Notes from GC Chapter Meeting – 2/28/18

• Announcements
  • Tati presented a brief history of International Women’s Strike & mobilized us to attend on March 8th
    • West Virginia striking teachers paving the way forward despite no-strike laws
    • One-hour work stoppage starting at 4:00 + march stopping by various key locations
  • Lynne informed us of two-tiered funding for doctoral students & mobilized us to attend meeting to organize around this on March 6th
  • Conor updated us on the adjunct & Free CUNY organizing which has involved solidarity across CUNY organizations, including the union, student’s groups, Free CUNY
    • Another issue that requires organizing is the GC’s efforts to de-democratize governance over Masters programs and raise tuition & fees for Masters students
  • Marisa updated us about being fired from CUNY TV in retaliation for her union organizing efforts there, without a disciplinary process
    • Currently, we are waiting for the PERB hearing scheduled in April
    • CUNY, HR & CUNY TV have postponed the hearing date several times
    • We should organize a street action or flyering the GC in early April
  • West Virginia teachers settled just yesterday which won them a raise as well as 3% raises for the rest of West Virginia’s public sector workers
  • Columbia Grad Workers unionized but Columbia admin (illegally) refuses to recognized their union
    • Organizing strike authorization vote to force the admin to bargain with them
  • Jane updated us on UK university defending their pension → can we do statement of solidarity?
    • Take a solidarity picture
  • Demali announced MA emergency town hall to organize against the fee increase for incoming MALS students
    • Chase has tried to drive a wedge between MA from PhD students in the past by saying the DSC only advocates for the latter
  • Marc reported back from his lobbying efforts with the PSC in Albany, where they distributed literature on $7,000/course for adjuncts & PSC members from across titles advocated for adjunct equity
• Chapter elections for 2 vacant alt-delegate positions: Anh nominated Roxanne Shirazi & Lynne Turner; there were no other nominations via email or at the chapter meeting → members present at the chapter meeting voted unanimously in favor
• Items for Labor Management
  • Justice for Marisa Holmes: Marisa should be able to enter GC without being escorted out for trespassing; ask President Robinson to take a stance to pressure CUNY Central to not back out of the upcoming PERB hearing
  • Governance plan for MA programs is being de-democratized
  • Check in on our FoiL request to get demographics of students who receive full funding, those who don’t, and what the outcomes are
  • Get a line-item budget for the GC
  • Uneven workloads across campuses, currently with no contractual solutions
    • Members should come to share their stories
  • MALS tuition/fee increases
• Adjunct visibility week (March 12-16) → we need to figure out what to do at the GC!
  • Cross-campus planning going on to mobilize for BoT Public Hearing on 3/12
  • Labor management meeting will launch off March 12 → mobilize a contingent of people
    1. Get a long list of sign-ups of people to come holding signs advocating for their various issues
  • Social media blitz → get a photo booth set up for adjunct story-telling on Instagram or take a picture with a hand-written signs
    1. Maggie, Jane
  • Speak-out at GC to kick off the entire week, marching to labor management meeting
  • Undergrads are organizing around next BoT on 3/12 → should show up to help them
  • Fill out “course evaluation” for Chase → how to make this go beyond symbolic?
  • Should each day have a different theme like the #BLM week of action?  
  • Button-up for the entire week
  • Grad students teach 7,700 courses w/ enrollment of 200,000 CUNY students every year
  • Phone & email blitz to GC President & Provost focused on a different theme each day
• We all took a solidarity picture to send to striking teachers in the UK