CUNYCard Quashed

Implementation blocked again. President Roman smacks down cheeky VP Dickmeyer. Studies show Citibank still racist. Will it be City College or Citibank College?
by Rob Wallace

Sometime in mid-November CCNY President Stanford Roman quashed a second attempt to implement CUNYCard at City College.

Students were to receive notices from the College during the Thanksgiving break that they were to hand in their current ID cards in favor of CUNYCard when they returned in December. All students, faculty, and staff would have been required to obtain the high-tech, Citibank-sponsored ID card. CUNYCard implementation at City College was being handled by an administrator-dominated committee headed by Vice President for Finance and Management Nathan Dickmeyer.

The card was originally slated to be implemented at City College in late 1997, but was blocked after students, faculty, and staff CUNY-wide, as well as at CCNY, mounted a campaign against the card. Objections to the card surrounded Citibank’s race record, the commercialization of a public university, and privacy concerns.
In October 1997, CUNY Central instituted a moratorium on CUNYCard implementation CUNY-wide while it investigated charges of bank loan redlining on the part of Citibank, including having the highest rejection rate for Black New Yorkers seeking mortgages. Clearly CUNY officials understood they would have caught political hell from students and faculty for helping promote a bank that discriminates against CUNY students and their parents off-campus, a situation that still holds today.

Several questions remain unanswered about this second attempt to implement CUNYCard at City College. First, did City College act unilaterally in making this attempt at implementing the card? CUNY Central has told Undergraduate Student Government (USG) officials that the College acted on its own, without impetus from 80th Street.

Second, if it acted unilaterally, on what basis did City College consider Citibank’s race record clean? A study by the community group ACORN released this past September showed Citibank discrimination continues (see sidebar on page 4).

Lastly, a question about internal administration politics: Why did President Roman learn so late about the card implementation, perhaps only days before the letter to the students was to be sent?

This aborted round of CUNYCard illustrates the perils a new college president faces, particularly as he inherits the vice presidents of the previous administration. Whom can he trust? In this case, President Roman was confronted with Vice President Dickmeyer who, for years hell-bent on implementing CUNYCard at CCNY, apparently kept Roman in the dark about the card’s implementation.

What Is CUNYCard?

CUNYCard is a controversial ID card already implemented at several CUNY campuses. As well as a library card, the card can act as a Citibank debit card and an MCI calling card. The card can also be programmed as a xerox card, a vending machine card, and an access card for restricted parts of campus.

However neat the card sounds in the abstract, the card and Citibank are accompanied by a retinue of racial and anti-student problems (see the sidebar). The debit card function would be available to students who receive financial aid from the state. CUNY renegotiated the original fee structure with Citibank after protests from students and faculty. An originally slated $3-a-month maintenance fee has been canceled. Eight free ATM transactions have apparently been added.

Still, fees remain, including $2.50 for dormant accounts, $1 ATM fees after the first 8 transactions, and an 80-cent fee for funds transferred into the accounts. After all, Citibank is sponsoring the card because it aims to make money off students.

“Citibank and MCI don’t care about the condition of City College or the quality of the education offered. All they are about is making a buck,” Professor Larry Hanley of the English Department told the Messenger. (For the record, Professor Hanley is the Messenger’s faculty advisor.)

With CUNY students receiving a Messenger-estimated $300 million in financial aid annually, Citibank stands to make a pretty bundle in fees, as minor as the fees may seem to some. Moreover, money in a bank account doesn’t just sit there, it’s invested by the bank to make more money. In other words, Citibank, one of the largest banks in the world, could receive an annual interest-free multi-million dollar loan from CUNY students, some of the poorest students in the country.

Why any company should make money off CUNY student financial aid is a wonder as until only a couple years ago City College had a Chemical Bank branch in the basement of Shepard Hall where students had their checks cashed for free. The state paid for the service.

But the consumer issues may distract from the real meat of the matter. What is CUNY doing acting as a junior partner for Citibank? Why is the College using hundreds of administrator hours promoting dubious Citibank services, instead of addressing the problems the college faces?

“The basic objection to the card is that it asks the College to treat students as consumers rather than as students,” Professor Hanley noted. “The College is selling the students to Citibank like television networks sell viewers to advertisers.”

USG President Rafael Dominguez voiced similar objections. “We’re in favor of a new ID card without students’ Social Security numbers on it. But the corporate sponsorship is completely unnecessary and inappropriate for a college ID,” he said.

The Stealth Government

“One of the most surprising things about CUNYCard is the stealth nature of the implementation,” said Professor Hanley. “The college community was not informed about the card or its implementation. There was no chance for discussion or debate about whether we wanted the card in the first place. Someone might infer the lack of discussion was deliberate.”

Hanley was asked by the administration to serve on the CUNYCard implementation committee in October along with USG President Rafael Dominguez. Hanley did not know how long the committee had been meeting before he was asked to serve. Vice President Dickmeyer refused to answer how long the committee had been meeting when asked by the Messenger.

It was apparently this stealth nature of CUNYCard implementation that upset the President enough to cancel this round of implementation. Through his spokesman Charles DeCicco of Public Relations, President Roman stated, “There are no plans to introduce CUNYCard at this time. The College is continuing to examine the various options and issues concerning the CUNYCard.”

But there were plans. When asked by the Messenger about the letters that were to be sent imminently by the implementation committee to students advising them that in December they would have to pick up a CUNYCard, DeCicco responded that at City College’s Policy Advisory Committee meeting, a meeting of all the administration heads as well as student government officials, the President called the implementation “an unfortunate miscommunication in that process.”

USG President Rafael Dominguez, who attended the Policy Advisory meeting, told the Messenger, “The President was completely supportive that the College should decide collectively” about CUNYCard.

Cristina Cocheo, USG Vice President for Community Affairs, told the Messenger, “It’s very responsible that they tabled CUNYCard. President Roman has stepped up to the plate and acted responsibly, allowing the opportunity to hear from all sides.” She also saw it as “a good message to [the Office of] Finance and Management,” about respecting democratic process.

“It was the right thing to do,” says Hanley of the Roman’s decision, “I was impressed.”

Dickmeyer’s Play

Why Dickmeyer felt he could push CUNYCard without involving the President perplexed another observer, “He never told Roman about it. Perhaps he thought he was finishing up unfinished business from [former President] Moses.” During the Moses era, Dickmeyer basically ran the College while Moses spent a good portion of her time and energy off-campus on non-College activities.But for Dickmeyer CUNYCard was not a matter of tying off loose ends. He knows how controversial the Card is, including the verbal and heartfelt protest that arose last time the implementation was made imminent at City. Perhaps Dickmeyer felt under the new president, especially an interim president, he would continue to have free reign in deciding and enacting campus policy. But his actions were an apparent affront to the new president’s authority.

In answer to a Messenger e-mail of questions about CUNYCard, Vice President Dickmeyer issued a one-sentence reply, “I do not want to say anything more than President Roman has said.” It seems whatever beating Dickmeyer may have taken behind closed doors at the administration building sank in. For now.

Still, his contrition may be too late. “[Dickmeyer] kind of kept the President out of the loop,” said another observer to the Messenger. “That’s not protocol. A lot of people said he fucked up, that the President was pissed. They went over [Roman’s] head.”