PSC: Circumvents Pact
Claim Student Gripe Plan Goes Too Far

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The Professional Staff Congress said last week that City University's new student complaint procedure violates the contract by giving administrators new powers to discipline Professors.

BARBARA BOWEN: 'Could have chilling effect.'

CUNY's Board of Trustees passed the measure Jan. 29 with the support of the United Student Senate but with opposition from the PSC and the United Faculty Senate. University officials altered the policy to take into account faculty concerns about possible infringement on academic freedom, but the PSC says the changes were not adequate.

'Sidesteps Contract'

"Our central concern is that the policy sidesteps the contract," said PSC President Barbara Bowen. "It mandates a set of procedures for disciplinary action that have not been agreed upon. And that is abhorrent to us."

The General Counsel for the university says that the complaint policy does not violate the contract.

The new procedure allows students to file written complaints about faculty conduct in the classroom. The chair of the department is charged with investigating the complaint and making a recommendation about its validity. Either the student or the Professor can appeal the decision to a board composed of two faculty members, the head of student affairs and one student. If found guilty, the faculty member could have a report put in his or her file or the college president could decide to bring formal disciplinary charges.

After a five-hour hearing during which dozens of students and faculty testified, CUNY officials added a clause to the policy that required the department chair to examine whether the complaint was in violation of the principle of academic freedom before proceeding with the investigation.

Can Switch Umpires

CUNY also added a provision which would allow the student or faculty member to request that the department chair be replaced by a dean or senior faculty member if it was believed that the chair would be biased.

"The changes to the draft document were made following careful consideration of the many important points raised during the public hearing," said CUNY spokesman Michael Arena in an e-mail. The final policy was approved unanimously by the board.

The PSC said the modifications were welcome. "They did see that the procedure was enormously unpopular with the faculty and they made some attempt to incorporate changes" said Ms. Bowen. "We are glad they listened and some of the changes are very positive."

But union officials argued the academic freedom protections were still too weak.

"We feel strongly that the students need to have their very real concerns addressed," said Ms. Bowen, "but this policy could have a chilling effect on classroom discussion, and the students will also suffer from that."

The union also said the policy was open to wide interpretation.

Too Broad a Spectrum

"It's good that there will be consideration as to where academic freedom applies," said PSC Vice President Steve London. "However, there are now going to be 400 different criteria for making that determination." CUNY has roughly 400 different department chairs throughout the system.

But one change in particular convinced the union that the policy was in violation of the contract. A sentence was inserted into the policy's introduction that explains what kind of behavior would be included in the complaint process. It reads: "Examples might include incompetent or inefficient service, neglect of duty, physical or mental incapacity and conduct unbecoming a member of the staff."

According to a memo written by CUNY's General Counsel, Frederick P. Schaffer, "Those examples have been taken verbatim from Article 21.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between CUNY and the PSC, which sets forth the grounds for disciplinary action against instructional staff."

This is where the PSC says the policy crosses the line.

"It takes the same behaviors listed in the contract," said Mr. London, "and creates investigators and resolution mechanisms that are not in the contract."

The union says that these mechanisms have always been negotiated, but that the complaint policy imposes a new process without any input from the union. Mr. London noted that in cases where a negative report is put into a Professor's file in lieu of filing formal charges, the contractual disciplinary procedures are circumvented altogether.

The union hasn't decided exactly what measures it will take, but officials say they will not let the issue go.

"We will take steps to address that this violates the contract," said Ms. Bowen. "We will do it very forcefully, because we need to defend our members."