There’s finally some good news in the battle of the PSC (Professional Staff Congress) to save the healthcare of 1,200 CUNY adjuncts, which is currently scheduled to be cut in 2012. The university administration agreed to petition the state for adequate funding of these employees’ health insurance only after a large-scale demonstration by faculty and students last week.

CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced that the University will seek funding for adjunct health insurance in its upcoming State budget request.

The announcement marked a milestone in the union’s 11-year campaign to get CUNY to back full permanent funding for adjunct health insurance.

“It’s the first time CUNY has ever moved on adjunct healthcare,” PSC President Barbara Bowen told a jubilant crowd afterward. However, Bowen cautioned that getting CUNY to make adjunct health insurance a budget priority was only a first step. “The next step is to hold them to that priority, to insist that it’s funded by the state. And then the next step, if we succeed with the state, is to negotiate the movement of adjuncts onto full healthcare.”

Bowen added that the union will hold a variety of creative actions at the CUNY campuses in the coming weeks in order to continue building its campaign for adjunct health insurance.

CUNY announces it will seek funding for adjunct healthcare, John Tarleton, Clarion, September 27, 2011

UPDATE: You can listen to Chancellor Goldstein’s comments at the Board of Trustees meeting, here.