Wherever they turn, lawmakers are seeing, hearing UUP’s message

Chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight! Education is a right!” UUPers lent their voices to a student/faculty march that brought together nearly 500 SUNY and CUNY students, faculty, unionists and other education supporters with a common goal: to urge lawmakers to invest in public higher education.

The March 15 rally kicked off the Student/Faculty Higher Education Action Day, sponsored by the SUNY Student Assembly, the CUNY University Senate, the New York Public Interest Research Group, NYSUT, UUP and Professional Staff Congress/CUNY.

Marchers spent the afternoon meeting with legislators to urge them to reject Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to slash funding to SUNY, CUNY and commu-nity colleges. Afterward, they gathered at the Capitol for a joint news conference with speakers from the six organizations involved in the event.

UUP President Phil Smith told the crowd to keep up the good fight.

“Will we stand strong and demand a stop to state cuts?” Smith shouted. “Will we demand that public higher education be a priority in New York? Let’s make it clear to lawmakers that state public higher education cuts must end.”

The student/faculty march came on the heels of an aggressive, multifaceted advocacy campaign designed to rescue SUNY from perhaps the most serious academic and financial threat it?has faced since its inception.

Advocacy efforts included President Smith testifying before the Legislature’s higher education committees, a half dozen UUP-sponsored advocacy days in Albany, and meetings with lawmakers in their district offices.

SUNY GOUGED BY CUTS

In testimony during a legislative budget hearing Feb. 10, Smith set the stage for lawmakers’ visits by urging legislators to reject the proposed $100 million budget cut aimed at SUNY. He noted that SUNY’s state-operated campuses have already lost more than 30 percent of their operating budgets. That percentage doesn’t include the proposed $100 million slash, which would bring SUNY’s overall cut to $685 million over the last two years.

“It is unlikely that any other major university in this nation has lost such a high percentage of its operating resources, particularly in such a short period of time,” Smith testified. “If the governor’s proposal is not rejected, SUNY’s level of state support will be back to the level provided in the mid-1980s, despite the fact that enrollment has grown by more than 40,000 students during that time.”

Smith told legislators that SUNY has lost 1,300 faculty and would need 2,700 more full-time faculty to achieve the same faculty/student ratios that existed in the 1980s.

Smith said SUNY cannot tolerate another reduction in state support.

“From campus to campus, courses are being cancelled, class sizes are growing to levels never before experienced, and students are compelled to compete for required courses,” he said. “The longer students must remain in school, the greater the expense to the state and, importantly, to the students and their families. It makes no sense to force delayed graduation.”

ADVOCACY IN ACTION

Carrying that strong message, UUP advocates converged on the Capitol throughout February and March, pressing lawmakers to vote against additional reductions to SUNY’s operating budget and to reject so-called flexibility legislation.

UUP is arguing that the governor’s proposal to permit SUNY to lease campus property and take part in public/private partnerships with minimal public oversight would hurt SUNY more than help it. Smith told lawmakers that educating the state’s workforce does more economic good than some vague notion of public/private partnerships and joint ventures.

In meetings with lawmakers at their district offices, UUPers from chapters such as Farmingdale, Upstate Medical University (UMU) and Cortland reiterated the union’s message.

Farmingdale activists met with Assemblyman Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), who agreed to work with the union to avoid cuts to SUNY’s budget. He also agreed with UUP by expressing support for the continuation of the so-called millionaire’s tax.

UMU and Cortland advocates shared the union’s concerns with eight Central New York lawmakers, including Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R-Canandaigua).

HOSPITALS HIT HARD

Concerns about the future of SUNY’s three public hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse were also made clear to lawmakers. More than 30 UUPers visited with lawmakers March 1 for UUP’s Hospital and Health Science Center Advocacy Day, urging them to preserve funding for the hospitals.

UUP leaders warned that the proposed budget would decimate SUNY’s teaching hospitals by eliminating the $154 million they receive in state support and huge reductions in Medicaid funding.

“The governor’s budget fails to recognize that these are publicly operated hospitals simply because they are required to serve, not only large populations of underinsured and uninsured patients, but also patients referred by other hospitals who have medical conditions that require very costly treatment,” Smith said. “The governor’s proposals jeopardize the welfare of citizens whose health care depends on the viability of our hospitals.”

“There is no fat left in SUNY,” said UMU Chapter member Paul Stasior during a meeting with Assemblyman David McDonough (R-Merrick). “We’re down to muscle.”

“Cuts to health care just don’t make sense,” Stony Brook HSC Chapter President Kathy Southerton told an aide to Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley). “If these cuts are approved, services will be eliminated and programs will close.”

Stony Brook University Hospital is facing the potential loss of 700 jobs.

Stony Brook University Hospital is facing the potential loss of 700 jobs. UUP also delivered its message directly to the public through a strong, statewide print and TV advertising campaign (see related story, page 6). The ads direct readers and viewers to savesuny.org, UUP’s micro-website where people can learn the facts about cuts to SUNY and electronically fax letters to lawmakers.

— Donald Feldstein