Instead of resisting CUNY’s unjustified demand for budget cuts, Queens College administration decided to lay off 26 full time Queens College faculty, just weeks before the semester! These sudden and cruel layoffs deeply hurt faculty’s livelihoods, and in some cases take away their healthcare benefits. Queen’s College administration’s brutal conduct affected hundreds of students and instructors, and dramatically cut course offerings at the college. You can read more about the layoffs below.

Join us on Thursday, January 25, to demand that Queens College reverse these outrageous layoffs! We have two actions planned:
At 9 AM, join us in the music building, to help us distribute flyers to get the word out to the Queens College community!
And at 12 PM join us in front of Kiely Hall, to protest the layoffs and the budget cuts that destroy our college.

Please email oded.nir@gmail.com with any questions.

Sing Out Shout Out for #APeoplesCUNY

Come sing out for full funding at the Governor’s Midtown office and shout out for a strong contract at CUNY Central.

On December 2 from 1- 3 pm. RSVP and more details here: https://psc-cuny.org/calendar/sing-out-shout-out-for-apeoplescuny/

Our next chapter meeting is on November 29! In person in Powdermaker 132 and online by registering here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUoceGurzwoG9zvBgJ6fFollOY2Aiml5laT#/registration

More details to be announced!

Our next chapter meeting is Wednesday, November 1 from 12:15- 1:30 pm. Again, the meeting will be hybrid: in person in Powdermaker Hall 132 and online through Zoom by registering here. If you can make it in person, we’ll have pizza. 

The focus of the meeting will be healthcare. Dean Hubbard, Executive Director of the PSC, will visit our campus to answer all your questions about healthcare and to discuss some of the current and future issues we’re facing. He’ll explain things like how the union bargains for our healthcare through MLC, a coalition of city unions, the difference between the Welfare Fund and our other healthcare plans, adjunct benefits, and the latest fight over retiree healthcare. If you’d like, you can submit your questions ahead of time here.

We’ll also spend a short time at the end of the meeting discussing a resolution about free speech and the current crisis in Palestine proposed to the PSC Delegate Assembly (DA). You can find the resolution here. Please note this resolution is a proposed draft and has not been passed by the DA nor endorsed by the PSC principal officers. 

The Delegate Assembly consists of PSC members that represent you, PSC members. (Queens College faculty delegates are listed here. HEO and CLT delegates are listed here.) In 2021, after the last resolution about the conflict in Israel/ Palestine was passed by the DA, the principal officers—in consultation with the DA—decided to change the process for approving resolutions. Now every resolution must be introduced in one meeting, distributed to the membership for their feedback, and then voted on in the next meeting. The DA will vote on the attached resolution at the November 16 DA meeting. (I’ve provided links that can offer more background information for those who are interested.) 

That is why I’m emailing this resolution to you, asking you for feedback now, at the chapter meeting, or possibly at a future event. Queens College delegates would like to know what you think about this resolution before we vote at the next meeting. 

If you cannot attend the chapter meeting but would like to provide feedback about the resolution, you can do so here. You just have to answer one simple question! We are also considering holding a forum to have a longer discussion about the issues raised in the resolution. 

The PSC has organized a campaign called 5 Boroughs in 5 Weeks, and every week actions will be focused on another borough. Queens Week is the week of October 23. (If you live in another borough, you can join the action there too; Brooklyn got the week of Halloween, and they’re planning some scary-themed things!) 

We’re planning a number of things for Queens. The big event will be a speakout on Tuesday, Oct. 24 from 12- 2 pm at York College. Please make an effort to come! The more people that show up, the bigger statement we can make. If you need a ride, please let us know.

Please RSVP for the event here: https://psc-cuny.org/calendar/psc-union-week-queens/

We are also planning to flyer all over campus that week. If you’d like to participate, please sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJoZdeiRJoVIOHhVcmc5RLOCKNMsltY5KJNQu9BoOd3bV1cg/viewform 

On October 4 from 12:15- 1:30 pm the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership (CETLL) is holding an Adjunct Faculty Orientation. Feel free to join even if you’ve been teaching as an adjunct for multiple semesters but think this might be useful.

Representatives from Informational Technology Services (ITS), PSC-CUNY, Queens College Library, Academic Advising Center, the Writing Center, and CETLL will introduce themselves and take questions. (We will be there to answer your questions about the union!)

Register at https://forms.office.com/r/fSUNDqqSCj

The orientation will be held via Zoom. You’ll receive an email containing the joining information after your registration is submitted.

For more information, email CTLOnline@qc.cuny.edu or visit the Adjunct Faculty Orientation, Fall 2023 page.

Adjuncts, please note:

Under the current PSC-CUNY contract, for each class you teach of 3 or more credits (up to three classes), you get 15 paid office/professional hours: one hour per week. For two of these classes, twelve of these 15 hours are allocated to time spent helping students; the other three are available to compensate you for orientations like this one, union meetings or events, and mandatory job-related trainings like the Employee Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Course (ESPARC) and Workplace Violence Prevention modules. (If you teach three classes, the office hour provision does not include professional hours for the third class.) See the contract language in section 15.2(b) of the workload provisions.