BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
A Hostos College employee advocacy
group is threatening the possibility
of a labor strike, if CUNY or Hostos
administrators don’t address a set of
demands that include ensuring a safe
return to campus amidst growing COVID
19 numbers.
An estimated 7,000 CUNY employees
are set to return to campuses
across the city next month, as most colleges
and universities prepare for an
in-person reopening after shutting its
doors in March 2020 due to COVID-19.
But faculty members and union
leaders said that a lack of communication
from CUNY administrators about
reopening plans has left them in the
dark about their safety as the city’s COVID
19 cases continue to rise.
The group is also proposing a delayed
return to campus if union offi -
cials deem the campus facilities unsafe.
“We know that the answer to this
problem is fi ghting back — up to and
including — striking,” said Alex
Wolf, a member of the Hostos Action
Committee, an advocacy group
of CUNY employees. “In the past, it’s
been about tuition, contracts, fi nancial
aid, and now it’s about the health
and safety of our students and faculty
… and the way to fi ght to protect those
things is to shut the university down
until CUNY does what’s right.”
In addition to Hostos, the Bronx
has two other schools including
Bronx Community College and
Lehman College that are a part of the
city’s 25-campus public university
system known as CUNY.
“The vast majority of CUNY employees
haven’t set foot on campus
since last March and have little information
about the ventilation of
their workspaces, or the cleanliness
of spaces that have been unoccupied
for over a year,” said representatives
from The Professional Staff Congress
(PSC), the union representing 30,000
CUNY employees that has continually
insisted on “no return without a
safe return.”
Attempts to reach CUNY offi cials
for comment were unsuccessful.
In May, CUNY offi cials detailed
several elements that August reopening
plans needed to include such as
unvaccinated students and staff being
required to wear masks, mandatory
quarantine periods for those contracting
the virus, and surveillance
testing for unvaccinated individuals,
who will be required to submit a
test every 7 days to attend in-person
classes.
Hostos’ two-phase reopening plan
which was revised on July 21 echoes
similar language to the CUNY guidelines.
In August, all CUNY schools
will require proof of vaccination or a
negative COVID-19 test for entry into
in-person classes and campus facilities.
“Since the pandemic hit, Hostos
has been working fast to comply with
safety protocols and adapt to all the
changes everyone experienced,” said
Hostos spokesperson Soldanela Lopez.
“The fall is no different.”
School offi cials are supposed to
complete at least one pre-occupancy
walkthrough of any facility slated to
reopen the week of Aug. 2.
“The August 2 reopening date was
announced by the Chancellor in May,
but the date isn’t the problem,” said
Craig Bernadini, associate professor
at Hostos. “The problem is how late
CUNY has been about taking action
to ensure faculty, staff and student
safety. In effect, ‘they’ created the
problem with the date.”
Members of the Hostos Action
Committee said that Hostos administrators
agreed to a walkthrough of
its facilities to ensure proper ventilation
in school buildings and address
safety procedures with faculty and
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 16 ULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021 BTR
union leaders on July 21-22. Those
walkthroughs never happened, as
Hostos offi cials told members of the
committee, it needed to be rescheduled
due to a staffi ng issue.
Hostos Action Committee members
believe that a late-July walkthrough
won’t be enough time for
changes to ventilation systems or
feedback on safety procedures to be
implemented before the Aug. 2 returnto
work date or when classes resume
on Aug. 25.
“Our reopening plan and the
CUNY website say that students
must be vaccinated to attend classes
in person, but if you look at CUNY’s
FAQs, the mandate isn’t in effect until
the FDA generally fully approves
at least one vaccine,” Bernadinisaid.
“It’s like they’re talking out of both
sides of their mouth, and students are
caught in the middle.” All three vaccines
currently being administered
in the U.S. have only been granted
emergency use authorization by the
FDA.
Just 40.5% of the Bronx’s 16-25 demographic
has received one dose of
the vaccine, according to the state’s
vaccination data.
“There’s no specifi c date for that
authorization and it takes a full
month to be fully vaccinated,” said
Wolf. “I don’t believe the mandate
will be enforced before school begins.
And the testing protocol of seven days
is too long to prevent a potential outbreak
on campus.”
Demonstrators are also calling
on college and university offi cials to
waive fi nancial holds that are preventing
students from registering for
fall classes and to rehire adjunct professors
that were fi red during the pandemic.
Nearly 3,000 adjunct professors
were laid off during the pandemic,
losing their salaries and health insurance,
with only 1,000 having been
rehired for the fall semester, according
to the union representing CUNY
employees.
CUNY was the benefi ciary of $841
million in federal relief funds in response
to the pandemic. Some CUNYs
also received sizeable private donations,
such as Mackenzie Scott’s — exwife
of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos —
donations of $15 million to Hostos and
$30 million to Lehman.
Protestors are calling on CUNY
colleges to use federal relief money to
cover all student holds and fees that
impact students, like Hostos senior
Britnay Bell, and prevents them from
registering for classes until the fees
are paid.
“It’s ridiculous,” Bell said. “We
had no means to support ourselves fi -
nancially because of a pandemic, and
I haven’t been able to reach anyone in
fi nancial services to talk about the
holds. It’s proof that CUNYs operate
as an exploitative business, and not a
place for education.”
CUNY employees threaten
strike before August reopening
Unclear as to what’s next for their Aug. 2, 2021, return-to-work date, Hostos College employees
held a demonstration outside the college on Grand Concourse Wednesday, demanding
transparency on the school’s reopening plans.
“And absolutely, yes, adjunct faculty have lost hours, health insurance, and in some cases
employment at Hostos, although we don’t yet have fi gures for how deeply Hostos’s adjunct
faculty were impacted last spring,” said Craig Bernardini, associate professor at Hostos.
Photos Adrian Childress