The UUP Benefit Trust Fund realizes that UUP members have very hectic schedules and don’t have a lot of time to spend on the phone trying to resolve a benefit issue.
Whether it’s dental, vision or health care issues that you need help with, your Benefit Trust Fund representatives are here to assist you in any way we can. We have a skilled staff of benefit reps who are trained to advocate on your behalf.
Your calls to the Benefit Trust Fund are very important. If you are having problems with your benefits, we need to know—especially when it comes to receiving the customer service you deserve. We take our members’ feedback very seriously and we work to rectify the problem.
We also make campus visits and submit articles to The Voice to inform you of the specific services we provide and on the best ways to get the most from your benefits package. After all, you need to be informed to make the best health care decisions for you and your family.
The Benefit Trust Fund also works very closely with the vendors that administer your benefits to ensure you receive the most up-to-date and accurate information.
Benefit Trust Fund programs and services are also posted online at www.uupinfo.org. Click on Benefits and you’re there. Under Benefit Forms is the document Important Phone Numbers, which lists the names, phone numbers and websites for benefits and services.
I would encourage our members to call with new and creative ideas for discounted services through our UUP Member Services Trust Fund. It’s good to know what our members are looking for.
So, the next time any of your benefits are in question, and you need help getting issues resolved, I urge you to call the Fund at (800) 887-3863.
A FT Advantage is a valuable benefit that gives UUP members and their families exclusive access to an online shopping program.
Members can save up to 70 percent on electronics, apparel, home furnishings, flowers, gifts, and tickets to movies, sporting events and the theater.
AFTAdvantage includes everyday savings on some of the most recognized brands nationwide, including Target, Ann Taylor, Blue Nile Jewelry, Panasonic, RedEnvelope, Petco, Blackberry and Hewlett-Packard. (Please note that these partners may or may not have an offer on any given day.)
UUPers also have access to other discount programs through the AFT, including books, magazine, hotels and travel programs.
We were hoping that a new year and a new governor would turn a new page when it comes to state funding for SUNY.
Unfortunately, what we got in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed spending plan was the same old story—another bone-deep cut in funding to state-operated campuses and our three teaching hospitals.
The governor slashed SUNY’s state support by 10 percent in his Executive Budget, which would increase the total funding loss for state-operated campuses to about $685 million—or a third of SUNY’s annual operating budget—if it passes.
It’s difficult to say just what the impact of Cuomo’s proposed cuts to our hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse would be, since reduction targets haven’t been identified. But it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that the governor’s plan for massive Medicaid cuts is intolerable and must be rejected, along with his call to eliminate $154 million in state subsidies.
Fortunately, Cuomo’s draft budget is not written in stone. We must work tirelessly to rewrite this bleak chapter by sending a strong message to legislators to “Think Ahead, Invest in Higher Ed.”
This is a time of action for UUPers.
We need you to stand up and speak out against these cuts and proposals. We need you to get involved.
BUILDING BRIDGES
It is imperative that we redouble our coalition-building efforts and align ourselves more closely with area labor federations. Public education is under attack. Organized labor is under attack. It is time to join together with a united voice to fight for fairness and spread the word about the critical importance of proper funding for higher education, and the positive impact union members make at work and in their communities.
UUP is working with New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, a coalition of churches, hospitals, inner city ministries, family health groups and unions—such as NYSUT, CSEA and PEF—to ensure New Yorkers have a quality educational system, affordable health care and housing, and other essentials for job growth and a thriving state economy.
A vibrant public higher education system, one that’s adequately funded, accessible and affordable, is a requisite to reach those goals. We cannot allow the state to reduce SUNY’s funding any further.
SUNY has shouldered far more than its share of reductions, and this trend must be reversed. If it isn’t, expect more of what happened at UAlbany and Geneseo last year, when those campuses announced stinging cuts to humanities and other programs.
Students and parents will find larger classes, fewer instructors and fewer course offerings. Fewer courses would mean an extra year of school—and another year of tuition—for students shut out of classes required for graduation.
ACT II
And then there’s the undying issue of SUNY flexibility.
This year’s plan would permit SUNY to lease campus properties, enter into public/private partnerships with limited oversight and hire services without further approvals from the state comptroller or attorney general. We oppose all those proposals.
However, there are some things we can get behind, like the purchase of goods without the delays inherent in the state comptroller’s approval process.
TIME FOR ACTION
Cuts to SUNY need to stop now. Students can’t afford it. Parents can’t afford it.
SUNY’s future affects the future of hundreds of thousands of New York students looking to public education for a college degree. They have a right to an affordable, quality education, the crux of SUNY’s mission.
We need you, now more than ever, to step up. Please, volunteer to take part in one of our Albany advocacy trips to meet with legislators. Become involved with UUP’s coalition-building efforts. Organize a visit to the home offices of your local legislators. Get involved on your campuses.
Tell everyone you know that investing in SUNY is investing in our future.
To succeed in today’s global economy, workers must be educated, not just trained for a career. That’s why the humanities have always been at the core of higher education.
Courses such as English, history and philosophy teach students how to think, reason and understand the world around them. Greek mythology is much more than the study of the gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks; it’s an avenue to understanding that culture.
The study of languages helps bring the world within reach, as UAlbany’s theme proudly states.
So it’s understandable that the university’s announcement to suspend five humanities courses—French, Italian, Russian, classics and theater—to help absorb heavy-handed state aid reductions sent shock waves across the campus and through the entire SUNY system.
The bad news spread quickly, generating coverage on National Public Radio, and in the Washington Post and The New York Times—whose columnist Stanley Fish claimed UAlbany’s move marked the start of “the crisis of the humanities” in an Oct. 11 editorial. International news outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corp., Radio France and the French newspaper LeMonde have also reported on the cuts.
TARGET: HUMANITIES
Perhaps Fish overstated the danger. But his point is well taken: the humanities are in trouble. An expanding list of public higher education institutions—including Arizona State, Washington State, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette among others – have targeted the humanities or have them in their budget-cutting crosshairs.
SUNY Geneseo made that list in November when it announced plans to phase out majors in studio art, along with degrees in computer sciences, and communicative disorders and sciences.
Yet a year earlier, Geneseo President Christopher Dahl referred to the Communicative Disorders and Sciences Department as “the gem of the college.” Apparently, this gem has lost some of its sparkle in the eyes of administrators.
Fortunately, no other SUNY schools were contemplating cuts in humanities as The Voice went to press.
COOL HEAD IN TOUGH TIMES
Yes, the economy is in trouble and times are tough. We understand this all too well; SUNY state-operated campuses have been socked with $585 million in state aid reductions since 2008, including the latest mid-year cut ordered by Gov. David Paterson in October, that sent SUNY campuses scrambling to close million-dollar funding gaps.
But now is not the time to turn away from higher education’s overarching mission: to produce well-rounded college graduates who can think critically and reason ethically. We need knowledgeable people who can solve problems, not react to unpredictable situations in predictable ways. A broad liberal arts education gives students a chance to explore, to discover what it is to be human.
College should compel students to consider and assess, to write, and to communicate.
Arts, history, languages and theater courses raise intriguing questions about life and the search for answers. They broaden the consciousness, cultivating a personal understanding as to why the world is as it is.
As budgets are squeezed and unemployment lines grow longer, it’s no surprise to see schools under increasing pressure from students and parents to adjust curriculum to match labor market shifts. But adopting a “cookie cutter” approach to education— where students are tracked into courses with an emphasis on career preparation—is short-sighted.
SHARE THE PAIN
UAlbany’s refusal to even consider trimming budgets across campus instead of cutting the humanities courses is unfortunate, to say the least. UAlbany President George Philip, in the Oct. 15-21 edition of the Capital District Business Review, said that spreading budget cuts across campus was not an option because “cutting across the board is the formula for mediocrity.”
That’s a great sound bite, but do you have any evidence to back up such a claim? Where’s the proof ?
UAlbany UUPers haven’t taken news of the cuts lying down. Along with a group of concerned students and alumni, UUPers have attended student rallies protesting the cuts and signed a petition calling for the programs’ reinstatement; more than 13,000 people signed the petition, which was submitted to administrators on Nov. 1. Also, UAlbany’s Faculty Senate passed resolutions against the cuts in November.
FIGHTING BACK
It’s up to all of us as union members to stand tall for SUNY. We need you to join the fight to protect and enhance SUNY to ensure its future as a vibrant state university system that will provide an affordable, quality education to all New Yorkers.
If we do nothing, we can expect to hear more heartbreaking news of programs and departments being cut at other SUNY campuses to make up for deeper state aid cuts. More jobs will be lost; one of them could be yours.
Talk to your legislators. Explain how SUNY is under siege and how important it is to preserve the integrity of the nation’s largest public higher education system. We need to be loud and bold. The time is now.
SUNY campuses already had their hands full coping with $562 million in budget cuts over the past two years. The last thing they needed was an additional reduction, yet that’s just what they got.
In late October, Gov. David Paterson imposed a midyear budget cut of $23.5 million on the University to help meet his budgetary target of $250 million in agency spending reductions in the 2010-11 state budget. This latest reduction brings SUNY’s share of the agency cuts to more than $175 million for the current fiscal year.
“Once again, SUNY is being forced to bear a disproportionate share of the burden, and it’s making a bad situation worse,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “The consequences of these reductions are hitting our campuses hard.”
CAMPUSES FEELING PAIN
Those consequences are taking various forms. A number of campuses are not filling vacant positions or delaying the hiring of replacements. For example, Morrisville is not replacing most of its 37 retiring faculty members. Old Westbury is dealing with a $340,000 midyear budget cut through a combination of a slowdown in hiring for vacant faculty positions and drawing upon some of its reserves.
“We can’t absorb any further reductions without cutting services to students,” Old Westbury Chapter President Kiko Franco said. “We’re maxed out and already understaffed.”
The midyear budget cut has forced the administration at Fredonia to consider eliminating 20 positions instead of the 14 originally targeted.
Geneseo is phasing out three academic programs—computer science, communicative disorders and sciences, and studio art—in the face of a 22 percent drop in state support in the last two years. “This is the most wrenching decision I’ve made in 15 years as president,” Geneseo President Christopher Dahl said.
The UAlbany campus community remains up in arms over the campus administration’s decision to target five programs—the classics, French, Italian, Russian and theater—for likely elimination and the potential loss of 60 full-time positions.
But Albany Chapter President Candace Merbler said the move is having a spillover effect on other programs.
“These deactivated programs are affecting other majors in several other departments whose requirements include language or taking a theater course,” she said.
NYSTI UNDER THE GUN
UUP members at the New York State Theater Institute were already hurting financially when the NYSTI board – consisting largely of Gov. Paterson’s appointees—voted in October to suspend NYSTI’s operations Dec. 31 unless private funding is secured.
UUP President Smith issued a statement saying he was deeply concerned and disappointed by that decision. Smith also said the union “will continue to support NYSTI’s fundraising operations. We remain hopeful that adequate private contributions will keep this valuable resource available to the public.”
As The Voice went to press, UUP, NYSTI and its supporters were working to save the theater institute, whose state funding was cut in half in the 2010-11 state budget.
Donations to NYSTI can be made at www.nysti.org/Support/index.htm.
MEMBERS CALLED TO ACTION
“The bleak outlook for NYSTI and SUNY campuses statewide increases the need for members to get active,” Smith said. He called on members to become active by participating in efforts to garner additional resources for SUNY to stave off a worsening financial crisis, including meetings with state lawmakers in their district offices. Smith again invoked his call to action: “If not now, when? If not you, who?”
In late November, Smith sent off a letter to state lawmakers, relating the financial suffering that SUNY is enduring. He appealed for a stop to any further budget cuts.
“We urge you to protect SUNY’s current operating budget and to find ways to repair the damage that has been done to what was once a vital public university system,” Smith wrote.
New York fared better than most states when it came to union-endorsed candidates retaining seats in state races,and in a national election that saw control of the U.S. House of Representatives shift to the Republicans.
In New York, 158 of the 178 endorsed state and national candidates emerged victorious, with results in several races still pending as The Voice went to press. But the outline of a bull’s eye is still silhouetted on the backs of union members, and public education will likely remain a target in these difficult economic times.
With the election behind him, Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo is assembling his transition team and moving forward with developing his Executive Budget proposal for 2011-2012. The task won’t be easy; Cuomo inherits an expected budget deficit of some $9 billion.
“Times are challenging, but we look forward to opening a dialogue with the new governor and his administration to prove the value of preserving an affordable, accessible public higher education system—one that provides the children of working families with the skills needed to contribute to the state’s economy,” said UUP President Phil Smith.
AFT leaders agree that tough times lie ahead.
“Labor is facing a very challenging landscape in this country,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “We’ll have to confront attacks on pensions, on seniority, on tenure, on collective bargaining. And we’ll have to be prepared to fight against other policies that will strain the social fabric and undermine the programs that have helped to provide security and stability for our communities.”
“Nothing that happened on Election Day changes this essential fact: Your unions are strong; we focus on the work and on doing what’s right for our members, the people for whom we work, and our communities,” Weingarten added. “That’s what we did the day before the election, and it’s what we will continue to do in the days, weeks and months ahead.”
NEW YORK VICTORIES
Aware of what was at stake, UUP and NYSUT members went to work to elect endorsed candidates with a record of support for public higher education. They volunteered for the candidates, held candidate forums and staffed several phone banks around the state
The results clearly showed their hard work paid off.
In New York, endorsed candidates who came out on top include Tom DiNapoli, elected to his first full term as comptroller; Eric Schneiderman, chosen as the new attorney general; Charles Schumer, re-elected to the U.S. Senate; and Kirsten Gillibrand, elected to fill the remaining two years of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s U.S. Senate term. Of the 27 candidates endorsed for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, 20 came out ahead, with one other race still undecided as The Voice went to press.
In state Senate races, 31 of 34 endorsed candidates rolled to victory. One more was still in the running in a race that was too close to call. In the state Assembly, 103 of the 113 endorsed candidates won.
Recognizing the importance of this year’s elections, UUPers from across the state volunteered to participate in phone banks in the weeks prior to Election Day.
Close to two dozen UUPers staffed NYSUT’s regional office in Syracuse to get out the vote in Central New York for NYSUT-endorsed candidates. Members from four chapters—Upstate Medical University (UMU), Cortland, Morrisville and Environmental Science and Forestry – reached out to urge their union brothers and sisters to vote.
“Our people were motivated to support candidates who are pro-public higher education,” said statewide Executive Board member Brian Tappen of UMU, who organized the Syracuse phone bank operation. “This was a turnout election, so we called fellow union members to express the need for them to vote for endorsed candidates.”
With key election races taking place on Long Island, close to a dozen Stony Brook UUPers turned out to make calls on four different evenings. Western New York, also a major electoral battleground, set the stage for 15 UUPers from the Buffalo Center, Buffalo State and Buffalo HSC chapters to take part in a phone bank.
Covering the Southern Tier, a group of UUP members from the Oneonta Chapter traveled nearly 70 miles to staff the phone bank at NYSUT’s regional office in Vestal. New Paltz Chapter members traveled to NYSUT’s Kingston office to participate in a phone bank.
Smith commended the efforts.
“I’d like to thank our members for setting aside time from their busy schedules to work the regional phone banks,” he said. “I am proud of the work our members did to help carve out these victories.”
Political action is much more than meeting with state lawmakers to press the union’s budgetary and legislative priorities. It also involves evaluating the candidates running for election to see where they stand on issues that concern UUP and SUNY. That prompted UUP’s Upstate Medical University (UMU) Chapter to co-sponsor an open forum with candidates in the race for the 119th Assembly District seat.
“The nearly 2,600 Upstate Medical University employees we represent wanted to know which candidates would best represent them and the interests of Upstate, the largest employer in Central New York,” UUP President Phil Smith said. “We needed to hear which candidates are sensitive to the needs of the State University of New York, which has been stung by $585 million in budget cuts over the past two years.”
FOCUS ED FORUM
The forum, organized by UUP and UMU, took place on the UMU campus less than a week before Election Day. It focused on issues germane to the union and Upstate: higher education and health care.
“The goal is to increase public awareness of these issues, since they impact all of us,” UMU Chapter President Carol Braund said as she opened the forum.
Three of the four Assembly candidates participated. UMU Chapter members and community residents used the forum to ask questions, such as whether the hopefuls would vote for further state budget cuts to SUNY.
UUP’s statewide affiliate, NYSUT, had not endorsed a candidate for the Assembly seat, which was won by Democrat Sam Roberts.
ASSEMBLYWOMAN HONORED
Roberts has big shoes to fill. He takes over in January for retiring Assemblywoman Joan Christensen, to whom UUP and UMU paid tribute during a ceremony preceding the candidates forum.
Smith presented Christensen with a certificate of appreciation for her 20 years of public service.
“For the UUP members who work at Upstate Medical and the faculty we represent at SUNY, we cannot thank you enough for the work you have done on behalf of our members, students and the state as a whole,” Smith said.
Christensen graciously accepted the honor, praising UMU and the role it plays in the lives of the citizens of Central New York.
“Thank you for all that you do,” she said. “We depend more on you than you depend on us.”
— Donald Feldstein
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