Distinguished Professors and Professors with Endowed Chaired In Support of Health Insurance for CUNY Adjuncts

To Chancellor Goldstein and the CUNY Community:

As University Distinguished Professors and endowed chaired professors at the City University of New York, we are extremely concerned that adjunct faculty may lose access to health insurance benefits one year from now.

Adjuncts are a core and growing part of the CUNY faculty. Since 2000, CUNY has nearly doubled its adjunct faculty, who thus comprise the critical mass of our teaching force while also suffering the most precarious and least rewarded working conditions. Adjuncts are among the faculty and staff who help students pursue higher education, against the odds, as they contend with the growing inequalities that define our society. But, like the students they serve, adjuncts live those inequalities.
Consider three facts:

•At our sister institution, the State University of New York, adjuncts who qualify receive the same health insurance as full-timers. CUNY should at least meet the same standards as the SUNY system.

•Adjuncts, even when they have taught at CUNY for twenty years, have little or no job security.

•To date, adjuncts teach more than half the classes at CUNY; in the face of serious budget cuts, our campuses and departments increasingly rely on them to fulfill CUNY’s obligations to its students.

We welcome Chancellor Goldstein’s public commitment to “work on this important issue” and his promise to “incorporat[e] into the university’s budget request for the first time, funding to support health benefits for these adjuncts.” Making adjunct health insurance a priority for the University is the first step toward solving this crisis. Advocating forcefully for that priority is the next. That is why we urge the Chancellor to keep funding for adjunct health insurance at the top of his list of budget priorities, and call on him to work with the union to help make that funding a reality.

Sincerely,