Minutes #586

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Attendance

Present (32):

Jacob Adler, Chevy (Schevaletta) Alford, Elton Beckett, Ned Benton, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro, Kathleen Collins, Artem Domashevskiy, Jennifer Dysart, Jonathan Epstein, Diana (DeeDee) Falkenbach, Sergio Gallegos, Alejandro Garcia Lozano, Heath Grant, Sergio Grossi, Veronica Hendrick, Michelle Holder, Karen Kaplowitz, Allison Kavey, Anru Lee, Kyoo Lee, Jamie Longazel, Cristina Lozano Arguelles, Joseph Maldonado, Joshua Mason, Brian Maule, David Munns, Raymond Patton, Kumar Ramansenthil, Amada Santiago, Francis Sheehan, Todd Stambaugh, Violet (Sung-Suk) Yu

Absent (5):

Joy Dunkley, Macushla Robinson, Marie Springer, Charles Stone, Shilpa Viswanath

Invited Guest:

President Karol Mason

Agenda

1. Adoption of the agenda
2. Approval of Minutes #585 of the September 15, 2025, meeting
3. Election of 7 faculty to the newly created Committee on Academic Integrity
4. Discussion of an Investigation of a Title 6 Complaint against a faculty member
5. Discussion of Interim Executive Vice Chancellor Alvero’s posting about Academic Freedom
6. Invited Guest: President Karol Mason
7. New business

1. Adoption of the Agenda

Adopted.

2. Approval of Minutes #585 of the September 15, 2025 Meeting

Adopted.

3. Election of 7 Faculty to the New Committee on Academic Integrity

The following 7 members of the faculty were elected to this new committee, which is mandated by CUNY’s revised policy on Academic Integrity:

Professors:

• Aftab Ahmad (Math & CS)
• Mustafa Demir (LPS)
• Christopher Herrmann (LPS)
• Brian Maule (LPS)
• Nikolaos Petropoulos (LPS)
• Jennifer Rosati (Sci)
• Marie Springer (Pub Man)

4. Discussion of an Investigation of a Title 6 Complaint Against a Faculty Member

On August 12, Professor Geert Dhondt (Economics), who had been chair of his department last year (and is now on sabbatical), received a letter informing him that several complaints had been filed against him for having booked a classroom during community hour, at a student club’s request so that the club could show the film called “Israelism,” which some have characterized as being anti-Israel and, at times, inaccurate. The complaints were characterized as having been made on the basis of the University’s Policy on Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination. Complaints can now be easily filed by going to an online portal at https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/hr/discrimination-and-retaliation-report-form/ . Professor Dhondt forwarded the communication he received to Karen Kaplowitz, in her role as Senate president, to Michael Brownstein, in his role as chair of the Council of Chairs, and to Nivedita Majumdar, in her role as co-chair of the college’s PSC chapter.

The letter states the complaints were made 6 months after the classroom had been booked. The investigation is being conducted by Grand River Solutions (GRS), a company with which CUNY has contracted.

President Kaplowitz said she has been told that if a complaint is filed it must be investigated, even if it appears to be without merit. She said our executive committee has invited JJ’s legal counsel, Myrna Forney, to meet with us to explain the procedures and answer our questions.

Senator Josh Mason said he is a member of the Economics faculty and was involved in the decision to book space for the student group to show the film. He said it is not clear that it began from a student complaint as opposed to a complaint filed, perhaps, by the administration. He cited a long –term adjunct, Corinna Mullin, who he said was fired for her activism. Furthermore, as he noted, this film has been shown on other CUNY campuses; it is not a weird fringe activity.

A senator asked for clarification about the assertion that several complaints had been filed. A portion of the letter from Grand River Solutions was quoted:

Summary of Allegation

The Office of Compliance and Diversity received several complaints alleging that the screening of the film, which occurred on February 26, 2025 and sponsored by the Department of Economics, is claimed to depict antisemitic views, may have contributed to an environment that fosters discrimination against Jewish individuals, including students, faculty, and staff of Jewish descent. The film in question reportedly expresses negative sentiments toward Israel, its people, and its supporters, aligning with known antisemitic beliefs, including anti-Zionism.

The allegations, if substantiated, may violate the following CUNY policies and definitions:

• Discrimination: treating an individual differently or less favorably because of his or her protected characteristics — such as race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, or any of the other bases prohibited by this Policy.
• Harassment: a form of discrimination that consists of unwelcome conduct based on a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or abusive work or academic environment. Such conduct can be spoken, written, visual, and/or physical. This policy covers prohibited harassment based on all protected characteristics.

Senator Michelle Holder, who identified herself as also a member of the Economics faculty, asked who can file such a complaint: can only JJ students, faculty, or staff file, or can outside parties also file, and she asked whether our union is involved. Senator Ned Benton said this entire situation puzzles him greatly because there’s a separate CUNY policy whereby students may file a complaint against faculty, but those complaints are handled under a very different procedure; he knows because he has been the factfinder involving several such complaints. Senator Mason answered that there are ongoing discussions with the PSC.

Senator Holder asked what the Faculty Senate’s goal is to have this discussion. President Kaplowitz said the goal is so that each of us can become educated about the policies and procedures and so that we can inform our colleagues. Some chairs have circulated the documents to their faculty and other faculty have heard about this and many are frightened because they do not know what protections we now have regarding what and how we teach, our research, and so forth. An investigation has a chilling effect, even if there is ultimately no finding of fault. In fact, a letter from FIRE – the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – to whom Geert wrote argues that the target of an investigation should not be told they are being investigated because of the chilling effect such an investigation creates; she said she doesn’t agree with keeping a professor ignorant of an investigation but she does agree about the chilling effect. She said furthermore, if the procedures are wrong or unfair or flawed or if they are being improperly followed, or if there has been an overstep, we want to push back and effect change. That is why this is being discussed.

Senator Josh Mason asked whether it is the case that any faculty member who sponsors an event can be subject to a formal investigation, triggered by anyone at all, and whether the investigation is then going to be outsourced to an outside company. If so, there is no safe harbor.

Senator Todd Stambaugh said he wants us to remember that in a toxic political environment where there is an incentive to weaponize policy, there is no policy that will be immune to manipulation. The toxic environment is the problem. Receiving a notice of investigation is chilling, but faculty should always be aware. Transparency in the process is always a value.

5. Discussion of Interim Executive Vice Chancellor Alvero’s Posting About Academic Freedom

President Kaplowitz said she wants to review another agenda item before President Mason arrives, in case we wish to also discuss this with her. Last week Interim Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Alicia Alvero posted a long newsletter to the CUNY community which comprised 13 substantive news items; the 11th of the 13 reports is about academic freedom. In EVC Alvero’s discussion of academic freedom, she adds a phrase that is not part of the AAUP’s 1940 Policy on Academic Freedom, a policy which the CUNY Board of Trustees adopted in 1970 (and again several times subsequently). President Kaplowitz quoted from EVC Alvero’s communication:

“Academic freedom is not absolute. In this context, faculty are expected to have classroom discussions that are both relevant to the course subject matter and do not have the effect of being discriminatory or creating a hostile environment for students.”

[President Mason arrived at this point in the discussion.]

6. Invited Guest: President Karol M. Mason

President Mason said that having arrived during this discussion and having heard Karen quote EVC Alvero’s posting, she would like to comment on the language highlighted. She said the language comes from Title VI. CUNY signed a Settlement Agreement with the Department of Education a year ago about what we are doing with regard to our compliance with Title VI. EVC Alvero used language in alignment with both the Settlement Agreement and Title VI. Academic freedom is qualified by not violating the law. If a hostile environment is created for our students, then we are not in compliance with the law.

Senator Francis Sheehan asked how can we know what a hostile environment is when this is a subjective reaction by students in our classes. President Mason said this is not a cut and dried issue. A test of a hostile environment for students does not exist. The answer will depend on how the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights interprets it. The people in charge of this Office are now being replaced so we truly do not know.

President Kaplowitz invited President Mason to give her planned opening remarks before returning to Q&A. President Mason spoke about the high energy level she’s seeing this semester; the students clearly want to be here.

We finished the year with a positive budget for the second year in a row ($1.573 million) with $20 million in reserve, which we added to our CUTRA balance. But the challenge is that we are no longer facing a positive budget moving forward: we will have exhausted our fiscal reserves by 2028. We are projecting a $4.3 million deficit this year and a $7 million deficit in the following year and another $7.5 million deficit in the year after that. We have opportunities to increase our revenue if we are able to increase enrollment and increase the rate of collecting tuition monies from students. And we have to reduce expenses. 94% of our expenditures are personnel expense (salaries); the rest is OTPS [Other Than Personnel Services]. This means there’s really no place to cut.

John Jay is doing really well in the US News & World rankings: we are #3 in the North East for social mobility because of who we graduate; we were #6 nationally, but now the reports are presented by geographic regions, putting us #3.

President Mason said the federal administration has made it clear it is not supporting students of color. Indeed, they are targeting our students. The federal government is canceling all funding related to the HSI and MSI designations which colleges and universities such as John Jay have benefitted from. As a result, this will be the last year of Upward Bound; we were able to fund the McNair Program this year but will not be able to next year. We hope that the federal funds cut after this year will be replaced through private philanthropy. We need to raise $6 to $8 million every year to support the student success rate we have been experiencing: we have gone from a 4-year graduation rate of 26% when she started as president 7 years ago to a 4-year graduation rate of 41% now. Our 6-year graduation rate is now 66%; it was below 50% when she began.

She reported having raised $47 million since she arrived here – when she arrived we had only $100,000 in philanthropic funds – and this is so she can keep our promise to our students. We and they are here to change the world.

President Mason, referring to the “July 2025 amendment to the Cuts and Jobs Act,” which President Trump calls the “The Big Beautiful Bill,” said it will create a $10.5 billion addition to the NYS state deficit next year. This means that NYS hospitals will experience an $8 billion loss in funding. She is concerned because the State will have to make up the deficit and pay for Medicare, which will mean less money available for CUNY and SUNY. We have to get a handle on our structural deficit because it will be exacerbated by this situation. She is aggressively looking at how to increase our enrollment – particularly the online CJBS degree: there is capacity for 200 more students in this program. We will increase faculty support with revenue from increased enrollment. We will not fill vacancies as one possible solution; she is not referring to faculty vacancies – faculty vacancies will continue to be filled because she is committed to keeping the number of our full-time faculty at the current level of 439.

President Kaplowitz reported that earlier in the meeting, the Senate had discussed the ongoing investigation of Professor Geert Dhondt about which we have many questions, such as: must every complaint be investigated no matter how meritless it is on the face of it. She added that we have invited Legal Counsel Myrna Forney to our next Senate meeting to learn more from her but would like to hear the president’s thoughts.

President Mason responded that she is glad Myrna has been invited and she said she will not speak about Geert Dhondt’s specific situation even though he has signed a waiver permitting her to do so. She will talk only about process. First of all, a better term for what is taking place now than ‘investigation’ is ‘fact finding.’ CUNY created a portal for people to be able to make discrimination complaints regarding Title 6 and Title 9. Then fact finding takes place. Some action has to happen with each complaint submitted through the portal: the person against whom the complaint has been made is interviewed and witnesses are interviewed. There is such a large backlog of complaints that CUNY hired a company called Grand River Solutions (GRS) to do the fact finding. She further explained that CUNY has created a Centre for Inclusivity and Equal Opportunity to ensure consistency in handling complaints across the CUNY system.

President Mason added that one of the challenges with the portal is that some of the reports – about 10 – are about our Town Hall events; a number of the complaints are against her because of what she has said or hasn’t said during these events. Our Compliance Officer, Gabriel Leal, left us a year ago to go to CUNY Central – and so we are at a disadvantage. CUNY has lent us a person (Arlene Peterson), who has worked at several CUNY colleges, to help in our compliance and diversity office, but she will be dealing mainly with Title 9 complaints.

Senator Sheehan said this wasn’t a person’s class; it was a student group asked to book during community hour. How guarded should faculty be that they don’t expose their students to opposing views in the classroom because it may be perceived by one student as creating a hostile environment? This has a chilling effect. And what does it say to students about their rights? President Mason said GRS may conclude this is not a Title 6 situation. She said she understands and sympathizes with our concerns. But people have the right to file lawsuits even when frivolous; the same is true with the portal, even though it is taking up time and resources. With the Settlement Agreement CUNY entered into with the federal government a year ago, we have some guidelines and we have made some commitments. There is a Title 6 video we will all have to watch. She hopes we will soon get some sense of where the boundaries are that are not to be crossed — and by “soon” she means in a year. But, she added, this is complicated by the fact that the federal administration is trying to close the DOE.

After congratulating the president for her fundraising success, Senator Holder asked whether one of the complaints against Geert came from the administration, as some have suggested. President Mason said none of the complaints – absolutely none – were from the administration and that she has never stopped or restricted any event that follows our rules. She always makes sure that it is clear that anything said by a member of our community is not the view or opinion of the College, but of whomever is speaking or writing.

Senator Jamie Longazel said he understands that GRS was brought in for the backlog of complaints but asked whether their finding is a decision or a recommendation. They should not be the ones handling academic freedom issues, he said. President Mason said GRS is only a fact finder, not a decision-maker. CUNY is still trying to figure out how to have consistency across the campuses and for that reason it is not likely that these will be campus decisions. But she believes that once the backlog is resolved, the fact finding will be done on the campuses.

Senator Allison Kavey said if she were cynical she would think all of this has been done to further beleaguer colleges and universities. She asked what the president would say to untenured faculty and adjuncts who feel especially threatened. President Mason said she does her job in compliance with the law. She understands this is a gray area, but if you’re teaching subject matter the way you’ve always taught it, you can tell the fact finder this information. She wishes she had a better answer. She documents everything; she takes notes all the time; in this way she can explain every decision she has had to make. She urged faculty to continue to have these kinds of conversations because we are trying to figure this out together.

Senator Josh Mason thanked the president for discussing this with us, saying her comments have been very clarifying. He asked if a portal complaint ever arrives at John Jay. The president said she receives notice of each JJ complaint and that when there is no longer a backlog the fact finding will be done on campus in connection with the new CUNY Center. Senator Mason asked what the possible outcomes are for the faculty member. The president said she doesn’t know the answer nor does Myrna Forney. This is new territory for all of us.

Senator Sheehan asked what legal representation a faculty member has: will the NYS Attorney General represent faculty. President Mason said the only time the AG steps in is if there’s a lawsuit. Faculty receive no legal representation from the college. But they are represented by the union if they choose to be.

President Mason recounted her experience with an EEOC complaint filed against her 18 months ago, which has just been resolved; she was found to have done nothing wrong. She had asked if she could bring a lawyer when called in to be interviewed and was told she could not. She never learned who made the complaint nor the exact nature of the complaint. She said she does her job in compliance with the law and keeps detailed notes throughout all meetings so she has a contemporaneous record that she can rely on. She suggested faculty keep contemporaneous records of any incidents that may arise.

President Mason noted that the college’s governance document requires her to meet once a semester with the faculty and staff. This semester she’s holding two meetings: one for only faculty and another for only staff. She hopes everyone comes. One thing she heard loud and clear through the staff survey and the CUNY Board of Trustees survey about her is that there are people who feel they don’t know who she is. She said she works long and hard and if she leaves the college at 8 or 8:30 PM then it’s an early day.

She has also instituted lunches on Fridays: four lunches with faculty and four with staff this semester. The people chosen are those who will never be in meetings with her like this one, so they can get to meet and speak with her. She spoke about how supportive our staff are of our students, including our custodians, many of whom mentor our students and are called “mama” and other endearments by the students.

President Mason expressed her thanks to the faculty for choosing to be here and for making sure that our students have the opportunities to succeed and fulfill their dreams. Our students are under attack right now and she is grateful we are here for them.

President Kaplowitz said we will return to the issue of EVC Alvero’s Academic Freedom posting at our next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:36 PM.

Provided by H. Grant and K. Kaplowitz