Spring 2021
Committee on Review
Professor Tanya Pollard of the Standing Committee reported that the Standing Committee on Review has examined the minutes of the Faculty Council submitted to them and approved these minutes.
Remarks From Professor James Davis, PSC–CUNY Chapter Chair
On behalf of the PSC chapter executive committee, I’d like to introduce a motion for a vote of this body. After a vicious year of the COVID pandemic and budget cuts at CUNY, the Federal government has authorized relief funding to colleges on a once-in-a-generation scale. Three rounds of Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds have been approved, including most recently in the American Rescue Plan. Each has portions restricted for student aid and portions available for institutional aid. They compel us to reflect collectively on our priorities for a recovery from the ravages of the past year.
This motion identifies six substantive areas for the College’s use of Federal relief funds, plus one priority that concerns process. Before enumerating them, I want to note that our deliberation here is itself circumscribed in that it reflects only a segment of the College’s teaching faculty. Over 60 percent of Brooklyn College instructors are not full-timers and do not hold faculty rank according to the CUNY Bylaws. They are disenfranchised here, while the President, Provost, Vice Presidents, and Deans hold faculty rank and may vote. Nor are our professional staff colleagues – HEO’s, CLT’s and others – eligible to vote at the Stated Meeting, though they have always been welcome to attend. So I would urge us, in considering a statement of community priorities for the use of Federal relief aid, to think expansively about who comprises our community.
Recovery through Equity: Brooklyn College Community Priorities for Federal Pandemic Relief
- Use all direct aid to Brooklyn College students in CARES and CRRSAA funds.
- Permit departments to schedule a sufficient number of classes to allow physical distancing in-person, achieve educational quality online, and ensure student degree progress.
- Prepare campus facilities for a safe return, where possible, to in-person work and instruction.
- Compensate contingent faculty for unpaid labor in the 2020 transition to online instruction.
- Reimburse professional staff for out-of-pocket expenses required to perform remote work to date.
- Enhance BC's Ethnic Studies departments, programs, and offerings by prioritizing tenure-track lines for PRLS and AFST, replacing vacancies in Ethnic Studies departments with tenure-track lines, and expanding curricular and programmatic development with majors in Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander Studies and Indigenous Studies.
- Communicate monthly updates to the college community on the College’s use of Federal pandemic relief funds.
Some of these priorities are self-explanatory, but some deserve further explanation.
On preparing campus facilities for a safe return, the expectation, of course, is that the College will comply with state regulations and will follow the science. Since conditions on the ground are changing, the campus community deserves to know what contingency plans are being considered. Faculty and staff deserve to know the rates of air exchange and ventilation in the spaces they may occupy, the recommended occupancy levels, and the protocols for cleaning and disinfection.
On compensating contingent faculty for unpaid labor in the transition to online instruction, it’s clear that all instructors had to reinvent their courses for online delivery. But adjunct faculty are hourly employees, not salaried. They’re paid by the hour, and they spent dozens of hours, mostly without compensation, to transform their courses. We should recognize this vast donation of labor by our lowest paid instructors and find a way to direct pandemic aid to address it.
Likewise, we all incurred out-of-pocket expenses of some kind in the transition to remote work, but many in the professional staff have had to recreate their workplace and reinvent themselves in order to perform their jobs effectively in this environment. The College has made some provisions for remote work, including technology enhancements, but staff have still had to go out of pocket for expenses large and small. Let’s find a way to reimburse them for that.
On Ethnic Studies departments, programs, and offerings, we have seen structural racism laid bare over the past year and also seen the extraordinary resourcefulness and creativity of institutions and individuals rising up to challenge it. We need to resist the zero-sum game of austerity era line requests and, with the infusion of Federal funds to address the College’s budget deficit, stand unequivocally in support of our departments and offerings in Ethnic Studies. They equip our students to better understand this world and to change it.
It’s clear from Federal regulations that pandemic relief funds come with conditions attached. There are bureaucratic hurdles, justifications to provide, audits to anticipate for any expenditures. But we expect the College administration to move aggressively and expeditiously, to secure as much Federal pandemic funding as possible, both direct aid to students and institutional aid. This is a transformative opportunity for the College that deserves a bold, imaginative response.
Thank you – I encourage you to vote to support this statement of community priorities.
Members of Faculty discussed the “Recovery through Equity” statement of principles and participated in an informal zoom poll on it.
Vote: 194 Yes; 19 No; 28 Abstain.
President Anderson’s Address
The President gave a State of the College Address, which included college news, a description of faculty and alumni excellence, new support for students, staff, and faculty, and details on planning for the fall 2021 semester.
Questions and Answers
Q&A focused on campus preparations for fall semester, support for students, class size, and the issues highlighted in the “Recovery through Equity” statement of principles.
The meeting was adjourned at 2 p.m.
