Authorities are investigating the apparent murder of former UUP member Richard Antoun, who was stabbed to death in his office on the SUNY Binghamton campus Dec. 4. He was 77.
A 46-year-old post-graduate student and Saudi national, Abdulsalam al-Zahrani, was arraigned in the Town of Vestal Court, Broome County, on charges of second-degree murder.
Media reports quote other students and faculty describing the suspect as acting erratically in the days before the fatal assault. He was reportedly upset about not getting financial aid.
Antoun had retired as a full-time anthropology professor in 2000, but continued to conduct research. He had been a faculty member since the 1970s.
“We deeply regret the tragic death that took place as we would the loss of life on any of our campuses,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “Our hearts go out to Dr. Antoun’s family and his university and union colleagues, who are deeply saddened by this tragic event.”
Prior to the incident, the union’s Binghamton Chapter had been working with the campus administration through a joint labor/management committee on how to improve training on preventing and responding to workplace violence.
Statewide Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss has been appointed by Gov. David Paterson to serve on the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority.
Floss replaces Buffalo businessman Wayne Mertz on the oversight panel. Board members are not paid for their service.
Floss, a professor of economics at Buffalo State and former co-director of the college’s Center for Economic Education, said he is honored to accept the governor’s appointment.
“I’m looking forward to this new responsibility,” Floss said. “I believe my background as an economist and the experience I’ve gained as a unionist in building relationships and working out compromises will be assets to the board as we work to ensure the city’s fiscal security.”
Active and retired members of UUP, as well as their spouses and dependent children, could get a one-time scholarship of between $500 and $4,000 from the Union Plus Education Foundation, simply because UUP, NYSUT and AFT participate in the Union Plus benefits program available through the AFL-CIO.
The scholarship program is open to undergraduate and graduate students attending or planning to attend an accredited degree-granting higher education institution or certificate-earning program. Awards are based on academic achievement and potential, character, leadership, social awareness, career goals and financial need. Scholarships must be used for the 2010-2011 academic year.
For more information and an application, go to www.unionplus.org.
For Judith Wishnia, the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s (CLUW) 15th Biennial Convention was something to shout about.
And dance about.
“More than 600 union sisters and brothers from numerous unions opened each session and greeted each speaker with clapping and dancing in the aisles to the rhythm of R&B music,” said Wishnia, a professor emeritus at SUNY Stony Brook and elected chair of the union’s Committee on Active Retired Membership. “Who knew union meetings could be fun as well as informative?”
Wishnia and a handful of other UUPers joined hundreds of delegates to the convention, “The Rising Tide of Change: Activism, Leadership—Union Women!” held Oct. 14-17 in Los Angeles.
Buffalo Center UUPer Lorna Arrington, CLUW Rules Committee co-chair, presented the rules report during the opening plenary, which came one day after a series of 21 workshops ranging from family leave and women’s health, to gender discrimination, organizing and politics.
“CLUW has spent the last three decades improving the participation, position and influence of women in the labor movement and society,” said Arrington, an associate professor in Buffalo’s Educational Opportunity Center. “I always walk away with information I can pass on to my colleagues. It is very rewarding to be part of such a vital and vibrant organization.”
Karen Skelton, senior executive producer of A Woman’s Nation, spoke on The Shriver Report, which updates the 1963 report by the Commission on the Status of Women appointed by President John F. Kennedy.
According to the 2009 report, women earn 60 percent of the college degrees awarded each year and fully half of the Ph.D.s and professional degrees. Almost 40 percent of working women hold managerial and other professional positions, and women make 80 percent of the buying decisions in American homes.
A summary of The Shriver Report can be found at www.awomansnation.com.
“The economic contribution of women is crucial,”Wishnia said. “Unfortunately, women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.”
Fair pay is just one of the many reasons UUP’s liaisons to CLUW are urging their colleagues to join the coalition at www.cluw.org.
CLUW has taken the lead in making health care issues a cornerstone of its ongoing efforts to help working women lead fuller, longer and more productive lives.
Delegates to the recent CLUW convention kept that commitment alive by adopting a resolution to promote education and awareness of uterine, cervical, breast, ovarian and other cancers. The resolution also stresses the need to educate women on the benefits of annual exams and other preventive measures to safeguard their health.
Because January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, The Voice has joined CLUW in educating union members—men and women alike—about the human papilloma virus (HPV). HPV is transmitted through genital contact, most often during vaginal and anal sex. Since HPV usually causes no symptoms, most men and women can get HPV—and pass it on—without realizing it.
Currently, there is no test designed or approved to find HPV in men. The only approved HPV test on the market is for women, for use as part of cervical cancer screening.
Because cervical cancer is almost always caused by HPV, the best way for women to protect against it is to get screened by a health care provider. There are two types of tests that can be used: A Pap test, which looks for cell changes in the cervix that may lead to cervical cancer; and the HPV test, which determines if a person has HPV and the risk of developing cervical cancer. An HPV test can be used with a Pap test in women 30 and older or as a follow-up to inconclusive Pap test results in women under 30.
The HPV test is a covered benefit for UUPers if it is performed during a routine exam.
There is also an HPV vaccine for women and girls between the ages of nine and 26, said Carolyn Jacobson, director of CLUW’s Cervical Cancer Prevention Works program. UUP members enrolled in the Empire Plan can get the cancer-preventing vaccine Gardasil for their eligible dependents up to age 19 under the pediatric immunization program; eligible young women ages 19 to 26 are covered under the adult immunization program.
“There is no reason why union women should get cervical cancer,” Jacobson said. “More than 86 percent of union members have health insurance and most health plans today cover the Pap test and the Pap and HPV tests for women over 30.”
As a high school trumpet player, UUPer Ted Piltzecker collided with a tuba and dented his horn.
The “marching band accident,” as Piltzecker puts it, led him to the vibraphone and changed his life.
Piltzecker, an internationally-known vibraphone player, discovered the vibraphone—a xylophone-like percussion instrument with metal bars and motor-driven resonators for tone and vibrato—after bringing his trumpet to a music store for repair. He spied the vibes (short for vibraphone) and began playing it, impressing his parents so much that they got him one for Christmas.
Piltzecker, an associate professor at Purchase College, fell in love with the vibes and has been playing ever since.
“I had it in my dorm room as a student at Eastman (School of Music),” said Piltzecker, who studied trumpet and vibraphone in college. “Once I got out of school, I got steady work playing the vibes and did some major touring.”
Jazzing it up
Piltzecker, a UUPer since 1999, toured internationally as part of jazz piano icon George Shearing’s quintet in the 1970s and 1990s; he appears on jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli’s 2002 album “The Rare Delight of You,” which features Shearing and band.
Over the years, Piltzecker, has shared the stage with a who’s who of jazz greats, including Mel Torme, Joe Williams, Gene Burtoncini, Ernie Watts, and Toshiko Akiyoshi among many others. He’s also cut three albums of his own, including “Unicycle Man,” (yes, Piltzecker can ride a unicycle) a record that prompted praise from Chuck Mangione, who called Piltzecker “an original” and “… one of my favorite composers.”
“I’ve been really fortunate,” said Piltzecker. “For me, it’s all about the music. It’s all about the exchange.”
Piltzecker has also performed with classical chamber ensembles and has written music for and toured with Japanese Taiko groups and gadulka (Bulgarian violin) players. But he’s particularly passionate about Latin and world beat music and has performed in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, playing with some of the world’s best bandoneon players, such as Ricardo Fiorio, with whom he performed in Argentina. You can hear a sampling of Piltzecker’s music on his Web site, at http://www.tedvibes.com.
“I have played to some large crowds, but to me, music is about personal growth,” he said. “There’s something special about crossing cultural boundaries.”
TP and Company
Piltzecker plans to cross those boundaries again on his next album, an as-yet untitled effort featuring Purchase graduate students he’s been playing with to keep his vibraphone skills honed; Piltzecker rarely plays the vibes in class.
He liked what he heard, and thought it might be interesting to use the students—who go by TP and Company when they play out with Piltzecker—on his upcoming album. Piltzecker said he expects to release the disc in the spring and has some record label interest.
“It’s not your typical mainstream kind of jazz,” said Piltzecker. “There are world music influences, some pop, and I come from a mainstream be bop background, so there’s that too. There are songs with single line melodies and counterpoint and some thickly harmonized ballads. I’m very excited about it.’
Being a full-time professor has limited Piltzecker’s touring schedule, although he continues to line up gigs, including a July 2010 performance in Washington, D.C. at the American Guild of Organists Convention. There, he’ll join renowned organist/composer Dorothy Papadakos (Paul Winter Consort) to debut her commissioned work, “La Petite Sweet,” a tribute to Duke Ellington.
But he’d rather be at Purchase than on the road.
“Teaching at Purchase has been a wonderful experience. So is being a UUPer and being part of a union that cares about and cares for its members. I’m blessed to be here and I share that with my students,” he said. “I’m still excited about the music.”
Each year, SUNY and numerous academic and professional groups honor hundreds of UUPers for outstanding accomplishments in their disciplines, on campus and in the communities.
The Voice is pleased to recognize three of these members this month.
• Lawrence Fialkow of SUNY New Paltz has been granted the rank of distinguished professor of mathematics and computer science. The distinguished professor designation is conferred on individuals who have achieved national or international prominence in a chosen field.
Fialkow, a 2001 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, is an accomplished mathematics scholar who has achieved worldwide recognition for his seminal research in functional analysis.
• Kathleen Lesniak, an assistant professor of science education and coordinator of science education programs at SUNY Fredonia, recently received a $5,000 National Education Association (NEA) Foundation and Leadership grant to enhance the learning of science teacher candidates in accelerated graduate programs. She shares the award with Milissa Albano, a teacher at Southwestern High School in Jamestown.
NEA Foundation grant recipients are selected on their potential to enhance student achievement. This year, the foundation awarded 51 grants nationwide.
• Leo Wilton, an associate professor of human development and Africana studies at Binghamton University, was one of six people nationwide appointed to a four-year term on the Director’s Council of Public Representatives at the National Institutes of Health.
Wilton specializes in health disparities related to HIV and AIDS in black communities and is regional trainer for the American Psychological Association’s HIV Office for Psychology Education.
UUP members at Stony Brook HSC played a big part in the success of the second annual Suffolk County Minority Health Summit.
Eleven UUPers took part in the daylong event, co-sponsored by the Stony Brook HSC chapter, the Center for Public Health and Health Policy Research at Stony Brook (CPHHPR), the Suffolk County Minority Health Action Coalition (SMHAC) and Literacy Suffolk, Inc. It was held Nov. 21 at Stony Brook’s Southampton campus.
“The summit was definitely successful and it was well received,” said Jewel Stafford, a UUPer and CPHHPR’s research coordinator. “We were humbled by the community presence that was there and how many people are really committed to improving their community through a collective vision.”
About 80 Suffolk County residents attended the event, intended to reach out to communities on the eastern end of Long Island, which has limited access to vital health care resources. The summit was designed to identify minority health issues and develop methods to address those concerns.
“Through the summit, we’re trying to aid underserved people in the community and get them the health care information that they need,” said Charles Hines, Stony Brook HSC’s chapter treasurer and a UUP delegate. “We’re a hospital and a health technology center. We can incorporate all our skills into this.”
The summit is an extension of the CPHHPR, which is committed to improving the health of Long Island residents through researching critical public health issues there—including a lack of access to cancer screening, growing incidence of HIV/AIDS and increased gang violence.
Stafford said there’s every intention to stage a third summit in 2010.
“We have this consistent presence, this collective unit that’s dedicated to address the needs of these communities.”
Another year has come and gone. Some of our members are headed toward the golden years of retirement, while others are starting a new family.
In whatever direction you may be headed, there is a negotiated benefit that can assist you dealing with the stresses of work and home life.
The confidential program—offered to all active UUP members and their families—is called NYS Balance. NYS Balance makes life less complicated by researching and referring you to programs and services that best meet your needs.
NYS Balance is available 24/7.
The following is a brief overview of some of the referral services:
Education
K-12 Public and Private Schools
High School/Vocational Programs
Colleges and Universities
Financial Aid/Scholarships
Tutoring Programs
Child Care and Parenting
Child Care Centers
Nanny/Au Pair Placement
Adoption Resources
Summer Camps
Parenting Classes
Support Groups
Elder Care/Adults with Disabilities
Community Agencies
Meal Services
Senior Housing and Centers
Respite Care
In Home/Companion Services
Legal/Insurance Issues
Health and Wellness
Fitness Center and Classes
Weight Loss Support Groups
Smoking Cessation Resources
Community Resources
Daily Life
Home Maintenance/Repair
Pet Care
Travel/Vacation Planning
Emergency Services
Legal and Financial
Attorneys
Financial Educators
There are also special features to this program at no cost to our active members, including:
Legal Assistance—One 30-minute consultation with an attorney.
Financial Assistance—A financial consultation by phone.
Care Coach—Family meetings by phone with a geriatric care manager.
We realize how hectic UUPers’ schedules are. So why not let NYS Balance do the work for you?
Visit the NYS Balance Web site at www.nysbalance.ny.gov or contact them toll free at (866) 320-4760.
— Doreen Bango, Manager, UUP Member Benefits and Services
With more than 30 endorsed insurance, financial, legal and discount plans, it’s hard to keep track of what is available through NYSUT Member Benefits.
Bargaining unit members with access to e-mail may wish to consider joining MAP, Member Benefits’ Member Assistance Program. Once every three weeks, a brief e-mail message is sent. It may be an advance notice of a change in an existing plan, an announcement of a new endorsement or a reminder about an endorsed program.
Since MAP Alerts are sent from Member Benefits, e-mail addresses are not shared with any outside parties.
To join, simply complete a brief sign-up form on the Member Benefits Web site, www.memberbenefits.nysut.org, and within three weeks, a MAP Alert will be sent.
Bargaining unit members participating in the NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed voluntary insurance programs, legal service plan and the new financial counseling program can look up information about their participation online.
Through MPP (My Program Participation), members can view the payment methods available to them as well as the method used (payroll/pension deduction or direct bill); deduction amounts if payroll/pension deduction is used; premium amounts and coverage information if provided by the program provider to Member Benefits; and phone numbers for the providers.
Participation in AFT and NEA benefits is not included in this service, nor are any benefits provided by UUP, UUP Benefit Trust Fund or the employer.
Look for the MPP-My Program Participation navigation bar on the left side of the www.memberbenefits.nysut.org home page. An initial login will establish an account. Due to privacy issues, members will need to create their own enhanced security code to access the look-up service. Instructions are on the Web site.
For assistance, call Member Benefits, (800) 626-8101, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., ET.
(For information about contractual expense reimbursement/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 Trust-endorsed programs.)
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