Payroll deduction of NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed programs eliminates check writing and late payments. This payment option is available to eligible bargaining unit members.

Pension deduction is available to retirees collecting a monthly pension benefit from the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System or New York State Employees’ Retirement System. It’s also an option for retirees who receive income from a monthly lifetime annuity from TIAA-CREF.

Annual premiums are easier to budget, since they are divided into smaller payments deducted from 26 paychecks or from 12 monthly pension benefits.

Payroll and pension deduction also yield reduced premiums or additional coverage at no cost for these NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed programs: term life insurance; catastrophe major medical insurance; long-term care insurance; disability insurance; automobile, homeowners/renters, boat, personal excess liability (umbrella) and other personal property insurance; financial counseling program, legal service plan; and retiree dental plan.

The WrapPlan® II flexible premium adjustable life insurance plan can also be purchased using deductions.

For specifics, visit www.member benefits.nysut.org and click on the Payroll & Pension Deduction tab on the left-hand side of the home page. Or call Member Benefits at (800) 626-8101.

(For information about contractual endorsement arrangements with providers of endorsed programs, please contact NYSUT Member Benefits or refer to your NYSUT Member Benefits Trust Summary Plan Description. Agency fee payers to NYSUT are eligible to participate in NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed programs.)

Did you know that you could save money with a Delta Dental PPO dentist?

Although you can visit any dentist, you will usually pay less when you visit a Delta Dental PPO dentist because these dentists agreed to accept Delta Dental PPO contracted fees as full payment. That means your share of the bill will likely be lower than when you visit a non-Delta Dental dentist.

To find a current listing of Delta Dental’s in-network providers, follow these steps:

• Visit www.deltadentalins.com and click on Find a Dentist.

• Select Delta Dental PPO as your plan network.

• Make sure to ask specifically if your dentist is a contracted Delta Dental PPO dentist. Simply asking if a dentist “accepts Delta Dental” does not guarantee he or she is a contracted PPO dentist.

If you cannot find a PPO dentist in your area, the next best option is the Delta Dental Premier network. The Premier network is Delta’s larger network, consisting of nearly 80 percent of dentist locations nationwide.

You can find Premier dentists by following the same steps at Delta Dental’s website; however, you must select Delta Dental Premier instead of Delta Dental PPO. Please note that the contracted fees for Premier dentists are usually slightly higher than those of PPO dentists. Premier dentists will not bill you above their contracted fees, so you still receive cost protections not available with a non-Delta Dental dentist.

Feel free to contact the UUP Benefit Trust Fund at (800) 887-3863 if you have any questions regarding your UUP Benefit Trust Fund coverage or visit us at www.uupinfo.org.

— Doreen Bango, Manager, UUP Member Benefits and Services

It is obvious to me that one of the biggest reasons we were able to set aside the so-called Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act (PHEEIA) was because someone got involved.

You.

Thousands of you spoke out against the Act, calling, e-mailing and faxing legislators. From the outset, we spoke up against the elimination of SUNY’s governmental oversight and its accountability under existing state statutes. We made access and affordability statewide issues.

SUNY supporters, many of them contacted through our Save SUNY website, www.savesuny.org, also took action and played an important role. That site and the UUP website yielded nearly 25,000 faxes and more than 4,500 online petition signatures.

And despite Gov. David Paterson’s insistence that PHEEIA be part of the state’s 2010-11 budget, the legislators listened, even the two senators from Buffalo and Long Island who held out for weeks for PHEEIA’s approval. Finally, on Aug. 3, the state budget was adopted without the ill-conceived Act.

The outcome could have been drastically different. PHEEIA had somehow become the last stumbling block to passing a very late state budget. Without your loud voices and UUP’s full-court press, legislators may have felt forced to give in.

They felt forced in May, when they approved an emergency budget extender bill that included the governor’s plan to furlough 100,000 state workers—including UUPers—one day a week until the budget was passed. State business would have stopped without the extender bill.

That’s when we stepped in and took care of business. UUP and other state unions immediately obtained a stay to stop the furloughs, which were blocked May 28 by federal Judge Lawrence Kahn. Another challenge met; another crisis averted.

While the furloughs are history, PHEEIA isn’t. This nebulous proposal, which was pushed hard by SUNY, will be back at some point, you can be sure of that. Senate Democrats say they have a “framework” of a deal on PHEEIA with the Assembly, but no details have emerged since that Aug. 3 announcement.

While we should feel satisfaction for a job well done, it’s not time to be patting each other on the back.

We must be ready, at a moment’s notice, to forcefully speak out against PHEEIA, which would essentially corporatize SUNY by allowing campuses to raise tuition and enter into contracts and leases without state oversight.

We must also be ready to combat PHEEIA rhetoric, like inaccuracies found in an August Buffalo News editorial blasting legislators for dropping PHEEIA from the budget. The editorial claims SUNY tuition increases were returned to the state in the past, and that PHEEIA would end “state sweeps” of tuition money into the general fund. That has never been the case; SUNY has always controlled tuition dollars.

Here’s more reality: SUNY sustained a $152 million state aid cut in the new budget. The New York State Theatre Institute lost $1.6 million—more than half of what it got last year.

More hiring freezes, job cuts, larger classes and fewer courses will undoubtedly be the outcome. Campuses have dealt with those issues over the past two years due to state budget cuts that account for more than 25 percent of SUNY’s operating budget.

The time is now for SUNY to help cover shortfalls in SUNY’s state-slashed budget. I’ve said this before: UUP will hold the chancellor to her promise to use $147 million in reserves to help cover state cuts.

We’d like to see SUNY offer even more financial help for our cash-strapped campuses and hospitals. More funding would add needed fuel to SUNY, one of the state’s most prolific economic engines. And it will allow campuses to continue to offer a quality, affordable education to students across New York, which, after all, is SUNY’s mission.

Looking back, we can feel secure in knowing that we fought hard for what we believed in, and we made a difference. As we enter a new academic year, we will face our share of challenges. This union will step up and meet those challenges head-on. But we need you to take a stand.

I hope and trust that you will join us as we face each crisis and strive to keep UUP strong.

In a year of unprecedented political and financial volatility in New York state, it’s inevitable that SUNY would be affected. But the University found itself squarely in the middle of the state budget battle over the summer, when the governor used the so-called Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act (PHEEIA) as a bargaining chip that for months blocked passage of the last component of a new state budget.

UUP waged a fierce fight against PHEEIA—and it paid off. When the state Senate approved the final piece of the state budget Aug. 3—a revenue bill—PHEEIA was not a part of it. Sens. William Stachowski and Brian Foley, who represent districts near Buffalo Center and Stony Brook, respectively, surrendered in their collective effort to stall approval of the revenue bill unless it included PHEEIA.

“In putting aside the enactment of the governor’s proposal to permit SUNY to unilaterally raise tuition and enter into public/private partnerships, the Legislature has preserved access and affordability while protecting SUNY’s core public mission,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “We thank them for their thoughtful and wise decision regarding an issue of critical importance to all New Yorkers.”

But pushing PHEEIA aside was not easy.

The union waged an aggressive multi-media campaign that included half-page ads in several major newspapers, including The New York Times and Newsday, as well as in nearly 150 weekly newspapers. The ad asked readers to visit savesuny.org, a website launched by UUP to promote public awareness of the dangers of state budget cuts and PHEEIA. The site encouraged visitors to sign an online petition and fax letters urging lawmakers to reject the SUNY budget cuts and SUNY flexibility proposal. That micro website and uupinfo.org yielded nearly 25,000 faxes and more than 4,500 online petition signatures. In addition, Smith wrote an opinion column presenting the case against PHEEIA that appeared in nearly a dozen newspapers. Six other daily newspapers printed a letter to the editor from Smith.

The budget was more than two months late when the governor placed the PHEEIA legislation in his June 28 budget extender bill. The Legislature—faced with the choice of approving the extender bill or rejecting it and sparking a state government shutdown—put together and approved an alternative budget plan without PHEEIA. Their action removed the governor’s chief political weapon: the threat of a government shutdown. But the budget remained incomplete because of the Senate’s inability to pass the revenue bill.

The stalemate continued as proponents of PHEEIA waged a desperate campaign to turn the tide in their favor. For example, when UUP member Edward Herman of Buffalo Center wrote an opinion column against PHEEIA that ran in the Buffalo News, proponents fired back with letters and columns attempting to undermine UUP’s position. But UUP’s message was getting through, as exemplified in an editorial in The New York Times.

“Giving New York’s university system a few world-class campuses is a lofty idea. It just doesn’t belong in a hastily drawn compromise as part of a very late budget. The Legislature should drop the idea and finish the budget,” The Times wrote.

While UUP succeeded in turning PHEEIA aside, the fight is not yet over. Even as the Senate voted to finalize the budget without PHEEIA, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson announced the “framework” of a deal on SUNY “empowerment” had been reached with the governor and the leadership in the state Assembly.

Details of the deal had not been released as The Voice went to press.

“We’re not exactly sure what this means,” Smith said. “We do know that we need to continue to be vigilant to protect SUNY as an institution of public higher education.”

The details on SUNY budget cuts were clear, and gloomy. Facing an ultimatum from the governor to enact a new state budget, the Legislature approved a portion of the spending plan that trimmed SUNY’s budget by another $152 million, bringing the total reduction for the state-operated campuses to $562 million over a two-year period.

Given the late passage of the budget, the full impact of this latest round of cuts had yet to unfold, but UUP members are bracing for more of what they’ve already seen: hiring freezes, job losses, fewer courses, larger class sizes and many more students looking to enroll at SUNY.

The hurt has already hit System Administration, where the University’s decision to shut Nylink translates to the loss of 12 jobs in Albany. Nylink provides a variety of services to more than 500 libraries, including most of SUNY’s and all of CUNY’s libraries. SUNY claims declines in Nylink’s revenues as a result of a changing business environment led to its demise.

“SUNY’s decision to shut down Nylink is very unfortunate,” said John Schumacher, UUP chapter president at System Administration. “Nylink was making real progress toward re-establishing the revenue needed.”

The New York State Theatre Institute took a major hit—$1.6 million—more than half of its state support. With more than a dozen chapter members exploring early retirement, NYSTI Chapter President John Romeo predicts NYSTI will face a difficult road ahead.

“NYSTI’s operation will be downsized, the amount of education and production will be downsized, and the administration will be severely hogtied as a result of the governor’s cuts,” Romeo said.

Even before the budget gained approval, Stony Brook’s administration virtually closed its Southampton campus effective this fall. Thirty-three employees received non-renewal notices; 42 others were transferred to the main Stony Brook campus.

Also on Long Island, about 200 part-time faculty at Farmingdale got served with non-renewals.

Now is the time for SUNY to dip into its rainy day funds, Smith said.

“This is more than just a passing shower—SUNY is reeling from a torrential downpour,” he said. “We must hold the chancellor to the promise she made during legislative budget hearings to apply $147 million from SUNY’s reserves to make up for state aid cuts.”

— Donald Feldstein