BY BEN VERDE
Students, faculty, and staff
at Brooklyn College rallied outside
the school’s Midwood campus
on July 2 calling school
administrators to reinstate 52
recently laid off adjunct professors
who are set to lose their
healthcare coverage during the
pandemic — which, one professor
said, was an example of anti-
Black policies at the college.
“Austerity is anti-Black,”
said Jean Eddy Saint Paul, one
of nine full Black professors at
the college. “I kindly ask the
administration of Brooklyn
College to reverse their harmful
policy against adjuncts.”
Several dozen protesters
attended the gathering at the
campus’s Bedford Avenue
gates, which culminated in a
march to president Michelle
Anderson’s Ditmas Park house
where they delivered a letter
outlining their demands.
The layoffs come amid
sweeping budget cuts to the public
university system because of
a massive budget shortfall due
to the pandemic — which some
claim will reach $13.3 billion in
lost tax revenue.
TAKE THESE STEPS:
6 ft
COURIER L 12 IFE, JULY 10-16, 2020
The number of layoffs at
Brooklyn College are among
the highest in the 25-campus
CUNY system, according to
the Professional Staff Congress,
the union that represents
CUNY teachers.
Faculty and staff are pushing
for the school system to tap
into the millions of dollars allotted
to them in the federal
CARES coronavirus relief act
to preserve adjuncts’ jobs —
although the federal program
mandates a signifi cant portion
of the money go directly
to students.
“Now is the moment for
CUNY leaders to pursue the
$132 million in the federal
CARES act allocated to the
university system pandemic
response in order to keep
people on payroll,” said Saint
Paul, a sociology professor.
Students also called for
the NYPD to be removed from
campus and to leave security
up to the school’s existing public
safety department.
“We have an administration
that does not seem to care
about its Black, Latino, and
Muslim students,” said Jessica
Jones, the past vice president
of Brooklyn College’s student
government. “The fact that we
allow NYPD on our campus
when we have perfectly good
campus security makes no
sense to me — that you would
endanger our lives like that on
a constant basis.”
In a statement, CUNY said
its fi scal outlook is uncertain
absent more federal funding,
and noted that they reached
out to the Professional Staff
Congress regarding a third
extension on appointment letters,
which the union would
not agree to, resulting in
scores of professors being informed
that their reappointment
in the fall was not guaranteed.
If enough federal funding
is secured, many of the professors
could be re-hired, a
Professor Jean Eddy Saint Paul joined a rally on Thursday to call for 52
laid off adjuncts to be reinstated. Photo by Ben Verde
CUNY spokesperson said, but
that remains uncertain.
“Unfortunately, CUNY is
not immune to the challenges
and uncertainties engendered
by the COVID-19 crisis,
and in the absence of federal
funding, our fi scal outlook
is dim and uncertain,” the
statement reads. “If the federal
government acts as it
should, and the fi scal outlook
improves, many could be rehired
in the fall.”
BK College rallies for
laid off professors
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OF COVID-19 IN NYC!
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Get tested: There are COVID-19 testing sites in all five boroughs.
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For the latest information, visit nyc.gov/coronavirus.
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Oxiris Barbot, MD
Commissioner
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