2021 CUNY-Wide Election

Table of Contents:

  1. Upcoming Events:
  2. Statement from the New Caucus slate
  3. PSC General Officers Candidate Profiles
  4. Nominees for AAUP Annual Meeting Delegates
  5. PSC Voting Information

Moving Forward with New Caucus Leadership in the 2021 Union-Wide Election

A Leadership Transition for Volatile Times

For the past twenty-one years, under the extraordinary leadership of President Barbara Bowen, the New Caucus has led the PSC and built it into a strong, progressive union. The PSC under New Caucus leadership has improved conditions at CUNY and become a force in the labor movement locally and nationally. President Bowen’s decision not to seek another term means that the union will undertake an historic transition during an historic crisis in public health, economic stability, and social justice. The New Caucus has planned for this leadership transition, developing another generation of skilled, principled, and creative leaders. They include returning Executive Council members who are experienced union veterans, and committed newcomers who bring vitality, diversity, and engagement with their campuses and constituencies. This Executive Council will seize every opportunity to advance the PSC’s vision and values on behalf of faculty, staff, and the communities CUNY serves. 

The New Caucus candidates for PSC Principal Officers demonstrate the deep union experience and passion for the PSC’s mission shared by the whole New Caucus slate.

  • James Davis is a resilient advocate who will bring to the role of President experience on the Executive Council, in collective bargaining, and as chair of a vibrant chapter.
  • Andrea Vasquez, an outstanding organizer and union strategist and HEO at the Graduate Center, will remain as First Vice President. She plays a key role in the transition, bringing the experience she has gained during her first term as First Vice President. 
  • The Vice President for Senior Colleges, Penny Lewis, will step into the PSC Secretary role, bringing her experience of four terms on the EC, and manifold experience at CUNY and the broader city labor movement.
  • Felicia Wharton, longtime Chapter Chair at one of CUNY’s four Educational Opportunity Centers, offers her acumen in the Treasurer position. Felicia is a mathematician who has served on the PSC Finance committee for three years.  

In tandem with four seasoned Vice President candidates, Iris DeLutro, David Hatchett, Rosa Squillacote and Sharon Utakis, the officers will collaborate with the Executive Council to transform this moment of crisis into a moment of possibility, one in which visionary leadership and an organized union membership can work together toward realizing the founding promise of the people’s university.

Our Platform

There is no going back to the way things were before the pandemic. Racial austerity has threatened CUNY’s mission for years, so a return to “normal” is not a viable option. The New Caucus candidates seek to meet the challenges of the pandemic and economic uncertainty head-on, representing and engaging PSC members so that we can collectively create the conditions for faculty, staff, and students to be safe and to thrive.

A New Deal for CUNY

  • Our coalition work with students and other unions is an important expression of the bold agenda we will continue to pursue. We believe CUNY’s overreliance on tuition should end. Alongside the CUNY Rising Alliance, we call for a tuition-free, quality education for all CUNY students.
  • The demand for 5,000 new full-time faculty hires over the next five years is at once totally transformative and totally achievable, given the sources of untapped revenue in New York State. Fulfilling that demand would allow many long-serving adjuncts to move into positions with security and compensation that reflect their expertise and would allow for prioritization in the hiring of faculty from underrepresented groups.
  • By increasing the number of full-time faculty and staff, improving staffing ratios in academic and mental health counseling, and pursuing pay parity for adjuncts, we envision a university in which all students can be successful and the careers of faculty and staff can flourish.

We believe that our legislative and bargaining agendas must be connected.

  • We will continue to bargain hard and wisely on your behalf and to frame our demands in relation to the communities in which we live and work.
  • We will continue to prioritize equity for our lowest-paid faculty and staff and fight for fair pay and safe working conditions for all.
  • We recognize that a fully funded, equitably staffed, fairly compensated CUNY will require tenacity at the bargaining table and in our legislative work.
  • We will defend PSC-CUNY negotiated agreements, bringing the full force of our members behind legal and political remedies to hold the administration accountable to the contract. 

We will build upon previous initiatives to center the efforts of anti-racism and anti-bullying within CUNY and the union. Addressing the insidious impacts of white supremacy and workplace harassment is in everyone’s interest and demands our shared engagement.

Recent Achievements under New Caucus Leadership

Our union has been tested throughout the crisis of the pandemic.
Our commitment has been to “Save Jobs, Save Lives, Save CUNY.” The New Caucus leadership:

  • advocated and ensured the health and safety of CUNY employees
  • defended contractual agreements
  • negotiated the option for faculty and CLTs to defer tenure review and fellowship leaves
  • led vigorous campaigns that helped to reinstate more than 1,000 laid-off contingent employees

Union membership, durability, voice, and power.

  • High rates of union membership and stable budgets have been maintained through New Caucus leadership despite the 2018 Janus v AFSCME U.S. Supreme Court decision.
  • The union’s voice has been amplified in the public, legislative and electoral arenas, advancing a public higher education agenda.
  • The PSC has formed chapter-level committees to build and assess the strike-readiness of members in order to strengthen the union’s interrelated campaigns, galvanize chapters, and meet the CUNY budget and safety crises with a demonstrable potential for escalation.
  • New Caucus leaders have helped to forge an effective CUNY Rising Alliance coalition of community groups, unions, and student organizations.

This New Caucus slate brings together elected leaders and campus activists with established records of organizing colleagues and fostering union democracy.
We believe the union is only as strong as its roots, and we are committed to supporting chapter-level power. We are proud of the achievements of the PSC’s New Caucus leadership over the recent years. (You can read a comprehensive list here.) Each one was a collective achievement, advanced by research, persistence, and skillful negotiating, but ultimately powered by the action of wide circles of PSC members in the political arena, at our colleges, and in the streets. The cumulative knowledge, energy and experience of PSC members under strong New Caucus leadership has made the difference for our union, our university and our students.

A vote for the New Caucus is a vote for a vibrant, engaged union committed to a better CUNY and a just society.

Vote for union power. MARK YOUR BALLOT FOR THE NEW CAUCUS SLATE

PSC General Officers Candidate Profiles

Photo of James Davis.

FOR PRESIDENT. James Davis has served since 2015 as Chapter Chair at Brooklyn College, where he is professor of English. He was elected to the PSC Executive Council in 2018 as Senior College Officer and serves on the Bargaining Committee. A longtime PSC activist, he was drawn to organizing with students and colleagues seventeen years ago to prevent tuition hikes and military recruitment on campus. He has helped to wage successful chapter campaigns for health and safety, academic freedom, union membership, adjunct equity, anti-racism, and cross-title solidarity. With the PSC he has led lobbying teams in Albany and demonstrations in the streets, represented the union in public hearings, and helped to negotiate the implementation of the full-time faculty teaching-load reduction. He currently holds an elected position on the American Association of University Professors National Council. Prior to his Brooklyn College appointment, James spent four years adjuncting at NYC-area colleges and two years in a tenure-line position at a community college. A devoted teacher and scholar, he has published widely on American literature and is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching award from Brooklyn College. As President, he is eager to be a passionate voice for academic labor and sustain an effective, united PSC in the struggle for a flourishing university.

Photo of Andrea Vásquez.

FOR FIRST VICE PRESIDENT. Andrea Vásquez is the PSC First Vice President and running for re-election in the same position. A Brooklyn native, Andrea attended NYC public schools and earned her BA from Hunter College. She is Associate Director at the Graduate Center’s American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning. She has been active in the PSC since the moment she was hired in the HEO series in 2000. Before becoming First Vice President, she served as HEO chapter chair where she focused on contract enforcement and building new leadership, especially among women of color in the HEO series. As First Vice President, she has focused on membership and PSC coalition work with other unions, the revenue coalition, and the CUNY Rising Alliance.  As a part of the union’s legislative and coalition work, Andrea has played a leading role in the New Deal for CUNY campaign and legislation. Andrea feels privileged to have had the support, passion, wisdom, and solidarity of her sister officers over the past three years and she is committed to assisting in a smooth and effective transition from one strong principled leadership body to another. 

Photo of Felicia Wharton.

For Treasurer. Felicia Wharton is a doctoral lecturer at the Brooklyn Educational Opportunity Center and has taught mathematics at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT). In 2014, she became the chapter chair of the BEOC and currently serves on the PSC finance committee. Felicia is an active advocate for the Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC), ensuring that EOCs maintain wage and benefit parity with CUNY employees in similar titles, and as chair has established a strong relationship with the NYCCT PSC chapter, as  NYCCT is the administering college of the BEOC. She is a CUNY graduate with a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the Graduate Center, a master’s in pure mathematics from Hunter College, and recently a master’s in Higher Education Administration from Baruch College. Her research focuses on the issues and challenges teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning mathematics in adult education programs. Her work has been published in Coteaching in International Contexts: An examination of Ten Years’ of Research and Practice and Transforming Urban Education: Urban Teachers and Students Working Collaboratively. As treasurer of the PSC, she will maintain an accurate accounting of all union funds, ensure compliance with relevant legislation, and make sure that the union assets are safeguarded and used solely to benefit our members and priorities.

Photo of Penny Lewis.

For Secretary. Penny Lewis is associate professor of labor studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and vice president for Senior Colleges for the PSC. She received her doctorate at the Graduate Center, and has worked at CUNY since, including as a graduate fellow at John Jay, adjunct at Queens, teacher at the Hunter Campus Schools, and instructor at BMCC. A PSC activist since grad school, Penny has been on the Executive Council since 2009, served as co-chair of the Solidarity Committee, as labor management chair, and is currently on the Bargaining Committee. She has helped lead numerous campaigns over the years, such as successful efforts to win in-state tuition for undocumented students, local campus reductions in class size and pay equity raises, and helped the PSC and other NY unions prepare for the Janus decision. She writes about social movements, and is co-editor of the forthcoming Immigration Matters: Visions, Strategies and Movements for a Progressive Future (New Press, 2021) and co-author of the forthcoming A People’s Guide to New York City (University of California Press, 2021). Penny is excited to be part of a strong team to secure past gains and bring us closer to a just and equitable CUNY for workers and students alike.

For Vice President Community Colleges. Sharon Utakis currently serves as a Community College Officer on the PSC Executive Council. She is a professor at Bronx Community College, where she teaches English & ESL, with a PhD in linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center. Before coming to BCC in 2000, she taught as a contingent faculty member at City Tech, Baruch and Queens College, as well as at colleges in several other states. She has been part of the BCC chapter Executive Committee for many years and served as grievance counselor, among other roles, before becoming chapter chair from 2015 to 2020. She has worked to make the chapter leadership more diverse and inclusive. Sharon also serves on the New Caucus Governing Board, and helped to organize two New Caucus anti-racism forums. Currently, Sharon leads the union-wide one-on-one conversations committee, organizing strike readiness phone banking across campuses. She is a strong believer in one-on-one organizing.

For Community College Officer. Geoffrey Kurtz is associate professor of political science at BMCC, where he has served as chapter Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair. In those roles, he led a campaign for increased reassigned time and a VOTE-COPE drive, built coalitions with student groups, initiated a department representative network, helped to launch off-hours forums for adjunct faculty members, and worked to make one-on-one organizing conversations a regular part of the life of the chapter. He has also participated extensively in PSC legislative and electoral efforts. Before arriving at CUNY, he was a field organizer for labor-allied electoral projects, a staffer for other social justice groups, a graduate employee active in the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, and a part-time AFT member-organizer. A political theorist, he studies American political thought and the intellectual history of the democratic left.

For Community College Officer. Howard Meltzer is a professor in music and art at BMCC. A long-time member of the American Federation of Musicians, he was a freelance musician and then a Recreation Specialist for NYC’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DC37) and an adjunct at Baruch, BMCC, Fordham, and St. John’s. He worked at the non-Union University of North Texas and the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. He served on two regional boards of the ACLU, Dallas and Central Pennsylvania, and as president of an LGBT Community Organization in Dallas, the Oak Lawn Band. In 2003, he was hired at BMCC and served as a department chair from 2011 to 2016. Howard has served on the finance committee, organized adjunct fora, and represented BMCC at the Delegate Assembly before his election to the Executive Council in 2018.

For Community College Officer. Emily Schnee is professor of English at Kingsborough Community College where she has taught developmental English, composition, and literature classes since 2008. Prior to becoming part of the full-time faculty, she received her Ph.D. in Urban Education from the CUNY Graduate Center and worked as an adjunct instructor, graduate assistant, and in adult education programs at various CUNY campuses. Her research focuses on questions of justice and equity in community college education and has been published in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Community College Review, Radical Teacher, Teachers College Record and other journals. Emily has been active in the PSC for the past decade and is honored to have been nominated to serve on the New Caucus slate as a Community College Officer.

Photo of Iris DeLutro.

For Vice President Cross Campus Units. Iris DeLutro, a senior counselor and CUNY-wide coordinator of the LEAP to Teacher Program of the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies since 1984, is running for re-election to the position of PSC vice president for Cross-Campus Units. She serves on the board of directors of NYSUT, the PSC bargaining team and the PSC Legislation Committee. Iris has long been a leader in the PSC, and is known across CUNY campuses for her advocacy for all workers and for students. Iris works to ensure equity and advancement for the professional staff and to raise awareness of professional staff issues, including bullying in the workplace, changes to the time and leave time sheets, increased workload and the lack of a promotional system for HEOs and CLTs.

Photo of Myrlene Dieudonne.

For Cross Campus Officer. Myrlene Dieudonneis a HEO Cross Campus Officer seeking re-election to the Executive Council. She works at New York City College of Technology as Associate Director of Campus Services. Prior to joining City Tech, Myrlene worked as Senior Program Manager at the Police Athletic League (PAL) as a career guidance counselor. She is an active member of the HEO Steering Committee, advocating for better working environments across CUNY.  She is also member of several PSC committees, including health and safety, the HEO chapter executive committee, the Delegate Assembly, and is actively involved with one-on-one outreach and organizing.

Photo of Amy Jeu.

For Cross Campus Officer. Amy Jeu, a college laboratory technician (CLT) in the geography and environmental science department at Hunter College, is a union-wide Officer-At-Large for the CLT Chapter; a member of the PSC Anti-Bullying, Anti-Racism, and Membership Retention Crisis Committees; and serves on the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund Advisory Council. She served for over a decade in the CLT Chapter as a delegate, secretary, grievance counselor, vice chair and acting chair proudly representing an overworked, underpaid and deeply committed “invisible” labor force of the University. Through her leadership, the CLT Chapter adopted a Dignity at Work Policy, has taken firm positions on bullying and the misuses of rankism, advocates for equality and fair treatment of all in the workplace, and is an agent of change. As a PSC Cross-Campus Officer and a delegate to NYSUT and AFT, her goals include expanding membership engagement to include CLTs, increasing awareness and knowledge of all titles, and sustaining a robust union.

Photo of Janet Winter.

For Cross Campus Officer. Janet Winter has been a devoted PSC activist for many years, participating in numerous campaigns.  Currently a member of the PSC Executive Committee, she is the Vice Chair of the HEO chapter and a member of the PSC Health and Safety Committee. She has worked at John Jay College as a HEO for over 30 years, and currently works as the Assistant to the Interim AVP of Enrollment Management.  At John Jay, she is a member of the HEO Labor Management Committee, and an   ‘honorary’ EC member of the faculty chapter, in which she has participated for years, including in labor management meetings. Janet is an advocate for HEOs and all members of the PSC. She wants to expand membership participation and engagement in union work.

Photo of Rosa Squillacote.

For Vice President Part-Time Personnel. Rosa Squillacote has been vice president of Part-Time Personnel since summer 2020 and is a member of the Hunter College Executive Council. She is honored to be on the New Caucus slate for the same position. Rosa is an adjunct assistant professor in Political Science, where she teaches law and government classes. She matriculated at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2014, and her research focuses on the democratic possibilities of criminal legal institutions in American governance. Rosa holds a law degree from UC Berkeley and has a long history in criminal justice advocacy, including co-founding the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP). She was a founding member of the Bronx/Upper Manhattan branch of NYC-DSA and is an active member of Hand in Hand, which organizes domestic employees and employers. She organizes locally with Mott Haven Families against police brutality in the Bronx. Rosa and her partner have two toddlers. 

Photo of Ángel L. Martínez.

For Part-Time Personnel Officer. Ángel L. Martínez has taught at CUNY since 2017 and is an adjunct assistant professor at Bronx Community College, where he teaches political science. He also teaches Puerto Rican and Latina/o Studies at Hunter College. Ángel serves on the Bronx Community College chapter’s executive committee and uses his voice to call out for justice, equality, and job security for adjuncts and part-timers.His research interests include the history of Puerto Rican cultural and political movements in the US and the union’s role in anti-racist solidarity. He is a poet and cultural worker and has performed in labor arts festivals. Ángel is honored to be nominated by the New Caucus for the position of Part-Time Personnel Officer of the PSC.

Photo of Pamela Stemberg.

For Part-Time Personnel Officer. Pamela Stemberg is an adjunct assistant professor in English at The City College of New York and Hostos Community College. As a part-time faculty at City College, she has received several Campus Engagement Network grants to work with students and community-based organizations, creating public awareness/education campaigns on dis/ability, prisoner re-entry, and vaccine acceptance. Pam is a graduate of City College with an MFA in Creative Non-fiction and a master’s candidate in Digital Humanities at the Graduate Center. She serves as City College’s Vice Chapter Chair and Adjunct Liaison. She is a staunch supporter of adjuncts, advocating for Paid Family Leave, unemployment benefits, a path to full-time employment, and pay equity. In Albany, she has advocated for full funding for CUNY and a tuition-free CUNY. She currently serves on the Anti-Bullying and Membership Retention Crisis Committee. She is honored to be nominated for the position of Community College Officer.

Photo of Lynne Turner.

For Part-Time Personnel Officer. Lynne Turner serves as the Graduate Center chapter chair and Part-time Personnel Officer on the PSC Executive Council.  She is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the Graduate Center and teaches as an adjunct lecturer at LaGuardia Community College. Lynne is on the steering committee of the PSC’s Committee for Adjuncts and Part-timers and took on various leadership roles during the CUNY Summer of Struggle and contract fight. She spear-headed work for fair funding and guaranteed health insurance for tuition-only fellows at the Graduate Center. As a New Caucus coordinator, Lynne organized a multi-university panel on Bargaining for a Common Good in Higher Education and looks to further work building alignment with students and community within multi-faceted, escalating campaigns for a New Deal for CUNY.  Prior to graduate studies, Lynne was a long-term organizing director, researcher and educator in labor and labor-community organizations, as well as global justice and anti-war activist.  Her research on SEIU’s Fight for a Fair Economy is a chapter in New Labor in New York: Precarious Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement.

Photo of David Hatchett.

For Vice President Senior Colleges. David Hatchett has been a PSC activist since 2001 and currently sits on the PSC’s Executive Council and serves on the union’s Bargaining Committee. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Medgar Evers College PSC chapter. David was an adjunct for 22 years and has long been an advocate for part-timers. He has served as the coordinator of the part-time faculty Liaison Program since 2005. The program employs part-time faculty on 17 CUNY campuses to inform other adjunct faculty about their rights and benefits and encourages them to join the PSC. David is currently a lecturer at Medgar Evers and understands the needs of full-time and adjunct faculty. He is deeply committed to bringing more diversity to the PSC and CUNY.

Photo of Michael Batson.

For Senior College Officer. Michael Batson is a Lecturer in the History Department and CORE 100 Program at the College of Staten Island. Prior to his appointment in 2017, he was an Adjunct Lecturer at CSI since 2000, and at Kingsborough Community College from 2010 to 2015. He has been on the Executive Council since 2009, serving two terms as a Part-time Personnel Officer, and one term as a Senior College Officer, and has served on the bargaining team through the past two contracts through today’s impact bargaining. He has worked as a Part-time Liaison, and was the VOTE-COPE Coordinator for three years. In the CSI chapter, Michael has worked to  grow union membership, both in terms of numbers and engagement. He produced a report in 2010 on the impact of budget cuts on adjunct layoffs, helped to plan and implement the 2017 strike authorization vote, and he played an instrumental role in gaining eligibility for adjuncts to the city health care plan.

Photo of Susan Kang.

For Senior College Officer. Susan Kang is a member of the Delegate Assembly and is running for Senior College Officer.  She is an associate professor of political science at John Jay College.   Her research and teaching interests include international relations, international political economy, labor and human rights, and international law. She has published journal articles and a book on the ways in which unions and social movements can use international human rights law to challenge austerity and neoliberalism.  Prior to coming to CUNY, Susan was active in a graduate employees union organizing drive at the University of Minnesota. Susan is also active in state and local politics, helped to create NoIDCNY in 2017 and currently serves in leadership in the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Photo of George Sanchez.

For Senior College Officer. George Emilio Sanchez is honored to be nominated to the PSC EC slate for the third consecutive term.  He currently is the chapter chair at the College of Staten Island and is completing his third term in that role.  He is a professor in the drama program of the Performing and Creative Arts Department.  He served as chair for his department for 12 years. He is a performance artist who has created, and is presenting, a series titled, “Performing the Constitution”. His next performance, as part of this series, is titled In the Court of the Conqueror, focusing on the 200-year-old history of Supreme Court rulings that have diminished the Tribal Sovereignty of Native Nations in Indian Country. He is a Social Practice Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side. In August 2021 he will receive his Masters in Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples’ Law from the School of Law at the University of Oklahoma.

Photo of Marva Lilly.

For Retiree Officer. Prior to retirement, Marva Lilly served 3 years as HEO Chapter Treasurer at John Jay College. She participated in the campaign to sign up non-fee-payers to PSC.   She was an Alternate Delegate and attended DA meetings and many rallies.  Since joining the PSC Retiree Chapter EC,  she has worked on the Social Safety Net Committee presenting workshops to NYSUT statewide audiences of educators and community groups on the benefits of saving Social Security.  Marva currently serves as secretary of the PSC Retiree Chapter EC and a NYSUT Retiree Council Delegate.  She served on the NYSUT Registration Committee in 2019. She has participated as a lobbyist in Albany for the past five years; including Higher Ed Lobby Day in February 2020 to fight for support for CUNY and the Committee of 100 in March 2020.

Photo of Nancy Romer.

For Retiree Officer. Nancy Romer is an active retiree chapter member and the Environmental Justice Working Group’s chair and looks forward to working with the new leadership on the PSC Executive Council. She served on the Executive Council from 2000-2009 and was an active member of the Brooklyn College PSC chapter from 1973 to her retirement in 2016. Her goals include supporting a smooth transition with the new leadership, establishing more agency and capacity in the various union committees and working groups, expanding retiree engagement in the community, movement and electoral work of the PSC, and expanding democratic participation of all members. Nancy is a Professor Emerita of Psychology, Brooklyn College.

Photo of Lawrence Bosket.

For University-wide Officer. Lawrence Bosket has had a long and varied connection with Brooklyn College. It began in Fall 1997 when he entered the Adult Degree Program to pursue a Dual-BA degree in sociology and political science. After completing his degrees, he became a graduate student with-in the Political Science department. Concurrently he started working as a CUNYCAP in the Admission Office. In 2005, he became an assistant to HEO and later a Transfer Admission Counselor. His connection with Brooklyn College also included a stint as an Adjunct Lecturer at Brooklyn College from 2006 through 2013. He has been a HEO Delegate since 2016 and currently serves on BC Campus Reentry Review Team and the Team for Racial Justice. His background as a student, college assistant, adjunct, and HEO, and delegate has given him a unique and personal insight into the concerns that our members face.

Photo of Luke Elliott-Negri.

For University-wide Officer. Luke Elliott-Negri is the Legislative Representative for the PSC-CUNY, serves on the Bargaining Committee, and is running for re-election as a University-wide officer. As the Legislative Representative, he has helped coordinate the PSC’s 2021 endorsement process and electoral work. He has also worked with elected and staff leaders to develop and execute a state-level legislative strategy, with a focus on the New Deal for CUNY. Luke works as a non-teaching adjunct at the School of Labor and Urban Studies, where he conducts research on worker organizing. He has published studies on labor, politics, and social movements in journals such as Social Problems, Socius, New Labor Forum, and Social Movement Studies. His forthcoming co-authored book project with Oxford University Press analyses the conditions under which social movements can make substantial gains.

Photo of Jennifer Gaboury.

For University-wide Officer. Jennifer Gaboury is a full-time Lecturer on an adjunct conversion line in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Hunter College. She’s currently working on a book about segregation related to shared objects and intimate public spaces including public bathrooms. She has served on the boards of CLAGS (Center for LGBT Studies) and Alternatives to Marriage Project, and has been a member of the Advisory Committee for the LGBT Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, where, in another lifetime, she also worked. She currently serves as Chapter Chair at Hunter College for the PSC CUNY; she’s also active on the PSC’s legislative committee and within the CUNY Rising Alliance.

Photo of Sharon Persinger.

For University-wide Officer. Sharon Persinger has served since 2015 as Treasurer of the PSC.  During that period, she chaired the committee that worked to negotiate contract provisions for observations of online courses, participated in the Legislative Committee, and chaired the committee that negotiated contract provisions for observations of online courses.  She is currently a member of the Anti- Bullying Committee and the Membership Retention Crisis Committee.  Previously, she served as Vice Chair and Chair of the chapter at Bronx Community College,  where she is an associate professor in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Photo of Youngmin Seo.

For University-wide Officer. Youngmin Seo is an adjunct lecturer in the Social Science Department at the LaGuardia Community College and BMCC. He has a masters in anthropology from the City College of New York and is ABD in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center He has taught at several CUNY campuses such as Lehman, Kingsborough, and currently at BMCC. He served as student senator at the Graduate Center from 1994 to 1996. He was an alternate college senator at LaGuardia Community College from 2012 to 2014. He has been a PSC delegate since 2014 has been a LaGuardia PSC Adjunct liaison from 2016. He has also served the chapter as an executive committee member. He will focus on the equity for all part timers, CET, NTA, CLT and adjuncts. He will also work for fulltime faculty suffering through suffocating workloads. But he will fight hardest for students and their future.

AAUP Candidate Bios – New Caucus Nominees 2021

Lorraine Cohen is honored to be a nominee to become a PSC delegate to the AAUP. Throughout her academic career, she has fought against college administrations and state governments that have attempted to silence and disenfranchise faculty, staff, and students. In this moment of crisis, the central values of the AAUP, protecting academic freedom and shared governance are needed more than ever in the wake of the radically changed conditions brought about by the Covid pandemic. Over the last 25 years, Lorraine has been a Professor of Sociology at LaGuardia Community College. She has assumed many positions of leadership in the union and the college. Each one of these positions has exposed her to situations in which those who are at the top of academic hierarchy, especially administrations, have abused the rights of the most vulnerable employees in the University. Similarly, she has found that administrators seldom respect the principle of shared governance and without restraint are likely to do what they want, regardless of the rules. AAUP fights for shared governance as important principle of academic life which we should never abandon. The Covid crisis has accelerated trends toward further centralization of power, and the growth of bureaucracy. In many states, even those that see themselves as “liberal,” scholars and activists who express important critiques of racial, class, gender and national oppression have come under attack from conservative forces. AAUP has consistently played an important role in defending the rights of faculty to teach subjects and present perspectives that challenge the status quo. It is an important arena to resist these trends. It is more important than ever to strengthen the power of organizations that are willing to stand up and fight for the ideal of a democratic university that defends the rights of faculty, staff, and students. If elected, Lorraine will work with fellow PSC AAUP delegates to achieve objectives that implement these values.

James Davis, professor of English at Brooklyn College, served two terms on the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress executive board before being elected to represent District VIII (New York) on the AAUP National Council through 2022. He is a member of the advisory board of Academe, the AAUP journal. He also chairs the collective bargaining committee of the New York State conference of AAUP. James is committed to advancing the AAUP principles – and the practices – of academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance. He became Senior College Officer on the PSC Executive Council in 2018, and since 2015 has served as Brooklyn College PSC chapter chair. His teaching and research focus on American literature.

LaRoi Lawton, assistant professor in the Library Department at Bronx Community College, has been active on campus since he arrived in 1994, participating in the Faculty Council, College Senate, University Faculty Senate, and PSC Welfare Fund Advisory Council since 1997. He has chaired the UFS Student Affairs Committee and continues to be actively involved in many of the ongoing issues and challenges the City University of New York and many institutions across the country face. LaRoi was an adjunct for four years at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies and has been an advocate for full-time junior and senior faculty, College Office Assistants, College Laboratory Technicians and more. He is dedicated with working with students and faculty and remains committed to the many issues facing CUNY Libraries, our students and faculty.

Nivedita Majumdar, associate professor of English at John Jay College, is completing her second term as PSC Secretary. She serves as officer-at-large on the AAUP National Council, and has also served on the executive board of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress. Prior to her election as a PSC principal officer, she was a chapter chair at John Jay College, helping to build a dynamic chapter and foster shared governance. Nivedita has been active in progressive movements within and outside the university for more than 20 years in the United States and India, and she is an active scholar whose research interests include Marxist theory, postcolonial studies, theories of nationalism and cultural studies.