UUP Cortland Chapter

Attached please find a flier promoting a free screening of the documentary, “Backpack Full of Cash”.  This screening event is scheduled on Thursday, February 8, at the Cinemapolis, 120 East Green Street, Ithaca.  NYSUT members, family, friends, and community members are welcome to attend.  Please contact NYSUT Political Action Coordinators Dave Ritchie should you have any questions.  His contact information is listed on the flier.

Cortland UUP chapter Treasurer Kevin Pristash reports that our members have generously contributed $180 to the Operation Agua campaign, an effort led by a partnership composed of non-profit organizations that include AFT, AFSME, the Seafarers International Union, the Hispanic Federation, and TOTE Maritime.

“To date, Operation Agua has raised $1.5 million—halfway to its initial goal—to purchase and distribute 100,000 individual water filtration systems for households and classrooms, and to install large-capacity clean-water devices to a network of nonprofit organizations, union offices, schools and other community-based groups to provide stable and reliable sources of safe water.” (AFT Media Affairs Press Release, Dec. 21, 2017)

The money our chapter raised will purchase six of the $30 water purification devices that are being provided to classrooms or to families for home use. For more information about Operation Agua, please visit this link:

https://www.aft.org/operation-agua/about.

Thanks to all who signed the Fair Contract Petition!

Despite December 1 through 15th being the busiest two weeks of the semester, UUP was able to collect 364 signatures from members. These signatures come from every Professional unit and Academic department at the college and include

• Faculty Senate officers and college-wide committee chairs;
• UUP members who are also members of many influential community organizations;
• many award-winning faculty and staff of long service;
• and a number of more recently hired employees we hope to retain.

Everyone expressed full support for the cited proposals, and some cited their frustration with the hardships resulting from having to work without a contract.

On Monday, December 18th, Chapter President Joe Westbrook presented and discussed the petition with Campus President Erik Bitterbaum, reviewing the priority proposals that UUP has argued for during negotiations over the past year. Joe felt that everyone who signed the petition was speaking alongside him as he asked President Bitterbaum to urge Chancellor Johnson to support UUP’s reasonable proposals.

A fair contract will serve the interests of SUNY as well as UUP. At the end of their meeting, President Bitterbaum said he would tell the Chancellor that he supports a fair and equitable contract for UUP when he sees her at an event  late in the week before Christmas.

Thanks to all the UUP Cortland members who attended our Union Matters “Contract Forum” on November 14th and stood up to signify their support for the proposals that the UUP Negotiations Team has presented to the State of New York. The chapter is currently asking all Cortland faculty and staff to sign the “United for a Fair Contract” petition.  Look for someone carrying a clipboard in a hallway near you or stop by the chapter office!

Dear Cortland UUP Members,

I’m sharing the memo below with our colleagues for their action by submitting comments. The deadline for submitting comments on SUNY’s Micro-Credentialing Task Force Report and Recommendations is Wed., Nov. 8. The memo below was sent to campuses last month and includes the email address to respond to with comments. I expect many have already seen the memo through campus channels. By circulating it again, please consider this as a “last call” from me to participate in this review process.

Regards,
Jamie Dangler, PhD
Vice President for Academics
United University Professions
1-800-342-4206; jdangler@uupmail.org

Memorandum

To:   Campus Presidents and Chief Academic Officers 

From:   Grace Wang, Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development

Subject:   Comment Period Open: Micro-credentialing Task Force Report & Recommendations

I am very pleased to open a comment period on the recommendations of the SUNY Micro-Credentialing Task Force as included in the attached report. My thanks to the Task Force members, which included representative campus presidents, provosts, faculty governance, student governance, registrars, business officers, institutional researchers, and continuing education officers. The Task Force worked collaboratively to understand the still evolving landscape of micro-credentials and to develop recommendations that help to position SUNY as a leader in this space.

The Task Force recognizes the potential of micro-credentials to: enable campuses to more quickly respond to student need and industry demand; establish new academic/industry partnerships; motivate students to persist toward academic and career goals; and bridge non-credit and credit-bearing coursework and experiences. You will see that the Task Force has recommended a definition for micro-credentials at SUNY and a path moving forward that recognizes the role of faculty in ensuring quality credentials and that is designed to give campuses maximum flexibility in designing a wide-range of micro-credentials to meet student interests and industry needs.

Please provide your feedback via e-mail to: provost@suny.edu by Wednesday, November 8, 2017. If you have any questions in the interim, please contact: Associate Provost Fred Hildebrand at: Fred.Hildebrand@suny.edu.

President, University Faculty Senate

President, Faculty Council of Community Colleges

President, SUNY Student Assembly

Campus Registrars

Campus Business Officers

Institutional Research Directors

Continuing Education Directors

Campus Governance Leaders