CUNY Students' Trip to Cuba 'Propaganda'

A planned trip to Cuba by a group of CUNY graduate students is drawing criticism from politicians and one of the school's board members. The nine students, who are enrolled in the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education, left yesterday with City Council Member Charles Barron and the director of the center, Joseph Wilson, to study the communist nation's health care and education systems.

"This is going to be used as a propaganda tool for Fidel Castro," Rep. Vito Fossella said yesterday in an interview. "If anything is going to be accomplished of significance, the visitors should ask Fidel Castro when he is going to liberalize the economy, release political prisoners and dissidents, and hold fair elections."

A CUNY trustee, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, said he was concerned about the students' visit.

"I don't have a blanket objection to travel to Cuba, and certainly people who want to go there to expand or advocate for the rights of the prison population that I consider the Cuban population to be, or for religious freedom, or who have made Jewish or Christian missions there, I don't oppose," Mr. Wiesenfeld said. "But this particular mission, which seems to be a celebration of Fidel Castro — let's say I'm nonplussed."

A spokesman for CUNY, Ernesto Mora, defended the trip.

"Many groups have visited Cuba in recent years as scholars and students of history and political affairs seek an understanding of the country's past and current affairs and a perspective on future possibilities," he said in a statement. "Graduate Students enrolled in the Center for Worker Education are making this trip as part of their course of studies. It is an academic, not a political, event — part of an academic exchange fully in keeping with the university's educational mission."

The spokesman could not immediately determine whether taxpayer funds are being used to sponsor the Cuba trip. Americans are prohibited from traveling to Cuba, and student trips have brought legal scrutiny in the past. The government is currently investigating a community group that helped organize visits to Cuba by students from the Beacon School in Manhattan.