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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JULY 12, 2020
A DRIPPING DISASTER
Historical Society starts emergency fund after water damages archives
BY ROSE ADAMS
The Brooklyn Historical
Society is seeking urgent
funds after a massive
water leak damaged several
19th century artifacts
and soaked through the
museum’s fl oorboards and
light fi xtures, said the organization’s
director.
“Some damage was to
19th century documents,
some property deeds —
things that weren’t important
parts of the collection,
but still 19th century
documents,” said Deborah
Schwartz, the president of
the Historical Society.
The educational center’s
HVAC system, which
helps preserve the artifacts
by keeping them
cool, sprouted a leak the
morning of June 11, seeping
through the fl oor and
dripping onto several old
property deeds stored
BY BEN VERDE
in the Othmer Library
on Pierrepont Street,
Schwartz said.
Other items — such as
props used in the museum’s
and fi les — were also
soaked by the broken AC
unit, which had been dangerously
years of use.
The leak was caught
quickly by the Society’s
building manager, who
monitors the collections
daily while the center remains
COVID-19 outbreak. The
papers were stored securely
further damage, Schwartz
said.
Since mid-June, staffers
have begun the process
of replacing all the
documents’ archival
boxes, the damaged light
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
exhibits and the documents’
archival boxes
corroded over
closed amid the
enough to prevent
fi xtures, and the HVAC
unit. They’ve also hired
a paper conservator to remove
the moisture from
the affected documents,
which will prevent the
pages from curling, and
are fi nding ways to remove
system because of a massive budget
shortfall due to the pandemic —
which some claim will reach $13.3
billion in lost tax revenue.
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
the moisture from
the storage space to prevent
mold or mildew from
growing, Schwartz said.
“Whenever you have
water near collections,
you need to make sure
that you don’t get an outbreak
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
Professor Jean Eddy Saint Paul joined a rally on Thursday to call for 52 laid off
adjuncts to be reinstated. Photo by Ben Verde
guaranteed.
If enough federal funding is
secured, many of the professors
could be re-hired, a 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 re-hired in the fall.”
Brooklyn College rallies
for laid off professors
of mold or mildew,”
she said. “So that’s been
our main focus, to make
sure nothing gets worse as
a result of the dampness.”
Insurance will cover
the repairs to the documents
and the replacement
of some archival
boxes, but it won’t pay for
infrastructural fi xes —
leaving the society with a
$100,000 budget shortfall,
Schwartz said.
“We have designated
funds set aside for emergencies,
and are fortunate
to have been able to
take the fi rst and immediate
steps to protect the
collections,” she wrote
in a statement. “Unfortunately,
the damage done
far exceeds what is available
in this fund, and the
cost to effectively secure
the collections into the future
is quite signifi cant.”
To pay for the $100,000
restoration, the Society
started an emergency
fund in late June, which
has already raised more
than $63,000, mostly from
small donors.
“The number of $10
and $20 gifts that we got
was really was extraordinary,”
Schwartz said.
“I was really moved by it
because it means people
really understand the importance
of these historical
documents.”
At the current rate,
Schwartz said she hopes
that the Society will reach
its goals soon.
“It’s heartening,” she
said. “We still have a little
ways to go, but people
have been very generous.”
Those who would like to
donate can do so at www.
donate.brooklynhistory.
org/
A recent leak at the Brooklyn Historical Society damaged a number
of 19th century property deeds. Brooklyn Historical Society
/www.donate.brooklynhistory
/www.donate.brooklynhistory