Delegate Assembly Recommends Contract Agreement for Ratification

111 to 11 yes votes in the delegate assembly as PSC activists took a step forward without letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

After a spirited debate, the Delegate Assembly voted last night to submit the tentative contract agreement to the PSC membership for a ratification vote. The vote to recommend ratification of the new contract passed by an overwhelming majority of 111 in favor to 11 opposed. The CUNY Board of Trustees is expected to approve the agreement at their Monday, July 27 meeting. PSC members will then have the final word on the contract during a ratification vote to be held in July (details will be coming soon).



A summary of the main features of the contract, the full memorandum of agreement and related documents are posted here on the PSC website.


CUNY Board Postpones Proposed Policy on "Expressive Conduct"

The CUNY Board of Trustees amended its calendar for the Board meeting on Monday, June 27, adding a note indicating that the proposed "Freedom of Expression and Expressive Conduct" policy will be considered at a later time. The note on the calendar read:



"It was clear from testimony at the public hearing on June 20, 2016, and other communications that there are questions and concerns about the proposed policy. The Chairperson and the Chancellor have determined that there should be additional consultation and discussion. Accordingly, this item is included on the calendar solely for informational purposes. A proposed policy will be considered by the Board of Trustees at a later time, following additional consultation and discussion."



PSC President Barbara Bowen was one of many CUNY professors and students who testified against the proposed policy at a public hearing this past Monday. Bowen called on the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, William Thompson, not to begin his term by passing such a repressive policy. (Audio of the hearing is posted here.) President Bowen reaffirmed the PSC's position against policies that limit speech, saying:



"Such a policy seems especially dangerous in a university whose students are already often silenced and marginalized by poverty and racism. And it is a poor response to a faculty and staff that was forced to organize for a strike authorization vote."


President Bowen closed her testimony by demanding that CUNY bargain over this policy, as it directly affects a term and condition of employment in that it refers to the contractual procedures on discipline.



Moved Recently? Changed Your Email Address or Home/Cell Phone Number?



Send PSC Your Updated Contact Information before the Contract Ratification Vote

This summer, eligible PSC members (those who meet the union's constitutional requirement of four months of prior membership) will receive ballot information about PSC's contract ratification vote. Once voting begins, you'll be able to cast your ballot either by internet, telephone or on paper. But it all begins with a mailing and email message from the American Arbitration Association, which will give you instructions for voting, and a PSC phone number for assistance. If you've moved recently, updated your home or cell phone number, or changed your personal and/or college email, the PSC may not have these changes on file for you. To ensure you receive a ballot and other vote-related mailings, please email your updated contact information to PSC Membership Coordinator Diana Rosato at membership@pscmail.org or click this link to complete the PSC's membership update form.


PSC in the News

Here is the latest coverage of the tentative agreement on the PSC-CUNY contract:
NY Times: Tentative Contract Deal at CUNY Ends Stalemate and Strike Threat
NY Daily News: CUNY staff, administration reach deal on contract, break six-year deadlock
Wall Street Journal: CUNY and Faculty Union Reach Contract Deal
Inside Higher Ed: CUNY Reaches Tentative Deal With Faculty Union
The Chronicle of Higher Ed: CUNY and Faculty Union Reach Tentative Deal to End Long Labor Fight
Staten Island Advance: Tentative contract agreement reached for CUNY faculty
Workers World: CUNY employees win contract
Black Star News: CUNY Reaches Deal with Union -- Milliken
Academe Blog: Professional Staff Congress Reaches Contract Deal With CUNY

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV TO RECEIVE HOUSING AND FOOD ASSISTANCE

VOCAL New York Rally Protect Patients NOT Mail Order Pharmacies



Governor Cuomo acted yesterday to make New York City HASA benefits available to public assistance recipients with HIV regardless of whether they have ever had an AIDS diagnosis, a key demand of the End AIDS NY 2020 Coalition and one of VOCAL's most important campaigns. This change, along with Mayor de Blasio's World AIDS Day commitment to fund New York City's 71% portion of the cost of the program, means that roughly 7,000 people living with HIV will begin to receive enhanced housing, food and transportation assistance from the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) when the program goes into effect in 60 days.

This victory marks a major step forward in tackling the dual epidemics of HIV and homelessness, and is a vital component of the plan to end AIDS as an epidemic in New York. We applaud both Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio for fulfilling this goal that people living with HIV and their allies have fought for over a decade to achieve, initially through a campaign called 'HASA for All.' VOCAL-NY is honored to be a part of the End AIDS NY 2020 Coalition and the long history of AIDS activism.

Winning this policy change was a hard fought campaign that included a 24-hour vigil and civil disobedience during the final hours of the state budget session, which was covered across the state by the Associated Press, Newsday, Time Warner Cable, Crain's, News 12, NPR, Albany Times-Unions and Gay City News.


There is more to be done and a need to be vigilant. Most importantly, we still must secure these same housing and nutrition benefits to people living with HIV outside of New York City like VOCAL-NY Albany leader Richard Jackson, who told his story in Albany Times-Union. And we must ensure that the state pays their fair share for the program across the state.

Marching Bands and Summer Bike Rides from Brooklyn Heights to an Orlando Solidarity Ride

Owen Crowley

The summer has been full of secrets and surprises. We rode our bikes everywhere this summer. Most days, we explored Prospect Park or Pier Six or the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, enjoying the hot summer, feeling the breeze. Other days, we rode through the city with peeps in Public Space Party.



Monday, we stumbled into a group of marching bands performing along the waterfront. My friend Josh was getting ready to perform with the Funkrust Brass Band, including members of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra. Funkrust was followed by the Marching Cobras, a pulsing high school band whose mission is:

to enrich lives of youth by providing opportunities for artistic expression and leadership development through music, marching band, step, dance, and much more. Culturing teens through music and the performing arts which is a language that crosses generations as well as social, economic, and racial barriers. Our staff takes pride in developing the lives of our members by helping them become responsible and respected members of society.

And that they did. Everyone at the park ran down to hear them dance and play, with summer set reflected in the water behind them. Listening to Funkrust and the Marching Cobras, I was reminded that New York culture is alive and pulsing. Across town my friends from ACT UP were busy zapping Trump Tower, making some beautiful noise of their own. But for now, we were content to ride through the city, enjoying the Brooklyn summer night.





The next day, we rode to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, taking in perhaps the most majestic view of all of New York City. “I live in Brooklyn by choice,” Truman Capote famously wrote, reflecting on his life along the Promenade.

Exploring the secret gems of the city is part of what makes summer bike rides here so tantalizing, the summer so exquisite and bittersweet.



But so are the ways we remember those fallen heroes.
My friend Kate killed herself Saturday. Back in 2002, she joined a direct action to defend public space
On October 5, 2002, two women from ACT UP cut a hole in a fence separating a walking path from a Hudson River pier facing toward New Jersey on Manhattan’s West Side Highway, “as a gesture of solidarity” with the queer youth who used the space before the fence went up. “We could hear a bunch of my girlfriend’s kids cheering us on across the street, and as soon as we started it was over--the police were there, dragging us off the fence,” one of the explained. The police immediately arrested both women.
Two cool Kates and cool Bob Kohler
RIP Kate Spencer
My friend Kate, her girlfriend wrote a post on facebook.

Kate Barnhart wrote:

I met Kate Spencer at Hampshire College in 1994. I was super busy with a full course load plus running back and forth to NYC to ACT UP. Kate tried all kinds of things to get my attention, joining my organizations and volunteering for my projects, and even signing up for the statistics class i was taking, although she had been studying art. Finally, with the advice of Collin Clay Chace, she pinned a beautiful note to my dorm door. And that's how it all began.



Later yesterday, we rode bikes in solidarity with those gunned down in Orlando.


IN SOLIDARITY WITH ORLANDO LGBTQ*, black, brown, latino, latinx lovers, brothers, sisters and mothers, spouses and partners and friends, daughters and sons, cis-gender allies, transgender, gender non-conforming, latinx, black, brown, gays and straights and queers JOIN PUBLIC SPACE PARTY and lets take back our spaces our bodies, our sex, our gender lets dance, bike, move, gyrate, dance and move to the PULSE

In Solidarity with the Dancers and Lovers of Pulse whose lives were shot down Sunday in a safe space zone come move with the Public Space Party where yes, we are against homophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, islamaphobia, transphobia but We Are for our bodies to be safe, queer love, safe spaces, gun control, latinx, black, brown, dancing, biking and moving to the grooving starting at Columbus Circle to reclaim space from one of the first colonizers/oppressors….

We will visit Trump Towers along the way to send our message of love against his propagation of the hate machine and stop to dance in public spaces. Let's ride together.

All people welcome to join us. If you want, wear colors of the rainbow and tie a sign to your bike or your person with your own message of love.

We met at Columbus Circle and rode through the city, trying to spread a little love in a world of violence and sadness and exquisite beauty, all mixed together in a tragicomic theater of modern life.

Thank for being a part of it.