CUNY faculty-led protests promis
BY SARAH BELLE LIN
The chancellor’s lawn looked a little
different after the weekend. Three
homemade signs had been left on the
grass. Each had a message to say:
“No Class Cancellations. No Layoffs.”
“CUNY students deserve safe campuses.”
“Felo Respond To Student Demands.”
The residence of Félix V. Matos Rodríguez,
the chancellor of the City University
of New York (CUNY), was visited
by roughly 40 people on Feb. 6 for
a protest organized by Rank and File
Action, a group that describes themselves
as “militant rank & fi le activists
at CUNY.”
Faculty and students present on
the cold Sunday afternoon blasted the
CUNY administration for ignoring
many of their demands. The protest
was just one of several organized in
the past week calling for safer reopening
measures and safety nets for students
and adjunct workers.
Members of the Professional Staff
Congress, the union representing
CUNY faculty, gathered outside of
Bronx Community College (BCC) the
week before, on Jan. 28, to demand improved
public health and safety at all
campuses.
Maeve Campbell, a former Borough
of Manhattan Community College student,
spoke about enduring diffi cult
years at her two-year junior college.
“As CUNY students, we have a little
joke,” Campbell said. “We call it
getting CUNY’d. It’s when you don’t
graduate on time because of cuts, overworked
advisors, lack of funds (and)
bureaucratic mismanagement. Despite
our best efforts — despite having
a 4.0 in my case — sometimes you don’t
graduate on time.”
Sharon Utakis is already exhausted.
The winter semester has only
just begun, but the English professor
and PSC vice president is mainly tired
of how CUNY is handling the pandemic.
“Here at BCC, there have been so
many health and safety issues over
the years, even before the pandemic,”
Utakis said. “Three years ago, I was
taking pictures of the makeshift classrooms
we were using when they shut
down Colston Hall because the pipes
had burst and there was mold.”
Poor ventilation, aged pipework
and toxic mold have been long-standing
issues at BCC, a school attended
by mostly Black and Brown students.
Faculty at the Jan. 28 protest said the
conditions have barely improved, and
then worsened during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Yasmin Edwards, a biology professor
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F 8 FEB. 11-17, 2022 BTR
at BCC, said there’s several inoperable
HVAC systems in campus buildings,
including Loew Hall and Nichols
Hall, which was closed off entirely after
lack proper ventilation and mold
was discovered. Nichols Hall recently
reopened, and Edwards said there’s a
slight improvement with installed air
purifi ers.
Edwards said BCC administration
attempts to work with faculty,
but CUNY still continues to reject requests
for medical-grade masks, virtual
learning and capital improvements
— namely heating systems and
proper ventilation.
“We’re either too cold or too hot,”
Edwards added.
There hasn’t been any ventilation
data shared with the union, either, and
the city Department of Education’s
ventilation report database for its public
schools appears to be experiencing
technical issues.
More demands in the CUNY campaigns,
including the New Deal for
CUNY, include safety nets for adjunct
professors, increased online courses,
remote work options, widely available
COVID-19 protection measures like
free rapid-testing kits, and a return to
the days when CUNY was tuition-free
(the school system began charging tuition
in 1976).
A protest was held outside of Bronx Community College by the union representing CUNY
faculty, including the Andrea Vásquez, the union’s fi rst vice president pictured, on Jan. 28.
Photo | Sarah Belle Lin
Masked students on the campus of Bronx Community College on the day a protest was held
right outside of campus on Jan. 28. Photo | Sarah Belle Lin