SUNY’s "riding low in the water because we’ve piled more students on her decks. But there are holes in her hull, and we need ore faculty to fix that." – Phillip H. Smith UUP President

UUP advanced its 2008 legislative agenda Feb. 12 at the union’s annual Legislative Luncheon in Albany. Dozens of state lawmakers broke bread and met with UUP members from their districts. Members used the occasion to express their concerns about the urgent need for more faculty and additional funds for SUNY’s hospitals (see related story, page 6).

Presiding over his first Legislative Luncheon, UUP President Phillip Smith portrayed SUNY in nautical terms, as a flagship.

“She’s riding low in the water because we’ve piled more students on her decks,” Smith said. “But there are holes in her hull, and we need more faculty to fix that.”

Smith urged lawmakers to provide direct state support to SUNY to hire more full-time faculty in response to a 15-year cycle of underfunding.

“We’re grateful our elected leaders have approved state budgets in the last two years increasing state funding to hire more full-time faculty, but there’s still a long way to go to correct the shortfalls of the past,” Smith said. “We must also ensure that our outstanding part-time faculty have a real opportunity to move into new full-time faculty lines.”

UUP’s 2008 legislative agenda also calls for full funding for enrollment growth at SUNY and a significant increase in state support for SUNY hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse. It’s a problem Smith saw firsthand in his former faculty position at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.

“The state needs to increase funding to our public hospitals so that they can continue their mission of serving the indigent and the uninsured and teaching the next generation of physicians,” Smith said.

A dozen lawmakers addressed those attending the luncheon, all expressing support for SUNY and the goals of UUP.

“We’ll be there to fight the battles that have to be fought. Are you up to it?” Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) asked after a standing ovation in recognition of his record of support for the union’s legislative program. He noted the governor called higher education a priority, but cut spending by 2.5 percent in his Executive Budget. “We’ve got to get those bucks back,” Bruno said, stressing the importance of SUNY to the state’s economy by training its future workforce.

“You put us in a better position to get the jobs that are important to the economy of New York state,” he said.

Smith welcomed Bruno’s remarks, saying, “With a guy like that in our corner, how can we go wrong.”

Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari (D-Cohoes), another longtime supporter of higher education, called UUP a friend of the Assembly.

“We will work to get the full-time faculty lines you want and need to advance SUNY to the next level,” he said.

Assemblywoman Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) — chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee — pledged her support to UUP.

“The future of the state depends on an informed, critically thinking electorate, and it’s your job to see that we get them,” she said.

Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) conceded lawmakers are working with a tough Executive Budget proposal. He promised to make every effort to negotiate what’s in the final budget so it provides pathways to enhance higher education.

The ranking minority member on LaValle’s committee, Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens), recognized the need to hire 1,600 more full-time faculty to restore the student to faculty ratio of the early 1990s, and pledged to help part-time faculty attain full-time positions.

“SUNY has suffered from a period of benign neglect. The time is over for benign neglect,” Stavisky said.

After the lawmakers’ speeches, Smith emphasized the message he learned was very clear.

“They need us to make them do the right thing,” he said, telling the UUPers, “The only way to restore funds is to hold lawmakers’ feet to the fire.”

An early start

UUP’s advocacy efforts actually began a week earlier, with visits to more than two dozen state lawmakers in Albany.

The UUP advocates concentrated on lawmakers from the Capital District, Hudson Valley and the North Country, marking the start of the union’s strategy of focusing on geographic areas rather than campus types in its advocacy efforts.

— Donald Feldstein