Vol. 39, No.2                                                 June 23, 2008

BOWEN AND THE NEW CAUCUS GANG MUST START PACKING.

RESTORE SANITY IN THE PSC

If the recent victories in the City College and Retiree chapter elections are any indicators, one may start counting the days to the end of the New Caucus reign. The monkey business with the Welfare Fund resulting in nearly disappearing benefits, the co-opting of instructional staff retroactive pay and negligible salary raises in all of the contracts that the New Caucus has negotiated, coupled with childish, immature behavior (demonstrations in front of the Chancellor's home, incessant parades and exhibitionism by latter-day "revolutionaries"), and greater concern with global issues than with the welfare of its members, have resulted in sustained criticism by large numbers of the faculty and instructional staff.

This Spring, in the chapter election at City College, one of the largest colleges in CUNY, the New Caucus LOST THIRTEEN OUT OF EIGHTEEN positions! The New Caucus chapter chair, who won by only ONE vote, has been rendered powerless. The City College faculty are clearly ready to throw the New Caucus "leaders" out the door.

The New Caucus defeat in the Retiree Chapter is not only interesting, but also shocking. This June, Professor Emeritus John Donoghue defeated Cecilia McCall for the position of Alternate Delegate to the Delegate Assembly by a substantial margin. John Donoghue, a very sincere and personable retired Professor and former Chair of the PSC Chapter at New York City College of Technology, dealt a stunning blow to candidate Cecilia McCall who had wide name recognition, having held one of the four top PSC offices from 2000 to 2006.

Why would the New Caucus involve such a valuable candidate for a relatively minor position? The only possible explanation is that they did not want any candidate other than one they could control absolutely. Diversity of opinion is not tolerated among the New Caucasians. But what a fiasco! Cecilia lost. Why? Why? Why?

The faculty, part time and full time, active and retired, are sick and tired of games and excuses. New Caucus candidates do nothing but rubber stamp the "leadership". They do not speak up independently to advocate for their constituents, the faculty and professional staff of CUNY.

In the Patriot's opinion, because she served as secretary of the union, Cecilia will continue to suffer from her closeness with the unpopular Barbara Bowen, Steven London, Jim ("every-radical-cause-under-the-sun-except-those-that-benefit-PSC-members") Perlstein and the other New Caucasians. Ms. Susan O'Malley, having served on the PSC executive committee as a friend of Barbara Bowen, suffered a horrendous defeat in last Spring's chapter election at KCC when she ran for the position of chapter Vice Chair against a faculty member from the Biology Department.

Others should learn a lesson from this. Your connection to the New Caucus leadership may cost you your election. It may be a wise choice to stay away from them. Our hearty congratulations on his well earned victory to John Donoghue, a sincere, well-regarded man who will provide an independent voice in the retiree executive committee.

BARBARA BOWEN:
ONCE AGAIN, YOU'VE BEEN IGNORED

The New York Post’s June 1, 2008 story "The 50 Most Powerful Women in NYC" once again ignored you, Barbara, in its display of the fifty most powerful women in NYC. They did include Randy Weingarten, but NOT YOU, Ms Bowen. (Click Here)

Last year on May 29, 2007, recently-disgraced NYS Governor Elliot Spitzer appointed a State Higher Eduation Commission (Click Here). He named to that commission such individuals as Chancellor Goldstein, Presidents Marti (QCC) and Keizs (York), Lauren Talerman (a Queens College student) and William Scheuerman (United University Professions president - the SUNY union) but NOT YOU, Ms. Bowen.

You claim that you constantly go to Albany, you march, you demonstrate, you are featured in The Chief. The PSC's propaganda paper (Clarion) boasts of your trips to Albany and your meetings with the mighty and powerful. But it seems to us that all this is baloney. Neither the New York media nor government authorities consider you relevant or powerful. You can be safely ignored, laughed at, forgotten. We wouldn't care, except that also forgotten, as a consequence, are the people you represent. No wonder you cannot get a good contract for CUNY faculty. Your tactics have deemed you irrelevant to the real media and those in decision making positions in the state. You are a failure in the eyes of the membership. They will not return you to that office again next year, Barbara.

Get ready. Start packing.

Post Script:
Get ready for news of: The Worst Contract Ever courtesy of Barbara and Steve, coming to your mailbox very soon.  Stay tuned.

Sharad Karkhanis, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Editor-in-Chief

Forthcoming issues of The Patriot may be accessed at
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As you know, Susan O'Malley has sought to silence the Patriot by bringing a lawsuit which seeks to both limit his free speech and finanacially bankrupt him. Interested colleagues have weighed in on
www.freespeechcuny.blogspot.com