{"id":1754,"date":"2019-12-06T08:34:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T13:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2021-03-18T09:33:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T13:33:58","slug":"working-with-dignity-a-special-imperative-from-chapter-president-jaclyn-pittsley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1754","title":{"rendered":"Working with Dignity: A Special Imperative from Chapter President Jaclyn Pittsley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In my role as Chapter President, during\nthe last six months, I have served as a confidant to those who\u2019ve been subject\nto treatment by others that requires me to remind folks of our commitment to excellence,\nsolidarity, and mindfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SUNY Cortland is one of the finest\ninstitutions in public higher education, and it pains me to hear that folks are\nrequiring their colleagues to do things that are not a part of their professional\nobligation, such as being told to fetch mail, pour coffee, or run personal\nerrands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UUP is an inclusive environment where,\nas Dr. Seuss puts it, \u201cEvery Who down in Who-Ville, the tall and the small….\u201d\nare represented and deserving of fair and equal treatment. We all deserve the\nright to work without fear of being asked to do things that are outside our\nprofessional obligations, especially by our fellow members and supervisors. No\none wants his or her work degraded by unnecessary requests for \u201cfavors\u201d of a\nservile nature, and no one wants his or her commitment questioned for pointing\nout these unfair and even outrageous requests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All UUP members work with special\nprotections and a special imperative: a voice with which they must expose\ninjustice that occurs in their work environments.  No one should be considered \u201ctoo soft\u201d to\nwork at SUNY Cortland, especially when they\u2019re brave enough to stand up for\nthemselves and others. Such an accusation has no place in an institution such\nas ours: it smacks of hazing and makes the mind reel with its implications,\nespecially considering our country\u2019s profound support and progressive\nparticipation in recent #MeToo Movements. We all deserve the right to work\nwithout fear of punishment or reprisal for declaring, \u201cNO, this is not what I\nhave to do to get where I want to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say this not <\/em>to chastise any fellow member who has made such a request of a\nfellow employee or of a supervisee. We have all, including me, asked at one\ntime or another for a small favor of a colleague that is gladly done. However,\nwe should be mindful of inclusivity and the dignity our colleagues deserve in\nperforming their work for this institution. We have all made requests that may\nseem minor or trivial, and we may have made these requests many times without\nthinking of how the request makes the other person feel. I ask us now to think\nabout it, to empathize with our fellow employees, to consider times we\u2019ve\nimposed unfairly upon one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UUP is a muscle of change. We work for\nchange in our terms and conditions of employment. We demand change in our\nenvironment. We progress beyond acceding to the ways that things have always\nbeen done. We are not a group to sit idly by while others endure ill treatment,\nlack of care, or retaliation for speaking out. We reach beyond the old and\nchampion the new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UUP members have specific obligations to\nthemselves and our colleagues in the workplace. I hope, and I\u2019m sure my fellow\nmembers would find it reasonable, that my colleagues will be able to view the\nexperience of working with me in a positive way, filled with useful\ninteractions, even on occasions when we may disagree. I want to continue to\nwork toward this goal in the coming year, and I hope we can all do the same. Every\nhuman being on this campus – UUP Members or Non-Members, CSEA, PEF, CWA,\nstudent, administrator, guest, or visitor, Full-Time or Part-Time, Permanent or\nTemporary Appointee, new hire or long-serving senior member, supervisor or\nsupervisee \u2013 deserves the respect of all colleagues and must be able to perform\ntheir obligation with dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my role as Chapter President, during the last six months, I have served as a confidant to those who\u2019ve been subject to treatment by others that requires me to remind folks of our commitment to excellence, solidarity, and mindfulness. SUNY Cortland is one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}