The far-left union representing professors at the City University of New York are illegally using a taxpayer-funded, government email system to promote socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, The Post has learned.
At least two chapter leaders repping CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress recently fired off email blasts using CUNY email addresses to solicit faculty and other staff at Manhattan Community College and Kingsborough Community College to volunteer helping Mamdani’s campaign.
“The general election is on November 4th. If you are interested in becoming involved in the election, weekly Central Labor Council phonebanks for Mamdani are hosted in person at the PSC, Wednesdays 6-8pm,” wrote Kathleen Offenholley, a mathematics professor and union chapter chair at Manhattan Community College in a Sept. 3 email blast to campus faculty.
The email also included links on how sign up to assist making phone calls for Mamdani’s campaign and help the PSC’s push to get the silver-spoon socialist pol elected mayor.
“Thousands of CUNY students have (yet!) to register,” the email adds. “We strongly encourage you to share these links with students.”
“Our ranked-choice strategy allowed the PSC to be one of the earliest unions to support Zohran Mamdani for Mayor and helped to defeat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary,” says PSC President James Davis in a statement also attached in the email blast.
“Most NYC unions have now endorsed Mamdani, and it is now even more important that PSC members work to get him elected in November.”
Under city and state law and CUNY rules, it is illegal for government employees to use such government resources – including email accounts – for political campaign purposes. Violators could face misdemeanor charges and fines of up to $10,000 per offense.
Another mass email distributed by Offenholley on Oct. 9 reminded members that phone banks to help Mamdani’s campaign run by CUNY workers are continuing every Thursday and Friday, and it also included a link offering additional information on how to voluntarily help the campaign.
Michael Spear, an assistant history professor and union chapter vice chair at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, also sent out a mass email Oct. 9 that — while not mentioning Mamdani by name — provided links also guiding members how to volunteer for union-run phone banks assisting Mamdani.
Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa said “it’s completely inappropriate for CUNY faculty tied to the union to use official university emails to electioneer for Zohran Mamdani.”
“New Yorkers expect educators at a publicly funded institution to focus on students, not politics,” he said.
“CUNY has become a breeding ground for political radicalization, and this episode is not a one-off. It’s baked into the culture, so there must be consequences for electioneering on city time, city dime, and city email, and the governor and mayor must investigate.”
NYC Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), a former graphics-design professor at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology, said he’s “disgusted, but not surprised, to see faculty using taxpayer-funded emails to push politics.”
“The union and CUNY have let this radical culture fester for years; it’s time to clean house and get back to educating, not indoctrinating,” added Holden a former PSC-CUNY member for 40-plus years and a past delegate.
The 30,000-member union has endorsed the socialist Queens assemblyman in the mayoral race and, like Mamdani, has a long history of pushing a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel agenda and other far-left causes.
The PSC came under fire in January after passing a controversial resolution supporting a boycott of Israel – a movement that Mamdani has backed for years.
However, the “boycott, divest and sanction” resolution, which focused on cutting off union reserves from the Jewish State and urging the teachers’ pension system including professors to do the same, was repealed a month later – after some members cited voting “irregularities.”
In 2023, the union was accused of sending out emails using antisemitic language to members to promoting anti-Israel rallies, but it denied the allegations.
Offenholley, Spear and Mamdani’s campaign did not return messages.
The PSC tried to brush aside the criticism, saying in a statement it typically sends out newsletters and other messages to its members “about a variety of topics — including elections” — and “occasionally members inadvertently forward a message using their work email.”
“These are union members communicating about union issues to their colleagues on an internal listserv,” said PSC spokesperson Fran Clark.
“It’s a non-issue. Anti-union MAGA allies who want to undermine union rights and CUNY are grasping at straws.”