A message from the president

he merger of the Legislative
[ance and the United

Federation of College Teachers ta
form the Professional Staff Congress on
April 14, 1972, was an extraordinary
event in the world of academic
unionism,

‘Two rival unions with significant
differences in background joined
together in the interest of more effective
representation for the City University’s
instructional staff.

At the time, many observers did
not believe the fledgling union had
much chance to make a go of it. But
through perseverance, dedication to
our ideals and hard work the PSC
has succeeded beyond the expectations
of its creators.

We have repeatedly broken new

ground for academic unionism as these
pages recount.

As the PSC marks its 25th
anniversary, we take pride in our
achievements on behalf of the City
University instructional staff and look
forward to still greater progress in the
next quarter century.

These articles by Irwin Yellowitz,
professor emeritus of history at
City College and a former PSC
treasurer, originally appeared in our
newspaper, the Clarion.

We hope the account will be
useful to students of academic
collective bargaining and to
everyone with an interest in public
higher education.

Quast

Irwin H. Polishook
President

Table of contents
2 Building the Union

10 A Time of Crisis

17 A Decade of Advance

24 A Decade of Defense

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress


Building the union

The Professional Staff Congress celebrated its 25th anniversary
on April 14, 1997. This is the union’s history.

by Irwin Yellowirz

lhe 25th anniversary of the
| Professional Staff Congress is an

occasion for reflection not only
about our future, but about our past. We
should know how the faculty and staff at
the City University of New York moved
from an isolated, often impotent,
condition to united, strong
representation by a professional union
that negotiates a contract widely viewed
as a model for higher education.

The PSC defends that contract
zealously through a well-developed
grievance procedure, protects and
advances the interests of the faculty and
staff, provides the real clout for CUNY
in Albany and at City Hall and advances
the interests of retirees, a group that
needs the strength of a union as much
as when they were active employees.

The union protects and enlarges
an extensive, much admired benefits
program, offers a wide range of
ancillary services, including retirement
counseling and a full-service credit
union, and recognizes and supports
some of the outstanding students in
CUNY by full tuition scholarships
through the Belle Zeller Scholarship
Trust Fund,

The PSC has a prominent role in
the New York City labor movement and
cooperates with faculty and staff
organizations within CUNY, such as the

University Faculty Senate, to advance
collegiality and shared governance.

To reach this point has required
determined and intelligent leadership, a
first-rate union staff and the continuing
support of the members,

The Legislative Conference

The strong PSC that we know
today is the product of a complex
history reaching back over half a
century. In the 1930s, Committees on
Legislation represented the individual
city colleges, but they were hampered
by poor coordination and minimal
resources,

In 1938, the governing board for
the four city colleges (Brooklyn, City,
Hunter and Queens) issued a set of
bylaws that created formal faculty
governance at the colleges and
established faculty tenure. This spurred
faculty to think of a more effective
legislative organization, especially since
there was need to reinforce the bylaw
tenure provisions with statutory
protection. On Jan. 6, 1939, 22 faculty
members created the Legislative
Conference of the City Colleges (LC)
and elected the first set of officers.

The LC first worked to achieve
statutory tenure, and in 1940, after a
difficult campaign, it achieved success.
The LC next moved to salaries and

pensions. It won some salary increases
through the early 1950s, but in 1956 the
LC secured passage of a state law giving
college faculty parity with employees of
the Board of Education. Salaries for
those in professorial titles matched the
pay of supervisory personnel in the
public schools.

With the growth of the United
Federation of Teachers (UFT) in the
1960s as the union for the staff of the
public schools, salaries for teachers
increased, and in 1963 supervisory
salaries rose accordingly because of an
indexing arrangement. Through the
parity law, this automatically raised
salaries for the faculty in the city
colleges. Thus the college faculty and
the LC benefited directly from the
unionization of the public schools.

‘The PSC
has a
role in the

New York Cit
labor movement.

The LC also worked unceasingly
for improvements in the pension system.
Again the situation elsewhere set basic
policy for the city colleges since faculty
were either members of the Teachers’
Retirement System with the personnel
of the public schools or the New York
City Employees’ Retirement System
with other city workers. However,
the LC did gain much valuable
legislation that had specific application

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress


to the needs of the colleges.

The leadership of the LC was
composed of senior faculty as was true
for most faculty governance bodies at
the colleges. In late 1944, Prof. Belle
Zeller of Brooklyn College became the
chair of the LC. She retained this post
until 1972, when she became the first
president of the PSC. Prof. Zeller was
an authority on lobbying, and her
expertise, plus her extensive personal
contacts with state legislators, many of
whom had been her students,
maximized the influence of the LC.

Members picket Board of Higher Education
in September 1972,

The UFCT challenge

In 1963, the LC was challenged as
the representative of the faculty and
staff of CUNY when the United
Federation of College Teachers (UFCT)
began determined organizing within the
university,

The UPCT had been the local for
college teachers of the UFT and its
predecessor organization since 1950, but
in 1963 it became an independent local
of the American Federation of Teachers
(AFT). With continued financial help

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

from the UFT, the UFCT began
vigorous organizing not only in CUNY
but at other colleges including St. John’s
University, Pratt Institute and Long
Island University.

Prof. Israel Kugler of New York
City Community College (now City
Tech) headed the UFCT as he had its
predecessor organizations since 1950.
An experienced and articulate labor
leader with a record of significant
achievements, he stressed the need for
academic unions to affiliate with the
labor movement. This was a key



difference from the LC, which clearly faced a real challenge from this Chancellor Albert Bowker decided to
emphasized its independence. new organization. increase consultations with both groups,
but he ignored the issue of collective
bargaining. His hand was forced in 1967
when the state legislature passed the
Taylor Law, which granted public
employees the right to choose a
collective bargaining agent.

The UFCT received much positive
recognition in 1965-66 for its
determined defense of 31 members of
the faculty at St. John’s University who
were dismissed without charges or
hearings. St. John's became a national ( ; isroryv
issue. : acy nek / An election takes shape

Although the strike called by the
UFCT was lost in the narrow sense,

An election was now a certainty in

over half @ century.
over nay a century CUNY, but under what terms? The

most of the strikers received better UFCT had to face its weak support
positions elsewhere, and St. John’s The LC responded by calling on among the faculty of the senior colleges
suffered censure from the American CUNY to recognize it as the sole who were familiar with the LC. Yet the
Association of University Professors collective bargaining agent. Naturally, LC also had problems, including little
and a general loss of reputation. The LC — the UFCT opposed any such action. support among lecturers and adjuncts.

PSC informational picket line outside
Baruch College in February 1973.

4 5 25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



Then, as now, CUNY used adjuncts as
cheap labor: they were 42 percent of the
teaching personnel in 1968, and 34
percent of the total faculty and staff.
When lecturers, who had no assurance
of reappointment, are added to the
adjunct figure, the so-called temporary
staff constituted 45 percent of the total
faculty and staff.

These considerations led to a
protracted dispute before the Public
Employment Relations Board (PERB)
over the nature of the unit for the
election. The LC called for two units —
one for all faculty and staff paid on an
annual basis, and a second for adjuncts,
with those who worked less than six
hours excluded entirely. Clearly this was
designed to gain victory for the LC ina
powerful unit in which it had electoral
strength. The downside was allowing
the UFCT to win among the adjuncts,
but if the two units were combined, the
LC could not be sure of victory.

The UFCT demanded a single
election for all employees except that
College Laboratory Technicians would
be in a separate unit. The UFCT hoped
to win among the technicians thereby
gaining a foothold in CUNY while the
remaining large single unit, which
included all the adjuncts and the
lecturers, gave it a chance for victory
there as well.

The university also called for a
single unit minus adjuncts teaching less
than six hours. As with most employers,
CUNY wanted to avoid multiple unions
and several contracts.

PERB ultimately determined the

Protesting tenure quotas, October 1973.
At left, then PSC First Vice President Irwin Polishook.

units in a form close to that proposed by
the LC. PERB called for two units -
one for those holding some sort of
permanent or annual status, including
Higher Education Officers and College
Laboratory Technicians, and a second
unit for those in temporary titles,
principally adjuncts, although full-time
lecturers on annual appointments were
included in this second group.

The instructional staff chooses

The election was held on Dec. 5,
1968. In unit 1, the LC received 47
percent of the votes, the UFCT 38

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

percent with 15 percent voting for
neither. This required a second election
since a majority was needed. In the
runoff, the LC won 54 percent of the
votes and the UPCT received 46
percent, This close result shows that
the UFCT was correct in estimating
its strength, and had there been only
one unit, the UFCT most likely would
have won.

In unit 2, the UFCT won
60 percent of the votes while the LC
received only 27 percent with
13 percent voting for neither. These



results left two bargaining agents having
to face not only challenges from the
university but from each other.

Some CUNY officials wondered
why the faculty and staff had supported
collective bargaining. They cited
the good salaries and governance
structure under the bylaws. Prior to
the election, Chancellor Bowker openly
called for rejection of collective
bargaining, saying it would weaken
faculty governance and replace a
community of shared interest with
an adversarial relationship.

He also strongly encouraged
formation of the University Faculty
Senate as an alternative to collective
bargaining. However, the faculty and
staff rejected these arguments. They
understood that unionism would
actually enhance governance as events
have borne out. They also appreciated
the gains made by the UFT in the public
schools through vigorous unionism.

Subsequently the State University
of New York and many other colleges
and universities voted for collective
bargaining. The Feshiva decision of
1980 by the United States Supreme
Court, which declared faculty in private
colleges and universities to be managers
and thus ineligible for collective
bargaining, essentially stopped further
organizing in those institutions.

The results of 1968 were close to
the plan of the LC, but clearly this
election was not to be the final word.
The UFCT continued a strong campaign
against the LC among members of
unit 1, In April 1971, the UPCT launched

a petition drive for a new election
under one unit.

The LC responded to the challenge
from the UFCT by discarding its
fiercely held independence and joining
the National Education Association
(NEA). The NEA provided money,
including funding for the new post of
Executive Director, to which Amold
Cantor was appointed in May 1970. The
UFCT delighted in attacking this change
of course, claiming the LC had
exchanged principle for cash. However,
the UFCT failed to note that it still
received considerable financial support
from the UFT.

A move toward merger

The battles between the two
organizations were rapidly bankrupting
both of them. The UFCT had increasing
and sizable debts, and as a new
collective bargaining election loomed,
the LC took out a loan of $100,000
in September 1971. Once again
PERB would have to make a unit
determination. The LC called for the
two existing units; the UPCT, aware
of the 1968 results, called for one unit;
and in a sharp turnabout CUNY
proposed three units.

Since neither union was confident
of victory, they began to discuss
merger to stop the slide into bankruptcy.
The momentum for merger was
greatly assisted by a parallel set of
merger talks between the statewide
affiliates of the NEA and the AFT. If
such a merger took place, the support
from the national organizations to their
affiliates in CUNY would end.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress ~

After rocky negotiations, the LC
and the UFCT achieved a merger, and
in April 1972 the members of each
organization quickly approved it by an
overwhelming vote. Shortly thereafter
the faculty and staff as a whole voted
strongly for one unit that would be their
bargaining agent. The new organization
was called the Professional Staff
Congress/CUNY — a name chosen with
difficulty to distinguish the new union
from its two predecessors.

‘The initial
contracts
were concluded

in 1969.

Belle Zeller became president
and Israel Kugler deputy-president;
key leadership positions in the central
union. and in the campus chapters
were divided fifty-fifty.

The merger produced one union,
but not unity within it. Caucuses
developed immediately around Belle
Zeller and Israel Kugler, and there was
constant tension between them and also
among their supporters. Although
divided leadership made it more
difficult, the union was able to negotiate
the first unitary contract with CUNY.

In the spring of 1973, Profs. Kugler
and Zeller ran on opposing slates in the
first PSC election. The Zeller slate,
known as the City University Union
Caucus (CUUC), won the major


offices and
control of the
Executive
Council and
Delegate
Assembly.
Prof. Kugler and
his supporters
continued in
opposition until
1976 when
Irwin Polishook,
running on the
CUUC slate,
defeated
Israel Kugler.
During
the period prior
to merger, the
collective
bargaining
agents had to
contend with
several major
challenges from
the university
as well as negotiate contracts.

The initial contracts were
concluded in 1969. The LC contract
established parity between senior and
community college faculty and staff in
salaries. The UFCT contract
included the Certificate of Continuous
Employment for full-time lecturers
with five or more years of service.
These basic contractual principles and
many other provisions of the current
PSC contract are direct descendants
of those initial agreements.

+
=
.
=
rs
.

PSC President Belle Zeller and Deputy President Israel Kugler soon after the merger of the
Legislative Conference and the United Federation of College Teachers to form the Professional Staff Congress.

The first PSC contract

The newly created PSC began to
negotiate the first unitary contract in
1972. The process lasted until
ratification by the PSC’s membership
in September 1973 as the university,
under a new chancellor, Robert Kibbee,
tested the union.

The process included impasse,
fact-finding (the report was accepted by
the PSC but rejected by CUNY), a vote
for a strike on Oct. 1, 1973, should
there be no contract by that date, the
withholding of increments by CUNY

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

and a declaration by the university
that it would impose a contract under
its reading of the Taylor Law, and
finally an agreement on July 20, 1973,
that closely followed the report of the
fact finders.

This contract settlement firmly
established the major provisions of the
1969 agreements and added several new
and important features.

The 1972 contract retained
increments despite the university’s
strong attempt to end them; allowed for
a more effective grievance procedure by


requiring a college president to give
reasons for overruling a personnel
committee on reappointment or
promotion and by broadening the
powers of an arbitrator through remand
of cases to special faculty panels when
a fair academic judgment could not be
expected at the college; defined
workload more precisely — which a
decade later became a key factor in the
workload arbitration that still applies in
CUNY; and provided new forms of job
security by making instructors eligible
for contractual tenure and providing
multiple-year reappointments for
Higher Education Officers.

‘The PSC...

began a blistering
campaign against
fenure quotas.

Important as these provisions
were, the long battle by the PSC to win
the agreement also showed the resolve
of the union to meet the determined
opposition of management. A young
union almost always faces such a
challenge, and this was the time of
testing for the PSC,

Management
tries ie neke inroads

During the period of the two
competing unions, the university chose
to try to make some basic changes in
academic practice, perhaps in the belief
that the discord between the two
organizations would weaken their
response. In late 1969, Chancellor

Bowker proposed to eliminate elected
chairs, citing the heavy managerial
responsibilities placed on them by the
new contracts. He tried to rush the
change through the Board of Higher
Education, but determined opposition
from the two unions led first to delay
and ultimately to the dropping of the
proposal.

In late 1970, Chancellor Bowker
proposed a 75 percent tenure quota.
The two unions resolutely opposed the
idea as inimical to quality and contrary
to peer review, and the proposal quickly
disappeared. However, in 1973
Chancellor Kibbee revived the proposal
for tenure quotas. He called for a
50 percent quota with special
justification required if the college
president chose to recommend tenure
in a department that had hit the limit.
The Board of Higher Education
approved the policy on Oct. 29, 1973.

Battling tenure quotas

The PSC immediately began a
blistering campaign against tenure
quotas. The union proposed that faculty
bodies vote no confidence in the
chancellor and refuse to cooperate
with any special procedures for tenure
under the quota system.

Ultimately 14 of the university's
18 campuses, plus the University
Faculty Senate, demanded the recision
of the quotas, and 8 campuses and
the University Faculty Senate passed
resolutions for the resignation of
the chancellor.

Other measures in the campaign
included a boycott of all contact with

the chancellor, which received
widespread support throughout CUNY;
support from prominent politicians,
including Mayor-elect Abraham Beame,
who received the PSC’s endorsement in
the election and who would appoint new
members to the Board of Higher
Education; national publicity through
the solid support of the AFT and the
NEA; a warning to faculty nationwide
through advertisements in professional
publications (“Applying to CUNY?
Think Twice.”); rallies, continuous
attention to the issue in the Clarion, and
constant work by the PSC’s officers to
keep the issue before the university
community. It was a comprehensive,
tough and unrelenting campaign to
defeat this attack on sound academic
practice.

(On April 22, 1974, the Board of
Higher Education rescinded the tenure
quota resolutions. As then First Vice
President Irwin Polishook put it, the end
of tenure quotas was “an unprecedented
victory not only for the PSC, the
instructional staff and the student body,
but for merit and academic freedom and
for the national movement of faculty
unionization.” It clearly was the greatest
effort yet made by the young union, and
a significant achievement.

By 1975, unionism and collective
bargaining were firmly established in
CUNY through the PSC. There had
been a series of crises that seemingly
could have no equal. Yet looming just
ahead was the fiscal collapse of New
York City which threatened the very
existence of CUNY.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



Building the Union

January

1939

22 faculty members create the
Legislative Conference (LIC).

1940 LC wins passage of law
granting statutory tenure.
1944 Belle Zeller clected chair
of the LC. senior and community college
1963 United Federation of instructional staff in salaries.
College Teachers (UFCT) The UFCT contract wins
begins organizing drive at a Certificate of Continuous
the city colleges. Employment for lecturers.
1967 Taylor Law grants public April oO
employees the right to choose 1972, LC and UFCT merge, forming
a collective bargaining agent. the Professional Staff Congress.
1968 In an election for bargaining Belle Zeller becomes president;
agent, LC wins a majority Israel Kugler, deputy president.
of the professoriate at CUNY; Spring 7
UFCT wins lecturers 1973 City University Union Caucus
and adjuncts. wins control of Executive

1969

First instructional staff
contracts. The LC contract
establishes parity between

With management refusing to negotiate in good faith,

Council and Delegate
Assembly in first PSC
general election; Belle Zeller

PSC members held ‘Rally for a Decent Contract’ on Oct. 5, 1972.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

becomes president.

September :

1973

PSC members ratify the first
unitary contract.

October

1973

Chancellor Kibbee proposes
a 50% tenure quota which is
approved by the Board of
Higher Education. After

a blistering campaign by the
union, quotas are rescinded
on April 22, 1974.

1976

Irwin Polishook, running
on CUUC slate, is elected
PSC president.



A time of crisis

jhe 1960s and early 1970s were
a period of rapid growth for the

City University. New colleges
opened, the student body increased -
moderately at first in the 1960s, and then
rapidly after the advent of Open
Admissions in 1970. Although student
fees rose, they remained under $100,
and free tuition continued. Significantly
more faculty and staff provided an
expanded array of courses and services.

The instructional staff moved to
collective bargaining in 1968, and after
several years with two negotiating
agents, the PSC in 1972 became the sole
union for CUNY as a result of the

merger of the Legislative Conference
and the United Federation of
College Teachers.

Despite the many problems faced
by the university and the PSC, in the
early 1970s the future seemed bright.
Lurking just ahead, however, was a
fiscal crisis that not only threatened the
quality of education and the jobs of
faculty and staff, but the very existence
of CUNY itself.

On a collision course

The storm hit the university when
CUNY’s expanded costs collided with a
fiscal crisis in New York City. The city
supplied 50 percent of the budget for the
senior colleges plus a significant share
of community college expenses. While

to protest massive cuts in city and state aid for CUNY.

New York State experienced less fiscal
trauma, it also faced budget problems.
The financial stresses combined with a
traditional upstate hostility to New York
City made help from the state, while
essential, difficult to achieve.

Under political pressure from the
PSC and the New York State United
Teachers (NYSUT), the state ultimately
did intervene to increase its share of
funding for the senior colleges from
50 percent in 1974 to 75 percent of what
had been the combined city and state
contributions in 1979, with 100 percent
forthcoming four years later. Yet this
shift was too slow to avoid a crisis at
CUNY. It also came at a significant
price: the end of free tuition.

Cuts and more cuts

An angry sea of budgetary cuts
broke over CUNY in the fall of 1974.
For three years the cuts came in waves.
As the exhausted university, and a
PSC fully engaged in its protection
rode out each great breaker, another
followed. CUNY survived only because
of the activities of the PSC, and its
ability to galvanize political support
for the university.

In the fall of 1974, Mayor
Abraham Beame called for sharp
reductions in the city’s support of the
senior colleges. This meant double
trouble since lower municipal
appropriations triggered a matching
decline in state funds for CUNY.

As the city’s financial problems
deepened in the winter of 1974-75,
Mayor Beame made three rounds of
cuts in CUNY’s budget. The

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



university's management responded by
reducing services. In what was to
become a familiar litany, the cuts
included reductions in staff, principally
part-time and non-tenured or non-
certificated faculty at this point, a freeze
on the hiring of full-time personnel and
fewer library resources. Much worse
was to come.

The university limped through the
1974-75 academic year. New York City
called for an even greater budget cut for
1975-76. Chancellor Robert Kibbee
reacted with continued and more drastic
changes. The Board of Higher
Education (BHE) on July 28, 1975,
raised student fees significantly, reduced
administrative and support staff,

STOP THE
KIBBEE
SELLOUT

BACK!

part

KIBBEE

SELL OUT

.

During the crisis, the PSC's labor allies joined the fight to save CUNY.

increased class sizes, eliminated
sabbatical leaves (restored after the end
of the fiscal crisis) and increased annual
contact hours for faculty to 24 in the
senior colleges and 30 in the community
colleges. These hours ultimately were
reduced by a PSC challenge that led to a
1982 arbitration decision which
established the current contact-hour
teaching load.

Yet as this wave crashed on the
university, the next one crested, Mayor
Beame demanded the end of free
tuition, and cut another $32 million
from CUNY’s budget in place of it.
Since the BHE refused to give up free
tuition, this became an additional
reduction in available funds.

DONT CUI
BACK!

AGHT
BACK!

At 1976 rally, First Vice President Irwin Polishook with Central Labor Council
Secretary Harry Avrutin, United Federation of Teachers President
Albert Shanker and DC 37 Executive Director Victor Gotbaum.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Coneress

Kibbee proposes retrenchment

Chancellor Kibbee prepared for
still other waves by having the BHE
pass a retrenchment plan which would
allow immediate dismissal of tenured
and certificated faculty and staff. He
projected the firing of a minimum of
1,500 employees in all categories.

The Chairman of the BHE,
Alfred Giardino, floated additional
actions including a payless furlough
of up to four weeks and the closing of
CUNY for two weeks. At the same
time, Chancellor Kibbee tried to slow
the momentum of the cuts by calling
for “thoughtful analysis and carefully
planned implementation.” This was akin
to bailing out the Titanic with a bucket.
The individual colleges moved ahead
with poorly conceived cuts to meet their
reduced budgets.

PSC fights for full state funding

Clearly CUNY management had
adopted a policy of acquiescing in the
cuts, even though an occasional
president, such as Joseph Murphy of
Queens College, called for a fight
against the reductions based on their
disastrous impact on the university. In
contrast to management, the PSC
fought resolutely against the cuts from
the very first.

The PSC maintained from the
outset that more money must come from
New York State to offset what would be
inevitable losses of funds from New
York City. In the short term, monies
could be found by restoring to CUNY
the windfall the state gained by not


having to provide matching funds for
those withdrawn by the city. In the
long term, the answer was full state
funding of the senior colleges. In 1979,
the PSC won this battle and gained
full state funding.

To achieve this objective, while
attempting to mitigate the cuts from
New York City and temper the
willingness of CUNY’s management
to decimate the university, the PSC
pursued several strategies. On
Dec. 12, 1974, the union organized the
largest rally in the history of CUNY to
oppose the first round of budget cuts.

Many more rallies and
demonstrations followed, The PSC
went to the courts, although success
there proved to be slight. The union
also launched a full-scale publicity
campaign to win public support for
CUNY, including both radio and
newspaper outlets. Most important, the
PSC drew on the strength of the labor
movement, particularly NYSUT, to
work for more money from the state.

It also participated in the Municipal
Labor Coalition that helped reverse the
collapse of the city’s credit.

For some in the PSC, these
actions were not enough. Although
there was talk of a strike in the future,
the opposition caucus called for an
immediate strike referendum. In
October 1975, the Delegate Assembly
defeated such a motion by a 58-26 vote.

President Belle Zeller opposed the
motion because in the context of the
city’s financial collapse it would turn the
public against CUNY’s faculty and staff

i

and complicate efforts to win more
money from the state. Also smaller
unions, such as the PSC, were more
likely to suffer the full weight of the
Taylor Law's severe penalties against
strikes by public employees, including
a loss of tenure and a loss of two days’
pay for each day an employee was

on strike,

‘CUNY survived

only because of the...
PSC and its

ability to galvanize
political support
for the university,

As President Zeller put it, an
immediate strike would favor
management and the enemies of the
university “and would send the PSC
to a graveyard filled with unions that
have struck at the wrong time.”

Restructuring plans

As the crisis deepened,
institutional cannibalism came to the
surface. President Robert Marshak of
City College proposed to close six
colleges — not including his own — and
then merge the four older senior
colleges, including City, into the State
University of New York as more highly
funded university centers.

One problem with such a scheme
was that the state had no interest in new
university centers with increased costs.
Others at CUNY floated variations on
the restructuring theme.

The PSC strongly opposed all such
plans. The union consistently
championed the academic advantage of
asystem that included two- and four-
year colleges. In addition, any new
institutions would be significantly
weaker politically than a unified CUNY.
Ultimately this would translate into
fewer resources, poorer education and a
weakened union less able to defend the
university and those it represented.

Chancellor Kibbee would also
offer a restructuring plan, but in late
1975 he still focused on massive
changes within the university rather than
on dismembering it. His program
continued to rely on disastrous
reductions in services rather than on
more money. It included a significant
cut in the number of students, increased
workloads, a payless furlough and the
firing of faculty and staff. As First Vice-
President Irwin Polishook commented,
the Kibbee Plan “would save the
university by destroying it.”

Instead the PSC went to the public.
One advertisement in The New York
Times told readers “You Can Save City
University” by supporting more state
money for CUNY. However, it was a
tough time for a citizen of the Big
Apple. Mayor Beame’s appeal to
President Gerald Ford for federal help
brought a resounding no, with the
accompanying free advice that the
city declare bankruptcy, or as the
New York Daily News headline put it:
“Drop Dead.”

President Ford saw no reason why
other Americans “should support

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress


advantages in New York [free tuition]
that they have not been able to offer in
their own communities.” However
strongly New York City rejected this
reductionist argument, it still resonated
widely, including in upstate New York.
Upstate legislators resisted aid to a City
University that provided a free
education while SUNY charged tuition.

; In addition, the fiscal crisis in New
~ York City was affecting the state’s

: HELLENIC SOE financial position. In January 1976,

; SAYS: © these considerations led Governor Hugh

Carey to oppose state financial
NO Cur BACK camer a CUNY. Instead, Governor
r Bm ce Carey proposed a plan to consolidate
, and close units within the university.

al Pa ir

ime Par

Chancellor Kibbee now moved his
own restructuring plan forward. He
presented it to the BHE in February
1976. It proposed to close Hostos, John
Jay and Richmond Colleges, and
convert Medgar Evers and York into
two-year colleges. Chancellor Kibbee
also called for an end to Open
Admissions by raising CUNY’s
entrance requirements and for tighter
{ f retention standards. These two measures
ry : j » were intended to reduce enrollment
Me } significantly. Throughout the crisis, the

= i Ak / : “ea / PSC fought all efforts to restructure
Protesting cutbacks. CUNY, and it won that battle.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress : 3



Chancellor Kibbee’s plan

All of the reorganization proposals
had one goal in common — to reduce the
size of CUNY. For the governor, this
would allow an increase in the
percentage of state support to the senior
colleges without spending more dollars.
For the chancellor, it would bring the
cost of CUNY closer to the lower level
of funding that he expected from
Albany and City Hall.

The Kibbee Plan was based on the
continuation of free tuition. In April
1976, the BHE approved the
chancellor's reorganization proposal by
a 6-4 vote, The minority contended that
an end to free tuition would preclude
restructuring of CUNY, and they were
prepared to pay that price, The majority,
including Chairman Alfred Giardino,
insisted on continuing free tuition
whatever the consequences.

Events now moved quickly to a
climax. The PSC had been negotiating a
contract during this turmoil, On April
28, 1976, it reached an agreement with
the university cancelling the four-week
payless furlough that was still in the
Kibbee Plan approved by the BHE and
substituting a two-week deferral of
salary and increments. This was similar
to other unions’ wage deferrals. Despite
skepticism by some, the deferred
monies were repaid, with interest,
during the 1980s once New York City
had recovered its financial health.

CUNY shuts down

Mayor Beame then confronted the
tuition issue. Two members who
supported free tuition had resigned from

the BHE following its action in April as
they realized they could no longer
prevail. The mayor quickly appointed
new members who favored ending free
tuition. He then announced the city
would not pay its share of the May 28
CUNY payroll.

‘CUNY management

had adopted
a policy of
acquiescing
in the cuts.’

President Irwin Polishook called
on the members of the PSC not to work
if they were not paid. This led
Chancellor Kibbee to close the
university indefinitely. Forced to act, the
BHE ended free tuition. New York State
then appropriated $24 million to allow
payment of the unmet CUNY payroll.

During the crisis, the PSC election
for general officers took place in March
and April 1976. The rhetoric from the
opposing caucus included charges of
weak and inept PSC leadership, but the
real issue was a difference in strategy.
Irwin Polishook, running for president,
stressed the primacy of political action,
built in part on community support
through the publicity campaign and
close cooperation with CUNY’s
students, and in part through affiliation
with NYSUT and support from
elsewhere in the labor movement.

The opposing caucus put more

emphasis on sit-ins, demonstrations and
a one-day strike, The electorate gave
Irwin Polishook 58 percent of the vote,
and his slate swept the Executive
Council as they won in the senior and
community colleges and among the
cross-campus units. Clearly the faculty
and staff supported the approach taken
by the incumbent leadership.

Retrenchment

The 1976-77 academic year
brought the next waves in the crisis.
The city’s workforce experienced a
second round of firings as thousands
of uniformed personnel and 20,000
teachers were laid off. Thus om May 24,
1976, the BHE authorized retrenchment,
and the chancellor ordered the colleges
to cut 2,000 positions, including tenured
and certificated faculty.

The PSC fought these firings and
succeeded in getting management to
reduce the number to less than half. The
union also redoubled its efforts to
increase state funding as the only real
way to stop further retrenchments.

Under pressure from the PSC and
NYSUT, Governor Carey in early 1977
announced his support for increasing
state funding for the senior colleges
from 50 to 75 percent. The governor
realized that with an election year
approaching there: would be severe
political consequences from NYSUT
and the labor movement should he not
move to raise state aid.

He foresaw a decline in CUNY’s
student body as free tuition ended,
which he hoped would offset some of

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



the: additional dollars required by the
increase in funding. Ultimately the
infusion of state money ended the crisis
in CUNY, but not soon enough to
reverse all the retrenchments,

The proponents of dismembering
CUNY as a solution to the crisis
continued their efforts into 1977. Even
as Governor Carey accepted the increase
to 75 percent for state funding of the
senior colleges, members of his staff
floated restructuring plans. The union
continued to support CUNY's unitary
system of community and senior
colleges as the best academic structure
for New York City,

However, as fiscal stability began
to return, proposals for structural
changes in CUNY waned. Thus the
Kibbee Plan was not implemented in
large measure, the efforts by some at the
older senior colleges to join SUNY
fizzled, and a callin March 1977 by a
state commission, headed by Nils
Wessell of the Sloan Foundation, for
CUNY to be reorganized into two new
universities gained little support.

‘In 1979,

the PSC...
gained full
State funding.’

In June 1979, the PSC finally
achieved its goal of providing a firmer
financial base for CUNY and deflecting
schemes for reorganization. The union's
political efforts led key legislators,

Faced with proposals to dismember the university, the PSC waged
a media campaign to enlist public support for CUNY. First Vice President
Irwin Polishook and Treasurer Ada Agronin at a press conference in 1975.

including Speaker Stanley Fink, State
Senator John Marchi and State Senator
H. Carl McCall, to play leading roles in
creating a financial and governance
arrangement for CUNY that has lasted
to this day.

Legislation signed by Governor
‘Carey provided for an autonomous,
unified CUNY, full state funding of the
senior colleges in four years (a 75
percent state funding rate already has
been voted for the 1979-80 budget year)
and a new Board of Trustees to replace
the BHE, with ten members appointed
by the governor and the remaining five
by the mayor.

The storm had finally subsided.
Although the university and its
instructional staff had suffered losses,
CUNY had survived as an institution,

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

and the great majority of faculty and
staff had remained in place. The PSC
had played a major role in achieving
this result. The university was now
poised to take advantage of quieter seas
during the 1980s as it rebuilt from the
nadir of 1974-77. The PSC also was
ready to use brighter times to improve
salaries and working conditions offered
by the university, and to build a stronger
union offering more services and
programs to the instructional staff. Hl

‘The PSC

drew on

the strength of the
labor movement.’



A Time of Crisis

Fall 1974

As city fiscal crisis develops, Mayor
Beame calls for sharp reductions

in city support for senior colleges,
triggering a matching decline in
state funding.

Winter 1974-75
CUNY is hit with three rounds of
budget cuts from the city. Staff
reductions and a hiring freeze
imposed, PSC mounts “Save CUNY”

drive; organizes a series of

Chancellor Kibbee announces plans

to fire 1,500 CUNY employees,
including tenured and certificated
instructional staff. PSC mounts

media campaign to enlist public support
to save CUNY.

February 1976
Chancellor Kibbee proposes plan to
drastically downsize the university.

PSC President Emerita Belle Zeller and First Vice President Claude Ca
Governor Hugh Carey in June 1979 at signing of CUNY Governance Bill.

April 1976

Irwin Polishook elected PSC president.
Union agrees to two-week wage
deferral instead of proposed four-week
payless furlough.

May-June 1976
City refuses to meet May 28 payroll.
PSC tells members not to work if they
are not paid, Chancellor shuts down
CUNY for two weeks. BHE ends

free tuition.

May 1976 through 1977
BHE authorizes retrenchments,
Union's efforts cut layoffs.

February 1977
Governor Hugh Carey agrees to
increase state funding for the
senior colleges, ending the crisis.

June 1979

PSC wins firm financial base for
(CUNY as an independent, unified
university with enactment of the
CUNY Bill.

All of the —

rere

ge ree Fi

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress


A decade
of advance

fter successfully surviving the
A“ of 1974-1979, the
Professional Staff Congress
entered the 1980s with the university

intact and without major losses among
faculty and staff. The union stood

Bs : ——
PSC chapter chairpersons review
proposed contract in September 1980.

poised to advance, The prerequisites
were in place.

First, the improved financial
condition of the state and city allowed
politicians to respond to the strong
pressure from the PSC and our affiliate,
the New York State United Teachers
(NYSUT). Second, the PSC had
experienced leaders, plus an excellent
staff, who were able to take advantage

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

of the larger economic and political
situation. It took great skill and
immense energy to convert these
potential advantages into real gains.

Underlying any advances had to
be a livable budget. This did not come
easily, but at the state level a clear
pattern existed throughout the decade:
the governor generally cut the CUNY
budget to a greater or lesser extent, and



the legislature restored some or all of

the money the governor had proposed

to cut. New York City offered less of a
problem until 1986.

For the rest of the decade, the
same pattern emerged as at the state
level. In this case, reductions made by
the mayor were largely restored
through agreements reached among the
City Council, Board of Estimate and
the mayor.

Battling budget cuts

The existence of these overall
patterns and the positive outcome for
the PSC should not obscure the complex
inner texture of events. In 1980,
Governor Hugh Carey continued his
highly ambivalent attitude toward
CUNY by proposing the most
significant cuts in the university's
budget since 1975-76, with 600
positions slated for elimination. When
the legislature restored the money, the
governor vetoed their actions. In a
seldom seen response, the legislature
overrode the governor's veto. The fierce
lobbying of the PSC and NYSUT
contributed to this unusual event.

The PSC also gained a highly
significant modification of the funding
formula for the College of Staten Island
(CSI) and New York City Technical
College. Both schools had senior
college and community college
programs, which meant budgetary
insecurity since the state and city did
not always agree on their levels of
financial support.

Against the backdrop of the
projected budget cuts of 1980, the PSC

18

gave the highest priority to changing
this unstable situation. In June 1980, the
union won state funding for a major
portion of community college expenses
based on a formula of parity with the
agricultural and technical colleges of
the State University of New York.

‘It took great

skill and immense
energy to convert...
potential advantages
into real gains.’

As he finished his second and
final term in 1982, Governor Carey gave
CUNY a going away present of budget
cuts. These were part of a general
reduction in state aid to all levels of
education. It led to a lengthy budget
standoff, significant restorations by the
legislature, more vetoes by the governor
and ultimately a second set of overrides
by the legislature. Again the PSC
called on the statewide reach of
NYSUT to further this result.

The Cuomo years

Although the mid-1980s saw the
annual budgetary pattern of executive
cuts and legislative restorations
continue, there was a major change in
degree. Under Governor Mario Cuomo,
the executive reductions were smaller
and more targeted, the overall CUNY
budget increased, there was support for
an ambitious $4-billion building
program in CUNY funded by state
bonds, and restorations by the

legislature met no vetoes. However,
budgetary problems became severe
again once the state passed a multi-year
tax cut in 1987 and the stock market
crash in October of that year hurt the
economy of New York City.

The final years of the decade
resembled the earliest ones as the
governor proposed major cuts which
were largely eliminated by the
legislature. Mayor Edward Koch also
began to demand reductions in the city’s
contribution to the community colleges,
but again strong political action by the
PSC blocked any significant cuts.

Still, budgets became increasingly
austere, and while the basic fabric of
CUNY remained intact, it began to fray
as libraries, counseling and other vital
support services became strained,

The PSC and NYSUT campaigned
vigorously for the state to suspend the
tax cuts. However, it was the era of
Reaganomics, and the effort failed,
except for the last phase of the
reductions, amounting to $400 million,
which was not implemented until

after Governor George Pataki's
election in 1994,

The relative financial stability of
the 1980s allowed the PSC’s leaders to
negotiate four contracts that restored the
financial losses suffered by faculty and
staff during the crisis of the 1970s and
made important advances in virtually
every area. Just as the PSC used the
strength of NYSUT in lobbying and
political action, so it joined the other
municipal unions in a coalition to
negotiate the basic financial features
of contracts. This clearly maximized

25 Years-of Progress: Professional-Staff Congress


the influence of the PSC,

During the decade, the PSC and its
coalition partners secured salary
increases that averaged 6.1 percent
annually (more when compounding is
taken into account). The coalition also
negotiated significant improvements in
the basic medical plans plus higher
payments to the unions’ welfare funds,
including the PSC-CUNY Welfare
Fund. Yet all of this was only the
beginning for the PSC, It had many
important issues to negotiate that were
specific to CUNY.

Protecting TIAA retirees

Most difficult to achieve were
after-retirement basic health benefits
for members of the Teachers Insurance
and Annuity Association-College
Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-
CREF). The members of the Teachers’
Retirement System (TRS) received
these benefits, including coverage for
hospitalization and doctors, but such
was not the case for TIAA-CREF. This
was a critical issue since most of those
who had entered CUNY since the
1970s, when modifications reduced the
attractiveness of TRS, had joined
TIAA-CREF.

The state and city resisted adding
after-retirement basic health benefits
for TLAA-CREF because of the
substantial cost and a reluctance to
provide additional public monies
to a private retirement plan when a
public retirement system, TRS, existed
as an alternative. During the contract
negotiations of 1984, President Irwin
Polishook played a major role in
winning this new provision for members

Cir —
i!

The PSC created the Belle Zeller Scholarships to honor its founding president.

President Polishook, Governor Cuomo and Dr. Zeller with two winners.

of TIAA-CREF. He convinced city and
state officials that CUNY could not
continue to attract high quality faculty if
the TIAA-CREF retirement plan lacked
health benefits, and that the cost was
bearable since it would be spread over
many years as the members retired. He
insisted that this item was essential to
achieving a collective bargaining
agreement.

Ultimately the PSC prevailed. For
the first time, members of TIAA-CREF
had the same after-retirement health
coverage as those in TRS. This was
clearly one of the most important
achievements in the history of the PSC,
and all the more difficult to win because
it did not affect other city employees.

In 1982, the PSC also made a
momentous gain for retirees in terms of
the supplementary health benefits
provided by the PSC-CUNY Welfare
Fund, The contract of that year
contained for the first time a per capita
payment from the employer for all

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

retirees who left the university
after 1982.

‘In a selde
response,
legislatur y:
the governor's ve

<€

This per capita payment was only
$50.00 less per year than the per capita
payment for active members, and it
allowed the Welfare Fund to develop a
full range of benefits for the post-1982
retirees. In essence, the PSC won a
contractual assurance that one reward of
a lifetime of service to CUNY would be
comprehensive after-retirement
health coverage.

PSC made other important changes
in the contracts of the 1980s that were
specific to CUNY’s instructional staff.
The 1980 contract initiated Scholar
Incentive Awards and the Faculty

i9



Development Program. The 1982
contract included the creation of the
chief college laboratory technician title,
the establishment of permanence of
appointment for higher education
officers under article 13.3b and
repayment of the deferred money

of 1975-76, with interest, over a
seven-year period beginning in 1984 —
a commitment shared with other
municipal unions.

Contractual gains

With the 1984 contract, health
benefits were expanded to include
adjuncts who met service requirements
(soon sharply reduced) and who had no
other health plan. This was a major gain
for adjuncts, and quite difficult to
achieve because it ran counter to the
common practice in American higher
education. Adjuncts are regarded by
universities as cheap labor for whom
any health plans are a contradiction in
terms. The last contract of the decade,
in 1987, included a differential for
lecturers with the doctorate and
longevity steps for all members of
the instructional staff who had been
at the top of their rank for five and
seven years.

‘Strong political _
action by the PSC
blocked any

Significant cuts.’

Librarians received four weeks
of special assignment leave instead of

Executive Director Arnold Cantor addresses a PSC Pre-Retirement Conference.

=

The union has secured comprehensive health coverage for retirees.

three while higher education officers
had the years needed to reach a
permanent appointment reduced from
eleven to eight. Yet there was also a
hint of tougher times ahead as the
university demanded several negative
changes. The 1990s would offer a
much more difficult bargaining climate,
making the enormous gains of the
1980s even more important.

The PSC also helped secure
equity for female members of the
instructional staff through support for
the CUNY Women’s Coalition in its
lawsuit against the university. Beginning
in 1973, members of the Coalition,
led by Professor Lilia Melani of
Brooklyn College, worked to assemble
the data needed to show discrimination
in the salaries paid to women in
CUNY since 1968.

The coalition won a judgment in
Federal District Court in 1983 and
subsequently reached a settlement with
CUNY that provided monetary damages
to all female members of the
instructional staff who had served
during these years.

Judith Wladeck, counsel for the
Women’s Coalition, acknowledged the
help of the PSC in May 1984. In a letter
to President Polishook she wrote,

“T have often relied on the Union's

assistance, wise counsel and ultimately
its financial support.” This included help
in arriving at the final settlement
agreement. Judith Vladeck regarded the
actions of the PSC as a “principled
position” for which its leaders could
take justifiable pride.

Strengthening the Welfare Fund

Another area of major concern for
the PSC was strengthening the Welfare
Fund. Increased employer contributions
allowed the Fund to improve programs
during the 1980s, including new major
medical insurance in 1985, the addition
of a prescription drug card plan in 1988
and the introduction of a pioneering
and highly successful contributory
long-term care program at the end
of the decade.

The Fund also directed
considerable money into the dental plan
and developed a panel of participating
dentists so that members could reduce
their out-of-pocket expenses to a
minimum. By the end of the 1980s,
protection for active members had
expanded significantly, and a new
high-quality program was in place for
post-1982 retirees. The Fund also
maintained and improved benefits for
the oldest retirees, As the decade closed,
the Welfare Fund had the most extensive
array of programs for its members

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



of any comparable public fund in
New York City.

In 1985 the union recast the
governance of the Welfare Fund with
cooperation from CUNY. While the
Fund remained an independent body,
control over its operations shifted to the
PSC. Until this point, the union
had negotiated the monies for the
Welfare Fund but had only minority
representation in the Fund's leadership.
On occasion, this produced differences
over policy.

Believing decision making and
financing should be unified, the union
created a new, appointed board of
trustees, chaired by the president of the
PSC. In this way, the Welfare Fund
became more directly responsive to the
needs and opinions of the members as
reflected through the highly visible,
elected president of the PSC.

‘In 1982, the PSC

made momentous

gains for retirees.’

In the area of grievances, during
the 1980s the union won victories in
several cases involving presidential
reasons where improper or careless
actions by college administrations ran
counter to the due process rights granted
under the contract.

The most important arbitration
during the decade was the 1982 decision
that reversed the increase in contact

Credit Union added services throughout the decade. President Howard Jones
and Manager Zuzana Kelly with applicants for the first home mortgage.

hours established unilaterally by
CUNY in 1975, The arbitrator set the
maxima still in force — 21 hours for the
senior colleges and 27 hours for the
community colleges. He also awarded
30 hours for lecturers, but in 1983

the PSC negotiated a reduction to

the current 27.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

Agreement with AAUP

In 1981, the PSC signed a
contractual agreement with the
American Association of University
Professors (AAUP). The union became
the AAUP’s chapter for CUNY,
replacing the small chapters that had
existed on some campuses, In 1983, the


PSC helped arrange the end of the
AAUP’s censure of CUNY, imposed
as a result of the retrenchments

of the 1970s.

‘The 1990s
would offer a
much more difficult

bargaining climate.’

The 1981 affiliation agreement also
barred AAUP from involvement
in any effort by the National Education
Association to raid affiliates of the
American Federation of Teachers in
New York State, thereby reducing
destructive competition among the
national teachers’ organizations. Finally,
the PSC’s new affiliation encouraged
contact at the national level between the
AAUP and the PSC’s national affiliate,
the American Federation of Teachers.

Creating a credit union

The comparative stability of the
1980s also allowed the union to
encourage two important ancillary
organizations that served the interests
of members and the university. The
first of these, the Federal Credit Union,
was established in October 1979. It now
has over 5,000 members, Assets have
grown from $1.9 million in 1979 to
$23.9 million as of June 1996, In that
same month, loans stood at $9 million
and reserves at $3.4 million. During
the 1980s, the credit union added IRA
saccounts, universal life insurance,

a2

checking and overdraft protection to
its basic menu.

The PSC sponsored the credit
union and supported it financially
through the 1980s, but it has been from
its inception an independent institution,
as required by law. The success of the
credit union indicates that it has been
attuned to members’ needs,

Scholarships established

A second organization sponsored
by the PSC in 1979 has also grown to be
a major asset to the union and the
university. The Belle Zeller Scholarship
Trust Fund was established to honor the
PSC’s founding president for her
lifetime of service to the faculty and
staff of CUNY. The Belle Zeller Fund
makes awards to CUNY students based
on academic excellence (a minimum
grade point index of 3.75) and
significant service to the college and
the community.

To date, the Fund has awarded
199 scholarships. Originally, set at
$1,000, since 1989 the awards have
covered full tuition. Winners receive the
scholarships until they complete their
undergraduate degree at CUNY so long
as they continue to meet the criteria for
the award. In 1982, the Fund added a
roughly similar program for students
at the Graduate Center. The PSC
provides staff support, but the Belle
Zeller Scholarship Fund operates as an
independent organization under a
board of trustees.

From its inception, the annual
dinner of the Belle Zeller Fund, at
which the awards are presented to the

25 Years of Progress:

scholars, also has been the occasion for
the PSC to honor a “Friend of CUNY.”
The 1996 honoree was H. Carl McCall,
comptroller of the State of New York.
Not only does the event enable the
union and the university to thank a
friend, it also allows that friend to meet
the Belle Zeller Scholars and understand
even more deeply why CUNY deserves
support.

The 1980s were not the good old
days. There were struggles aplenty, but
the combination of a relatively stable
financial situation for CUNY and PSC
officers able to see the possibilities
and work effectively to convert them
to real gains led to a period of growth
for the university and notable advances
for the union. Yet the decade closed
with new storms brewing. As President
Polishook put it in 1988, we face
“a fiscal hurricane with ourselves and
the students we serve as its victims.”

Unfortunately the 1990s were to
prove how accurate his comments
would be. The PSC would now have
to shift gears from advancing the
condition of the instructional staff
and the university to an all-out defense
of everything that had been achieved
during nearly two decades of
struggle, including the very survival
of CUNY. @

Professional Staff Congress


A Decade of Advance

1980

= Gov. Carey’s budget proposes

to cut 600 positions at CUNY.
Following PSC campaign,
legislature restores funds, overrides
governor's veto.

= PSC secures state support for
major portion of community college
costs at City Tech and College

of Staten Island.

m Contract creates Scholar
Incentive Awards, Faculty
Development Program.

@ First Belle Zeller
Scholarships awarded.

Contracts made major gains in health coverage.

1981
@ PSC becomes AAUP chapter
for CUNY.

1982
m@ PSC again wins budget restorations

for CUNY as legislature overrides
Gov. Carey's vetoes.

= First per capita funding by city
for post-1982 retirees permits a
full range of after-retirement
health benefits.

a Contract creates chief CLT title,
permanent employment status

for HEQs; provides for repayment
with interest of salaries deferred
during fiscal crisis.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

1984

m@ Union wins after-retirement
health benefits for TIAA-CREF
members.

1985
= Restructuring of Welfare Fund
leaves it an independent body,
but with a board of trustees

appointed by the president
of the PSC.

1987

= Contract wins differential
for lecturers with doctorate,
adds longevity payments for
instructional staff at top

of schedule for five and
seven years.

1989

= Credit union, opened in
1979, reaches $12 million
in assets,

‘The 1980s
were not
the good
old days.’

23


A decade
of defense

he optimism and advances of the
1980s ended as the 1990s opened

with a reprise of the crises of the
seventies, Once again CUNY faced
major budget cuts, once again the
university's management responded
with retrenchment and reorganization,
once again the Professional Staff
Congress and the New York State
United Teachers (NYSUT) were the
major force for the restoration of funds
and the preservation of CUNY as a
viable institution.

Once again there were some
losses, but without the victories won by
the PSC, the magnitude of the carnage

v

that would have befallen both CUNY
and its instructional staff can scarcely
be imagined.

Storm warnings

Although New York City’s
finances in the first half of the 1990s
did not plunge to the depths of
1975-76, both the city and the state
faced large and continuing deficits
that placed extreme pressure on
CUNY ’s budget.

This situation resulted from a
number of factors. Most important was
the multi-year state tax reduction
enacted in 1987, which limited the
resources available to support the
state's many obligations, including
CUNY. Secondary developments added
to the problem.

in 1993 march to protest proposed cuts in CUNY’s budget.

ad

The stock market crash in late
1987 hobbled the finances of the city
and state for several years. At the same
time, the federal government's reduced
support of social programs placed a
greater burden on both, Finally the
recession of the early 1990s further
limited revenues.

‘The gains of
1993-94 proved
to be the calm
before the storm.’

As the available resources fell,
costs for many of the programs
supported by the state and city rose.
In the case of CUNY, not only were

PSC was joined by state legislators, leaders of the University Faculty Senate and student government organizations

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress


there increases
because of
inflation and rising
mandatory costs,
but a greater
number of
students entered
the university. By
1990, CUNY’s
headcount rose
to 200,000.

In contrast,
between 1990 and
1993 state aid ta
the senior colleges
had dropped by 21 percent while
the community colleges suffered a
28 percent reduction in combined aid
from city and state.

Rapid increases in tuition and early
retirement incentives that permanently
vacated higher-paid positions made up
for some of this lost public support,
but not all of it. The remainder
constituted shortfalls for the university
that translated into a succession of
budget crises.

As in the 1970s, cuts came not
only in the adopted budget, but during
mid-year as well. In 1991, the state,
under Governor Mario Cuomo,
unilaterally proposed a payroll lag of
five days for the senior colleges as an
additional means to reduce expenditures
for the university.

The PSC regarded this action as a
violation of the union contract, went to
court to block the lag and won a reversal
of the state’s action from the New York
Court of Appeals on June 27, 1991, and

PSC President Irwin H, Polishook rallied crowd in Albany
in 1995 demonstration against proposed budget cuts.

from the United States District Court in
November 1992. The PSC contract
approved by the membership in
February 1993 provided that the state
would repay 1 1/2 days of the withheld
money on April 1, 1994, with the
remaining 3 1/2 days to be repaid on
Feb. 1, 1996.

In another attempt to cut costs, the
state also shed its financial
responsibility for associate degree
programs at two senior colleges,

John Jay and New York City Technical
College (NYCTC). Only the
intervention of the PSC with Mayor
David Dinkins in 1991, and in
subsequent years with Mayor Dinkins
and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, led to
the city’s agreement to pick up this
expense, thereby avoiding a crisis at
these two colleges.

The cuts of 1991 were severe
enough, on top of prior reductions in
the budget, to lead CUNY’s Board
of Trustees to declare a financial
emergency in the summer of 1991.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

The decision of the city concerning
John Jay and NYCTC relieved the fiscal
pressure, and no retrenchments took
place at this time.

The management of CUNY did
reduce costs in other ways, including a
cut in the funding for the PSC-CUNY
Research Awards. This program was
important and venerable, having first
appeared in the Legislative Conference
agreement of 1969. It continued through
all the subsequent PSC contracts. In
1991, the university cut the money
available for that year's awards in half,
claiming that the adopted state budget
had provided only $1.4 million for them
and had contained language barring
CUNY from using other funds to
support the program.

The PSC regarded this as an
illegal breach of the contract, much
like the state payroll lag, and the
union's response was similar. It filed a
class-action grievance, then a lawsuit
and ultimately resolved the issue in
the contract that became effective in

2



February 1993. This agreement restored
full funding for the research awards
beginning with the 1994-1995 academic
year. Once again, the PSC defended its
contract even in difficult times.

‘You can
save $9.27.
Or you can save

City University.

In 1992-1993, Governor Cuomo’s
Executive Budget proposed even larger
cuts for CUNY. Despite an infusion of
money by the legislature, a tuition
hike of $500 and an early retirement
incentive which led 350 members of
the instructional staff to leave the
university, a $24-million shortfall
remained. The situation was made
worse by cuts in city support for the
community colleges.

The result was another declaration
of financial emergency by CUNY, and
this time some retrenchments did take
place. Responses by college presidents
varied, President Bernard Harleston
of City College made 30 retrenchments
and eliminated two departments.

Many of those affected took forced
early retirement while six others
were ultimately restored to their
positions by actions of the PSC. In
contrast, other presidents avoided
retrenchment entirely.

Agreement on a new contract

In 1993 and 1994, CUNY gained a
welcome respite from disastrous

budgets. The economy had improved,
producing more revenue for the state
and city. But equally important,
Governor Cuomo and Mayor Dinkins
began preparing for upcoming elections
- which both were to lose — by shoring
up their political support. In this period
of relative calm, the PSC was able to
complete negotiations for a contract that
had remained unsettled since February
1990. The main obstacle had been the
state’s refusal to offer anything but zeros
for the salary package.

Ultimately the PSC gained
12.5 percent in salary increases over the
life of the agreement, which ran through
Jan. 31, 1996, The union also secured
significant additional monies for the
Welfare Fund, which prevented any
significant cuts in benefits or the
elimination of any programs.

The thaw also allowed the union to
win one of its most consistent demands.
In response to pressure from the PSC
and NYSUT, the legislature in 1994
reversed its action of 1976 and restored
Medgar Evers College to senior college
status.

New problems

The gains of 1993-1994 proved to
be the calm before the storm. George
Pataki’s election as governor in 1994
reopened the attacks on CUNY from the
state. The new governor claimed that
Mario Cuomo had secured his years
of pre-election calm by hiding
increasing state deficits, and moved to
close the gap, primarily by making
enormous cuts in expenditures.

Mayor Giuliani, elected in 1993,

also announced that the city faced large
budget deficits, and he resolved to cut
the city’s support of the community
colleges. The magnitude of these
proposed budget reductions was far
greater than any advanced by Governor
Cuomo or Mayor Dinkins, and they
placed CUNY squarely into a crisis.

The PSC responded with a
multifaceted campaign that exceeded
even those of the 1970s. With NYSUT,
the union secured another early
retirement incentive to cushion the
impact of looming retrenchments. The
two organizations also intensified their
political action, and the PSC worked
closely with the University Student
Senate and its president, Anthony
Giordano, to organize a series of rallies
in New York City and Albany, and to
encourage a massive letter-writing
campaign by students.

‘The PSC
campaign
was

extremely
effective.’

The PSC also sought to enlist the
support of the public through the most
extensive advertising campaign in its
history. The message: the vast damage
that the proposed cuts would inflict on
CUNY, how a depleted university
would hurt the people of the city and
state and how small a savings the cuts

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



represented in real dollars and cents for
the average person.

As one advertisement put it:
“You can save $9.27. Or you can save
City University.” The campaign
included ads in the major newspapers
in New York City and Albany and over
100 radio spots. NYSUT ran its own
advertisements to supplement those
of the PSC,

Restorations

The PSC campaign was extremely
effective. By April 1995, the governor
and Republican leaders in the State
Senate offered some restorations.
However, the union's campaign
continued and intensified, and
ultimately the legislature, with the
governor's assent, made a major

restoration in the lump sum amount
originally cut, lowered the amount of a
tuition increase demanded by Governor
Pataki, restored money to the SEEK
program and put new life into a Tuition
Assistance Program that had been
gutted by Mr. Pataki’s proposed budget.

With additional savings from the
early retirement incentive, the

Higher Ed Day ‘94 brought PSC activists
to Albany seeking aid for CUNY.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

Pd



governor's massive cut had been fully
eliminated, It was a great victory for the
PSC, and one would have thought for
the management of CUNY. But ina
remarkable retreat from reality, the
chancellor, board of trustees and college
presidents proceeded to act as if the
budget cuts had not been reversed. As
the PSC’s executive director, Arnold
Cantor, wrote, there seemed to be only
one hand clapping.

Following release of Governor
Pataki’s Executive Budget, CUNY’s
board of trustees had declared a
financial emergency for the senior
colleges on Feb. 27, 1995. The
chancellor then rushed to implement
retrenchment, and most college
presidents proceeded as quickly
as possible to abolish or reorganize
departments and break tenure or
certificated status.

Even though the partial restoration
of the lump sum cut, the $750 increase
in tuition and the savings from the early
retirement of 617 members of the
instructional staff meant that the
financial emergency no longer existed,
the speeding train of retrenchment
raced on.

On June 26, 1995, the board
of trustees approved the college
retrenchment plans and added a series
of significant academic changes of its
own under the guise of the financial
emergency.

The PSC quickly undertook a legal
challenge to the retrenchments and the
other actions of the trustees. Working

You can
save °9,27.
Or you can

save City
University.

‘Governor Pataki would save $168.7 million at the City University
of New York and put the money in our pockets. Distributed avenly among all
New Yorkers, the saving would give us each about $9.27

Your $9.27 would require the raising of tuition at the senior colleges
by $1,000 (the community colleges already charge more tuition than 95% of
the country’s other public community colleges)—and a reduction in student
aid. Your $9.27 would also force the elimination of almest 15,000 courses,
drastically shrinking the oppertunities available to CUN'Y's 213,000 students
and many more would-be students — mostly middle-class or disadvantaged.

Thousands of them would be driven away, along with some of the best
faculty and staff in the country. The last time CUNY underwent o comparable
slash, in 1976 when the City almost went bankrupt, 50,000 students were lost,
never to be seen again on any college campus. It was a big loss to the State's
economy, too,

If you'd like the $9.27 in your pocket, thank the Governor for his pro-
posed budgat. IF you would prefer not to “save” on the future of the State, there
is still somathing you can do:

Let your legislators know.
There is still something they can do.

Professional Staff Congress
the union of the instructional stalf of the City University of New York
MYSUT/AFT/AFLCIO
Dr. Irwin H, Polishook, President
25 Weat 43 Street, New York, NY 10036

PSC ad campaigns have

with the chairperson of the University enlisted public support.

28 ; 2 25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



Faculty Senate and several named
faculty plaintiffs, the union filed the suit
of Irwin Polishook et al v. the City
University of New York.

The lawsuit

On April 30, 1996, State Supreme
Court Justice Alice Schlesinger issued

lower Manhattan during spring budget drive.

Vice President Richard Boris addresses rally in

her decision, It supported the PSC’s
contention that the university violated
its own retrenchment rules by taking
actions under a supposed financial
emergency in June 1995 when there was
considerable evidence that such an
emergency no longer existed.

Accordingly, Justice Schlesinger

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

vacated the trustees’ actions relating to
the abolition, consolidation and merger
of departments at the senior colleges as
well as three of the academic
resolutions, and remanded all these
actions back to the trustees for proper
application of the university’s own rules
and bylaws.

2


has boosted the union's effectiveness.

The university appealed the
decision, and on Dec. 19, 1996,
the Appellate Division of the
New York Supreme Court reversed
Justice Schlesinger’s ruling concerning
all issues except the reduction of
credits from 128 to 120 for a
baccalaureate degree and 64 to 60
for an associate degree,

‘Ultimately the
legislature...
made a major
restoration.

Unlike Justice Schlesinger,
who emphasized whether a financial
emergency actually existed, the
appellate court used an entirely different
standard: “Where there is a showing that
the administrative body, in exercising its
judgment, acts from honest convictions
and in good faith, based upon facts and
circumstances which it believes are in
the school’s best interests, and there
is no showing that the acts ‘were
arbitrary or generated by ill will, fraud,
collusion or such other motives, it is not
the province of a court to interfere and
substitute its judgment for that of
the administrative body,’ ”

Since the Board of Trustees had
examined CUNY 's financial state in
June 1995, the court saw no reason to
inquire whether that conclusion
conformed to reality.

In contrast, the appellate court
did choose to interfere and substitute
its judgment for that of the
administrative body concerning the
issue of credits. The judges did not
“perceive a rational basis for Long Term
Initiative 27 which, in our view,
unnecessarily reduces the number of
credits required for a degree, and lowers
the value of a CUNY diploma...”

The court failed to explain why
judicial intervention was. appropriate
conceming credits, but not on other
actions undertaken by CUNY under the
same condition of financial emergency.

The PSC and CUNY sought to
appeal the respective negative decisions
in the Appellate Division opinion to the
highest court in New York, the Court
of Appeals. The PSC's request was
turned down. At this writing, the
court's response to CUNY's request
was still awaited.

‘Without the

Ss te oe Bats) OS
victories won

.) ae
PSC, ti
of the carnage...¢

scarcely be imagine

Although the appellate judges
chose not to confirm, as Justice
Schlesinger had, that the financial

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



emergency necessary for retrenchment
did not exist in June 1995, the PSC
continues to believe this was clearly the
case. Why, then, would CUNY’s
management have acted so contrary to
reality? PSC President Irwin Polishook
believed it was because “the declaration
of exigency was largely a pretext to
transform the university.”

Even as the possibility of serious
financial damage receded, the
university's top management insisted
on acting as if nothing had changed.
They pushed ahead to make long
desired changes through the enhanced
powers given to management in a
financial emergency, which would have
been difficult under the normal

governance of the university.

These actions were part of a
continuing process in which CUNY’s:
central management has tried to
aggregate authority, reduce the
autonomy of the individual colleges and
bypass the longstanding and primary
role of college faculties in academic
program planning.

This movement in CUNY toward
a centralized corporate model is not
unique. Throughout the nation, tenure
is under attack, traditional governance
is challenged and part-time faculty are
used, under exploitive conditions, to
reduce the need for full-time faculty.

Some colleges and universities

have strong unions, like the PSC, to

offer defense when needed, and to

advance the cause of the instructional

staff and the university when possible.
We are very fortunate to be

in that number,

rwin Yellowitz is professor emeritus
of history at City College and the
Graduate School.

He was a member of the PSC
Executive Council from 1973 to 1997
and served as treasurer of the
Professional Staff Congress from
1984 to 1997,

PSC and other municipal unions staged mass demonstration
during 1991 battle of the budget.

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress

3


The purpose of this organization shall be to advance and secure
the professional and economic interests of the instructional staff
of the City University, with special regard for the interest of students
and the university.

The Professional Staff Congress shall
advance the following objectives:

@ To improve the quality of education, research and
scholarship at the City University.

& To cooperate with other educational, professional, and
labor organizations in order to enhance the quality of education in
the nation and to promote the professional and economic interests
of all workers in education.

m To serve as the public representative of the instructional
staff of the City University.

m@ To cooperate with other City University employee and
academic organizations and student bodies in order to advance the
interests of the City University.

- Constitution of the Professional Staff Congress

Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
25 West 43rd Street

New York, New York 10036

212/354-1252 Fax: 212/302-7815

Affiliates:

American Association of University Professors
American Federation of Teachers

New York City Central Labor Council

New York State AFL-CIO

New York State United Teachers

“ten

a2 25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress



25 Years of Progress