CUNY Crisis Deepens as Admin Installs New Chair in Rebel Department

November 12, 2012 in Administration, Faculty, Governance | by | 3 comments

The CUNY administration may have been forced to back down (for now) from their threats to dismantle the Queensborough Community College English Department, but they’ve launched a new attack in their effort to bring the rebellious department to heel.

On October 24 the QCC English faculty voted to remove chair Linda Reesman. Throughout the department’s battle over the administration’s Pathways initiative, many faculty regarded Reesman as an administration ally and an impediment to effective organization on behalf of the faculty’s interests.

The vote to remove Reesman was lopsided, as was the vote in favor of her replacement, deputy chair David Humphries. But at a meeting on November 6, QCC president Diane Call informed the department that she would not endorse Humphries’ appointment. Instead, a former faculty member would be brought on to perform the chairs administrative functions while the administration conducted a “national search” for a new chair.

According to a memo from one QCC faculty member (page one, page two), President Call justified the decision by claiming that the department was “deeply divided” over the chair issue, and that they had been improperly influenced by “outside forces.” According to my sources, however, the vote to remove Reesman was 21-7, and the subsequent vote to install Humphries was at least as decisive. And the only “outside forces” the faculty had consulted with during the process were their labor union representatives.

Compounding the faculty’s fear and outrage over this move is the fact that the administration’s chosen chair will not, according to President Call, be representing the department in hiring, tenure, and promotion matters in the Queensboro Personnel and Budget Committee. Instead those duties will be performed by interim vice president Karen Steele, the very administrator whose threats to dismantle the QCC English Department sparked the current scandal.

One final chlling insult: According to the faculty memo linked above, current QCC faculty will not even be eligible for consideration for the department chair position in the upcoming national search.

This attack on academic freedom and faculty governance has implications far beyond Queensborough. The Pathways dispute is heating up in departments across CUNY, and if the administration is able to bully QCC English, other departments throughout the system will think twice about standing up for themselves and their students.

This isn’t just a scandal. It’s a crisis.

Tuesday Update | The CUNY Advocate is reporting that QCC president Diane Call has reversed her decision to reject David Humphries as chair of the college’s English Department. More when I get it.

Second Update | Diane Call has sent an email confirming the news of her reversal to QCC faculty:

Colleagues—

It is my decision to accept the recommendation forwarded by the English Department for Dr. David Humphries to serve as its Chairperson, effective November 14, 2012.

In a lengthy meeting with Dr. Humphries yesterday, he expressed his willingness and ability to advance the important work of the English Department in curricular and personnel matters. I have confidence in and appreciate his sincerity to unite the department as a community, in the best interests of the College and our students. 

Thank you.

As the GC Advocate notes, Call’s email is silent on the question of whether she is similarly reversing her decision to appoint interim vice president Karen Steele to represent the English Department on the QCC Personnel and Budget Committee in place of the department’s chair.

This is, nonetheless, very good news.

Instead of a Tuition Hike, an Ambition Tax at Cal State

November 12, 2012 in Access, Governance, Politics, Students, Tuition and Fees | by | Leave a comment

The passage of Proposition 30 in California last Tuesday saved the state’s three public higher education systems from devastation, providing funding to forestall huge tuition increases and enrollment cuts. Young voters made the difference in that vote, amounting to nearly a third of the electorate and supporting Prop 30 by a two-to-one margin.

But the struggle over college accessibility in California is far from over, as new proposed fees at Cal State demonstrate.

On Thursday, Cal State administrators unveiled three new fees for CSU students, intended — in the LA Times‘s gloss — “not primarily to generate revenue but to change student behaviors.” But those “student behaviors,” as the Times goes on to make clear, are only even arguably problematic because the system is so badly underfunded.

Here’s what’s up:

First, Cal State wants to charge a $372 per unit (“credit,” for non Californians) to super-seniors who have already taken more than 150-160 units worth of classes. This fee would raise tuition for super-seniors by more than $10,000 a year, bumping in-state students up to the same tuition rate as out-of-staters.

Second, they’re looking to impose a $91 per-unit fee on students who repeat classes, which they estimate is happening at a rate of about 40,000 times a semester, system wide.

And finally, they’re proposing a $182 per-unit fee on courseloads above 18 units. (This would amount to a $3640 surcharge on a 20-unit semester.)

Cal State claims that the practices they’re targeting are clogging up the system — because students are lingering beyond graduation eligibility, retaking favored classes, and overloading their schedules so they can drop courses later, they say, some 18,000 applicants a year are being turned away.

But thanks to budget cuts, students are regularly shut out of courses they need for their majors, and forced to fill up their schedules with electives to maintain financial aid eligibility. Cal State already bans students who have received a grade of C or better in a course from taking it again. And of course many students who sign up for heavy courseloads are doing it not so they can drop classes later, but so they can finish more quickly — in most cases, at least in part, as a way of saving tuition money.

And even if this weren’t the case, the student who changes majors in their senior year, the student who retakes a course to master the material, the student who adds an extra class to have a safety valve if one doesn’t pan out — these students should not be punished. All these “behaviors” are a legitimate, healthy, even commendable part of the college experience.

As the Sacramento Bee editorialized yesterday, this is outrageous. The Cal State trustees have the opportunity to reject these fees when they meet tomorrow.

They should.

Tuesday Update | Well, the trustees didn’t reject the fee proposals, but they’re not adopting them either — at least not yet. According to a statement from the CSU chancellor, the proposals have been removed from the agenda of today’s meeting and will “be reviewed at a later date after Trustees gather additional information and input from stakeholders.”

Student Bystander Killed by Cops at Dominican Republic Campus Privatization Protest

November 9, 2012 in Access, Organizing, Police, Politics, The Corporate University, Violence | by | Leave a comment

A student was shot and killed, apparently by police, at a protest against tax hikes and university privatization plans at the Dominican Republic’s largest public university.

William Florian Ramírez, identified in some news reports as Wilfredo or Willy, was a 22-year-old medical student at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, where the protests broke out on Thursday morning. According to witnesses, he was not a participant in the demonstration.

The students were protesting a newly-enacted increase in sales taxes from 16 to 18 percent, as well as plans to privatize the university, which enrolls nearly two hundred thousand students. Activists charge that the nation’s budget deficit is a result of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling Dominican Liberation Party.

Some demonstrators threw rocks at police during the clash, as police fired tear gas and automatic weapons on the crowd. Police say they have video evidence that at least one protester fired a gun at their officers. (Spanish language link.)

One union leader said the fatal shot came from an AK-47, and activists said other students were also injured in the incident. (Spanish-language link. Warning: Graphic images.) A bullet taken from Florian Ramirez’s body has been sent for testing, and police say they are investigating the incident.

Classes at the university have been suspended through Saturday. (Spanish language link.)

25 Races to Watch on Election Night

November 5, 2012 in Politics | by | 5 comments

There are a huge number of really fascinating races and referenda on the ballot across the country this year, and many of the most interesting — and most important — remain too close to call. In this post I’ll be doing a state-by-state rundown of the results I’ll be looking for, and the ones friends have tipped me to on Facebook and Twitter. (If you’ve got others, please share in comments.)

Arizona

California

  • Proposition 30. This is the biggie, as I’ve written before. It would establish a small, temporary sales tax hike (0.25%) and temporary income tax increases for the wealthy in order to close the state’s huge budget deficit in education. If it fails, UC tuition — already ridiculously high — is likely to rise another 20%, while Cal State and community college enrollment will be slashed. With recent polling putting the yes vote on 30 just under fifty percent, it’s likely to be close.
  • Proposition 32 is an attempt to limit unions’ political power under the guise of getting corporate money out of politics. It’s polling badly, but not horribly, and has been all the way through.
  • Proposition 34 would end the death penalty in the state. With conflicting, close poll data, it’s impossible to call. (There are more than 700 inmates on California’s death row, though there is currently a death-penalty moratorium in the state.) One horribly sad wrinkle — some death row inmates oppose Prop 34 because capital defendants have greater rights to state-funded appellate representation than their non-capital peers. Take away the threat of execution, and you stunt their ability to challenge their convictions.
  • Proposition 35 is a ban on human trafficking and sex slavery, and appears likely to pass by a large margin. Some very smart people, though, fear that it could have extremely harmful consequences to sex workers, including those it intends to support.
  • Proposition 36, which would curtail California’s “three strikes” law, looks set to pass.
  • Proposition 38, an unappealing alternative version of Prop 30, will surely fail … but it could drag 30 down with it.

Colorado

  • Amendment 64, which would legalize and regulate marijuana, has been leading throughout the cycle, but the polls have been tightening. Could go either way.

Florida

  • 18th Congressional District incumbent Allen West is a stone cold weirdo and all kinds of bad news. The polls say he’ll likely eke out a win, but it’d be fun if he lost.

Illinois

Indiana

  • It’s a Republican-leaning state, but Richard Mourdock’s October comments about rape pregnancies being part of “God’s plan” seem to have hurt him badly in his Senate race. Democrat Joe Donnelly has led in two recent polls.

Iowa

  • David Wiggins, a state supreme court justice who voted with the pro-marriage equality majority in Iowa’s same-sex marriage ruling, is facing a recall campaign.

Maine

  • In Question 1, one of four marriage equality referenda nationally, the voters of Maine will consider repeal of a 2009 referendum banning same-sex marriage. Polling is looking good, but SSM referenda have historically tended to underperform polls. There’s reason for optimism, but no more.
  • Maine’s US Senate election is a weird one this year, with former governor Angus King running as an independent and refusing to say which party he’ll caucus with if he wins. State Democrats are mostly counting on him to go D, though, and have largely abandoned the Democratic candidate so as not to split liberal votes and give the Republican an opening. (This would be a D pickup, following the retirement of semi-centrist Republican Olympia Snowe.)

Maryland

  • Question 4 in Maryland is a mini DREAM Act, ensuring in-state tuition in public higher education for undocumented students who meet state residency requirements. I haven’t seen enough polling to say which way it’ll go, but it seems like a bit of an uphill battle.
  • Maryland also has Question 6, another same-sex marriage referendum, with perhaps the best polling data of any of the four. I’ll be out leafleting for this one with my daughters on election day.
  • Long-term Republican congressmember (and Tea Partier) Roscoe Bartlett, one of the state’s two GOP House incumbents, is in a tough race because of redistricting.

Massachusetts

  • Incumbent senator Scott Brown has been leading strong progressive Elizabeth Warren for most of the race, but she’s starting to open up a lead — she’s currently at +3.5% in the RCP polling average.
  • Question 2, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, polling very strong.
  • Question 3, medical marijuana legalization, is also looking like a winner.

Michigan

  • Proposal 2, which would add collective bargaining rights protections to the state constitution.

Minnesota

  • Amendment 1 is the country’s only attempt to place a ban on same-sex marriage in a state constitution this cycle. Polling has shown the amendment narrowly failing, but it’s really too close to call.
  • Amendment 2 would write a voter ID requirement into the state constitution. A similar law recently passed the state legislature but was vetoed by the governor. A mid-October poll showed it leading 53-40.
  • Michele Bachmann’s probably going to win. But it’ll be single digits, and a guy can dream.

Nebraska

  • This is one state where I’d be happy to see a Democrat lose a senate race, and with war criminal and anti-student university president Bob Kerrey trailing by double digits, I’ll likely get my wish.

New Jersey

  • Bond referendum for capital improvement at the state’s higher ed facilities.

Oregon

  • Measure 80, the most dramatic of the country’s three pot legalization initiatives, is also polling the worst. Likely to fail.

Puerto Rico

  • Puerto Rico has a two-part status referendum asking residents whether they want to continue as a territory, become a state, or pursue independence. Statehood led a recent poll with 48% support.

Washington

  • Referendum 74, the last of four same-sex marriage referenda this cycle, is an attempt to overturn a marriage equality law passed by the legislature. It’s currently too close to call.
  • Initiative 502, which would legalize and regulate the sale of marijuana, is showing the strongest polling data of the country’s three pending pot referenda. Passage would set up a showdown between the state and the federal government, which independently criminalizes pot.
  • Washington’s Initiative 1240 is a particularly aggressive charter school proposal.
  • Though it’s going to be a blowout in the presidential election, Washington also has a close governor’s race.

Wisconsin

  • Tammy Baldwin is a solid progressive and a friend to students, and if she wins this race she’ll be the first and only openly gay senator of any gender in US history. She’s ahead or tied in each of the five most recent polls in her race, but only up by an average of 2.2 points. I think she’ll win, and I’ll be cheering hard when she does.

Back Soon.

November 5, 2012 in Students | by | Leave a comment

Sorry about the lack of signal in the last couple of weeks, and apologies to all the amazing activists I’ve only been cheerleading on Twitter (or not at all). Though I didn’t lose power in the storm, my kids were home from school for a week, and in the middle of that we had a very technically challenging Halloween, and then on Friday we started packing for a campaign-work road trip.

And on top of all that, and preceding it, I’ve been sick for the last two months. Nothing dire, in the grand scheme of things, just whooping cough, then bronchitis, and now a cold, but they’ve all overlapped, and they’ve all sapped my energy, and they’ve all kept me from doing anywhere near as much as I’d have liked on all sorts of different fronts.

Anyway, I’m typing this from a guest room in Washington DC. This morning I’m going to put together an election post, then heading out to the drugstore for some meds, then hitting the sights — my kids have never done the DC tourist thing. Tomorrow we’ll be spending the day flyering for marriage equality and the MD DREAM Act at a Maryland polling place to be named later. And then we watch the returns and then we get up in the middle of the night to drive home and then I teach and then I collapse and then sometime around Thursday I hope I get back to writing — here and elsewhere.

See you in a bit.

About This Blog

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StudentActivism.net is the work of Angus Johnston, a historian and advocate of American student organizing.

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