Immediate Release

May 9, 2011

Contact:
Fran Clark
914-364-8925 (cell), Fclark@PSCmail.org

FACULTY UNION CALLS FOR TRUSTEE

WIESENFELD’S RESIGNATION
CALLS FOR REFORM OF TRUSTEES SELECTION PROCESS
New York— “Reversing the decision on Tony Kushner’s honorary degree is good, but
it does not address the fundamental problem, “ said Professional Staff Congress
President Dr. Barbara Bowen at a news conference held outside CUNY headquarters.
She spoke just minutes before a special meeting convened by the Executive
Committee of the CUNY Trustees to consider reversing the full Board’s earlier
decision to block the playwright’s honor, which overrode the decision of the Faculty
Senate and president of John Jay College and the the unanimous recommendation of
the college’s honorary degree committee. The Trustees dropped Kushner’s name
from a list of honorary degree recipients after Trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld attacked
Kushner with a distorted account of his views on the Israel/Palestine conflict, based
on a few out-of-context quotations. Neither Kushner nor the faculty of John Jay
College was given an opportunity to respond.
“The attack on Kushner represents an attempt to narrow public debate, disregard
recommendations of the faculty, and limit the range of views that CUNY students
are entitled to hear,” said Bowen, president of Professional Staff Congress, the
union representing faculty and staff at The City University of New York (CUNY). “In
bowing to that attack, the Trustees’ decision was an offense against open
intellectual discussion and freedom of thought, and it is essential that it be
reversed.”
But Bowen said that the incident also highlights a more fundamental problem with
CUNY governance: trustees are political appointees who are not required to have
any real experience or knowledge about higher education. Simply awarding Kushner
an honorary degree does not address that problem, she said, and also leaves
Trustee Wiesenfeld in a position to impose his political views inappropriately on the
University again.
“Jeffery Wiesenfeld has abused his position as CUNY Trustee on numerous
occasions,” said Bowen. “He should resign immediately and the trustee selection
process should be reformed so that the Board is composed of qualified people with
genuine expertise in higher education, who will respect the faculty, staff and
students in whose interests they serve .”

The Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, affiliated with NYSUT and the AFT,
represents the 22,000 faculty and professional staff at the City University of New
York. It works to advance the professional lives of its members, enhance their terms
and conditions of employment, and maintain the strength of the nation’s largest,
oldest and most visible urban public university.