Next week, Gawker reporter J.K. Trotter will be getting a second cache of Petraeusgate documents from CUNY. This batch will come from Macaulay Honors College; the first, which Trotter published in his Gawker story, came from CUNY Central. What to look for in that second cache: the May 29 offer letter to Petraeus that Macaulay Dean Ann Kirschner allegedly drafted and shared with CUNY officials. (If you need a quick refresher on the significance of that letter, see below.) Here are the two scenarios. Scenario 1: The Macaulay cache does contain the May 29 letter This scenario raises many questions. Seven to be exact. First, if Kirschner did indeed draft and share that document with other “CUNY offices” on May 29, […]

One of the issues in Petraeusgate is who is paying for this hire: the taxpayers or private donors? In her email of July 1—the last communique from the administration to Petraeus that we know of—CUNY Dean Ann Kirschner writes: Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has provided private funding for your position, which will be paid through the CUNY Research Foundation. Previously the administration had claimed that Petraeus’s base salary would be “supplemented” by private donations that had yet to be secured. Now, the administration suggests that the position in its entirety is to be covered by private funds; the funds have been secured; and they’ll be administered by the Research Foundation (RF). My friend Alex Vitale, who’s a sociology prof at Brooklyn […]