunct
Vol. 2, No. 6 March 1999
- Irwin’s Rules of Order
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Delegate Assembly, our union’s policy-setting body which, under the leadership of
President Irwin Polishook, consistently refuses to follow any parliamentary procedure (including its adopted Robert’s Rules
of Order, really outdid itself at its January meeting. In a predictable vote along caucus lines, the Delegate Assembly rejected
proposals 1) defending CUNYTALK and the First Amendment rights of faculty members; 2) supporting the recruitment of
new members and of members’ rights to recruit; and 3) supporting objective external vote counting for all contract ratifications
and referenda. Setting aside the indefensibility of rejecting these resolutions--the DA was informed that active recruitment
efforts (unknown to CAU’) were currently underway on certain campuses, and we’ve had the Malthusian arguments against
enforcement of agency fee for adjuncts thrust at us for years--it was the manner in which these sound resolutions were defeated
that is particularly outrageous. In each case, after the resolution was offered to the body, it was debated, and amendments were
offered by the body and accepted by the makers of the motions. In each case it seemed clear that, as amended, the resolutions
would pass. But in each case, in a new flagrant violation of parliamentary procedure, Polishook, at the conclusion of the
debates, offered these resolutions only as originally written, not as amended by the body as is proper. Inevitably, in each case
the motion failed. Polishook consistently refuses to appoint a parliamentarian for the body, as is proper, and has at times even
arrogated the duties himself. When germane passages from Robert’s Rules are read from the Assembly floor to the body, they
are typically ignored nevertheless. It seems time for CUNY faculty--perhaps led by the part-timers--to demand that its union
conduct its business fairly, properly abiding by established parliamentary procedure. Robert’s, not Irwin’s.
CAU! Wins Northstar Grant
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! applied to the NorthStar Foundation
for $2000 to pay for the expense of printing the Adjunct
Alert. They were so impressed with the justice of our
cause and our current activities that they awarded us
$3000! We still need to raise more money for literature for
our referendum campaign; we need to get our point of view
out to all the members of the union, so please continue to
send your contributions to CAU! at the address above.
Referendum Alert! Deadline Extended! Be sure to get
all the signatures you collected to CAU! by March 15. On
Thursday evening, March 18 we will hold a press conference
when we
before the PSC Delegate Assembly meeting,
deliver the petitions to the PSC. Come join us at 7pm at the
GSUC (33 W 42nd St). Until then, keep collecting!
Letter to the Editor
[edited to fit allotted space]
Something Is Holding Us Back? The Massachusetts-born
social historian and critic, W.E.B. DuBois, is often quoted
for writing this statement: “...the problem of the twentieth
century is the problem of the color line” (1903).
But for me, his most “unAmerican” statement was
made thirty-two years later when he wrote Black
Reconstruction in America (1860-1880), subtitled “An
Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk
Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in
America.” His Reconstruction book is primarily a class
discussion, hence the first two chapters are titled, “The
Come to the Next Meeting of
CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
Friday, March 26 @ 3pm
Room 400 25 W 43rd St
next Friday meetings: April 30, May 21
DUES DEDUCTED FROM LUMP SUM $
As of January 1999, the new union dues are $138.42 (up
from $133.20). The amount of $7.69 is deducted from each
paycheck. Computer systems can’t differentiate lump sum
payments, so if by the end of 1999, your deductions come
to more than $138.42, call the PSC (212/354-1252) and
speak to Diana Rosato to apply for a refund.
This issue of Adjunct Alert was produced by the Newsletter Committee. Back issues of Adjunct Alert may be found at our website.
Black Worker,” and “The White Worker.”
CUNY faculty, whether full or part-time workers, too
often skirt our mutually unresolved questions of class and
caste within the political and economic structure where we
cont'd on next page
EE 515
WS” ya?
Letter to the Editor cont’d
earn our daily bread, also called wages. Possibly it is due
to the way most of us were trained, are rewarded or not
rewarded (receive raises, get hired, promoted, even fired).
Some of us even remember that there were firings of
teachers in the late ‘50's and early “60's, from the not-yet-
CUNY system, for being “too radical.” Court cases ensued
and ultimately litigation was won, even back pay rendered.
But the dialogue became soft.
But a truth long buried will rise again. Class
questions haunt all negotiations bétween faculty and
administrators. We teach in classrooms and the “C & C”
denials are present in ail “union” discussions and contract
terms. Something is holding all of us back. With only two
official political national parties driven by capital, I do not
anticipate coalition politics in America, such as are
presently active in either France or Germany. Yet
ideologically, ideas coupled with activism were
historically, and are presently, needed within the CUNY
system. Is it just consciousness that is holding us back?
-Myrna D. Bain
Conference Alert! The third annual conference of
the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, COCAL
(formerly The National Congress of Adjuncts, etc.) «will
take place in Boston on Friday evening, April 16 & all
day Saturday, April 17. There will be adjuncts from
CUNY participating and we hope to have many more
in attendance. Call 212 780-2155 to join our trek to
Boston. Check out the COCAL _ website
omega.cc.umb.edu/~cocal for location and scheduling
info. Also check out Gary Zabel and Harry Brill’s
article on the latest adjunct organizing news for the
electronic journal Workplace www.workplace-gsc.com
Why You and Your Colleagues
Should Support the CAU! Referendum
Why should full-timers vote yes on our referendum to
include adjuncts in the union on the same basis as full-
timers? Won’t adjuncts take over the union?
SUNY’s union has had automatic deduction of the agency
fee for part-timers since 1977, but only 60% of their part-
timers have joined The percentage joining at CUNY
would probably be similar.
Won’t fuli-timers be voting against themselves if they
include adjuncts in the agency shop?
It is very much in the interest of full-timers to improve the
situation of adjuncts because having a second tier
undermines the first tier by increasing the pool of low-paid
labor, thus obviating the need for higher paid faculty. The
reduction of CUNY full-time staff lines by 5,500 in the 20
years is proof enough. Other unions--most recently the
pilots’ union at American Airlines--have recognized this.
Ours should too!
Isn’t it unfair to adjuncts to deduct a fee from every
piddling paycheck they receive?
What’s really unfair, not to mention patronizing and
paternalistic, is to have full-timers making decisions for
adjuncts. Let us have a voice and a vote!
Won’t adjuncts demand a greater share of the CUNY
pie and leave less for full-timers?
We are convinced that the union will be stronger if
adjuncts join in proportion to their numbers because a
larger union will have more power in Albany. Besides,
what kind of group represents workers without giving
them any say?
CAU! Party Alert! 6pm Friday, March 5th at 10-
52 46th Road, Long Island City, just over the East
River, accessible by subway. Call our voice mail for
directions (212-780-2155). Free Edibles. $5 plus cash
bar to benefit CAU!.
Academic Labor Deja Vu?
According to Jonathan Zimmerman History News Service,
“By now, everyone has probably heard horror stories
about freshly minted academics who can’t find gainful
employment in academia. Some of them serve as ‘adjunct
faculty members,’ the migrant poor of the modern
university. . . . As the Right will argue, most of these
people are ‘in transition,’ shifting their jobs to meet new
workplace realities. The Left counters with its own market
strategy, calling upon graduate schools to limit the number
of students they admit. Once we reduce supply, its
argument goes, demand will shoot up. . . . No magic
market will do that trick. Only government--dare I say it?--
can perform it. . . . It has happened before. During the
1930's . . . the so-called ‘white collar’ New Deal...
provided jobs for artists, actors, and especially writers. . .
If the federal government were to employ academics today,
what useful work could they perform? Our civic discourse
is So constricted--so beholden to market mechanisms, and
so blind to public possibilities--that we almost never ask
this question. [Let us know what you think. -Ed.]
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! Contacts
Baruch Jim Feast 718-449-0677
BMCC Shirley Rausher 212-721-0099
Bronx CC Ingrid Hughes 212-254-0635
Brooklyn Vinny Tirelli 212-642-2143
CCNY Rob Wallace 212-650-8179
CSI Harry Cason 212-838-1374
Hostos Anna Lopez 212-427-3874
Hunter Mark Halling 718-596-0654
Hunter Soc. Susanna Jones 718-243-0660
John Jay Michael Seitz 212-229-9180
Kingsborough CC _ Jerry Karol 718-330-0916
La Guardia Costas Panayotakis 718-852-2069
Lehman Kyle Cuordileone 212-491-2653
Medgar Evers Eric Lehman 212-674-1767
NYC Tech. Wendy Scribner 212-982-0097
Queens Eric Marshall 212-642-2143
Queensborough CC Howard Pflanzer 212-496-7452
York MikeVozick 212-874-7650
Title
CUNY Adjunct Alert (March 1999)
Description
The March 1999 CUNY Adjunct Alert! Newsletter illustrated the tension between activist group, CUNY Adjuncts Unite!, and the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) leadership, in particular, President Irwin Polishook. The article, entitled “Irwin’s Rules of Order,” cited several alleged procedural infractions, which included the Delegate Assembly's rejection of CUNYTALK, supporting the recruitment of new members and supporting objective external vote counting. In addition, in a "Letter, to the Editor", Myrna D. Bain asked why both full- and part-time CUNY faculty “skirt our mutually unresolved questions on class and caste …”
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! (CAU) an independent coalition of CUNY part-timers, founded in 1997, produced the CUNY Adjunct Alert newsletter,.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) is the CUNY faculty and research staff union.
CUNY Adjuncts Unite! (CAU) an independent coalition of CUNY part-timers, founded in 1997, produced the CUNY Adjunct Alert newsletter,.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) is the CUNY faculty and research staff union.
Contributor
Newfield, Marcia
Creator
CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
Date
March 1999
Language
English
Publisher
CUNY Adjuncts Unite!
Source
Newfield, Marcia
Original Format
Newspaper / Magazine / Journal
CUNY Adjuncts Unite!. Letter. 1999. “CUNY Adjunct Alert (March 1999)”, 1999, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/1489