Holly Clarke, Member, HELU’s Contingency Task Force, Adjunct Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY (PSC-CUNY), PSC Delegate
Corinna Mullin, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Brooklyn College, CUNY (PSC-CUNY), Member of the Fired Four (recently rehired), PSC Delegate
Joseph G. Ramsey, Chair, HELU’s Contingency Task Force, Senior Lecturer, University of Massachusetts Boston, Delegate to HELU, Faculty Staff Union (FSU/MTA)
While all eyes are rightly focused on the horrific killings by ICE and the tremendous pushback against ICE in Minneapolis and beyond, there is some good, breaking news to report from New York City: the fightback to reverse the firings of four adjunct faculty (“The Fired Four”) at Brooklyn College, targeted for their campus activism, has won an important victory. Three of the Fired Four have been rehired! We are thrilled by this news, a product of solidarity across job categories, campuses, and union affiliations.
At the same time, we realize that the fight must go on until ALL have been rehired: “Three Down, One to Go!”
Improper Firings
In the summer of 2025, in the context of escalating far-right attacks by the Trump administration on universities, academic freedom, free speech and Palestine solidarity, four Brooklyn College faculty members were summarily fired, “non-reappointed” for the fall semester, without explanation or due process. One of those faculty members was additionally fired for “conduct unbecoming,” a term used during the McCarthyite witchhunts of the 40s and 50s to dismiss leftist faculty. As the PSC has argued, this improper firing constitutes discrimination based on political belief and union activity.
At the time of their firing, all four adjuncts had been reappointed by their respective departments, with class assignments for the fall at Brooklyn and other colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY). What these four faculty members have in common is their status as adjuncts and their activism for Palestine and the union. In rehiring three of the four faculty members and vacating their blacklisting, the CUNY administration has effectively admitted there was no case against them: this was an unjustified political purge. As of yet, they have issued no apology, nor further explanation. The fourth adjunct has not only not been rehired, but has been put on a CUNY-wide “do not rehire” list, barring her from working at other CUNY campuses.
Unnecessary Harm
While the rehiring of the three adjuncts is a significant victory and only happened because of a collective fight for reinstatement, we must recognize that profound damage has already been done: by publicly attacking especially vulnerable faculty and casting doubt on their integrity, the administration created unnecessary harm and anxiety for the Fired Four and the broader CUNY community. This damage is compounded by the fact that the last adjunct has yet to be rehired. She has since lost her health insurance and her ability to work at CUNY, where she has been a celebrated educator for the past 9 years.
Nonetheless, the latest news remains a victory for political speech rights and academic freedom for all workers and students on our campuses, at CUNY and beyond. It is also a victory, especially, for adjunct faculty whose precarity makes them particularly vulnerable. Too often the silencing of adjunct faculty occurs without public notice, under the guise of bureaucratic “non-reappointment.” But here, the Fired Four, alongside the “Singed Six” (6 tenure-track faculty who, along with a department chair, were subjected to administrative questioning for similar activities), and with the support of their union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) as well as other unions, CUNY students, community members and national organizations, made this political repression visible, rallying the community against it. All of this shows the power of embracing a classic pillar of the labor movement: that an injury to one is an injury to all.
A Unified and Persistent Fight
This (partial) victory was only possible because people came together, across titles, institutions, and unions, in a unified and persistent fight, led by those in the crosshairs. In particular, HELU gave important support by publicizing the fight and through HELU’s Contingency Task Force (CTF). Members of the CTF partnered with the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) and AAUP to mount a path-breaking forum in November, “Combatting Contingency in a Time of Political Repression,” drawing together hundreds of supporters for the “Fired Four” from across the country while highlighting the deep connections between academic freedom, the “Palestine exception” and labor contingency. When unions, national organizations and the community come together for their most vulnerable members, they can win against the odds, even in these times. Thank you to all who helped in this fight!! We hope you will stay with us as we keep up the pressure in the ongoing fightback against McCarthyite repression at CUNY. HELU will report more as the struggle continues: Three down, one to go!