PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS -- MCC CHAPTER
NEWSLETTER February 22, 1974

This is a publication of the We welcome all responses,
Executive Board of the BMCC corrections to articles, or
Chapter. letters to the editor for
publication.
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I. ADJUNCT VICTORY

The adjuncts have won an important victory. Two months ago,
Dean Pollack threatened to cut back 80% of the part time staff;
today, most of the adjuncts have their jobs back.
The adjuncts won because they relied on rank and file militancy.
When they talked to the administration they talked from strength.
The adjuncts,as they should have, took the initiative in the fight
to save their jobs. But in doing so, they reached out to full
time faculty and students, explaining how the issue affected them
as well. , Simply put, fewer adjuncts meant overcrowded classes.
Under starfing this, over 1700 students and faculty signed petitions
in support of the part-time staff.
On December 6,1973, the adjuncts organized the first union picket
line in the history of MCC. The fact that thirty or forty faculty
walked the informational line was a big step forward for our PSC
Chapter.
This is a victory for all faculty and all students. And it is
clearly a victory that our chapter can learn from and build upon.

The following article was submitted to the Executive
Board by a member of the Faculty.

II. TOAST FOR THE PRESIDENT

The testimonial dinner for the president, being contrived under the
aegis of several highly paid members of his immediate staff, with
the assistance of some equally well paid satraps in other departments
of the college, is the latest chapter in the unfolding drama at
Borough of Manhattan Community College. The idea, of course, is to
create a positive image for the president in the eyes of the new
members of the new Board of Higher Education.

One of the many charges hanging over the president in findings set
before the outgoing Board by the Chancellor is his inability

to win the respect and confidence of his faculty. A few impresarios
have, therefore, put their heads together and announced A Toast to
the President, scheduled for March 29, 1974, soon after the new
Board's first meeting, and hired a ballroom for the show.

Perhaps these impresarios believe that A Toast will distract the
new Board members from the grave issues at the College, and the
thick file on the president's abuses. Perhaps they hope that A
Toast will deflect attention from the main menu at Manhattan Community
College, a menu devoid of the ingredients that need to be staples
in its diet before an academic institution can be considered
respectable. Instead of honor and integrity, A Toast to the
President. Instead of promotions on merit rather than as patronage,
A Toast to the President. Let them eat toast.

The taxpayers are paying many milquetoasts at the college for
planning A Toast. Serving on the official planning committee for
the ostensibly spontaneous event, in which participation is
ostensibly voluntary, are numerous well-buttered milquetoasts,

and some who are hoping to be buttered further at promotion

time.

Taxpayers’ money, taxpayers’ resources, and taxpayers’ time are
being used for the purely political purpose of staging A Toast,
which will pop next month. College postage meters, Xerox machines,
typewriters,and typists have been pushed into service, at the ex-
pense of the taxpayers, to set the stage.

Needless to say, the planners are eager to set a well-made Toast
before the president; they are dipping into thetaxpayers' larder
whenever necessary. From the Dean of Continuing Education's


(2)

office has come a mailing to all members of the faculty and

staff, postage paid by the college postage meters, soliciting
participation in the event. From Dr. Doris Fitzgerald, Chair-
person of the dinner committee, department chairpersons received

an official memo through college mail, that was treated in many
departments as official business, and, therefore, read in the
monthly meeting. In these meetings, as in meetings of controlled
political organizations everywhere, “*volunteers" to sell tickets
were publicly solicited, their names to be forwarded by chairmen
and chairwomen to Dr. Fitzgerald, presumably for the inclusion on

a list of Friends of A Toast.

Throughout the college, faculty and staff are being kuttonholed

by the president's minions to cough up money for the tickets, and
thereby assure themselves that they will not wind up on another
list -- Enemies of A Toast. The president's executive assistant
for labor relations, another planner of A Toast, recently predicted
that 70% of the faculty and staff would show up. He's probably
right. Who will dare refuse to pay the required twenty bucks a
head for the ducats being hustled by the milquetoast network?
Certainly not the candidates for promotion and tenure, whose names
will be coming before the president this spring, either immediately
before A Toast, as the Enemies List is being drawn up, or immediately
afterward, when it has been made final. Realistic and ambitious
members of the community would do well to buy more than one ticket;
they should pick up the tab for their spouses (the milquetoast net-
work is already asking them to do that), their children, and also

a few neighbors. After all, Dr. Fitzgerald's memo indicated that
some people might want to arrange for tables of ten.

All hail the president! Let him have A Toast. Let him have

French Toast, Dry Toast, Buttered Toast, Melba Toast, and all

the miguetoasts the Board can stomach. Let him use the Xerox
machines and the postage meter, and let him hire all the

ballrooms in New York for his name's sake.

But, let him see -- and let the new members of the new Board see --
that none of this has anything to do with running a college.
And let them all recall that some toast gets burned -- and some

eventually winds up as croutons, in the soup.

III. WHO WRITES THE NEWSLETTER?

We are extremely pleased at the generally favorable response to
the PSC -- MCC Chapter Newsletter among the faculty. Unfortnately
some members of the administration often fail to recognize it

as a chapter newsletter, approved by the Executive Board for
publication. Instead,they wish to believe that it is the work

of one or two subversive individuals whose writings do not re-
flect the opinions and commitments of the chapter.

The Executive Board will continue to solicit and approve articles
submitted to it by interested faculty. These articles will
continue to be edited for publication by the Executive Board's
editors, Mayer Rossabi and Carolyn Prager.

Please continue to submit any ideas or materials for publication
to them. If you wish, your articles will continue to be printed
with your name witheld.

Iv. REMEMBER TO VOTE

Several members of the college would like to serve as delegates,
and as your representatives, to the New York State, the National
Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers,

conventions. Do not waste your vote. Mail your ballot immediately.

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