---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *David Laibman* Date: Saturday, July 27, 2013 Subject: [S&S] BC Center for Worker Ed petition To: S&S Ed Board <scisoc at googlegroups.com>
Dear all,
A letter went out from Corey Robin, current chair of Political Science at Brooklyn College, urging people not to sign the petition in support of the Center for Worker Education, which I circulated to this list. I heard from Renate (privately) and Alan (on-list) about this. Since you will be aware of Prof. Robin's letter, I am replying to the list.
I taught a course at the CWE in each of two semesters (Spring 2011, 2012), and know some of the people there, but I am not privy to the inside information that the opponents of the Center claim to have. I have spoken at length with two of my (erstwhile) colleagues there, Steve Lieberstein and Manny Ness, but still do not have the ability to report on the details; nor, if I were able to report, do I think that that would necessarily be the thing to do. (Rumor-mongering, in general, is not helpful.)
Despite the liberal and pro-labor posturing on the part of the Political Science Dept. leadership, several things lead me to believe that the CWE is under genuine attack, and is worth defending. First, I have personal knowledge about the vicious and irresponsible behavior of the Department, in summarily firing the former Director of the CWE, *and* his secretary, and depriving the faculty and students, in Spring 2012, of all continuity, information, support and guidance. The place was literally abandoned. Students were left wondering whether final exams would take place; whether they would receive their grades; whether they would be able to graduate. When I tried to contact the Political Science Department at the Brooklyn campus, I was basically ignored; even ostracized.
Second, Robin's letter makes clear his intention to close the 25 Broadway site, and move whatever is left of the program to the main BC campus. Part of the original conception of the CWE was to site it in lower Manhattan, where large numbers of working people would have easy access after work. Bringing the CWE back into the Political Science department at BC would effectively eliminate it as a distinctive program. If there were indeed financial improprieties and academic issues, the Department, by now, could have announced plans to address these, in the context of strengthening the program and putting it on a presumably sounder footing. The profound silence that has greeting all attempts, including mine, to find out exactly what the Department is proposing shows that the real intention is to close the program altogether.
Finally, it is clear to me that constructive approaches -- or what the Department considers to be constructive approaches -- to problems at the CWE are essentially precluded by the Center's name: Center for *Worker*Education. It is that italicized word that sticks in their craw; since the name cannot be changed, except by going through the vast hierarchy of procedural steps required by CUNY, all the way up to approval by the Board of Trustees, nothing is left to do but abolish the program altogether, by folding it (or whatever is left of it) back into the Political Science Department.
I sign (and sometimes circulate) dozens of petitions, and some of these are about particular campaigns and situations. I believe this is not only acceptable, but required of people who wish to act responsibly in a society governed by a climate of attacks on left, working-class and progressive forces. This means coming down on the side of a principle, even when the petition concerns a particular case the details of which may not be known to all of the signers. Input from afar can be taken for what it's worth, but I reject the idea that one must first have detailed empirical knowledge of a given situation in order to voice an opinion.
If any more detailed response to the Robin letter comes my way, I will pass it along.
All best,
David
--
--- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Science & Society" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to scisoc+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'scisoc%2Bunsubscribe at googlegroups.com');>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.