CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

A participatory project to collect and preserve the histories of the City University of New York

Oral History Interview with Ezra Seltzer

Ezra Seltzer attended Brooklyn College in the 1950s and when he was about to leave to get his Ph.D. he was offered a promotion to a faculty position in the Biology department. Although departmental politics got in the way, he chose to stay on as a "College Lab Technician" (CLT) until his 1995 retirement. Always active in his union, initially the Legislative Conference (LC), Seltzer speaks in glowing terms of Belle Zeller and of Iz Kugler but told him "I wish I were [with you] but I met Belle Zeller first." Loyal to Zeller and later to Irwin Polishook, he also speaks highly of Harold Wilson, another strong advocate for CLTs. In this interview, Seltzer discusses the history of the College Lab Technician series of titles and of their chapter of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC). He also recalls the occupational safety and health work that CLTs led, and the early political battles between the Legislative Conference and the United Federation of College Teachers before they merged into the PSC.



Source | Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC)
Creator | Yellowitz, Irwin
Date Created | July 14, 2014
Interviewer | Yellowitz, Irwin
Interviewee | Seltzer, Ezra
Rights | Obtain From Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC)
Item Type | Oral History (Digital)
Cite This document | Yellowitz, Irwin, “Oral History Interview with Ezra Seltzer,” CUNY Digital History Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/5622.

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