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THE PATRIOT RETURNS |
Vol. 45, No.2 March 25, 2009
NEW CAUCUS HYPOCRISY WATCH:
In our last number, we looked at the New Caucus' hypocritical stance on diversity: while demanding that the administration and faculty personnel committees change their hiring procedures to produce more diversity, the New Caucus has yet again offered a very non-diverse slate. But diversity isn't the only area in which the New Caucus has demanded that CUNY faculty operate according to one set of rules while the New Caucus leadership enjoys preferential treatment. Our Dear Leader, Barbara Bowen, has ensured that while the rest of CUNY's faculty has to live under the subpar contracts that she and the New Caucus have negotiated, she and her chief sidekick, Steve London, can use their union positions to . . . supplement . . . their incomes. So, if it's seemed like the Dear Leader doesn't understand what it's like to live on an average professor's salary, that's because she doesn't have to live on the salary that she and her contract team have negotiated. From where does the Dear Leader's bonus come? Two sources. Salary supplement one: Summer salary for union tasks. According to the contract, the Dear Leader and the other members of the New Caucus leadership team already receive full released time from teaching in compensation for their union duties. But the Dear Leader decided to supplement her income, with what she has described as "a two-month summer stipend." The total amount: $18,690. Undoubtedly many CUNY faculty would like to be able to bump up their salaries by $19,000 in exchange for doing the work they're already supposed to do under the contract. Salary supplement two: NYSUT "stipends." According to forms filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Dear Leader received an additional $20,241 for serving on NYSUT's board (plus nearly $1,600 in expenses). And "Sidekick Steve" took home an annual allowance of $13,495 as an NYSUT "director." To sum up: each year, the Dear Leader receives a $40,000 bonus—to perform work for which she was already assigned complete released time from teaching. Now, we understand it's hard for the Dear Leader to make ends meet on the salary of an associate professor. But other associate professors around CUNY don't have access to tens of thousands of dollars in extra salary just for doing their job. They have to make ends meet on the below-inflation-rate contracts resulting from the failed confrontation-first tactics of the New Caucus. Keep that $40K figure in mind the next time you read a New Caucus campaign missive. A New Caucus defeat means not just that the Dear Leader loses her power—it also means that Prof. Bowen would experience a $40,000 cut in pay. No wonder the Dear Leader sounds so desperate. ------------------------------- NEW CAUCUS "LEADERSHIP" . . . It seems like every mailing from New Caucus headquarters raves about the group's "organizing" skills. We constantly hear about monster rallies and extraordinary turnouts. But what kind of "organizing" is the Dear Leader actually doing? A YouTube of one of the Dear Leader's myriad protest rallies has recently surfaced. Here's the link. Hardly an "extraordinary" turnout for a group of 20,000 members--and, in any event, a number of the attendees appear to be students. Put yourself in the position of Governor Paterson, or Mayor Bloomberg, or Speaker Silver. Watching that performance, would you consider the PSC a union whose political power is to be feared? Or would you see the New Caucus as out-of-touch figures play-acting as 1960s radicals? ----------------- DID THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN By now, virtually everyone in CUNY has heard about the fiasco regarding the PSC-CUNY grants program. While CUNY management tried to rework the program to seize control from the faculty, the New Caucus ignored the problem—even though PSC executive secretary Debbie "Ding Dong" Bell served on the CUNY committee tasked with reworking the program. But as soon as the CUNY Alliance raised the issue in the campaign, our Dear Leader and "Sidekick Steve" sprang into action—and finally decided that it might be a good idea to worry less about global politics and actually look after the interests of CUNY faculty. The New Caucus-dominated Delegate Assembly came out against the proposed changes, and London sent an e-mail belatedly promising to stand up for faculty rights. The turn of events has confused some New Caucus apparatchiks. Delegate Nivedita Majumdar tried to blame everything on the CUNY Alliance, saying that the opposition raising the issue "is not helping." (Far better, it seems, for the New Caucus not to have been embarrassed, even at the expense of CUNY faculty losing their rights.) Majumdar, in any event, didn't understand what the fuss was all about. PSC-CUNY grants, she explained, are "basically money generated from membership dues," so why is the administration even involved? If that's the level of knowledge among New Caucus activists, no wonder the Dear Leader & Co. fell asleep at the switch. So, for the benefit of Prof. Majumdar and her colleagues on the New Caucus slate: PSC-CUNY grant moneys come from the contract, not from dues. That's why the Dear Leader should have been paying attention when CUNY tried to seize control of the program from the faculty. What activities are funded by our dues? Well, under the stewardship of our Dear Leader, episodes like the embarrassing event captured above on YouTube.
Sharad Karkhanis, Ph.D.
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