About Us

For over 30 years, UUP has represented academic and professional faculty at SUNY Cortland and across the state at SUNY’s other state-operated campuses. The Cortland Chapter is one of UUP’s most active, with members serving the union in a variety of local and statewide leadership roles over the years. We are committed to enhancing the working lives and protecting the workplace rights of our constituents.

We invite you to join us in taking an active role on your campus and at the statewide level.

— Jaclyn Pittsley,  Former Cortland Chapter President and Current Statewide Executive Board Member

Member’s Spotlight – November

 

Name
Rhiannon Maton, Ph.D.
 
Campus Title and Division
Associate Professor, Foundations and Social Advocacy

Role or title you may have with UUP. Examples include: 
  • UUP Ad-Hoc Research Committee Co-Chair (with Anna Curtis)
  • Area Activist Co-Coordinator (with Caroline Kaltefleiter)
  • Former Academic Delegate (2 terms)
                   
Short Introduction/About Me
 
Hello, I’m Rhiannon Maton, and I am associate professor of Foundations and Social Advocacy in the School of Education. My research is on teacher unions (mainly at the K-12 level, although recently I have also been looking at trends in organizing amongst higher education unions). I am deeply committed to social justice, equity, and fostering enhanced worker power. I am also a Canadian, and this tends to shape my vision of what is possible for us as workers—including things like fair parental leave, and much more. 
 
I am also a solo parenting, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent woman academic, and love teaching students here at SUNY Cortland about how we can make our schools and the world more equitable to support those of us who experience ongoing systemic barriers and marginalization.
 
Tell me about your job and why you love what you do?
 
I teach classes like Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Issues in Education, and the Organizations and Leadership course in the School of Education. I love working with preservice principals, superintendents, teachers, and others to talk about the importance of identity in schooling. And I also love talking about the importance of socially just leadership in these various practitioner roles, and how to develop and assert one’s sense of agency as an educational practitioner. 
 
I also really love conducting research on teachers and teachers’ work, and sharing this work with my students. The goal is to invite them in to a conversation about teacher agency, social justice, and social power redistribution.
 
How did you get involved with UUP?
 
I became involved with UUP a few years in to working at SUNY Cortland. The #1 reason I became involved was that I have strong union commitments, both ethically and practically. I believe very strongly in fostering solidarity amongst workers, and that we should have compassion for one another and offer support and assistance wherever possible to ensure that the work experience is equitable, kind–and even joyful, whenever possible. 
 
I know that this need for mutuality and support is especially the case for workers who are minoritized by various systemic and structural factors. As a solo parenting, LGBTQ+ neurodivergent woman who does not have family close by due to being an academic, I face a range of barriers within my daily work in the institution as well as personal life–for example, childcare is an ongoing challenge, especially when I do not have backup family support locally, and affording things like expensive childcare options is another ongoing challenge. I know that ultimately, we are stronger together, and that I can offer support to my fellow workers, just as they can offer support for me. 
 
So, I joined the union in order to help build a fighting union, and one with power in the bargaining room.
 
How do you make a difference? 
 
The broader political and economic context, right now, is a major challenge. And I was hearing a lot of discussion amongst faculty especially about fears that there might be some significant program restructuring, increases in workload, and other factors, in the works as well as on the horizon. So, I developed the idea of creating a UUP research committee that would look more into some of the trends that we are seeing on campus. These trends include a conversation last year that “some faculty” might soon be assigned a 4/3 courseload. It also included an observation that workload has increased in a signifant way since my arrival in 2017 on campus, and longstanding colleagues stated that over the past 20 – 25 years that there have been drastic increases in workload. These factors, plus concerns that workers all across this campus are not receiving wages that are comparable to similar peer institutions within and beyond the SUNY system, led me to start this committee. So, I pitched the idea to Kris Newhall (VP for Academics) and Anna Curtis (professor of Sociology), and we decided to launch a committee that would study these trends on campus, and also track in a more concerted way the claims made by management surrounding these and other factors affecting union members on campus. Kris Newhall has been an incredible support in setting this up, and Anna Curtis and I are now leading this committee. Reach out if you are interested in getting involved!
 
What about your community engagement; any hobbies?
 
I am a solo parent of a four year old without even occasional relief from parenting built into my schedule, so my main hobby these days is raising her and being a good parent for her. Teaching her that we can transform this world to be more kind, compassionate, and a hopeful space for those of us who experience systemic marginalization in the various aspects of our lives and work.
 
 

Member’s Spotlight – October

Member’s Spotlight

Name – Daniel Harms

Campus Title and Division – Instructional Services Librarian, Information Resources, Memorial Library

Role or title you may have with UUP.

Former Vice President for Academics; campus delegate; chair, Campus Development Committee; member, statewide Grievance Committee

Short Introduction/About Me

I grew up in the mountains of Kentucky. I received my masters in anthropology from SUNY Buffalo, then I obtained a masters degree in library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh. I joined SUNY Cortland in 2005, and I’ve been working in Memorial Library ever since.

Tell me about your job and why you love what you do?

I teach students, both in the classroom and at the research help desk. It is so satisfying to be able to find ways to help students both to get the information they need and realize there’s a world of information that can meet with their interests.

How did you get involved with UUP?

UUP was there for me and other people I know when we were having troubles with management. It’s often good to have an advocate in the room when you’re having disagreements with people upstairs; their presence can help everyone to work harder toward a solution that works for everyone. Then Dave Ritchie asked me to take on the role of Vice President for Academics, and we went on from there.

How do you make a difference? 

It’s often good just to be in a room to make a statement at a particular time, or to listen to someone who’s having a difficult time. Even small moves can make a big difference to campus climate over time.

What about your community engagement; any hobbies:

I think people know I’m a big roleplaying gamer (think Dungeons and Dragons, but more variants and the like). Apparently it’s turned into a morale boosting activity for some of the other employees, which is nice.

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