Colleagues,
On Wednesday the Chapter Board has made some decisions that the membership should be aware of.
1) Kevin Ragland has resigned from Treasurer effective June 1. Kevin has been outstanding in this position and we are sorry to see him go. We wish him all the best. Thank you Kevin for your years of service and loyalty to our Chapter.
2) The Board has appointed Jennifer Russo as the next Treasurer so that Kevin can work with her to transfer accounts and duties. Please welcome Jennifer aboard!!
3) Melinda Lemke has stepped down as our Grievance Officer for Academics effective May 21, 2026. Melinda has been a strong advocate for faculty and she will be missed. She has agreed to serve as a consultant, but can no longer spend the time performing this position. This is completely understandable as more and more demands are placed upon faculty. Melinda, thank you for your advocacy for faculty and agreeing to help our Chapter better understand the nuances that faculty face. Thank you for your service.
4) If you are interested in serving as the Academic Grievance Officer, please let me know by emailing me at uupkatkielar@pm.me.
5) As we’ve communicated in April, the physical office in the Commons is now closed and we are operating virtually. Our Chapter Assistant, Kristen, is out on medical leave and will return the end of December 2026. Currently, I will be available Wednesdays and Thursdays to conduct UUP business between the hours of 7 am and 3:30 pm. I can absolutely not do any union business during my obligation time on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. We are now in the process of hiring a temp to answer phones Mondays and Tuesdays. This is on ongoing situation and as we stabilize our office hours I ask that everyone be patient and use email or leave a phone message. I will keep the membership informed as to any changes in hours.
6) The Board approved a document entitled “Communications Management Guidance“. This document is being shared with you in an effort to protect your personal emails, as well as the data the office is responsible for. I want to thank both Daniel Schweitzer and Melinda Lemke for their work in drafting the document. This took a great deal of time and thought. I also want to thank the Board for their efforts and concern to protect our members data. Thank you.
7) We are anxiously awaiting news on the contract and I’m hearing really good vibes that we are close to a resolution. We will ask members for a ratification vote once the state and the contract committee reach a finalized agreement. Contract votes will be mailed to your home address and it’s important that we show our strength as a union through the number of votes we have on our contract. If you need to update your home address, please do so through UB’s Update Information Website. UUP gets our active members addresses from UB.
8) We are approaching Memorial Day and are leaving a very busy Spring semester behind (Yes! We made it). I wish to close this correspondence, wishing our 10 month faculty a great summer! For our 12 month employees, I hope that you are able to take much needed time off for rest.
As we go through the summer and into the fall, I’m anticipating many changes that we’ll need our members support on. We should have an idea of who our new President will be, as well as gear up for impending NYS budget changes for the 27-28 year. I’m hoping that we will have a physical office by the fall. We have many storms ahead that we will encounter and I hope together we can weather them.
All please have a great summer!
Best,
Kathleen Kielar
Chapter President
UUP Buffalo Center