REMARKS
Council Member Dinowitz's closing remarks and future follow-up plans
2:57:08
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139 sec
Council Member Eric Dinowitz delivers closing remarks, acknowledging the importance of the issue and expressing some dissatisfaction with the level of detail provided during the hearing. He outlines plans for future follow-up and emphasizes the need for concrete action.
- Dinowitz stresses the importance of implementing policies to ensure student safety and inclusivity
- He expresses a desire for more data and concrete examples during the hearing
- The Council plans to send a follow-up letter requesting specific data on incidents and CUNY's responses
- Dinowitz indicates that the Council will continue to monitor CUNY's progress on various issues, including the implementation of the new complaint portal and guidance on defining antisemitism
Eric Dinowitz
2:57:08
Thank you.
2:57:09
And I and I do want to, I guess, concur that education is a critical element of all this.
2:57:15
We didn't spend a lot of time on that aspect today, but to be truthful, one of the biggest deficits that we've found are the, you know, clear guidelines, the consequences and discipline, because we're aware of some of the efforts you're making, although there's a lot more to do.
2:57:33
Chancellor and vice chancellors, I I I wanna thank you for coming today.
2:57:39
I know you know how important this issue is.
2:57:43
The existence of this report in the 1st place, the existence of the request by governor Hochul, the the the attendance of a number of students here and online watching online is indicative of how important this is.
2:57:58
But as I said earlier, knowing how important something is, caring about it is not the same as implementing policies that ensure the safety of our students and ensure that they are welcomed on all campuses.
2:58:16
I wish that during today's hearing, we could have gotten more data.
2:58:21
We could have gotten more information because the goal of today was to be to was to address certain issues, certain problems based on the report.
2:58:31
And I think we did that, but I think we would have been much better served with data, information, concrete examples.
2:58:40
And so as council member Menick suggested, we will be sending a letter.
2:58:42
We look forward to some of that data information about number of suspensions, about times where students who have gay engaged or faculty have engaged in certain activities.
2:58:55
And there have been meaningful responses from CUNY administrators, both on the individual campus and central.
2:59:02
And, of course, we'll be following up on all the elements of this, including things like the portal, including guidance from CUNY administration to individual colleges, including guidance about how antisemitism is even defined.
2:59:17
Thank you again.
2:59:18
We will take a 10 minute break.
2:59:20
I encourage you to stay to listen to some of the students' testimonies and to spend time talking to the students.
2:59:26
Thank you very much.
