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Tech Event Highlights
Counting on Council "We are relying on the City Council to restore the cuts the Mayor has made," said Bob Cermele, a Math Professor who is the chapter chair at New York City College of Technology. "We think it's time now that there's a budget surplus." Councilman David Yassky, who addressed about 25 faculty and staff members at the college's downtown Brooklyn campus March 27, said that much of the Council agreed with the PSC. "We're asking you to do more with less," he said, noting the rise in the number of students and the drop in full-time faculty. "We need to get the funding to allow more adjuncts to become full-time." CUNY's enrollment is currently at a 30-year high, while the number of full-time faculty has dropped by 5,000. Meanwhile, city funding for CUNY is 17-percent lower than it was in 1990, when adjusted for inflation. A Fire Hazard? "If the Fire Department came here," said Mr. Cermele, "they'd shut us down because we have so many students packed into the classrooms." The union is pushing for $12 million to fund its diversity hiring project, which would add 200 faculty and professional staff to community colleges, but the College of Technology primarily houses four-year programs. Beverly LaPuma, who teaches in the English Department, noted that Professors at the college taught more hours than at any other four-year college in the system.
Other Professors attending the event in the college's faculty lounge lamented the impact of insufficient funding on their ability to provide students with a high-quality education. Need for Remediation Henry Africk, the chair of the Math Department, said that many students who needed remediation weren't getting it. "We admit a huge number of students who are coming out of the public high schools who are unable to do basic math," he said, as other Professors nodded. "We are not given the resources, but we are supposed to bring them up to a college-level almost overnight." Assistant Professor of Humanities Shauna Vey teaches a course that helps students prepare for making presentations in the professional world. She says that knowledge of programs such as Power Point and other technical skills have become indispensable, but that only one or two out of the 40 Effective peaking sections have the equipment needed to utilize computer programs. "We're sending them into the workplace and we're not equipping them with the skills they need," she said. Another Professor recounted an incident in the Architecture Department in which its main printer ran out of ink, but university officials said they could only afford to pay half the cost of a new cartridge. And although new faculty members at the college receive new computers, others are working with machines that are up to eight years old and lack contemporary basics such as USB ports. Honesty Not Best Policy Maria Pagano, the Director of Liberal Arts, said she tells students who must work full-time while attending school to get jobs that pay "off the books" so they don't lose their financial aid. "Is there any way to get more funding so I don't have to tell my students to do something illegal?" she asked. The PSC also held events with faculty, Council Members and their aides at Queensborough College, Medgar Evers College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Brooklyn College and City College last week, and hosted a legislative breakfast that drew more than a dozen Council Members and their aides. The union is planning a lobby day at City Hall May 2 to keep the pressure on. "We're bursting with students here," said Mr. Cermele. "If they believe education is a priority, they need to fund it."
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