CUNY adjuncts issue plea for respect and funding at Council hearing
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CUNY staff took center stage during a City Counsel oversight hearing Friday. Photo courtesy of CUNY
By Rachel Vick
Staff from the City University of New York logged on to a City Council oversight hearing Friday to call for additional funding and improved treatment of the system’s adjunct professors.
The hearing examined the long lasting changes and impacts on students resulting from the pandemic, including budget cuts and adjunct layoffs, which happened despite a reported increase in class size and additional funding.
“We continue to hear about layoffs that appear to be disproportionately impacting Black and Brown employees who are losing employment and benefits as we continue to crawl out of the pandemic,” said Committee on Higher Education Chair Inez Barron.
When they last held a hearing on the issue in September 2020, CUNY outlined their multimillion dollar budget reduction plan, which included laying off 486 staff teachers and 2,000 adjuncts. They said the cuts were necessary, citing tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue from declines in enrollment.
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor at CUNY Daniel Lemons said increased funding would support the creation of 500 full time positions that adjuncts would be eligible for as part of an expanded pathway to full time positions, but could not confirm how many of those positions — if any — would be set aside for current adjuncts.
The system was “left with no other choice” but to not renew adjunct positions during the height of the pandemic, but already allocated $1 million to reappoint faculty and 913 adjuncts.”
“CUNY values its professors who serve as educators and mentors,” Lemons said. “The decision to not reappoint even one adjunct… is not something the university takes lightly.”
Faculty members who testified expressed little faith in the likelihood that they would be prioritized, citing a pattern of disrespect some say was underscored by the fact that system officials did not remain on the call for the duration of the hearing.
“Just because CUNY is not here does not mean they won't be informed of the concerns you have raised,” Barron said, reassuring the frustrated educators.
Parisa Osmanovic, who serves on University Faculty Senate, said that despite the CUNY pledge to further the careers of the city’s underserved “every time [there’s full time opportunity] it looks like they want someone from Harvard.”
Many of the graduate students who serve as adjuncts do not have a vote in school policies, though their unenrolled counterparts do — a distinction which Osmanovic says highlights the “contempt” CUNY administration has for the position.
Her degree is not one that was selected to be funded, and she currently makes $10,000 for the three classes she teaches this semester as a pregnant mother of three.
She says she has not yet been confirmed to teach classes during the spring semester, which leaves her uncertain about whether she is facing becoming a mother without health insurance.
“[It’s] insane to me that there is absolutely no consideration for the people who are being trained by CUNY, that want to work at CUNY,” Osmanovic said. “Your falling numbers are a reflection of contempt for your students, including those who are teaching your students.”
