https://sites.google.com/site/occupycunywiki/resources/faculty-support-letter
We the faculty of the City University of New York (CUNY) express our solidarity with the May Day General Strike and the efforts to create a Free University in Madison Square Park on May 1, 2012. We further support a CUNY-Wide Day of Action on May 2, 2012 to build further momentum for social equality, show the collective power of CUNY faculty, students, and staff, and demonstrate our ability to transform the City University of New York into a university that is accessible, accountable, democratic, and free for all.
We are proud of CUNY’s heritage as the successor to the Free Academy of the City of New York and the historic legacy of CUNY educators committed to building a truly public university free of cost for all New Yorkers. Therefore, we stand against anything that makes CUNY less accessible, less public, less safe, and less affordable.
We oppose the continuously increasing burden of tuitions and fees. We oppose the modeling of CUNY on corporate structures — from excessive executive compensation to the exploitation of contracted and adjunct labor. Increasing tuition costs and the growing debt burden foisted upon students undermine not only CUNY’s institutional goals, but also its legitimacy and the very futures of its students.
We oppose the undermining of local faculty and student governance at CUNY colleges through the imposition of a centralized curriculum. The jettisoning of foreign languages, science lab work, and the devaluation of the creative arts goes against all principles of general liberal arts education. The Pathways program, standardized to the “lowest common denominator” will further devalue the quality of a CUNY education, making it easier for students to transfer within CUNY but harder for their credits to be recognized outside CUNY.
We oppose the intensification of policing inside of CUNY, and protest NYPD and CUNY security surveillance and harassment of student organizations, political activity, and Muslim students.
We condemn police violence and arrests in response to peaceful on-campus protests by dissenting students and faculty, such as those well-documented on November 21st, 2011, and call for all charges to be dropped against those arrested on this date.
We support movements to create alternatives to these inequalities and the austerity and policing measures taken in response to this crisis, such as the Occupy movement, the struggle against securitization and racial profiling, and the movement of CUNY students, educators, and workers.
We support academic freedom and the right to exercise free speech through dissent and peaceful protest.
We support community control and self-determination in our education.
We support meaningful academic employment which allows all faculty, permanent and adjunct, to do good work in our classrooms and provides students with safe, meaningful learning environments.
We support CUNY students and faculty members, both permanent and adjunct, participating in May Day events and the Free University, and we encourage all to contribute.
The May Day General Strike, the Free University in Madison Square Park, and CUNY-Wide Day of Action are public endeavors to make education accessible to all and relevant to the struggles and challenges faced by New York’s 99%. As all those who have struggled to make CUNY a truly public university have shown us, we must take deliberate steps to build the university that we want and need.
Signed (all organizational affiliations for identification only, unless bolded):
Elan Abrell Adjunct Assistant Professor, Urban Studies, Queens College
Amna Akbar Adjunct, CUNY School of Law
Ammiel Alcalay Professor/Deputy Executive Officer, Queens College & CUNY Graduate Center
Anthony Alessandrini Associate Professor of English, Kingsborough Community College and Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, CUNY Graduate Center
Meena Alexander Distinguished Professor, English and Women’s Studies, CUNY Graduate Center & Hunter College
Jean Anyon Professor, Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
Electa Arenal Professor Emerita, Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Literatures & Women’s Studies Certificate Program, CUNY Graduate Center; (Distinguished Professor of Spanish, University of Delaware &Colgate University)
Eleanor Bader Adjunct Lecturer, Kingsborough Community College
James Blair Teaching Fellow, Brooklyn College
Julia Lee Barclay Adjunct Assistant Professor, Theater & Communications, Hunter College & Bronx Community College
Carwil Bjork-James Adjunct Lecturer, Anthropology, Hunter College
Renate Bridenthal Professor of History (retired), Brooklyn College
Susan Buck-Morss Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Caitlin Cahill Assistant Professor, Kingsborough Community College
Norman Carey Associate Professor and Deputy Executive Officer, Music, CUNY Graduate Center
Marvin Carlson Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Kandice Chuh Professor, English and American Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Alyson Cole Associate Professor, Political Science, Queens College & CUNY Graduate Center
Risa Cromer Adjunct Lecturer, Lehman College
Paisley Currah Professor, Political Science, Brooklyn College
Ashley Dawson Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center
Daisy Deomampo Graduate Teaching Fellow, Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center
Maggie Dickinson Instructional Technology Fellow, Queens College
Jackie DiSalvo Associate Professor Emerita, English, Baruch College & CUNY Graduate Center
Mark Drury Graduate Teaching Fellow, Anthropology, Hunter College
Rayya El Zein Graduate Teaching Fellow, Theatre Department, City College of New York
Joseph Entin Associate Professor, English, Brooklyn College
Maureen E. Fadem Assistant Professor of English, Kingsborough Community College
Alan Feigenberg Professor, Architecture, City College of New York
Sujatha Fernandes Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center
Michelle Fine Distinguished Professor of Psychology, CUNY Graduate Center
Lisa Freedman Adjunct, English, Kingsborough Community College
Sarah Friedland Adjunct Lecturer, College of Staten Island
Deborah Gambs Assistant Professor, Sociology, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Elizabeth Goetz Adjunct Instructor, Borough of Manhattan Community College & Hunter College
David Greetham Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center
Jack Hammond Professor, Sociology, Hunter College and Graduate Center
David Harvey Distinguished Professor, Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate Center
Alan Hausman Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College
Andrew Hernann Graduate Teaching Fellow & Adjunct Lecturer, Sociology and Anthropology, Baruch College
James Hoff Adjunct Lecturer, Brooklyn College
Jake Hooker Adjunct lecturer, LaGuardia Community College
Stefanie Jones Fellow, Hunter College
Laura Kaplan Graduate Teaching Fellow, Hunter College
Lisa Karakaya Adjunct Professor of French, Queens College
Cindi Katz Professor, Environmental Psychology and Earth and Environmental Sciences, CUNY Graduate Center
Barbara Katz Rothman Professor of Sociology, Public Health, and Women’s Studies, CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College
Wayne Koestenbaum Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center
Ann Kottner Adjunct Professor, English, Brooklyn Educational Opportunity Center/New York City College of Technology
John Krinsky Associate Professor and Chair, Political Science, City College of New York
Patrick Lloyd Professor, Physical Sciences, Kingsborough Community College
Setha M. Low Professor, Anthropology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Psychology and Women’s Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Bradley Lubin Graduate Teaching Fellow, English, Baruch College
Manissa Maharawal Graduate Teaching Fellow, Anthropology, Baruch College
Velina Manolova Graduate Teaching Fellow, English Department, City College of New York
Michael Marcus Professor of Mathematics, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center
Mary McGlynn Associate Professor and Departmental Chair, English, Baruch College
Rachel McKinney Graduate Teaching Fellow, Philosophy, Brooklyn College
Michael Menser Assistant Professor, Philosophy, Brooklyn College
John Mineka Associate Professor, Mathematics, Lehman College
Ananya Mukherjea Associate Professor, Sociology and WGS, College of Staten Island & Public Health, CUNY Graduate Center
Leith Mullings Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Graduate Center
Christina Nadler Adjunct Lecturer, Sociology, Hunter College
Immanuel Ness Professor, Political Science, Brooklyn College
Anthony O’Brien Associate Professor (retired), English, Queens College
David O’Brien Professor, Psychology, Baruch College
Susan O’Malley Professor, English, Kingsborough College and MALS, Graduate Center, emerita
Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome Professor, Political Science, Brooklyn College
Rupal Oza Director, The Women and Gender Studies Program, Hunter College
Costas Panayotakis Associate Professor of Sociology, New York City College of Technology
Katia Perea Assistant Professor Sociology, Kingsborough Community College
Rosalind Petchesky Distinguished Professor, Political Science, Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center
Brian Pickett Adjunct Lecturer, Speech and Theatre, Queensborough Community College
Pieranna Pieroni HEO, School of Education, Brooklyn College
Marianne Pita Professor and Department Chair, English, Bronx Community College
Victoria Pitts-Taylor Professor of Sociology, Queens College & CUNY Graduate Center and Director and Coordinator, Women’s Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Tanya Pollard Professor, English, Brooklyn College & CUNY Graduate Center
Mark Porter Webb Adjunct Lecturer, Sociology and Anthropology, Baruch College
Jesse Prinz Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
Mariya Radeva Graduate Teaching Fellow, Anthropology, Hunter College
Peter Ranis Professor Emeritus, Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
Jennifer Ridgley Visiting Assistant Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Bill Rosenthal Associate Professor, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, LaGuardia Community College
Emily Schnee Assistant Professor, English, Kingsborough Community College
Alycia Sellie Instructor, Brooklyn College
Ira Shor Professor, English, CUNY Graduate Center
Maura Smale Assistant Professor, Library, New York City College of Technology
Carly Smith Adjunct Lecturer, Baruch College
Neil Smith Distinguished Professor, Anthropology & Geography, CUNY Graduate Center
Amy Starecheski Graduate Teaching Fellow, Hunter College
Martyna Starosta Adjunct Lecturer, Film and Media Department, Hunter College
Seth Stewart Adjunct Instructor, Hunter & Brooklyn Colleges
Mary Taylor Adjunct Assistant Professor, Hunter College
Jeanne Theoharis Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College
Conor Tomás Reed Graduate Teaching Fellow, English Department, Baruch College
Saadia Toor Associate Professor, Dept of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, College of Staten Island
Stephen Tumino Substitute Assistant Professor, Kingsborough Community College
Lori D. Ungemah Assistant Professor of English, The New Community College at CUNY
Gloria Waldman Professor Emerita, York College & CUNY Graduate Center
John Weir Associate Professor, English, Queens College
Jocelyn Wills Associate Professor, History, Brooklyn College
Eben Wood Associate Professor, English, Kingsborough Community College
Tommy Wu Graduate Teaching Fellow, Sociology, Queens College
To sign on, please use this form or send your name, role, and affiliation via e-mail to cunyfacultysolidarity@gmail.com
