You are reading

Rep. Maloney Urges CUNY to Reverse Layoffs of Nearly 3,000 Employees

Queens College (Photo Courtesy of Queens College)

Aug. 25, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney penned a letter to the City University of New York (CUNY) urging the administration to reverse its decision to layoff nearly 3,000 employees.

CUNY decided to not renew the contracts of about 2,800 employees — mostly adjunct professors and part time staff members — across its 25 colleges for the fall semester last month ahead of budget cuts from the city.

Maloney, along with seven other Congress members, criticized CUNY for the layoffs after the federal government provided millions in funding to the school system.

“We are deeply concerned that CUNY is conducting mass layoffs when so much federal funding was allocated to avoid loss of employment and subsequent loss of healthcare insurance for hundreds of our constituents,” they wrote in a letter sent Monday to the CUNY Chancellor and Chair of the CUNY Board of Trustees.

The lawmakers noted that they fought for funding for the school system in the CARES Act and secured $132 million in institutional support for CUNY colleges.

The cost of keeping the 2,800 employees on payroll for the fall semester would be about $30 million, based on the current semester’s data, according to the Congress members. That amount is just a fraction of the CARES funding allocated for the purpose of keeping people’s jobs, they said.

“We are dismayed that in the midst of this pandemic you have decided to lay off nearly 3,000 employees, when the CARES institutional support funding was intended to help keep faculty on payroll,” they wrote in the letter.

The representatives said most of the laid-off employees were adjunct professors who collectively taught thousands of courses each term. These courses will either have reduced class sizes or be cut entirely, they added.

“The livelihoods and health of CUNY employees are at stake, but equally at risk is educational quality for the students,” they state in the letter.

Maloney was joined by New York Congress Members Max Rose, Kathleen Rice, Thomas Suozzi, Adriano Espaillat, José Serrano, Eliot Engel and Sean Patrick Maloney in signing the letter.

Together, the representatives urged CUNY to “maintain worker employment and health insurance to the greatest extent possible in these precarious times.”

The CARES Act also awarded $118 million in emergency financial aid for CUNY students.

CUNY was unable to be reached for immediate comment.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade honors fallen heroes

May. 30, 2023 By Gabriele Holtermann

Rain or shine, the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, touted as the largest Memorial Day parade in the United States, has been a staple of the quaint Queens neighborhoods since 1927. Thousands lined the parade route under clear blue sky along Northern Boulevard from Jayson Avenue in Great Neck to 245th Street in Douglaston on May 29 to honor the brave men and women who answered their call to service and made the ultimate sacrifice while defending their country.

New York Hall of Science awarded federal funding for project on artificial intelligence

New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) will play a key role in the future of artificial and natural intelligence after U.S. Rep. Grace Meng announced that the institution in Flushing Meadows Corona Park has been awarded nearly a half-million dollars in federal funding from the National Science Foundation over the next five years.

NYSCI will be part of a $20 million initiative led by Columbia University to establish an AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI), an interdisciplinary center that will bring together several top research institutions to focus on a national priority: connecting the major progress made in AI systems to the revolution in understanding the brain.