TV Ad Puts Spotlight on Low Pay for Professors

By MICHELLE FRIEDMAN

The Professional Staff Congress last week began airing a 30-second TV ad about the crisis of uncompetitive City University of New York salaries.

BARBARA BOWEN: Takes pay case to TV.

The ad, featuring PSC President Barbara Bowen, is scheduled to air for two weeks during morning network news shows and on CNN and NY1, and features the slogan, "New York needs CUNY, and CUNY needs a raise."

Ad's Shock Value

According to Ms. Bowen, CUNY salaries are 40 percent below those at private universities such as NYU, and 20 percent below comparable public university salaries. She said that the main objective of the commercial is to alert the public to the enormous gap in salaries.

"The ad is generally met with a reaction of shock," Ms. Bowen said. "Even the people filming the commercial were shocked."

CUNY enrolls more than 600,000 students, 400,000 of whom attend credit-earning courses, with another 200,000 in extension-degree courses. "We wanted to reach people in New York City who are likely to be concerned about CUNY," Ms. Bowen added. "We wanted to reach students, families who are part of the community, and we wanted to reach decision-makers. We thought it was an appropriate time to reach them. The decision-makers and the average New Yorkers all have a stake in the City University."

The salary crisis at CUNY has become increasingly worse over the last 25 years as pay freezes and cheap contracts have driven wages way below national levels. "Until the 1970s, CUNY was known for having good salaries and was known as a thrilling and challenging place to teach," Ms. Bowen explained. She noted the accomplishments of CUNY faculty, with Nobel Prize winners and Poet Laureates among the staff.

Tougher to Attract, Retain

Ms. Bowen is fearful that this problem will continue to escalate. "It has become more difficult to attract and retain the top-quality faculty that we feel our students are entitled to," she said. "With salaries slipping 20 percent or more below the national level of comparable salaries, faculty are starting to leave, and candidates for positions are turning them down." She is concerned that when this generation of instructors retires, CUNY will not be able to replace them with the same "tremendous" quality of teachers.

Ms. Bowen believes that it is in the city's interest to significantly raise CUNY's salaries and that the salaries her union is asking for are fair and will allow the university to continue to thrive.

"I want to make clear that CUNY has an amazing faculty and people make very big sacrifices financially to teach at CUNY," she said. "Many could earn more money at other places, but they have chosen to come to CUNY and stay at CUNY because they are committed to the mission and the students. But, at a certain point, you can't make sacrifices anymore. We sincerely hope it does not get to that point."

The PSC planned to hold a rally outside CUNY's headquarters April 28, as this newspaper went to press.