June 10, 2012

Broadcast Date: 
Jun 10 2012

Professor Barbara Bowen, president of CUNY's Professional Staff Congress, gives the lowdown on Pathways, a measure that will standardize core curricula at CUNY colleges around the city starting in 2013. Plus: the history and legacy of the grassroots organization New Jewish Agenda, which formed the backbone of progressive Jewish activism in the 1980s. We talk with Ezra Berkley Nepon, author of the new book Justice, Justice Shall You Persue: A History of New Jewish Agenda, and Nan Rubin, a founder of the Denver chapter of New Jewish Agenda.

Episode segments
  • Overhaul at CUNY
    Education
    Barbara Bowen is the president of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents 22,000 CUNY faculty members and professional staff. She is a professor of English at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center.
    Marissa Brostoff, Kiera Feldman

    CUNY students and faculty are decrying the planned implementation of Pathways, a measure that will standardize core curricula at CUNY colleges around the city. It’ll go into effect in 2013. “Austerity education” is the term Barbara Bowen uses for Pathways.

  • Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue
    Ezra Berkley Nepon is a writer, performer, and grassroots fundraiser from Philadelphia. Nan Rubin is a longtime member of the Beyond the Pale radio collective and activist who started the Denver chapter of New Jewish Agenda in 1984.
    Marissa Brostoff, Kiera Feldman

    The grassroots organization New Jewish Agenda formed the backbone of progressive Jewish activism during the dark Reagan years. Yet, New Jewish Agenda isn’t a household name among the generations of activists that followed in their footsteps. A new book, Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda, sets out to explore its legacy.