PSCcuny/ Professional Staff Congress / City University of New York Visit our website at http://www.psc-cuny.org OFFICERS Barbara Bowen President Steven London First Vice President
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Visit our website at http://www.psc-cuny.org
OFFICERS
Barbara Bowen
President
Steven London
First Vice President
Arthurine DeSola
Secretary
Michael Fabricant
Treasurer
George Brandon
Jonathan Buchsbaum
Penny Lewis
Costas Panayotakis
Michael Spear
University-wide Officers
Robert Cermele
Vice President Senior Colleges
David Hatchett
Blanca Vazquez
Alex Vitale
Senior College Officers
Anne Friedman
Vice President
Community Colleges
Lorraine Cohen
Sharon Persinger
Felipe Pimentel
Community College Officers
Iris DeLutro
Vice President
Cross Campus Units
Alan Pearlman
Andrea Vasquez
Paul Washington
Cross Campus Officers
Marcia Newfield
Vice President
Part-Time Personnel
Michael Batson
Susan DiRaimo
Steven Weisblatt
Part-Time College Officers
Bill Friedheim
Eileen Moran
Retiree Officers
Irwin H Polishook
President Emeritus
Peter I Hoberman
Vice President Emeritus
Cross Campus Units
STAFF
Deborah E Bell
Executive Director
Naomi Zauderer
Associate Executive Director
Faye H Alladin
Coordinator,
Financial Services
Debra Bergen
Director, Contract Administration &
University-wide Grievance Counselor
Deirdre Brill
Director, Organizing
Ida Cheng
Assistant to the President
Fran Clark
Communications Coordinator
Barbara Gabriel
Coordinator, Office Services &
Human Resources
Brian Graf
Organizing Coordinator
Jared Herst
Coordinator, Pension & Health
Benefits
Peter Hogness
Editor, Clarion
Renee Lasher
Coordinator, Contract Administration
Albert Muñoz
Coordinator, Contract Administration
Kate Pfordresher
Director, Research & Public Policy
Arsenia Reilly
Coordinator, Contract Administration
and Outreach
Diana Rosato
Coordinator, Membership
Peter Zwiebach
Director, Legal Affairs
American Federation of Teachers Local 2334 New York State United Teachers New York State AFL-CIO American Association of University Professors New York City Central Labor Council
February 5, 2013
Dr Karen L Gould Office of the President Brooklyn College, CUNY
2900 Bedford Avenue, Rm 2129 Boylan Hall Brooklyn, NY 11210
Dear President Gould:
I write to express the support of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY for your January 28, 2013 statement reaffirming that your administration will "uphold the tenets of academic freedom" at Brooklyn College The 25,000 members of the PSC appreciate your holding firm, even when under fire, to the principles of free speech and academic freedom We share your position that "it is incumbent upon us to allow our students and faculty to engage in dialogue and debate on topics they may choose, even those with which members of our campus and broader community may vehemently disagree."
The Brooklyn College Political Science Department's co-sponsorship of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions forum on Israel is not, as you point out, an endorsement of the views expressed by the BDS movement
Academic freedom is a hallmark of a true university and a necessary condition for the intellectual growth of its students Not only do students benefit when academic freedom is protected, but the whole community gains insight into controversial issues The production of new knowledge, an important objective of universities, often occurs at the margins of what is generally accepted and is often controversial The entire society gains when ideas - both good and bad - are exposed to the light
of public discourse Protecting academic freedom is upholding the role of the university as a public good For this reason, among others, the PSC-CUNY Collective Bargaining Agreement makes academic freedom a contractual right
Thank you for standing firm for the core values of a university, particularly a public university Your statement honors Brooklyn College and supports the community it serves
Sincerely,
Dr Barbara Bowen President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY
Cc:
Dr Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, City University of New York
Dr Paisley Currah, Chairperson, Political Science Department, Brooklyn College
Dr Scott Dexter, Chapter Chair Brooklyn College PSC
Dr Rudy Fichtenbaum, President, American Association of University Professors