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UUP members, like Secretary Eileen Landy, above, made their voices heard at NYSUT’s 44th Representative Assembly in Rochester, April 8-9, as they spoke out for public colleges and universities, spoke up for collaboration with their K-12 sisters and brothers, and cheered Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s vision of an equitable, adequately funded public education system accessible to all.

Clinton’s speech touched on several issues vitally important to UUP, including the decline in enrollment at New York’s teacher education programs, and college student debt. UUP plans to continue advocating for two of its initiatives that would address those issues, including a proposal to recruit and retain talented teacher candidates.

I would have a national campaign to elevate and modernize education, including recruiting and attracting talented, diverse candidates into teaching, and a student debt forgiveness program that really works,” Clinton, above, told the cheering assembly.

Clinton, UUP in sync

UUP President Fred Kowal, above, speaking to the RA delegation, told members during UUP’s RA breakfast that much work remains to be done in the post-budget season, both in Albany and in home districts, and Clinton’s remarks on public education reflected the union’s sense of urgency.

Elsewhere through the two-day statewide policy-making convention, UUP members spoke up at resolution committee meetings and on the floor of the full assembly before 2,000 fellow NYSUT unionists.

Two of the three resolutions sponsored or co-sponsored by UUP passed the full assembly, one of which would encourage collaboration between K-12 and higher education members of NYSUT, and the other of which would encourage the state and federal governments to take a compassionate and humane approach to the resettlement of African and Middle Eastern refugees.

Kowal asked the body to refer the third UUP-sponsored resolution to the NYSUT Board of Directors for further discussion; that resolution encouraged the creation of a single-payer health care system.

A handful of statewide officers and Executive Board members were all in at the AFT Joint PSRP and Higher Education Conference, and were motivated to unite, inspire and lead at the annual NEA Higher Education Conference.

The conferences took place April 1-3 in Las Vegas and San Diego, respectively.

UUP Secretary Eileen Landy, below, left, was a panelist in separate NEA workshops on moving from membership to activism, and on the privatization and corporatization of public higher education. VP for Professionals Philippe Abraham flew 330 miles from the NEA conference to lead an AFT workshop on strengthening the link between teachers and professional employees.

AFT is “All In”

The joint conference—which brought together higher ed academic and professional faculty, and K-12 paraprofessionals and school-related personnel—included programs and strategies to activate and motivate members working in public schools, colleges, universities and hospitals around the country.

“We are together in the values we share, in our fight for fair and just workplaces, and a living wage; and we fight together for racial equity and justice,” noted UUP President Fred Kowal in a welcome letter to conference-goers. “A strong union is the only way we can build our power to achieve our shared goals.”

Unionists—including UUP Membership Development Officer Tom Hoey and Executive Board member Jeri O’Bryan-Losee, shown at top with Abraham, center—honed their skills and shared success stories in workshops ranging from campus safety and sexual assault, to student debt and school discipline, to multicultural and multiethnic education, and the contingent labor force.

“This was my first AFT conference and first nationally attended union event,” said O’Bryan-Losee of SUNY Cobleskill. “It was interesting to know what’s going on politically in other states, especially those classified as ‘right-to-work.’ Hearing real stories about what (public employees) are going through was truly eye opening and gave me a renewed dedication to do everything I can to not let that happen in New York.”

NEA: “Unite. Inspire. Lead.”

Executive Board member Anne Wiegard of SUNY Cortland came back from the NEA conference with the same renewed commitment to work for a stronger, more activated UUP.

“My experience lived up to the conference theme: Unite. Inspire. Lead,” she said. “It was a time to ‘Unite’ with sisters and brothers from colleges and universities all over the country, by understanding our common problems and aligning our goals and strategies. … I was ‘Inspired’ by the dedication and innovations of embattled leaders in states like Florida, where the law allows workers to entirely opt out of unions (and) the conference renewed my commitment to help ‘Lead’ our union through the challenging months ahead, as we seek to build 100 percent membership and activism.”

Watch for the online issue of The Echo later this month for more conference coverage, including remarks from AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia.

Colleagues,

Late yesterday (or, more accurately, early today….more or less) the Governor and Legislature reached agreement on a budget for the next fiscal year. Once again, for our members and university, it’s a mixed bag. We’ve achieved some successes, but also not gotten nearly enough of what we need. Adding all new money in the budget, close to $60 million has been added to the SUNY budget, not including capital funding.

First and foremost, the legislature refused to pass another round of SUNY 2020, instead freezing tuition for one year. As you know, we opposed another round of tuition increases without a strong commitment to Maintenance of Effort language and funding. There is no maintenance of effort language in the budget, something that we will take up the fight on again in next year’s budget — something the Governor referenced in his press conference.

Second, regarding spending, the budget contains $18 million in general funding which is NOT linked to a performance based funding mechanism. We were able to beat that back. However, the process for spending the funds will be determined by the trustees, opening the door to the use of such a mechanism. We will fight that possibility, and argue for its use to address long standing needs of the university such as adjunct salaries and additional full time faculty and staff.  Also in the area of funding, the budget once again significantly increases funding for EOP and EOC, with $5.3 million going to the former and $5 million to the latter. Additionally, $2 million has been added for the ATTAIN labs. Finally, we have $10 million going to Green Energy Programs at the Tech Campuses — an idea which started with UUP late last year.

Third, we were able to convince the legislature to reinstate the $18 million that had been cut in the governor’s budget for the SUNY hospital subsidy. Also, we fought off another attempt to create a private equity intrusion into SUNY Downstate. Both of these victories, however, are just the first part of a battle that will continue for the foreseeable future to defend our hospitals. Storm clouds are gathering.

Fourth, we were also able to protect our retirees. Proposals to raise the costs for medicare recipients and to penalize those retiring with less than 30 years of state service were both defeated by the legislature. Once again, these dangerous proposals could not stand the pressure brought to bear by a strong coalition of groups.

Finally, there are other areas of the budget agreement that we are still studying to ascertain their impacts on us. A prime example is the family leave provisions. We will keep you posted on further elements of the budget agreement as they are examined.

I want to personally thank all of you who took part in our advocacy efforts going back to last December when we rolled out our proposals. The work we all did has paid off, though much remains to be done. We are finalizing schedules for in-district advocacy and we will keep you informed. We also have a packed post-budget agenda for advocacy, including the various proposals pertaining to teacher education and the health sciences centers.

Once again, let’s focus on organizing our members — getting them signed up and even more importantly, getting them actively engaged! The more of us there are, the more power we can exert.

In solidarity,
Fred

Dear Colleagues:

It is urgent that you go to the Take Action section on UUP’s website. Please go to this link http://uupinfo.org/legislation/advocate.php and send a fax.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 800-342-4206.

In Solidarity,
Fred Kowal
UUP President

Colleagues,

The US Supreme Court released its decision on Friedrichs v. the California Teachers Association this morning. In a victory for working people across the United States, the court — by 4-4 vote — upheld the 9th circuit court decision. This means that the Abood precedent holds: Public sector unions have the constitutional authority to collect union dues from all members of our bargaining unit, including so-called fee-payers.

Though we have good cause to celebrate this victory, be aware that we face numerous challenges requiring that we continue with our organizing campaign. There are many other cases in the federal court pipeline that will reach the court eventually, making the appointment of a replacement for Justice Scalia who is sympathetic to our cause of vital importance to all of us. This, in turn, should motivate all of us to take an active role in this years federal elections to insure that we have friends in the White House and in Congress.

I thank all of those involved in the important work of our organizing campaign. Let’s all work a little bit harder and create the powerful union that will benefit all of us, our families, and our students.

In Solidarity,
Fred

Open the link below for guidelines and application forms to submit for the following awards:

Nina Mitchell Award

Fayez Samuel Award

Pearl H. Brod Outstanding Retiree Award

Steve Street Award

http://uupinfo.org/communications/awards/awards.php

Applications are now available for the AFT’s Robert G. Porter Scholars Program,
which offers four, four-year $8,000 scholarships to high school seniors who show
outstanding service to their community and an understanding of the role unions can
play to create a more just society. Applicants must be dependents of AFT members.

The program also awards 10 grants of $1,000 each to AFT members to assist in their
continuing education.

Since its inception in 1993, the Robert G. Porter Scholars Program has awarded
more than $550,000 to AFT members and their dependents to further their
education and to help achieve the goals of AFT – affiliated unions, such as UUP. The
scholarship program honors the late AFT secretary – treasurer, who served from
1963 to 1991.

Porter was a union activist who dedicated his life to championing the rights of
working people, promoting civil rights and ensuring that the union was a vehicle to
achieve justice.

The application deadline for students and members is March 31, 2016 (Midnight).
Third party responses for high school student applications are due by
April 15,2016.

For more information, go to http://bit.ly/1QKpYD5

UUP President Fred Kowal set the tone on the first night of the union’s Chapter Action Project training session in Cooperstown, March 17-20.

“Organizing and building membership isn’t the work of a chapter president or a membership development officer, this is work for all of us to do,” Kowal said. “For too long those words have been spoken but not meant. They are meant now. This is the next step.”

More than 50 volunteers—many of them new activists from chapters across the state—came together for the four-day seminar to learn how to organize nonmembers and activate new members. Modeled after NYSUT’s successful Local Action Project, CAP is a three-year initiative designed to help UUP shift to an organizing culture, which began last year.

Through CAP, union activists will receive intensive training to build a chapter-based structure to recruit and engage new members and activists. This will aid activists with advocacy and political action locally and in Albany, and help them create coalitions with students, unions and other organizations.

“CAP was an amazing success,” said statewide Secretary Eileen Landy, who coordinates CAP for the union. “The energy was palpable and the enthusiasm contagious.”

She continued: “Out of this process, a nucleus of activists across the state will build on this foundation over the next three years.”

Landy said members from 15 chapters took part in the training; members from 14 chapters walked away with plans to recruit members on their campuses.

Labor relation specialists shine

Landy lauded the group of NYSUT labor relation specialists assigned to UUP, such as Tara Singer-Blumberg, above, who led training sessions on member participation, communications, developing community partnerships and ways to more effectively engage in political action. Tom Kriger, a former UUP staffer who works as research and education director for North America’s Business Trades Unions, also addressed activists.

“The LRSs’ did a fantastic job,” Landy said. “It is from their work and their skills that these teams received the tools necessary to accomplish the tasks set before them.”

“We’re here to reach the next generation of dedicated unionists,” said Morrisville Chapter VP for Academics Michael Loudis. “We’re here to develop a true culture of unionism.”

A second CAP seminar is set for the fall; it is slated Oct. 27-29 in Cooperstown.

A panel of past and present teacher education students described the edTPA teacher certification assessment in stark and distraught terms to top state higher education officials at a March 15 UUP forum at SUNY Oneonta that drew dozens of concerned educators.

“I’m stuck. I’m throwing away tens of thousands on my education, yet not even guaranteed that I will ever be able to teach,” Shyanne DeBaker, a student teacher and senior at Hartwick College struggling to complete the edTPA, told a roomful of educators and policy experts.

Dozens of educators and students from K-12 districts and public and private colleges were at the afternoon seminar. Regent Kathleen Cashin, UUP Vice President for Academics Jamie Dangler; and Oneonta Chapter President William Simons and Vice President for Academics Rob Compton attended, as did State Education Department Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education John D’Agati and Senior Deputy Commissioner for Education Policy Jhone Ebert.

The event was hosted by UUP’s Oneonta Chapter.

No feedback

Other students said they got no constructive criticism from their edTPA test scorer after failing the test; they were forced to retake the exam without knowing what they needed to improve. One student began crying as she explained that although she had passed the edTPA, the experience contributed so heavily to her growing distaste for the assessment-crazed state of the teaching profession in the United States that she has taken a teaching job in Spain.

Even those who are now teachers remembered the edTPA – or educative Teacher Performance Assessment – as a difficult hurdle.

Overtaking student teaching

“The edTPA was particularly objectionable because of what it took away from my student teaching experience,” said Peter Arruda, above, a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill and Oneonta who now teaches 7th grade social studies in Cobleskill. “I’ve seen many promising teachers seek employment out of state, or give up.”

Neither D’Agati nor Ebert, above, second from right, offered public comments during the forum. Cashin, above, left, told the students and the audience that “the massive concern that I have is that the edTPA takes over student teaching.”

UUP has committed to continuing its forums and meetings with Regents, as it awaits information on SED’s recent announcement that the statewide task force on edTPA is expected to be reconvened this spring.

Edward Perri, a fisheries and aquaculture major at SUNY Cobleskill, is used to professionals he encounters at conferences and environmental agencies assuming he’s a graduate student, because the projects he’s tackling as an undergraduate are so advanced.

“We learn from the best,” said Perri, third from left, a senior who has just completed a study of the Hudson River’s diverse fish population. In the photo above, Perri listens as Cobleskill Chapter Officer for Contingents Kevin Moore, right, asks for more funding for tech sector campuses during a March 9 meeting in the office of Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Sunnyside).

Perri was one of more than 60 students and UUP members who turned out for the union’s Technology Sector Advocacy Day March 9. The event highlighted the hands-on expertise and top-notch career preparation available at SUNY’s five technology sector campuses, at Alfred, Canton, Cobleskill, Delhi and Morrisville.

Students and campus representatives set up displays, some of them interactive, in the Empire State Plaza concourse to promote their programs.

Led by UUP VP for Academics Jamie Dangler, above, center, the delegation fanned out through the halls of the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building, where once again the combination of students telling their stories alongside faculty and staff resonated, as it has throughout UUP’s advocacy efforts this budget season.

“The work that you’re doing today is incredibly important,” UUP President Fred Kowal told the advocates before they started. “Most legislators don’t really know what goes on at SUNY. We need to educate them.”

Green energy education

One initiative that UUP hopes will become a reality at tech sector campuses is a new green energy technology program that would partner educational programs with local businesses specializing in this field. UUP first proposed the idea in December as part of its legislative agenda; Gov. Andrew Cuomo signaled his approval for the plan by putting $15 million into his executive proposal.

“That’s a good step, but that’s just a start,” Kowal, above, told members and students. He reminded them that for all the good they do, too many tech sector programs are using outdated equipment, and too many faculty are paid significantly less than their counterparts at other colleges.

“I actually took a pay cut to come to Cobleskill because I’m very passionate about teaching,” said Julie Casper Roth, an assistant professor of communications, whose comments reflect the dedication that faculty feel about teaching. Professors like Casper Roth could command much higher salaries in the public sector than those they earn at SUNY.

Tech sectors in upstate economy

At the same time, the tech sector campuses play a far-reaching and vital role in the economy of upstate New York. Alfred has an annual economic impact of $111 million, more than 10 times the total annual state allocation for the college. Cobleskill is the major employer and cultural center of Schoharie County.

Nearly 80 percent of Delhi’s faculty and staff live in Delaware County, where they shop, contribute to the housing market and support numerous service businesses. Canton’s economic impact in the North Country region totaled more than $175 million.

Or, as Joan Nicholson, an associate professor and director of the dietetic technician program at Morrisville noted. “We employ upstate New Yorkers in places where there is not a lot of employment.”