The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

 

When Bryan Cortez started studying Computer Information Systems at Bronx Community College (BCC) in the fall of 2021, New York City, like the rest of the country was still getting to grips with living through a second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had followed a summer spike in COVID cases caused by the then-new and highly infectious Delta variant. As a result, Cortez started his first semester at BCC, located at 2155 University Avenue in the University Heights section of The Bronx, learning remotely.

 

He was happier when by spring of 2022, the college, which is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) public university system, switched to in-class learning. However, little did he know that ten months later, BCC would pivot to remote learning once again, though this time, it wouldn’t be because of high COVID-19 transmission but due to insufferable cold on the college campus. “The heating situation at BCC has been an ongoing issue that had been happening for many years,” Cortes told Norwood News. “But they told us that it was the boilers. The boilers are outdated. So, due to that issue, they were having issues getting the boilers online and then spreading the heating throughout campus adequately.”

 

Cortes said students, staff and faculty were eventually informed by the college that classes and work would have to move to a remote, online model because the college was unable to properly heat all the buildings while people were onsite, and they would have to try fixing the boilers when people were not on campus. “The dates that they told us we were moving online were Nov. 16 to Nov. 28,” Cortes said. Asked how the news impacted his studies, he said. “So, I technically try to use the computers at school because that’s actually a place for me to concentrate better and to just submerge myself in the environment.”

 

He added, “That the classes and everything [were] moved to online actually caused me to feel very depressed, because I was not able to submerge myself in the field that I wanted to be in, which also caused a lack of motivation.” Having experienced both online and in-person learning, when the college abruptly switched back to online learning, he said it was like reliving COVID all over again. He added, “I do have a laptop, but sometimes my WiFi is not as good [as on campus]. So, sometimes I had to use my mobile hotspot. So, going into campus and just using their hotspot or their Wi Fi is a personal advantage for me because of the stable, strong connection.”

 

Asked if he had complained about the heating, before the college went remote, he said, “Faculty and students had complained about the heating situation to the BCC administration for actually some time now.” He added that it had been an issue at least since he began studying at BCC. Asked what, if anything, the college had done to address the situation, prior to going remote, Cortes said, “They keep saying that they’re fixing the issue, that they’re going to switch the boilers to the new ones.”

 

He added, “Right now, their main goal is to entirely gut the boilers that are there and switch into a new boiler system but to do that, they have to wait for the winter season to be over, to even start. So right now, what they’re doing is just fixing the current, outdated boilers until the springtime, so they can start switching over to the new boilers in the fall.” The college reopened for in-person learning once again on Nov. 28. “They were able to get the boilers online, but there were some issues with some buildings,” Cortez said. “Overall, the campus, thankfully, is heated. They were able to fix the issue.”

He later added that in some cases, the rooms are even too hot. According to Cortez, most people were fed up with the situation. “I, actually, attended Cottage Senate [which] usually runs for two hours,” he said, adding that the presidential report is for about 15 minutes. “The entire conversation – it was all about the heating situation. So, everybody was being affected by it to the point that we kept requesting for more time, to keep asking questions as to when the heating situation will be fixed, so, it was something that affected everybody on campus, whether it was students, faculty members or BCC admin. Everybody was honestly concerned regarding the situation.”

 

The Professional Staff Congress or PSC CUNY is a trade union that represents faculty and professional staff of the City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. Norwood News also spoke to biology professor at BCC and chair of PSC union’s local chapter, Yasmin Edwards, on Nov. 18, who has been with the college for 10 years and who reiterated that the poor heating there has been a longtime problem for both students and employees every year.

 

“Since October, we have been begging – I hate to use that word but that is the word I have to use here – begging the administration of our college to provide us with heat,” Edwards said. “In October, there was no heat in any of the buildings on campus. We did have some, really mild days from October, absolutely. We were fortunate in that way, but we also had some days where it was topped out at maybe 55/56 [degrees].” She continued, “In the morning and evening, the temperature was in the 40s.”

 

Edwards said the college prided itself on its diversity and was designed to try to accommodate working students. “Well, you had those students sitting in rooms in the morning and evening, when it was 40 degrees outside with no heat. We have temperature readings of rooms that were 57/59/62 degrees.” Edwards said staff like advisors, financial aid, those working at the registrar were working all day, arriving to work early in the morning when it was cold, with no heat.

 

“They were making these reports as early as October 3rd,” she said. We [union members] started to get complaints that the offices were cold.” However, Edwards said the administration and the president confirmed to her in a public college meeting that the college made the decision to keep everyone in class, face-to-face, “because there were so many warm days in October.”

 

The professor said they then began appealing to the president to provide heaters. “They’ve said for three weeks…they kept telling us ‘yes,’ the issues we’re having are due to the very lengthy process involved in converting from [a] cooling [system], because we have a heating system that is maybe over 25 years past it’s useful life.” Edwards continued, “It’s an old system and it takes a long time – three weeks – to convert from cooling in the summer, to heating. They know the system is old. They know it takes a long time to switch from cooling to hearing, and for reasons that are unclear to anyone, they wait until October to start the process, so that we’re not getting heat until the end of October or November.”

 

Norwood News reached out to both CUNY Central and BCC administration for comment, as we were informed that the PSC union had contacted both the management of the college and CUNY Central about the heating issue. Richard S. Ginsburg of BCC marketing team responded on Nov. 28, saying, “The heat has been restored at the college, and all in person classes have resumed.” Meanwhile, a CUNY spokesperson responded on Nov. 30, saying, “The boilers have been fixed and the University delivered a temporary boiler to the campus as an additional precaution.”

 

For Edwards, the issue goes beyond the heating problem, however, which she agrees has since been resolved. “There was a lot of hard work that went into bringing Bronx Community College into being,” she said. “It came out of community organizers. Organizers unhappy with the lack of higher educational options in The Bronx fought for this college to be created. They fought for a better future for the young folks in the community. We’re going to be damned if we are going to be the ones who are going to see that die. It’s not going to happen! No, I will not have these young folks coming into this situation.”

 

On Dec. 8, the BCC Senate signed a resolution calling for number of actions to be taken to address various concerns with the college facilities which, generally, citing the “ongoing neglect of infrastructure and facilities of the college and the poor quality management in the Administration & Finance Division over the last several years, evidenced by the mismanagement of the Colston Hall flooding issue in Spring 2019, through the heat/boiler issues in Fall 2022, has endangered the health and safety of students, staff, and faculty.”

 

They added, “We believe that the goals of the institution are undermined by the mismanagement and lack of accountability of the present BCC administration,” they wrote, in part, in the resolution. They further called for the removal of BCC’s vice president of administration and finance, who Edwards said has since tendered her resignation.

 

The BCC Senate further called on the president of BCC, Thomas A. Isekenegbe, and his administration to take the following actions by Feb. 7, 2023, to be accompanied by a written report to the Senate:

1. Review the college’s campus master plan and develop and publish contingency plans for each building and the campus as a whole should any building(s) be unhealthy or unsafe for learning and work, in close consultation with the Committee on Space, Facilities, and Physical Plant.

2. Survey all buildings, classrooms, and offices and begin to make all necessary repairs so that no staff, faculty member or student works or learns in a decrepit environment, make these efforts ongoing, and agree to publish a full public report on the status of these conditions and repairs, to be submitted to the College Senate every fall and spring semester.

3. Develop and implement a policy to ensure that all bathroom facilities are functional, clean, safe and stocked with toiletry items on a daily basis.

4. Develop, implement, and publicly share policies and procedures to ensure that faculty and staff are paid in a timely manner for professional development activities.

5. Develop and implement a policy to ensure that all computers and related IT equipment are up-to-date campus-wide and renewed in a timely fashion on an ongoing basis.

6. Collaborate with the Senate to create a committee on campus culture that will meet with the President monthly to discuss morale issues on campus.

7. Develop comprehensive academic, student support, and marketing plans to improve retention and enrollment at the college in the spring semester in consultation with the College Senate.

8. Beginning in spring 2023 schedule monthly meetings of administrators with all Senate committee chairs, SGA Executives, HEO and CLT reps outside of normal Senate meetings, to maintain open communication and on behalf of shared governance.

 

They added that should Isekenegbe fail to accomplish the referenced actions by the required deadline, the BCC Senate would move to hold a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

 

The resolution was endorsed by the Art & Music Department, the Biological Sciences Department, the Business & Information Systems Department, Chemistry, the Earth Sciences & Environmental Sciences Department, the Communications Arts & Sciences Department, Engineering, the Physics and Technology Department, the English Department, the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Department, the History Department, Library Department, the Math & Computer Science Department, the Nursing & Allied Health Department, the Social Sciences Department, the World Languages & Cultures Department and the BCC Council of Chairs.

 

As reported, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was present at BCC in August 2022 to announce a then-new workforce development program at BCC with an $18.6 million federal grant.

 

Norwood News contacted BCC to ask if the college representatives had any official statement on the circumstances around Ellis’ resignation or on the resignation itself. Ginsburg responded, saying, “We don’t comment on personnel issues.”