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The Graduate Center chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC)
Taylor Law event 03.07.24 More than 100 people attended our The Taylor Law: The risks and rewards of striking in New York State event with Labor Historian Joshua Freeman. It was a hybrid event held at the School of Labor and Urban Studies. The video of the event can be found on our YouTube channel. Due to technical difficulties, you can’t see Josh until about 10 minutes into the video, but you can hear him and there are […] “Taylor Law event 03.07.24”
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The Graduate Center chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC)
Chapter Rally Nov 15, 2023 150 PSC members – grad workers, staff, and faculty from the Grad Center and the professional schools showed up to fight for living wages and fair working conditions – and to express our anger at working under an expired contract. Students, faculty, staff unite! One struggle, one fight! Check out the speech made by Olivia […] “Chapter Rally Nov 15, 2023”
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Sofya Aptekar changed their profile picture
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The Graduate Center chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC)
Hungry and Hot at the ASRC The Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) Graduate Center campus at CUNY, located adjacent to City College in Harlem, is supposed to be a state-of-the-art building, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. It was part of the highest value project ever undertaken by the construction and financing authority DASNY. Its Clean Room and labs are extremely well resourced, with cutting-edge equipment for nanoscience and other research. However, labor conditions at the ASRC do not match these state-of-the-art research conditions. Workers at the ASRC oftentimes work long hours making affordable access to food imperative to their ability to continue to do science. However many workers we have spoken to have described their struggles to do something as simple as get lunch. Unacceptable Food Options on Campus Students, faculty and staff at the ASRC can get snacks, cold sandwiches and preparable food like ramen by going to the Café on the bottom floor. They can do this when the cafe is properly stocked, but PSC has found that there are no options besides frozen meals available most days. Nutritious hot meals are not readily available, and the coffee bar in the cafe has been broken for weeks, since March. Basic utensils like forks and spoons are frequently nowhere to be found. The PSC has spoken to many STEM workers who say they have simply skipped meals during the day because of the lack of food on campus. Some bring food from home and microwave it in its building’s kitchenettes, two of which have been converted to dual use kitchenettes and office spaces graduate students or the ASRC’s Sensor Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) Program office. Putting the Onus on Workers to Find Food ASRC workers are told that, during lunch break they may walk nearly 20 minutes round-trip to similarly understocked cafes located across CCNY’s campus, or to “Farmer’s Fridge” vending machines which we found to be nearly completely out-of-stock upon our visit. For hot food, ASRC workers are told to make use of CCNY’s cafeteria, located in the North Academic Center (NAC) a similar 20 minute round trip walk away from the ASRC. At the time of our visit at only 11:30 am, stock at the cafeteria was reduced to exactly 6 pieces of chicken, some rice, and a handful of meatballs, some pasta, and other sides taking up only a portion of the relatively large serving area – an unreasonably small amount of food for a cafeteria claiming to serve not only the ASRC community, but the 10,000+ undergraduates in attendance at CCNY. The small cafeteria was staffed by exactly one individual serving food and one person to ring us up. Still, this author found the cafeteria to be quite steeply priced at $11.95 for one piece of chicken, some yellow rice, and 4 broccoli florets on this occasion. Off campus, the dining situation isn’t much better. The closest options to the ASRC are down a steep hill (which in itself poses issues around accessibility), at two delis. The first deli on two occasions has given this author food poisoning, and the second, seemingly aware of its position as the only real quick dining option anywhere near the ASRC, charges exorbitant prices for basic sandwiches ($11.50 for cold cut turkey with cheese on a roll). More affordable dining options available to students include generally unhealthy options such as pizza and the on-campus halal truck – each a similar distance from the ASRC to the NAC. Healthier dining options do exist off-campus a bit further away, but charge somewhere in the $15 range for a lunch. For these reasons and others, many faculty and staff at the ASRC opt to get their lunch delivered to them rather than go outside for lunch. This of course is not an economically sound option for students at the ASRC whose stipends are currently over $20k below a livable wage in New York City. Ideally, ASRC student workers should be able to grab a quick, affordable, healthy lunch so they can get back to actually doing the work that keeps the CUNY ASRC running. In one of the most expensive buildings in CUNY’s system, why is management not advocating for adequate hot food options on campus or even ensuring consistently stocked, healthy prepared meals? Excessively Hot Temperatures at the ASRC Furthermore, workers at the ASRC were recently in the building without central cooling while temperatures in April reached 90 degrees. The ASRC is covered by a glass wrap, and workers were unable to lower blinds in their individual offices or open windows. While management provided fans and updates on temperatures, most workers, confused about a temperature-based remote work policy, remained at the campus to work in these unsafe and unreasonable temperatures. The cooling system is now up and running again, but because of the system’s logistics and timing, there is no way to guarantee the building will not reach similarly high temperatures again in the fall. At a recent Labor-Management meeting, President Robin Garrell refused to negotiate with the PSC around a policy that would allow workers to be sent home when temperature limits were exceeded. She said it was a supervisor’s prerogative regarding whether workers can leave campus. This is an unacceptable state of conditions for workers and students, who are being treated as if their physical needs are irrelevant to the work they perform for CUNY. The PSC stands against such conditions, and urges any at the ASRC with questions or need for assistance to approach the union in person or via email (psccunygc@gmail.com). Want to get these posts delivered directly to your inbox? Subscribe to our site […] “Hungry and Hot at the ASRC”
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The Graduate Center chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC)
*SLU workers met prior to the Labor Management meeting to discuss concerns and met again to make a plan for the LM meeting. All SLU workers are invited to participate in these meetings and take on different roles, […]
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, Housing Justicegood point about the term “mixed use”! I also really like that Zoning booklet and feel like it helps me understand our city better. I hope the Berlin referendum, which is non-binding, will lead to real changes. […]
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Sofya Aptekar commented on the doc Poisoning the Planet-Environmental injustice
Glad I found this! Move it to your website: https://schappell.commons.gc.cuny.edu/category/slucoursework/2021-fall/urb-200/weekly-reflections/. Great and depressing picture. Don’t forget to list the article you are responding to at the end.
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, Environmental JusticeI don’t see your other reflections here anymore – but I know I saw them before!
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, Environmental Justicewonderful reflection, Sarah. I agree that there is a way to see environment justice as the central struggle that brings all other struggles together. After all, this is about our survival as humans. Although, of […]
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Theresa Mitchell
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, Gentrification Impact EducationTheresa, excellent reflection for two reasons: you highlight the key points from the article and you apply them so well to a real life situation you know about in Crown Heights. I share your skepticism that […]
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, Does the Right to the City Still Apply?Sarah, great point about using the Right to the City framework to think about the pandemic, and what it means for democratic decision making, the collective good, and even use of space. I would also say that […]
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, The Idea of JusticeSarah, are these reflection posts connected to the pull down menu for URB 200? I realized that I can’t find them that way.
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Emily Warshauer
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, On “Normative and Theoretical Foundations on Human Rights” and “A Hundred Years of Solidarity”I agree that we really are continuing to see anti-communist imperialist endeavors by the US, and that it is not just a historical element of US imperialism. Given that, you are right to point out that the context […]
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Emily Warshauer
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, "Common Good" and the Permissible Harms of the MarketEmily, wow, what a great post. I appreciate that you brought your knowledge of moral philosophy and experience in debate to this reflection. You make a compelling case about who benefits in keeping the capitalist […]
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Sarah Elizabeth Cooper
Sofya Aptekar commented on the post, The Idea of JusticeGreat summary, Sarah! You highlight all the central takeaway points, which is not easy to do with this reading. What did you think yourself, particularly about the different moral approaches to the pandemic in the […]
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The Group for Group Admins
Sofya Aptekar started the topic force response before seeing the response of othersIn our online teaching training, we were told that there are advantages to setting up your class discussion board so that students are only able to see others’ responses after they submit their own. Is that possible to do in AC?
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The Group for Group Admins
Sofya Aptekar started the topic How many levels of threads are in AC groups?Hi, new CUNY faculty here, setting up my sites+groups. For the discussion forums in the groups, how many levels of threads are there? There is probably a more technical term for this. I mean, can people respond to a response to the original post?
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