Letter to the Editors

Stop Robbing CSI Students
To: Third Rail Magazine

I read with great interest the information sheet that was handed out at [CSI] President Springer’s convocation.  I happen to be privy to other information, which I would encourage you to investigate:

• A great deal of money and human resources were spent on the Jacuzzi at the home of President Springer.  CSI Buildings & Grounds personnel were taken away from campus responsibilities to construct a deck for her Jacuzzi, complete with expert woodworking and high-tech electrical plans.  The B&G [Building & Grounds] personnel are routinely called into doing work at the President's home after normal working hours.  Overtime charges accrue, and eventually there is less money in the budget for students’ educational expenses. 

• During the first week of June 2000, several college employees needed to utilize the college car to conduct official college business.  They were told they could not use the car, because the President's mother was in town and she might need the car (complete with driver) to tool around town.  One employee asked why the President's mother could not use the President's own college-provided car, and he was told, “don't go there. "

• A barrage of student complaints were routinely lodged against the former Director of Academic Affairs, Dr. Lorelei Stevens, mainly for her nasty attitude toward students and other college staff members.  In fact, several complaints were lodged against Dr. Stevens by other CUNY administrators who happened to be parents of CSI students who received extremely poor treatment from Dr. Stevens.  The CSI Administration eventually promoted Dr. Stevens.  As chair of the Course & Standing Committee, Dr. Stevens is the major voice in developing policies and procedures for dismissing students from CSI.  For about $80,000 per year, that's her major job.  In addition, Dr. Stevens is an adjunct in the English department, but prepares for lectures and meets with students during the time she is supposed to conduct her non-faculty duties (little that they are). Dr. Stevens is paid separately for her adjunct work, and this amounts to a clear case of double-dipping.  Dr. Stevens, however, is a permanent fixture at the College, because she is a close friend of the Senior Vice President and Provost.

• [CSI President] Dr. Springer’s insistence on putting her name on anything that is published is setting the college up for a tremendous expense if she ever leaves for any reason.  College catalogs, department brochures, admissions materials, Center for the Arts brochures, and all administrative forms would have to be redone, if President Springer left.  The cost would be tremendous, and would likely take an additional $50,000 or more away from students. 

• The Administration is very sorry to have dismissed so many students last year.  The result was that there were significant losses in enrollment, and the college had to lower its admission standards at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in order to rebuild the enrollment.  Knowing that enrollment would drop for over a year, the Administration failed to allocate resources to properly assist and retain nearly 900 students who were identified as probationary last year. 

• Where have most of the African-American male administrators gone? We’re missing the former Director of Athletics (Eugene Marshall), Dean of Continuing Education (Ronald Shepard), Director of Recruitment and Admissions (Earl Teasley), and Director of Telecommunications (Michael Morris). It just seems strange.

Signed,
Concerned Member of the CSI Community

Third Rail Editorial Response:
The allegations presented by this “Concerned Member of the CSI Community” are serious and grave indeed. In attempting to investigate these allegations, Third Rail Magazine has requested a variety of documents and information from the CSI Administration, which were refused. Contending that the CSI Administration had violated the New York State Open Meetings Law and the federal Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), Third Rail Magazine sent out several Freedom of Information requests to the college Administration. Unfortunately, CSI’s Records Access Officer, Kathleen Galvez has denied several of our requests (thereby violating the both the state’s Open Meetings Law and the federal FOIL).
Illegal denials of public information such as our requests have in the past led to successful student lawsuits against the CSI Administration. The most prominent of these lawsuits was filed when the CSI College Association refused to allow student editors from The Banner, CSI’s Official Student Newspaper, to tape CSI Association meetings. The College Association further refused to record how specific Association members voted when allocating Student Activity Fees. Not surprisingly, with the help of attorney Ronald B. McGuire and the CUNY Emergency Legal Defense Project, the CSI student journalists won their case. The New York Supreme Court ruled that the Association's decision to bar tape recordings at its meeting violated the state’s open-meetings law. The court also ruled that votes taken by secret ballot are null and void. The court also prevented the CSI Association from further prohibiting the use of hand-held tape recorders. Finally, the court compelled the CSI Association to make the voting record of Association members public.

What was most infuriating to students over the course of the litigation was the fact that Student Activity Fees were used to defend the CSI Association against the complaints made by the student journalists. Such misuse of student fees to defend the illegal actions of the CSI Administration has become standard practice.

It is interesting to note, that while we cannot corroborate whether CSI President Springer illegally used the college car to chauffeur her mommy around the city, we can note that there are other abuses being carried out by CSI Administrators. As will be reported in our next issue, CSI Vice President, Mirella Affron has been mis-using student tuition fees to be personally chauffeured home by a CSI security officer in a student funded CSI security vehicle. When student journalists of the CSI College Voice Political Journal discovered this gross misuse of student funds and personnel, the abuse by VP Affron suddenly ceased.

These cases, where student activity fees and funds were abused and exploited by the CSI Administration continue till today. If there are any faculty, staff or administrative personnel who wish to aid us in our investigations, please feel free to contact us anonymously or in person.

In regards to the letter’s observation that African-American administrators seem to have disappeared from campus, we’ve had the same curious reaction. We also find unacceptable the lack of African-American tenured faculty on this campus and the lack of ethnic studies offered by the college. Should anyone find this surprising considering that the college in the last 15 years denied tenure to two prominent Black scholars (Professors Quincy Troupe and Onwuchekwa Jemie)? We also find it curious that the only administrative position that seems to be reserved for an African-American is that of the CSI Athletic Director. This is insulting and typical of the racism manifested by the CSI hierarchy.

Dear Third Rail,
I can't believe that the one great arts magazine at CSI is now in the clutches of the commies. Back in the day (1990) I submitted articles to "Ictus Review" (as it was called at the time). I remember this guy named Manjuela (or something like that) and his sidekick JP (I never figured out what JP stood for) who used to stand around spouting commie rhetoric. I can't believe he has ammased such a following that now the whole campus is lefty. I am shocked, shocked I say because this was once a great magazine which is now full of political drivel. Who needs politics? I don't care about Mumma Jammeml, or the death penalty (hang 'em high I say ). Why can't the magazine be what it once was – a good 'zine which had pleasant articles about flowers and post teenage angst. Now you have articles criticizing CAPITALISM!! This is outrageous and unAmerican!!!!!!!!! You "comrades" missed the clue train because communism is dead. The free market is here to stay maximizing production for all. What's wrong with that, you long haired Commie bastards!!! It brings tears to me eyes to see where this magazine has sunken.

Joe ?!@#$%^&*,
CSI Alumna

Third Rail Editorial Response:
Your letter contained a number of inaccuracies which should be corrected. Firstly, while we are acquaintances of former College Voice editors, Manjula Wijerama and JP (which by the way, stands for John Paul) Patafio, we are NOT Communists, Bolsheviks, Vangaurdists, Trotskyists or Marxist-Lenninists. We do not share their view of socialism as a top-down, undemocratic, “I have all the answers and you don’t” system. On the contrary, we favor a pluralistic, democratic society where the humanitarian motive dominates as opposed to the profit motive. We believe we will achieve this form of socialism through an open, participatory and honest exchange of ideas.

Secondly, as far as your comment regarding the “free market is here to stay,” outside of perhaps Russia (which is a disaster), there is no truly “free market” society that exists. Many of the benefits that we citizens enjoy are the result of socialistic type programs; for example, social security, free K-12 education, medicaid, medicare, welfare, pell grants, environmental laws, etc... In fact, the reason that we can have this debate surrounding our publication is due to a non-free market system — CUNY.

Lastly, students are free to submit poetry, photography, fiction, non-fiction as well as political essays. As W.E.B. Dubois stated, “Art is propaganda,” and Third Rail has always been politically oriented — just read any of our back-issues. Nowadays, we are just more overt concerning our politics.

Selected Responses to George Springer’s Interview With The Hellfire (published last issue)

Dear Third Rail,
While I agree that Andre is incompetent, and has most of the undesirable traits that the article claims he has, I feel that his race should be left out of it.  Andre is not incompetent because he is black; he is incompetent because he is incompetent.

Peri Dreznick,
Former Editor of The Banner

Dear Third Rail,
I see NO evidence of racism in George Springer's well written and historically accurate article. On the contrary, it should be commended as a vehicle for bringing up a subject that is all to often "swept under the rug", not only here at CSI, but in American culture in general.

To use it as a grounds to overturn the political will of the voters is rather like swatting flies with sledge-hammers and it can return to haunt the very people who fail to see the larger issues contained in the article.

Robert Cachioletti,
CSI Student

Dear Third Rail,
Why the fuck is it taking you so long to come out with a new issue?

Andy Zuckerberg,
CSI Alumna

Third Rail Editorial Response:
Aside from our own incompetence, we failed to publish new issues due to attempts by certain members of the CSI Student Government (SG) to censor and shut down our magazine. In our last issue and on our website — ThirdRailMag.com, we published several articles, essays and interviews which were extremely critical of many members of SG. These pieces exposed the ways in which members of SG exploited and misused the Student Activity Fees for their own ends. After publication of our last issue, SG attempted to rescind the paltry sum of money granted to us. After they failed in this attempt, they attempted to totally defund us on the grounds that we published “racist” materials against whites. When this strategy was blocked by our lawyers, they then sought to remove us from our office and transfer us out of the Campus Center. Subsequently, our foes in SG failed to win re-election, and the allocation of publication funding was altered (albeit undemocratically), — hence our new issue.

Responses to our website: www.ThirdRailMag.com

Dear Third Rail,
Thank you for your article, Execution Is Not The Solution by Tara L. Martin. It had the perfect information for my report on the death penalty. I agree that the death sentence is a poor deterrent for crime.

Joe Deardurff,
Student-At-Large

Dear Third Rail,
I am not affiliated with your school as it
pertains to status, but I enjoyed seeing
your website. It made me wonder what The School of Visual Arts would have put out when I was a student if the web was as accessible as it is now.

Best Wishes,
Sol Robbins

P.S. If you have the time please visit http://www.criticaleye.org