The SUNY Board of Trustees ended an almost two-year search for a new chancellor Feb. 10 when it unanimously voted to appoint Nancy L. Zimpher to the post.

Zimpher, president of the University of Cincinnati, will be SUNY’s first female chancellor when she starts June 1.

UUP President Phillip Smith said Zimpher’s experience will serve SUNY well during one of the University’s worst financial crises.

“Based on her resume, we are optimistic she will bring the steady leadership that is so vital to SUNY, as it faces the serious financial challenges caused by state budget cutbacks,” Smith said. “UUP stands ready to work with Dr. Zimpher to send the message that SUNY is the solution to improve our state’s economy.”

Following the vote, Zimpher was handed a “SUNY is the Solution” button by UAlbany President Candace Merbler, and pinned it on. “I come with incredible enthusiasm,” Zimpher said.

Carl Wiezalis, a member of UUP’s Upstate Medical University Chapter, is also a SUNY trustee. He called Zimpher “a visionary and transformational figure in higher education.“

The chancellor search began in November 2007. A search committee interviewed 10 candidates out of 297 who applied for the job. Zimpher was the committee’s overwhelming choice.

Zimpher, 62, will be paid $545,400 as SUNY’s chancellor. She also will have use of SUNY-owned apartments in Albany and Manhattan, as well as a driver and car. Chair Carl Hayden said the salary agreement was “fair and recognizes the financial realities of these times.”

Zimpher comes to SUNY as the University faces deep state budget reductions that so far total $148 million. Campuses are bracing for more cuts as Gov. David Paterson and state legislators work on a new state budget.

Students on several SUNY campuses have protested SUNY tuition increases—a $310 per-student hike for the spring 2009 semester and $620 increase for 2009-10—claiming that Gov. David Paterson is attempting to balance the budget on the backs of students and parents.

During a press conference after the trustees’ vote, Zimpher noted the need for a strategic plan for SUNY and said she would work to raise the University’s academic quality and make it less difficult for transfer students to move through SUNY schools.

Zimpher came to the University of Cincinnati in 2003. Previously, she served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee (1998-2003) and was the Executive Dean of the Professional Colleges at Ohio State University.

— Michael Lisi

David Curry of SUNY Plattsburgh joins the discussion to begin the union’s legislative outreach as soon as possible, in both Albany and in lawmakers’ home districts

“This is the worst state of affairs that we’ve had in the last 20 years.” That ominous assessment delivered by UUP President Phillip Smith marked the start of the union’s Outreach Committee retreat in mid-August. The two-day gathering in Albany drew nearly 60 UUP members.

Smith painted a bleak picture regarding SUNY’s finances, following the latest round of state budget cuts issued by Gov. David Paterson in response to a mounting state deficit. On top of a $52 million state budget cut earlier this year, the governor ordered a 7 percent budget cut for all state agencies in August, translating to another $96 million reduction for SUNY. That brings SUNY’s budget down by a total of $148 million, which Smith predicted will be a long-term cut carrying over into future years. He warned the Outreach Committee members that the sharp reduction will put SUNY further behind in the numbers of full-time faculty it needs to keep up with enrollment growth.

“Our heads are way below the water line on this,” he said.

Smith noted the $148 million budget reduction does not include approximately $100 million in non-general fund revenues SUNY collects from students and hospital patients, but is being forbidden from spending. The union president said he expects the state will eventually take that money.

Advocacy strategy change

Amid this challenging scenario, Smith directed the committee to kick the union’s advocacy machine into high gear as soon as possible, instead of waiting until the next regular legislative session

“You need to come up with plans to get shoes on the ground at our campuses, to engage more of our members to talk with state legislators in their home districts,” Smith urged. He also recommended that UUP advocates team up with small-business owners in their respective communities to inform lawmakers about SUNY’s economic multiplier effect. Research has shown that each dollar the state invests in SUNY returns between $6 and $8 to th communities in which SUNY campuses are located. Additionally, he suggested that union activists reach out to high school students who are thinking of going to SUNY and their parents to get them involved. “It’s time to think out of the box to get more voices into the fray,” Smith said.

Outreach Committee Co-chair Glenn McNitt of New Paltz observed the change in advocacy strategy presents an opportunity.

“Our hope is to draw more people into advocacy by their not having to go to Albany,” he said. “We’ll need more help this year than we’ve ever had before.”

“You’ve got their (lawmakers) attention now thanks to the list of NYSUT-endorsed candidates,” said fellow committee Co-chair Thomas Tucker of Buffalo. “Here’s a chance now to express your concerns to them.”

“Not only is this a real opportunity to talk to our legislators, it’s a chance to remind them that enormous cuts to SUNY are well out of bounds,” said committee member Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh.

Despite the bleak budget picture, UUP did achieve some key successes this year. Christopher Black, NYSUT’s legislative representative for higher education issues, pointed to the bill Gov. Paterson signed into law permanently establishing the agency shop fee for public employee unions.

Hailing it as a major victory, Black explained that UUP no longer has to go back to the Legislature every two years to renew the law.

“This is a really important piece of legislation to get done,” he said.

Black also singled out as victories the governor’s signing into law the measure barring mandatory overtime for nurses, and the Legislature’s passage of a bill protecting public employee retirees from health benefits cuts or premium increases without corresponding changes to health benefits for active employees.

However, as The Voice went to press, the governor vetoed the bill.

— Donald Feldstein

UUP President Phill Smith talks with union members about the governor’s call for the state university to make deep cuts

Weeks before the start of the fall 2008 semester, SUNY was up against yet another significant reduction — an estimated cut of $96 million in state support. This comes on top of a cut in May of $52 million. The latest slash ordered by Gov. David Paterson followed an unprecedented July 29 televised address in which he announced that the state faces “increasingly harsh economic times.”

UUP President Phillip Smith warned the additional $96 million cut will irrevocably damage the University’s ability to fulfill its core mission.

“Providing the people of New York with educational services of the highest quality, with the broadest possible access to all segments of the population is SUNY’s core mission under the state Education Law,” Smith told reporters in August. “This reduction — on top of the earlier $52 million cut from the general fund — will make it impossible to fulfill that mission and could result in tens of thousands of students being turned away, or closed out of courses needed for graduation. An education delayed is an education denied.”

“It is inconceivable that SUNY is being directed to absorb an overall cut of $148 million in anticipated state aid, just weeks before classes were scheduled to resume,” Smith added.

The $148 million cut does not include the state’s order to SUNY to reduce its non-general fund spending by as much as $109 million, affecting operations such as residence halls and food service.

As The Voice went to press, Smith called upon SUNY management as well as the governor and the Legislature to take whatever steps are necessary to protect SUNY’s core mission and maintain access for the growing number of students applying to SUNY schools.

Responding to the initial budget reduction in May, the SUNY Board of Trustees voted to revise its budget downward. Prior to the vote, Board Chair Carl Hayden pledged there will be “no layoffs associated with this,” although his pledge was not part of the written budget resolution.

Individual campuses are under orders to develop plans to reduce spending.
UUP is calling on its chapter leaders around the state to carefully monitor such plans.

“This requires vigilance on your part as campus leaders, as well as strong advocacy,” Smith said. “Tell your campus presidents of the vital need to prevent any drop in educational quality and urge them to protect SUNY’s mission by safeguarding direct student services.”

— Donald Feldstein

McNitt

Public higher education rose to the fore in Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s 2008 State of the State address. In his annual address to both houses of the state Legislature Jan. 9, the governor called for the hiring of 2,000 more full-time faculty for SUNY and CUNY over the next five years, reflecting the recommendations of his Commission on Higher Education.

“If you want to participate in the innovation economy, a high school diploma is not always enough – you’re going to need a college diploma, or better yet, an advanced degree. We can’t strengthen our economy without the best colleges producing the best-prepared graduates,” the governor said. “That’s why our goal must be to make an outstanding higher education affordable for every New Yorker.”

At the Capitol to watch the speech, UUP Acting President Frederick Floss said the governor was on the right track by linking state investment in public higher education to the future of the state’s economy.

“The governor reaffirmed his longtime commitment to higher education and to a strong state economy by calling for 2,000 more full-time faculty for the state’s public university systems,” Floss said. “Rebuilding the ranks of our full-time faculty at SUNY and CUNY is absolutely critical to rebuilding New York’s financial future, and we applaud the governor for seeing that connection.”

Floss noted UUP’s leadership in the fight for additional full-time faculty. He stressed that SUNY needs 1,600 more full-time faculty just to restore the student to faculty ratio that existed 15 years ago.

To fund the cost of more full-time faculty, as well as other investments in public higher education, the governor proposed the establishment of a $4 billion endowment for public higher education that would be financed by privatizing at least part of the New York State Lottery.

Floss hoped the governor’s proposed budget — scheduled to be released after The Voice went to press — would include direct state funds for the additional faculty.

“The full funding for these new faculty lines in the state budget would be a major investment in SUNY’s future,” Floss said. “SUNY needs a reliable funding stream to be certain the funds are there to move the University and our economy forward.”

The governor also called for state leaders to make the process for community college students who want to transfer to four-year SUNY and CUNY schools “simple and seamless.” But Floss noted without more full-time faculty, SUNY cannot accommodate the transfer students.

“Over the last several years, SUNY has reported that it turned away 7,500 qualified community college students because of the shortage of full-time faculty,” Floss said. “The state must provide public funds for enrollment growth, including the growth we expect to see from community college transfers.”

The governor also proposed designating SUNY’s university centers at Buffalo and Stony Brook as “flagship” campuses.

— Donald Feldstein

The ranks of full-time faculty within New York state’s two public university systems would increase by 2,000 during the next five years. That is among the major recommendations contained in the preliminary report of the New York State Commission on Higher Education released Dec. 17.

UUP Acting President Frederick Floss said he found the commission’s report encouraging in regard to its call to hire more full-time faculty.

“The commission is on the right track in recognizing that hiring additional full-time faculty is vital to building an outstanding university system,” Floss said.

During a news conference at the Capitol where the preliminary report was officially presented, Gov. Eliot Spitzer termed the need to hire more full-time faculty at SUNY and CUNY as “a core proposal.”

“That is a critical piece of what the commission has recommended in order to establish and sustain the various campuses as pre-eminent in their field and as magnets for the sort of research and to draw the students whom we want,” the governor said. “I think this is a proposal that speaks to the core of what this commission has determined is necessary for our SUNY system to move forward.”

The timing of the report’s issuance deliberately preceded the release of the governor’s Executive Budget scheduled for Jan. 23. But the governor declined to say if his budget would include funds for the additional full-time faculty the commission recommends.

“I am loathe today to embrace any one piece of the report. I wish to take all of it back and we will study it,” he said.

While Floss praised the governor for establishing the commission, he says the union will urge the state to foot the bill for the additional faculty, rather than relying on other revenue streams.

“The state needs to fully fund — through state support — the costs of

hiring the additional full-time faculty, rather than expecting SUNY and CUNY to provide the income from anticipated enrollment growth or tuition hikes,” Floss said. “We agree with the commission’s recommendation that ‘mandatory costs’ be financed by the state, but we urge the state to include ‘enrollment growth’ in its definition of mandatory costs.”

More recommendations

Among other recommendations contained in the commission’s 85-page report:
• The establishment of a $3 billion fund to support research to help promote economic development;
• Allowing SUNY and CUNY to charge differential tuition rates by program and by campus;
• The so-called “Million Dollar Promise” program that would guarantee a tuition-free public college education to students in low-income areas;
• Providing more support and independence for SUNY’s research universities at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook to boost them toward national prominence; and
• The creation of a low-interest, state-subsidized student loan program so students from lower-income families can attend college.

Floss also said the union is closely reviewing the preliminary report and will have more detailed comments on it when the commission schedules public hearings.

The commission is due to release its final report in June.

— Donald Feldstein

UUP achieved its long sought-after goal of pension equity for its members, as the result of Gov. Eliot Spitzer signing the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) pension equity bill into law.

UUP President William Scheuerman thanked UUP members who sent more than 4,000 faxes to the governor urging him to sign this bill.

“He heard us,” Scheuerman said.

The new law means that state employees who participate in an ORP with 10 years or more of state service will no longer be required to contribute 3 percent of their salary to their ORP retirement accounts. The effect of this new law is especially significant for UUP, since 64 percent of its members participate in an ORP, according to figures from SUNY.

Current employees with 10 years or more of service who are paying 3 percent to their ORP will see their contribution eliminated over the course of the next three years.

Beginning in 2008, New York state will pick up 1 percent of the 3 percent contribution each year on April 1, until the entire 3 percent is covered.

Thousands of UUP members in retirement tiers 3, 4 and 4a (also known as Tier 5) will then have the same contribution levels as their colleagues in the state’s other two retirement systems. The 3 percent contribution for employees in the Teachers’ Retirement System and the Employees’ Retirement System after 10 years of state service was eliminated by legislation in 2000.

Scheuerman hailed the actions of the Legislature and the governor as a victory for pension justice.

“By enacting this bill, the governor and Legislature demonstrated their commitment to fair and equitable treatment of all public employees,” Scheuerman said. “Thousands of UUP members will now receive equity with their colleagues in other state retirement systems.”

NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said the new law spells big benefits for SUNY.

“It will also help public colleges and universities to continue to attract and retain the best and brightest faculty and professionals in the country,” he said.

ORP participants with less than 10 years of state service will continue to contribute 3 percent of their salary toward their pension, but the state will pick up the 3 percent payment once an employee reaches the 10-year threshold.

— Donald Feldstein

UUP is unparalleled in its ability to mobilize members to contact lawmakers — in person, by phone and via fax — on issues that would strengthen the state university for faculty and students. New York’s most prominent legislators have repeatedly stated that UUP is a leader in getting its message heard.

But there’s always room for improvement.

That was the message delivered by UUP Outreach Committee Co-chair Glenn McNitt during a recent two-day retreat in Lake George. It was there that McNitt told the new and returning committee members that the union can’t rest on its laurels.

“We did a pretty good job last year of reaching legislators who have SUNY campuses in their districts and talking to members of the Senate and Assembly Higher Education committees,” he said. “But we can do more.”

McNitt said hundreds of volunteer activists made face-to-face visits to lawmakers in their districts and at the Capitol. Yet not all chapters participated in the yearlong advocacy activities and not enough members are involved in the grassroots efforts. “We must increase participation by our members,” McNitt added.

Similarly, committee Co-chair and statewide VOTE/COPE Coordinator Thomas Tucker said voluntary contributions to the UUP/NYSUT political action fund are on the rise, but aren’t nearly as high as they could be. UUP contributions to VOTE/COPE average about $200,000 annually.

“So far, we’ve raised more money to date this year than last,” Tucker said, noting the current fund drive ends in January. “But we need to do a better job of educating our members on why they should contribute to VOTE/COPE.”

These messages weren’t lost on two new committee members. Margaret Bryan of Stony Brook HSC had worked on phone banks at her chapter, but hadn’t served on a statewide committee until now. “We need to be involved in the political arena if we want our schools and our union to survive,” she said.

Darlene Mercado of SUNY Buffalo echoed that. “Outreach is important because we need to remind lawmakers that there are things that SUNY needs,” she said.

Committee members spent much of the two-day meeting hammering out a tentative 2008-2009 legislative agenda, as well as selecting dates for regional legislative training and Albany-based advocacy days.

Rather than hosting advocacy days by campus or constituency type — such as last year’s Technology Sector or Part-timer advocacy days — the committee backed an idea to bring people to Albany by region. The plan is to bus the volunteer advocates to the Capitol and to provide them with talking points on all SUNY campus types within their region.

Meanwhile, the committee will meet again to finalize the annual legislative agenda before presenting it to the UUP Executive Board for approval.

Tucker outlined a new “rewards” program the union has instituted to increase participation in VOTE/COPE. The goal is to raise more money by getting more members to contribute.

Members who use payroll deduction to donate up to $5 per paycheck will receive a VOTE/COPE lapel pin; members who donate between $5 and $10 per paycheck will receive either a baseball cap or desk caddy; and those who give more than $10 per paycheck will receive either a tie or scarf.

Tucker said committee members — a.k.a. chapter VOTE/COPE coordinators — are responsible for increasing participation at each chapter by at least 10 percent. Each coordinator will receive a box containing the various tchotchkes, as well as an instruction guide, a CD outlining the benefits of VOTE/COPE, and a short informational video.

“Your job is done when the box is empty,” Tucker said.

Brooklyn HSCer Gideon Dunkley Jr., a first-time member of the UUP Outreach Committee, said he is looking forward to talking to his colleagues about the benefits of VOTE/COPE.

“Politics is the business of society and to participate you have to be in the game,” Dunkley said. “VOTE/COPE gives us a seat at the table so we can continue to advocate for our members.”

— Karen L. Mattison

The 2007 legislative session brought UUP members a step closer toward achieving pension equity.

For the second year in a row, both houses of the state Legislature passed the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) pension equity bill. The legislation would have the state pick up, over a three-year period, the 3 percent pension contribution now paid by ORP members after 10 years of service.

The measure would put ORP members on par with public employees enrolled in the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) and the Teachers’ Retire-ment System (TRS), who do not contribute to their pensions after 10 years of membership.

As The Voice went to press, the bill had just reached the governor’s desk.

Hospital issue healed

UUP’s extensive effort to keep Upstate Medical University (UMU) in Syracuse within SUNY led to an apparent affiliation agreement between UMU and neighboring Crouse Hospital.

The tentative agreement maintains UMU as part of the SUNY system while conforming to the recommendations of the Berger Commission regarding hospital capacity.

“The apparent agreement meets our goal of keeping Upstate Medical University within SUNY,” UUP President William Scheuerman said. “There is no change in governance and no privatization.”

The tentative agreement provides for a joint advisory council to coordinate planning between the two hospitals and to pinpoint programs that may be consolidated.

Retiree bill awaits Spitzer OK

Another major UUP legislative priority is one step from becoming law.

A bill prohibiting the diminution of health insurance benefits to SUNY retirees passed in both houses and is awaiting action by the governor.

The measure would protect public employee retirees by barring any diminishment of their health insurance benefits or any reduction in the contributions the government pays toward their premiums, unless an equivalent change also included for active employees.

The prohibition would be in effect until May 15, 2008.

Similar legislation made it through both houses last year, only to be vetoed by former Gov. George Pataki. This year, it appears Gov. Eliot Spitzer is more inclined to sign the legislation into law.

“Whatever the outcome, UUP will advocate in the future for a permanent ban against the loss of or reduction in health insurance benefits for SUNY retirees,” Scheuerman said.            

— Donald Feldstein