se to continue ramping up speed
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F BTR FEB. 11-17, 2022 9
Bronx Times reached out to Bronx
Community College for comment regarding
the demands. In a written response,
CUNY spokesperson Richard
Ginsberg stated, “We have no comment
at this time.”
There had previously been some
hope that community colleges would
provide two tuition-free years at the
federal level, but it’s now almost certain
that the provision will be left out
of the Build Back Better plan, based on
comments by the fi rst lady Jill Biden
Monday.
While a little under 150 classes at
BCC have been converted online for
the winter semester, activists say it’s
not enough to prevent more students
from dropping out this semester.
Student enrollment at junior
community colleges, like BCC, has
dropped by 42% compared to the previous
school year’s enrollment, according
to PSC CUNY.
Senior colleges, like John Jay College
of Criminal Justice in Manhattan
where Olivia Wood is an adjunct
teacher, have seen higher enrollment
numbers.
But Wood, who helped plan recent
CUNY protests, said her school isn’t
immune to issues that some of the junior
colleges are experiencing. Take
ventilation, she said.
“The issue I’m running into for my
class is we have a ventilation system
on really high, which is good,” Wood
said. “But it’s so loud that I can’t hear
my students. And I don’t have any control
over that.”
Wood said many people in her community
she’s talked with believe the
issues underlying low enrollment are
disproportionately impacting community
colleges, which tend to be populated
by students from underserved
and marginalized backgrounds, and
those with specifi c learning needs.
These students often face more challenges
and as result, are more likely to
put their education on hold and drop
out.
Then there is the matter of the layoffs.
The faculty union believes CUNY
administrators are “encouraging
mass course cancellations and in some
departments effectively fi ring all adjuncts
who don’t have a three-year appointment.”
“So many adjuncts, hundreds, as
far as we can tell, ended up getting laid
off,” Wood said, referring to the new
school year. “They were reappointed,
given classes, and then not enough
students signed up for them; or not
enough students signed up for sections
taught by full timers. So those got canceled,
and the adjunct sections given to
the full timers. This doesn’t just mean
loss of income, it also often means loss
of health insurance.”
Rémysall Salas, an adjunct professor
at Borough of Manhattan Community
College (BMCC), gets it. One of his
classes was recently canceled because
of low enrollment, an issue he said
worsened due to COVID-19.
“I do sympathize,” Salas said.
“There’s been one class I missed out
on in the pandemic.”
The New Deal for CUNY campaign
carves out legislation supporting adjunct
professors and proposes establishing
a 65-1000 ratio of full-time faculty
to students, said Salas, who works
on the policy side of the campaign.
“We want to make sure there’s
more job security,” Salas said. “Adjuncts
want to become full time. You
don’t know what’s going to happen
next semester. But if you’re a full-time
professor, you know you’re going to
have your classes.”
Faculty and students leading the
CUNY campaigns are also asking for
full transparency on how CUNY is
spending its pandemic relief funds, of
which CUNY’s three Bronx schools received
more than $1 billion total in relief
funds, according to CUNY fi gures
published in April 2021.
The PSC union has found that
CUNY has only reported using $51
million from its institutional budget,
just 5% of what is actually available
for those needs.
And the federal stimulus hasn’t
been the only fi nancial support CUNY
has received during the pandemic.
Two CUNY schools, Lehman College
and BMCC, were each gifted $30
million by MacKenzie Scott. The philanthropist
also donated $15 million to
Hostos Community College, which has
a majority Hispanic student population.
The donations were the largest in
each of the school’s histories.
State Assemblywoman Yudelka
Tapia, whose 86th District includes
the neighborhood where BCC is located,
acknowledged the role BCC has
played in advancing Black and Brown
students.
“I was one of them,” said Tapia, but
“we need more testing for every student,
every staff in all CUNY schools.
We don’t have the ventilation needed
for our students to be safe. We have
fought so hard for that. The money’s
there.”
Some faculty say they have lost
hope in trying to reason with the
CUNY administration.
“Most administrators don’t talk to
RAFA (Rank and File Action),” Wood
said. “They barely talk to the PSC
leadership. So we’re in the process of
scheduling meetings to fi gure out how
we can connect with people to get them
more involved in the union.”
Before she had arrived at the protest
at BCC, Edwards had a troubling
experience just outside of the campus.
“On my way here, I spoke to a
CUNY student,” Edwards said. “That
CUNY student said, ‘I am a single mom
of two kids. I tried to enroll for classes
online.’ She is now considering dropping
out because she could not get the
online sections she needed that would
allow her to work, pay her bills, and
take care of her children. There are
consequences to bad leadership.”
A protest to march to City University of New
York Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez’s
residence in Pelham was organized by Rank
and File Action to escalate their health and
safety demands on Feb. 6. Photo courtesy
Gerry Martini