Leaked Document Reveals Scope of Cooperation Between Baruch College and Central Intelligence Agency, Furthering CIA’s “Diversity and Inclusion Brand”

CUNY Struggle has obtained a memorandum of understanding “establishing a partnership program between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Baruch College for acquiring talent for the CIA’s diverse workforce.” This elaborate agreement puts Baruch’s staff, student body, student organizations, and even its academic programming in the service of CIA recruitment and its “diversity and inclusion brand.” Additionally the memorandum binds Baruch College to “frequent” assessments of the CIA’s “Return on Investment.” Due to the sensitivity of the situation we have agreed not to reproduce the document for the time being, but have verified its authenticity and have been allowed to quote from it freely. The agreement is dated August 21st, 2017, and is signed by Baruch president Mitchel B. Wallerstein and Glenn Gaffney, the CIA’s Associate Director for Talent.

Baruch College, 2011. We remember!

“As part of CIA’s recruitment strategy,” the memorandum reads, “select universities are chosen to serve as a pilot for the Signature Schools Program (SSP). A broad range of recruitment activities will be conducted at select universities to build sustainable relationships with key university staff and personnel on campuses and to sustain contact with qualified and diverse applicant pools.” The recurring theme of “diversity” is crucial to this agreement. “Baruch College was evaluated based on CIA’s hiring requirements and selected based on the university’s accredited programs, the graduation rate of its students, the diversity of the student population, and CIA’s track record of onboarding quality talent from Baruch College.”

Under this agreement, the CIA will: “Conduct on-campus interviews; information sessions; workshops; simulations; and networking activities with student organizations, student honor societies, and campus chapters of diversity professional organizations such as, but not limited to, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, American Indian Science and Engineering Society and/or the Association of Latino Professionals for America.” Recruitment will be further supported by a “campus advertising campaign to communicate our diversity and inclusion brand.”

Faces of the No! Campaign

These are only a few of the countless PSC rank-and-filers who have come out of the woodwork to denounce this rotten contract and the failed strategy it represents. Update: We’ve received and posted two submissions, from Daniel and Rachel, since we originally made this post. Send your own to CUNYStruggleInfo@gmail.com! And follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @cunystruggle

Ruth Wangerin is voting NO!

Andy Battle is voting NO!

Yvonne Groseil supports a vote NO!

Michelle Thompson is voting NO!

Jarrod Shanahan is voting NO!

Alan Trevithick is voting NO!

Rachel Chapman is voting NO!

Daniel Tehrani is voting NO!

The “Vote No!” Campaign Featured Today in Jacobin, The Huffington Post

Righteous texts condemning the concessionary contract continue to pour in! Just today, two CUNY Struggle comrades published separate pieces in Jacobin and the Huffington Post.

In “Celebrating Defeat”, James D. Hoff responds to a laudatory analysis of the contract Jacobin published over the weekend. Many readers voiced their outrage about PSC propaganda passing as analysis in the pages of a radical publication, and to Jacobin’s credit, they happily provided space to the voice of opposition.

In “Why I’m Voting ‘No’ On the CUNY-PSC Proposed Contract”, Rita C. Tobin offers her story as an adjunct to buttress her opposition to the contract, which may be familiar to CUNYStruggle.org readers.

We have also taken a giant step into the 21st Century, with the Twitter account @CUNYStruggle.

If you’d like share your story, make a video, or respond to something we’ve published, don’t hestitate contact us: cunystruggleinfo@gmail.com. An independent rank-and-file movement starts with YOU!