Employees and students at the City University of New York (CUNY) held a noisy, caravan-style protest on Jan. 30, in opposition to ongoing cuts and lay-offs which have affected both students and faculty alike. The group taped signs to their cars, hung out their windows, honked their horns and generally shattered the usual, peaceful tranquility known to some residents of the Northwest Bronx.

The estimated 20-vehicle, caravan rally formed outside Herbert H. Lehman College on West Bedford Park Boulevard, between Paul Avenue and Goulden Avenue in Bedford Park, and later deliberately drove past the homes of Bronx Community College president, Thomas Isekenegbe in Spuyten Duyvil, and Hostos Community College interim president, Daisy Coco De Filipps in Fieldston.

Organizers of the protest said CUNY colleges have been hit with massive lay-offs since last year, and allege that CUNY is sitting on nearly $700 million in federal funding that protestors say was meant to be “targeted at needs created by the pandemic.”

The protestors also allege that all three public colleges in the Bronx, Lehman, Hostos and BCC, have received over $72 million in federal funding from the CARES Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), but despite this, just a few million has been used to protect CUNY jobs.

Before the mobile protest got underway, CUNY adjunct professor at Lehman, Susan DiRaimo, a CUNY law degree graduate, who has also worked at BCC, voiced her opinion on the situation. “They laid off hundreds of adjuncts,” DiRaimo fumed. “I’ve been an adjunct for forty-years at CUNY and that’s how they save money on faculty. They pay us less wages and now, during COVID, they’ve laid off a lot of people.”

DiRaimo clarified that she, herself, was not among the adjunct professors who were laid off but said many of those present at the rally were supporters of the more than 2,000 staff members CUNY has let go since June 2020.

DiRaimo is also a member of the 27-member executive committee of the Professional Staff Congress (PCS), the union that represents 30,000 faculty and staff at CUNY and at the CUNY Research Foundation. PCS is also part of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 2334.

She added, “They’ve also made classes so big that it’s hard for students to learn. They’re not realizing what a crisis it is, and also the adjuncts they laid off, needed their health insurance so a lot of them lost their health insurance.”

Before the protestors got into their cars to start the rally, BCC associate professor, Alex Wolf, said, “We’re here to demonstrate against the racist austerity that is gripping all of CUNY, not just in the Bronx. They’re raising class sizes, they’re cutting sections, and our students are suffering.”

Wolf continued, “So, we’re going to have a caravan that’s going to go by the homes of presidents of both Hostos and BCC, and we’re going to make some noise.” He added that the CUNY Board of Trustees were “making a really racist decision” with the recent cuts, along with more cuts that could come after the end of the academic year.

As planned, once the group arrived in Spuyten Duyvil, the caravan first passed the home of lsekenegbe, a 30-year educator who was appointed to his position in August 2015. Several minutes later, the stillness was shattered as the caravan drove along a quiet street in Fieldston, passing the home of De Filippis, where an unidentified neighbor defended her, telling the Norwood News, “She has nothing to do with cuts… she just got appointed as an interim.”

The neighbor added, “It’s the trustees of the City University who cut up the pie. She’s just acting as interim with no real authority.”

The January rally was not the first one organized in the Bronx in opposition to the CUNY cuts. Another had also been held in the borough on July 15, 2020. Following that rally, and after repeated attempts by the Norwood News, over several months, to seek comment from CUNY on the cuts, on February 3, 2021, Frank Sobrino, director of media relations, emailed the following statement.

“Since the federal CARES money was made available in May 2020, the university has distributed $118 million in student emergency grants to more than 161,000 students. An additional $118 million in aid to students will be allocated shortly, using federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act Fund.”

The statement continued, “This aid to students is being supplemented by $9 million the Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund raised through private and corporate philanthropy. The Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund was established in April 2020 to help students who have experienced job losses, and other financial setbacks during the pandemic. The fund has so far awarded $500 grants to more than 9,000 students, prioritizing undocumented students and international students who were precluded under the Cares Act from receiving aid.”

The CUNY statement concluded, “The university has also utilized CARES funding to purchase 33,000 laptops and ipads for students’ usage for distance learning, as well as for personal hotspots for those students who require WiFi capability. The balance of CARES ACT and CRRSSA funding will be allocated directly to the campuses for student support and mental health services and to reimburse colleges for COVID-19-related costs, such as refunds, among other priorities identified by the university’s community and senior colleges and professional schools and programs.”

The statement did not answer our requests for comment regarding the lay-offs of the adjuncts or the related protests. We also requested a comment regarding the allegations that racism played a role in the lay-offs. We did not receive an immediate response.

During last year’s July 15th protest, outside the BCC campus, dozens of empty shoes were placed on the steps of the college to represent absent faculty members who had been let go. One such adjunct professor, Walter Ostrowski, recalled the impact of getting such difficult news. “It was a shock… it came out of the blue,” he said. “I didn’t get the reappointment. I was thinking – was it something I had done?” Asked if any warning or reason was given by CUNY, he said, “No explanation – I just got a letter.”

DiRaimo told the Norwood News that CUNY originally let go about 2,700 adjunct professors in April 2020 but rehired 900 in the fall, including Ostrowski. At BCC, 36 educators were let go, and nine were eventually brought back.

Another adjunct professor, who declined to be identified, said that before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the union had fought for, and won, three-year appointments for adjuncts that provided “job security and healthcare benefits.” He added that of the 36 educators who had been let go, most were seasoned professors who had been with the college over many years.

The adjunct professor continued, “So these 3-year adjuncts are the most experienced of our adjuncts.” He said many had a decade or more of experience. “The cost savings that they make, laying off these adjuncts, it barely puts a dent in the budget gap that they tell us they’re closing,” he said. In light of these comments, Norwood News reached out to seek clarification from CUNY. We did not receive a response.

DiRaimos told the Norwood News that following the latest negotiations with the CUNY PSC union, the most recent three-year contract agreed with CUNY for adjuncts has been implemented retrospectively but is due to expire next year.

Yudi Ventura is studying criminal justice at BCC. Referring to her tuition fees, she told the Norwood News at last year’s July protest, “I’m a student, but at the same time I work to pay for school, because I don’t get any financial aid, so I pay out of pocket. So, if there are not enough jobs for the students, then how can we work, and get experience as professionals?”

CUNY serves approximately 275,000 students, across 25 New York City campuses. Ventura added, “If there’s not enough professors, then a lot of classes won’t be available, and many students have to be full-time in order to keep that [visa] status as a student. I’m one of those international students, and in order to be an international student, I have to be a full-time student.”

The PCS union representatives at the rally told the Norwood News that they are bracing for the possibility of further lay-offs, come June.

Norwood News attempted to reach the presidents of both Hostos and BBC for comment, and did not receive an immediate response.

Editor’s Note: Síle Moloney, editor of the Norwood News, is a CUNY graduate.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.