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CABARET FUNDRAISER
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE NEW CAUCUS
CANDIDATES FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
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PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE
Principal Officers
|
Barbara Bowen |
Steve London |
|
Arthurine DeSola |
Mike Fabricant |
For President
Barbara Bowen has been president of the union since 2000,
when she led the New Caucus effort to revitalize the PSC. Under her
leadership, the PSC has emerged as a powerful, effective union, and
Barbara herself has earned a national reputation as a principled and
articulate labor leader. As the PSC’s chief negotiator, Barbara is
the architect of a remarkable series of gains for PSC
members—breakthroughs on sabbaticals, salaries, parental leave,
professional development grants for adjuncts and professional staff,
paid office hours for adjuncts, and research leave for junior
faculty. She has been a leader in the union’s sophisticated
legislative operation, which has delivered victories on pensions for
members and increased funds for CUNY. As a vice president of the
American Federation of Teachers, Barbara initiated a national
legislation campaign to address the staffing crisis in higher
education; as a vice chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, she has
been a leading force in the effort to preserve health benefits for
all City workers. The author of numerous publications on
Renaissance literature, Barbara earned her Ph.D. in English at Yale,
and holds faculty positions at both Queens College and the Graduate
Center.
For First Vice President
Steve London,
first elected in 2000 and
reelected twice, is an associate professor of Political Science at
Brooklyn College. A founder of the New Caucus, he served three terms
in the 1990s as Brooklyn College’s chapter chair and as University
Faculty Senator. A member of the Negotiations Committee for the
last three contracts, Steve is also the PSC’s Legislative
Representative, leading the union’s member-based political action
campaigns and CUNY budget advocacy. Working with the union’s
experienced and professional staff, he molded contract enforcement
into an effective, member-oriented operation. Under his leadership
in this arena, the PSC has won significant arbitration and legal
victories, including the 35-hour workweek for HEOs. Steve is the
Welfare Fund’s Executive Officer, initiating reform of the Fund and
preserving benefits. As a NYSUT Board Director, he was instrumental
in increasing NYSUT’s focus on higher education and gaining more
resources for the PSC. Co-editor of two books, Steve brings his
expertise in political science to the union’s work.
For Secretary
Arthurine DeSola, secretary of the PSC, was the first HEO
elected as a principal officer, in 2006. She is a Higher Education
Assistant in the Counseling Department at Queensborough. A member
of the CUNY community for over thirty years, she has extensive
experience, having served as a faculty member at LaGuardia Community
College and a member of the professional staff at Queensborough
Community College. Currently she is a member of the union’s
Contract Enforcement Committee, Legislative Committee, and Women’s
Committee. She served on the PSC bargaining team during the last
round of contract negotiations. Arthurine has chaired the HEO/CLT
Professional Development Fund Committee since its inception. Her
focus is assisting College Laboratory Technicians and members of the
Higher Education Officer series to receive funding for professional
development activities. She believes that now more than ever, we
must continue to educate and organize in order to advance the labor
movement.
FOR TREASURER
Michael Fabricant, Professor at Hunter College and executive
officer of the Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare at the Graduate
Center, has been treasurer of the PSC since 2006. As treasurer he
has been particularly committed to the transparency of PSC’s
financial reporting. Mike has been a member of the Executive Council
and the Negotiating Team for the past nine years. In his leadership
role, he has been particularly active in building the power of the
PSC through membership organizing. He has also led the union’s
development of collaborative relationships with stakeholder groups
in CUNY in order to promote greater investment in and access to this
very precious resource. For the past three years, Mike has also been
a member of the national Organizing Committee of the American
Federation of Teachers. The author of numerous publications, he has
recently completed his sixth book, Organizing for Educational
Justice. He has served as the treasurer of the National
Coalition to House the Homeless and has been a lifelong activist on
issues ranging from housing to public education.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
FOR UNIVERSITY-WIDE OFFICERS
|
George Brandon |
Jonathan
Buchsbaum
|
Carl Lindskoog |
|
Nikki McDaniel |
Costas
Panayotakis |
George Brandon
is an Associate Medical Professor in the Department of Behavioral
Medicine in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, as well
as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering
Department of the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of
New York. He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from Rutgers University
in 1983. Joining the PSC soon after arriving at CCNY in 1989, George
has served on the CCNY Contract Organizing Committee, has been the
PSC chapter chair, a chapter delegate and a member of the chapter’s
Executive Committee.
Jonathan Buchsbaum is Professor of Media Studies at Queens
College, where he has been the PSC chapter chair since 2000. As
chair, he has championed many issues, including health and safety,
adjunct equity, family leave, promotion raises, and antiwar
organizing. He has served as a University-wide Officer since 2003
and as the coordinator of Labor Goes to the Movies from 2000 to the
present. He is currently working with the Executive Council
subcommittee on antiracism, one of its strategic priorities.
Jonathan works on political filmmaking, and is the author of
Cinema and the Sandinistas: Filmmaking in Revolutionary Nicaragua
and Cinema Engagé: Film in the Popular Front. His
current book project is Exceptional Times: National Cinema and
Global Culture.
Carl Lindskoog is a writing fellow at Queensborough Community
College and a doctoral candidate in the History Department at the
CUNY Graduate Center. His research is
in the area of post-World War II labor and immigration history.
As the Coordinator of the Adjunct
Project of the Doctoral Students’ Council, Carl partnered with the
PSC in a successful campaign to win health insurance for doctoral
students who work for the University. He has been a member of the
Delegate Assembly and actively participates with the PSC
Part-timers’ Committee. He was recently elected to the Governing
Board of the New Caucus and served as a member of the nominating
committee.
Nikki McDaniel is Associate Professor of Biology at Bronx
Community College and was elected chair of the union’s BCC chapter
in April of 2008. Nikki has been an activist with the PSC since
coming to BCC six years ago and has helped organize many events,
including Junior Faculty Development Days and New Faculty
Orientations. She previously served as secretary of the BCC Chapter
and as a PSC-CUNY delegate to the NYSUT and AFT conventions. The
issues on which she has focused are health and safety, reassigned
time, paid family leave and part-time compensation. She has
organized events to oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Costas Panayotakis, Associate Professor of Social Science at
New York City College of Technology, received the Ph. D. in
sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. A union activist since the
1990s, he worked with CUNY Adjuncts Unite and, after being hired by
City Tech, became a member of the Delegate Assembly. Costas has
also participated in college and university governance by serving as
secretary of City Tech’s College Council and as University Faculty
Senator. His publications include numerous articles on political
economy, ecology and social theory; he is currently writing a book
on the relationship between capitalism and scarcity. His priority
as a University-wide officer will be to increase PSC’s leverage by
strengthening solidarity within its ranks, fighting against the
inequities facing part-time faculty, and reaching out to students
and the broader CUNY community.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
SENIOR COLLEGES
Robert Cermele |
Kathleen Barker |
Diane Menna |
Alex Vitale |
FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR SENIOR COLLEGES
Robert Cermele, an Associate Professor of Mathematics, has
taught at New York City College of Technology for nearly 37 years
and has been chapter chair since 2001. He has served two terms on
the Executive Council as Senior College Officer and is currently
Vice President for Senior Colleges. Bob has been the Welfare Fund
Treasurer since September 2003. He is also a leader in faculty
governance; he is active in local governance at City Tech and serves
on the UFS Budget Advisory Committee and the Status of the Faculty
Committee. He is a member of the PSC’s Budget, Legislation and
Academic Freedom Committees and has an interest in workplace health
and safety, union democracy and member organizing at the chapter
level.
FOR SENIOR COLLEGE OFFICERS
Kathleen Barker, Professor of Psychology at Medgar Evers
College, is currently a Senior College Officer of the PSC and the
grievance counselor for her college chapter. Kathleen’s social
psychological research examines contingent work and its effects on
workers in higher education and other sectors. Her recent research
has detailed the problems associated with citation analyses used for
tenure and post-tenure reviews in the U.S. and Europe. She was twice
appointed to national task forces on the future of the psychology
workforce by the American Psychological Association. Kathleen has
served as a UFS Senator for nine years and co-authored the
forthcoming UFS Faculty Experience Survey (FES). The survey will
report on a broad range of institutional experiences of both
full-time and part-time CUNY faculty.
Diane Menna, adjunct lecturer in English at Queens College,
has taught at CUNY for more than 25 years. She is an activist who
serves on the Executive Council and Contract Negotiations Committee.
Diane has fought the two-tier labor system and served as coordinator
of the Part-timers Project. Her belief in the power of contract
administration as a means of advancing members’ rights led her to
become a grievance counselor. Her affinity for language and detail
motivated her work with the union’s Constitution Review Committee,
which she later chaired. Diane sits on the higher education council
of NYSUT and the adjunct advisory committee of the American
Federation of Teachers. A member of the New Caucus since 2000, she
has served as a coordinator, and recently collaborated on revising
the caucus bylaws.
Alex S. Vitale is Associate Professor of Sociology at
Brooklyn College. He has served on the Executive Council for the
last three years and has been active with the New Caucus and the
Brooklyn College chapter since 1999. He is a member of the PSC
Legislative Committee and a delegate to the Delegate Assembly. When
a student at the Graduate Center, Alex was co-chair of the Doctoral
Students Council and then ran the Adjunct Project. In the early
1990s he was a community-labor organizer in San Francisco, focusing
on health and social services budget priorities. His research
interest is policing and urban politics; his recent publication from
NYU Press is City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign
Transformed New York Politics.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Anne Friedman |
Lorraine Cohen |
Penny Lewis |
Felipe Pimental |
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Anne Friedman,
Professor of Academic and Critical Reading at Borough of Manhattan
Community College, is PSC Vice-President for Community Colleges; she
has also served for nine years on the union’s bargaining team. Anne
is a leader in organizing community college members around workload
issues. She is a member of the PSC's anti-racism and two-tier labor
committees and has been active in Open Admissions struggles for 40
years, beginning as a student at City College. Anne is also a
delegate to NYSUT, AFT and the AAUP; she has been appointed to the
community college advisory committees in both NYSUT and AAUP. For
decades, Anne has been immersed in governance issues, and she has
been on the Executive Committee of the University Faculty Senate
since 1997. She is committed to a democratic and collective process
in union decision-making.
FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE
OFFICERS
Lorraine Cohen, Professor of
Sociology at LaGuardia Community College, was elected in 2006 to the
PSC Executive Council. In 2008 she was reelected to a three-year
term as the LaGuardia chapter chair. In 2007 under Lorraine’s
leadership, faculty and staff waged a protracted—and
successful—battle to stop CUNY management from banning the use of
college e-mail for union-related communication. Lorraine also took a
leading role in winning reinstatement at CUNY for thousands of
students on public assistance. Lorraine believes strongly in
grassroots organizing and the development of a labor movement that
fights for a progressive social and political agenda. She is a
member of the New Caucus Governing Board.
Penny Lewis is
Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Borough of Manhattan
Community College. Fully committed to unionism, Penny has been
active in the PSC since her days as a student at the CUNY Graduate
Center; she has also been an organizer of junior faculty. She served
as co-chair of the union’s Solidarity Committee and represents the
PSC on the board of New York Jobs with Justice. She is also on her
chapter Executive Committee, is an alternate delegate, and chairs
the chapter’s committee on workload. Penny’s academic work expertise
is on social class and the relationship between labor and other
social movements in the United States.
Felipe Pimentel,
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hostos Community College, holds
a Ph. D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. He has taught
at several other CUNY colleges, including Lehman, BMCC, York and
Hunter. A member of the PSC since 2001, Felipe is the vice chair of
the campus chapter and worked with the union’s Contract Organizing
Committee. Following the publication of Felipe’s report, The
Decline of the Puerto Rican Full-time Faculty at the City University
of New York (CUNY) from 1981 to 2002, Chancellor Goldstein
established an initiative to increase the number of Latino faculty
at CUNY.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
CROSS CAMPUS
Iris DeLutro |
Donna Gill |
Steve Trimboli |
Andrea Vasquz |
FOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR CROSS-CAMPUS CHAPTERS
Iris DeLutro,
a senior counselor and coordinator of the LEAP to Teacher Programs
of the Murphy Institute, has been Vice President of the Cross Campus
Chapter since 2003. She serves on the Board of Directors of NYSUT
and is active within both NYSUT and the union’s national
affiliates. Iris is a member of the PSC Legislation Committee and
serves as co-coordinator of the political action committee for the
Borough of Queens. She is a member of the HEO Organizing Committee
and has represented union members at the bargaining table as member
of the PSC Negotiations Committee. In the forefront of the struggle
against the erosion of HEO benefits and conditions, Iris works to
ensure equity and advancement for the professional staff. As
the union’s vice president for cross-campus chapters, Iris has
worked tirelessly to raise awareness of professional staff issues,
including “bullying at the workplace” practices that many HEOs
experience. She has led workshops on this topic for professional
staff at state and national higher education conferences.
FOR CROSS-CAMPUS OFFICERS
Donna Veronica Gill is Assistant Director of the Office of
Financial Aid at Hunter College. A member of the CUNY community
since 1986, Donna has devoted 14 years of service to the PSC. For
the past five years, she has been a tireless grievance counselor in
the union’s central office. Donna currently she serves on the the
PSC’s Executive Council and its Grievance Policy Committees. She is
also on the selection committee for HEO/CLT professional development
grants, and active in the union’s peace and justice work. Most
important, she has contributed to achieving significant gains for
the HEO chapter. Her unwavering dedication was instrumental in
winning the HEO overtime grievance and lawsuit. A committed activist
for social change, she has developed and honed her organizing skills
to benefit the labor movement.
Steve Trimboli,
a Senior College Laboratory Technician in Biological Sciences at
Lehman College, is responsible of the efficient operation of
Lehman’s biochemistry laboratories. He has been an active
participant in the CLT chapter of the PSC for 26 years and a
Cross-Campus Officer for twelve. Steve is currently a member of the
PSC Grievance Policy and the HEO/CLT Professional Development
Committees. He is also a longtime member of the union’s bargaining
team, where he brings an understanding of both faculty and staff,
both full-time and part-time employees. He serves as chapter
delegate to the PSC Delegate Assembly and a delegate to the NYSUT
and AFT conventions.
Andrea Ades
Vásquez, is a Higher Education Officer who has worked at the
American Social History Project since 1989. She is currently
associate director of American Social History Project and the Center
for Media and Learning as well as Managing Director of the Graduate
Center's New Media Lab. Andrea is co-producer and designer of many
U.S. history websites that are currently used in CUNY, other
colleges and high school classes. For the past nine years, Andrea
has been involved in union activities with a particular concern for
contract issues. She has served as an alternate delegate, helped
produce the HEO newsletter, and recently joined the Graduate
Center's HEO labor/management committee.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
PART-TIME PERSONNEL
Marcia Newfield |
Michael Batsonl |
Susan DiRaimo |
Steve Weisblatt |
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
FOR PART-TIME
PERSONNEL
Marcia Newfield,
adjunct lecturer in English at BMCC since 1988, was elected Vice
President for Part-Time Personnel in 2003. She initiated monthly
First Friday meetings of the Delegate Assembly Part-Time Personnel
Committee, serves as a grievance counselor for part-timers, co-chair
of the Women’s Committee, and member of the union’s Grievance
Policy, Finance, and Academic Freedom Committees. As representative
to AFT and AAUP Contingent Advisory groups, Marcia acts to realize
her belief that contingents, the nation-wide new higher education
majority, are ready for breakthrough changes. In September 2008, she
was elected to the Governing Board of the New Caucus.
FOR OFFICERS FOR
PART-TIME PERSONNEL
Michael Batson has been an Adjunct Lecturer in History and
Women’s Studies at the College of Staten Island since 2000. He has
been active in the PSC since then, and for the past three years he
has been a PSC delegate and campus organizer of part-timers, working
successfully to build a campus infrastructure of activist
part-timers. Michael is committed to maintaining CUNY as a quality,
affordable, and humane institution, and has concentrated on
improving both the working conditions of his colleagues and the
learning environment of the students.
Susan DiRaimo, currently an Officer for Part-Time Personnel,
was first elected in 2003. She has been an adjunct in the
English Department at City College since 1981 and at Lehman College
since 1995. Susan co-authored an ESL Textbook, Life, Language and
the Urban Experience. She has worked for a seniority system for
part-timers and has advocated for a plan that notifies adjuncts that
they qualify to participate in the TRS pension system. For the past
six years, Susan has lobbied in Albany for a change in the
Unemployment Insurance law to protect adjuncts’ access to
unemployment. She has been the Co-chair of the PSC Open Access
committee, testifying regularly on student issues at the Board of
Trustees. She has been elected a Coordinator of the New Caucus.
Steve Weisblatt, Continuing Education Teacher in the CUNY
Language Immersion Program (CLIP), has taught at York College for
more than ten years and has been on the York Chapter’s Executive
Committee. He has served as Alternate Delegate, Delegate, Acting
Chapter Chair, and Vice Chair. He serves on the Delegate Assembly
Part-timers Committee. His union activism began with the
Communication Workers of America where he served as shop steward.
While he has particular interest in and concern for issues that
impact contingent workers, he will represent all PSC
constituencies.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
FOR
RETIREE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OFFICERS
|
Bill Friedheim |
Eillen Moran |
Bill Friedheim, a long-time labor activist, served as a union
chapter chair at BMCC in the sixties, seventies and nineties. A
former labor editor and the award-winning webmaster for the PSC, he
developed the Welfare Fund website and designs each retiree
newsletter. He brings a breadth of experience to his candidacy; he
has been an activist in PSC and retiree chapter committees and a
delegate to the AFT and NYSUT conventions. In 2005, he played a key
role on the PSC committee that revised the union’s constitution,
resulting in an amendment that gave retirees elected representation
on the PSC Executive Council. He has published books on the Civil
War/Reconstruction period and the intersection of pedagogy and
new-media technology in the teaching of history.
Eileen Geil Moran retired in 2002 from her position as
Research Associate at the Queens College Michael Harrington Center;
she also taught several courses in the Sociology Department at
Queens. Before her retirement, she was active with the Queens
College PSC Chapter and served on the Welfare Fund Advisory
Committee. For the past six years, she co-chaired the PSC
Legislation Committee, spearheading the union’s electoral work and
regularly advocating with state legislators and members of the City
Council on behalf of the PSC, the University and its
students. Eileen currently serves on the Executive Committee of the
Retiree Chapter. She is a member of the Governing Board of the New
Caucus.
For more information on the candidates for retiree officer, click
here.
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS |
UNIVERSITY WIDE |
SENIOR COLLEGES |
COMMUNITY COLLEGES |
CROSS CAMPUS |
PART TIME |
RETIREE | BACK TO TOP
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