We, the undersigned, demand that the CUNY administration not use the pandemic and the prevalence of online instruction as an excuse to increase class size. Many CUNY classes were already far too large before the pandemic. Further increasing class size jeopardizes the quality of education and sets students up to fail. It normalizes mass layoffs of adjunct faculty, undermines the academic integrity of departments, and imposes an unsustainable workload on both faculty and student support staff. In a university serving an undergraduate population overwhelmingly composed of working-class students of color, class size is also a matter of racial and economic justice.

Therefore we call on Chancellor Matos Rodríguez to:

1. Direct all colleges, starting no later than the Fall 2021 semester, to align all classes with class-size standards established by the relevant disciplinary organizations, including standards for online classes and classes using distance technology, or at a minimum, adhere to any limits on class size that were established by colleges, schools, divisions or departments prior to January 1, 2020.

2. Bargain with the PSC over class size, and comply with the legal requirement under the NYS Taylor Law to negotiate the impact of any changes in class size; begin negotiations with the PSC on such impact without further delay.

3. Hire the additional faculty necessary to cover the instructional needs created by remote learning; prioritize re-hiring adjunct faculty who were laid off or whose assignment hours were reduced in 2020.