There were four people on the PSC side and five on the management side, including the replacement for Pat Stein from CUNY Central, Ellen Jittrarachit, Dean Braverman, Washington Hernandez, K. Maynard, and Jennifer Sparrow

1. Changes in protocol for faculty release time. We brought up the new requirement to apply for reassigned time and lack of input in creating the criteria. Faculty are now expected to individually negotiate release time. It opens the door to favoritism over the old system where it was automatic.

Management said that academic directors have shared that some faculty were not doing work to justify reassigned time. In the past, they said, there were fewer faculty. But with more faculty now, it’s problematic to continue the old policies and the school needs to brought in line with policies at other schools. Policy was developed in consultation with ADs and fulltime faculty. The dean noted that no other campus gets release time like SPS does and that structure is needed.

PSC noted that it is important to consult the many SPS lecturers and to consider what might be classified as service that used to be administrative reassigned time.

1. Information request about staffing. At the governing council, we learned that between 2019 and 2024, faculty grew from 17 to 27 and staff from 108 to 156 – What are the titles, positions, salaries, and departments/offices of these new hires? We made a formal request for information and also asked for a monthly email update to the entire school about people joining SPS and leaving.

Management said that they can get us that information but that it might take a couple of weeks.

1. Request for more regular budget updates to the whole SPS community.

Management agrees to continue budget updates and will hold a town hall.

1. We asked to confirm that there would not be any layoffs tied to being identified as a college of concern. We also asked about non-reappointments of college assistants and non-teaching adjuncts.

The dean praised management on how they handled the budget and reminded us that in the last meeting, they did say that they would look at part-time expenditures. (When management says “expenditures”, they mean our coworkers, aka people.) Washington Hernandez explained that when the VRB was instituted, SPS used temporary staff to meet its needs and the school overspent by $1 million. They “recouped 85.5% of the overage”, meaning they either cut hours of SPS part-timers or laid them off. The decisions were made through conversations with supervisory staff about their needs. The loss of these hours and jobs are termed by management as “abnormal growth correction”. They also put checks in place to notice sooner when they are going over budget than whatever happened to result in going over by a million dollars.

We asked what happens to the workload of full time staff with this 85.5% cut. Management said that since there are new full-timers hired, it all balances out. We pointed out that SPS enrollments are going up and that more students means more staff are needed. Management said that SPS can still have part-time staff, it just has to be a process now, and that enrollment is not enough to get the school out of its structural deficit.

1. Building issues with temperature. We talked about long standing issues at 875 and 119, including the recent 65 and below temperatures in 875. Management talked about a CUNY project to put heaters into the vents at 875, which is moving slowly but has been approved. They will be meeting with the vice chancellor soon about that, and about the situation at 119. The buildings are leased. An SPS worker proposed that we withhold rent or move. Management said CUNY Central pays rent. The university has looked at different locations for SPS but nothing has panned out. Long term, CUNY management wants to get rid of leases. The dean mentioned using the prospect of a potential move to pressure the landlord into fixing problems.

We spoke about similar issues on other campuses, such ASRC and SLU (which is also in a leased space) and shared recommendations by PSC Health and Safety Watchdogs for continual monitoring and an agreed upon threshold for sending workers to work remotely. Management said there are relocation spaces within SPS. We reiterated the need to send people home and their contractual obligation to provide a safe workplace.

Tenure and promotion. New guidelines are being developed, but we can’t put processes put on hold, people hearing different things and are worried about their promotion and tenure.

Management said that there was a tenure and promotion case last fall and will be another next fall. Current guidelines are vague and need to be developed. These guidelines, once approved, will only apply to new hires. Existing faculty are grandfathered under the old guidelines.