Delegates to the 2008 Spring Delegate Assembly, set for May 2-3 at The Desmond in Albany, will elect eight statewide union leaders. Elections will be held for the offices of vice president for academics, vice president for professionals and treasurer, as well as five Executive Board seats.
If the membership ratio of academics to professionals remains the same as the present ratio, of the eight people to be elected, three must be academics and five must be professionals from any chapter type. If the ratio changes, elections will be adjusted accordingly.
In accordance with union policy, candidates running for statewide elective position are entitled to have statements and a photograph printed in The Voice, which is distributed to all bargaining unit members.
Statements longer than 500 words were set in smaller type to ensure fairness for all candidates. The statements are printed as received, with minor editing for consistency of style. The following pages contain the statements and photographs of those union candidates who chose to submit them.
For Vice President
for Academics
Frederick G. Floss,
Buffalo State
Let me start by thanking everyone for the messages of support after the last Delegate Assembly. My decision to run for another term as your Vice President for Academics is made in response to so many of you asking me to continue. I believe I can make a positive contribution to UUP and help bring everyone together to meet the formidable challenges we will face over the next two years. Working together we can succeed.
In deciding whether I would run, I had many conversations with Ken Kallio, who also considered running. He has convinced me it is important that I continue and has urged me to run. Therefore, I am asking for your support and your vote in the upcoming election.
I think I am well positioned as the current chief negotiator to help Phil implement the current agreement and would like to continue to lead the Team as we get everything out of the contract. Over the last two years we have learned a lot about our contract and how we might better promote our members’ interests. If elected, I would ask Phil to let me bring the Team back to put a compendium together to help chapter leaders get the most out of the contract. I believe to do this properly I need to continue in Albany so when questions arise they can be addressed quickly and in consultation with the other officers.
With the ratification of the new contract, it is time to update the UUP Academic Guide and I believe it can be expanded to be more useful to our members, particularly our newer ones. This needs to be done with the chapter vice presidents for academics and I would like to work with them to make the guide more effective. Then we can use the guide as the basis of a series of chapter workshops for academics.
Over the last two years, I have been to every chapter at least twice and in some cases many more times. I enjoy working at the chapters and have made many good friends all around the state. If re-elected, these friendships will help me smooth the transition for our new leadership team and ensure the continuity of the projects our members have come to rely on.
Over the last four years as Vice President for Academics, I have gained a tremendous understanding of the problems our members face and have tried a number of solutions to try and fix these problems. While we have not always been successful, I would like to continue to work with you to find the best solutions. After much thought and discussions with many chapter leaders I believe I can do that best by running for re-election. Together we can continue to make UUP the strongest higher education union in the country. I ask for your vote and support so we can continue this important work for our members. Thank you.
For Vice President
for Academics
Laura Rhoads,
Potsdam
I am running for the office of Vice President for Academics, and I want to ask for your support at the UUP Spring Delegate Assembly elections. I have been at SUNY Potsdam for the last nine years, where I am currently an associate professor of cell biology. In addition to my teaching and research activities, I have been actively involved in UUP for the last four years. At the campus level, I have served as an area representative for biology/chemistry, as a member of the Executive Committee, and for the past year as chapter president.
In order to expand my knowledge of the union, I have participated in the New Leadership Workshops on Grievance, the Taylor Law, Effective Meetings and Chapter Development. At the statewide level, I have been an elected academic delegate for Potsdam for the last three years, as well as a member of the UUP Grievance Committee and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Efficiency for one year each. I currently chair the Task Force on New Academic Member Recruitment, and worked with the current VPA and MDO on activating new members to get involved in union activities. I served as a UUP representative for the Joint Labor/Management Committee on Affirmative Action and Diversity in 2006-07.
Recognizing that the UUP is part of a larger movement in labor to achieve collective bargaining for all educational professionals, I participated in the AFT’s Higher Education Conference in November 2006. This past year, the DA delegates voted for me to serve on the statewide UUP Executive Board.
I would like to serve as UUP Academic Vice President for two reasons. First, I want to work to represent all academic faculty, whether full-time tenured, full-time tenure track, librarians, retired but still involved in campus/UUP activities and full/part-time contingent faculty. All of these very different categories of academic faculty deserve representation and support from UUP. UUP particularly needs to examine and address the concerns of contingent faculty, given the rate of growth for this category with the ramifications of that increase on the nature of academic faculty.
Second, I seek to use my relative youth and energy to get more people, and especially more academics, involved with UUP. Others have observed that close to half of UUP members have been in the SUNY system for 10 years or less. I want to work with others in UUP to figure out how to get these members involved because demographics and time are immutable. If we do not succeed in getting these newer members to identify with UUP and subsequently get involved, management would quite possibly perceive this as a sign of weakness. It wouldn’t be long before there would be no union in which to get involved. I have gathered and will continue to gather ideas and plans from UUP chapters about their individual efforts to get more people involved, and I now seek the opportunity to be able to work at the statewide level to translate those ideas and plans into a statewide endeavor.
For Vice President
for Academics
William Simons,
Oneonta
It is time for a change, and I respectfully seek your support for my candidacy for the position of UUP Academic VP. UUP’s next Academic VP must effectively represent full- and part-time faculty on such issues as increasing compensation, containing workload, supporting research, and making the jobs of our most vulnerable members more secure. A new solidarity obligates academics and professionals to mutually understand the concerns of all. We need to proceed with tough-minded strategic planning. Leadership best flows from preparation, persuasion and example. To have an effective leadership team, a commitment to collaboration is essential.
The VP for Academics has a key role to play in revitalizing UUP by strengthening chapters and developing new leaders. As Oneonta chapter president (starting my sixth year) and having held other UUP positions continuously for 16 years, I believe that our successful grassroots initiatives at Oneonta provide models for implementation. Examples of the experience and skills that I have acquired- and propose to utilize on a statewide level- follow:
Oneonta identified a long ignored safety issue concerning asbestos and mold in the workplace, and we developed a response involving testing and abatement programs by third parties and compelled a reluctant management to pay those costs. Future statewide UUP strategic planning can incorporate Oneonta’s workplace health and safety experience with other campuses.
To build chapter engagement, membership awareness and crystallize opinion, Oneonta employs innovative tactics. Chapter survey instruments evaluate concerns about workload, discretionary salary increases, and management effectiveness. Oneonta monthly chapter meetings attract large numbers. Oneonta invites state legislators to campus for members to participate in advocacy initiatives. Oneonta’s labor/management meetings and our monthly newsletter serve as vehicles of leadership development. Diverse programs- such as our lectures, forums, and Labor Film Series- transform members into activists.
I offer to serve as statewide UUP’s first Chapter Development Facilitator to assist emerging leaders- on-site- in building more successful organizations with their own tools: surveys, forums, crafted newsletters, advocacy training, special events, and labor/management meeting techniques. Additional resources and training in tactics, drawn from successes throughout the statewide family of UUP, would become available for chapter building. Multiple chapters and leaders have positive programs that need to be shared.
Chapters also acquire solidarity through community volunteerism. As VP, I would encourage a UUP Service Corps. The Oneonta chapter grew with periodic staffing of a community kitchen, relief work in the post-Katrina Gulf, participation in the Green initiative, and diverse collection drives. After 2006 flooding in our region, UUP Oneonta surveyed the losses, sent UUP volunteers to the damaged homes of members and other residents, and raised money for the Disaster Relief Fund.
Today, our leadership contains the top young academics and professionals on the Oneonta campus. As professor (and past chair) of history, recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, author or editor of over 100 books/articles/reviews/essays, NY Council for the Humanities lecturer, and director of the Cooperstown Symposium, I can build bridges for recruiting tomorrow’s leaders.
Visit the campaign Web site home.stny.rr.com/simons/ for details on my qualifications, experience and proposals.
For Vice President
for Professionals
John J. Marino,
Stony Brook HSC
I write to thank you for your trust and confidence these past years, and to ask your support for my re-election as UUP Vice President for Professionals.
If re-elected, I will continue to travel to the chapters and meet with large groups and individuals to discuss the importance of performance programs and how they can be used to build a career as well as achieve good evaluations, promotions and salary increases. Many chapters continue the education process through workshops and discussions. I pledge to continue to educate our members and assist them as they achieve their professional goals- one member at a time and one chapter at a time.
As one of your officers, I also have the responsibility of assisting the president as we work towards solving some of the other challenges facing UUP: budget cuts, struggling part-timer members, struggling librarians and coaches. An individual member who is struggling believes his or her issue is the most important. We must make it a UUP issue. We must all work together to help those who are struggling and I believe we can do this while we are working on all of our other issues.
During my tenure as vice president, there has been an increase in professional participation in UUP. Why? I asked the vice presidents for professionals at each chapter to form a Professional Issues Committee to help define professional issues and work towards resolutions at their individual chapters. Most chapters now have one of these committees composed of five or six members. In addition, since we were encouraging members to have a performance program, we needed protections in case a member received a poor evaluation. Many chapters now have an active Evaluation Review Committee, again with five or six members. Then, if someone does not receive a promotion or salary increase that they feel they deserve, what is their recourse? The College Review Panel, again with five or six additional members. That’s chapter development that I am proud of!
While these are all important achievements for professionals, I would like to share with you some of my other thoughts. We have many issues and problems facing us and as we solve some of the problems new ones arise. We also have many issues that are ongoing, like the lack of promotional opportunities, an outdated title system, compensatory time issues, on call issues, shift differential, holiday pay and the list goes on. But we are making progress in these areas, mostly through educating our members of their rights. My hope is that with your help and the support of the UUP president we will make greater strides towards achieving our goals.
It has only been a few weeks since we elected a new president and I can tell you that the strong relationship Phil Smith and I already had is getting stronger by the day and that benefits all of us. I hope to continue working with Phil and the other officers you elect.
For Treasurer
Rowena
Blackman-Stroud, Brooklyn HSC
I am asking you to support my candidacy for re-election as UUP Treasurer. Working together, we’ve made great strides in serving our members and providing fiscal transparency. I want to continue working with you to build on this progress. With your support, we can make UUP a stronger, more effective union that’s even more responsive to our members’ needs.
I’ve had the honor of serving as your Treasurer for six terms, and I am proud of our accomplishment of achieving the highest degree of fiscal solvency in our history. But I did not do this on my own. Through the years I have worked closely with the UUP leadership team at the state and chapter levels and have always done whatever it takes to make sure the budget proposals I bring to the Delegate Assembly truly reflect the needs and wishes of our members. At hearings at the DAs, UUP members have the opportunity to raise questions and concerns about the union’s finances. Additionally, each bargaining unit member annually receives a copy of The Voice containing UUP’s audited financial statement.
My goal has always been to have a financially sound union whose budget priorities are determined by the needs of our members. I implemented this democratic budget process by canvassing the UUP membership and leadership. Statewide officers, committee chairs, UUP staff and chapters provide meaningful contributions and the budget mirrors their needs. The workshops I conduct for chapter presidents and treasurers are part of a larger process of explaining basic accounting principles and practices that chapter leaders need to know and follow.
In light of the post-Enron and World Com accounting scandals, and the financial difficulties at several unions, it is critical that we continue to comply fully with generally accepted accounting principles and UUP’s fiscal policies. The anti-labor administration in Washington is looking closely at all unions, and we must continue to adhere to the highest standards of fiscal responsibility. As a result of our stringency, UUP’s audit ratings consistently rank at the highest level possible. I thank you all for your assistance in achieving these high standards.
Budget hearings have also identified policy issues our union must address. One continuing issue is the need to promote chapter development and the recruitment and activation of new members. A majority of our members have less than 10 years of service at SUNY. We must identify issues relevant to our new, younger colleagues and find ways to respond to their needs at the state and chapter levels. I continually seek ways to provide chapters with additional resources to address such pressing issues. We must expedite the process and devote more resources to chapters that undertake innovative membership programs. I am working on developing this initiative and others in conjunction with the leadership and rank-and-file members. After all, UUP’s role is to serve the members and my job is to find ways to make that happen as simply and cost effectively as possible.
Tough state and SUNY budgets, the changing demographics of our members, and addressing the needs of our diverse academic and professional faculty create new challenges for all of us. These are tough challenges, but we’ve faced them before and prevailed.
I know with your support, we will continue serving our members even more effectively in the future than we do now.
For Treasurer
Paul Zarembka, SUNY
Buffalo
In placing myself before UUP as candidate for Treasurer, I wish to offer certain items for consideration.
I am a professor of Economics at SUNY Buffalo. This academic position sustains my asking for support as UUP Treasurer. My edited book Frontiers in Econometrics (New York: Academic Press) includes a chapter that became the principal citation for Daniel McFadden’s 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics. Since 1977, I have been series editor of the annual Research in Political Economy (Amsterdam: Elsevier).
The United States may well be entering into major financial crisis that can heavily impact SUNY and UUP. UUP needs to be prepared for a possibility of crisis, and I am well positioned for understanding this.
With some 30,000 members in UUP, leadership positions should involve more persons, rather than fewer, and officers should return to faculty and professional staff positions rather than consider a UUP position as a career in itself. After 14 years, our incumbent has performed competently, but I believe it is time to turn the page and build.
I am preparing specifics of candidacy for Treasurer, and welcome any UUP member with suggestions or asking for a copy; my e-mail is zarembka@buffalo.edu. Items will deal with the operations of the Treasurer and will go to each voting delegate. As a start, I will be proposing articles, half-yearly in The Voice, on UUP finances as a necessity for better informing the membership how dues are used with transparency and accountability.
Changes in leadership represent a deepening and democratization of a union. As an example of my own commitment to furthering democratization of UUP, before the most recent Delegate Assembly, I initiated a listserv for discussions among UUP activists. Never before has there been a forum for relaxed discussions across our UUP chapters statewide even though the technology has been available for quite some time. A Delegate Assembly resolution has commended me for undertaking this forum.
A treasurer is also an officer involved in larger UUP decisions. While always remaining a unionist, I do take independent positions when feeling it justified for the needs of membership. In my own academic work, independence is perhaps best illustrated by the book I’ve edited The Hidden History of 9-11 (New York: Seven Stories Press) to be released this April in second-edition paperback. In other words, one could say that I celebrate Article 9 academic freedom by using it.
Delegate since 1981, I have been Buffalo Center chapter president, 1991-1995, and grievance officer for academics, 1995-1997 and 2007-present, among other UUP roles. One course I teach directly pertinent to any union officer is "History of the American Working Class Movement." An international position I held for nearly three years was as senior research officer, International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. I had a Fulbright Lecturership in Poznan, Poland, and later advised Polish "Solidarity" through a NYSUT delegation.
Thank you for your consideration.
For Executive Board
Philippe Abraham,
SUNY Albany
Brothers and Sisters, my name is Philippe Abraham and I seek the support of every one of our 34,000 members- not just the delegates- to get elected to the Executive Board of UUP. I am currently a second-term vice president for professionals at the Albany Chapter and have been a UUP activist for my entire career.
As an immigrant to this country, I would have gotten nowhere without perseverance, conviction and hard work. I am passionate about what I believe in and I believe in UUP. I am convinced that if UUP is to continue to prosper, it needs new blood, new eyes and continuing improvement to do so. A new generation of union leadership can bring new ideas to meet the new circumstances and challenges. Therefore, my candidacy is not motivated by presumption or dissatisfaction, but by vision and hope. That vision for UUP is not myopic, that hope is not narrowly focused just on professionals or academics. I am a firm believer in fighting for everyone’s benefit because, although it is true that "A rising tide lifts all boats," every constituency deserves our attention and best efforts.
Most of you know me as an effective and consensus-building team player with the courage to make the right decision, even if unpopular. In addition, many of you know I have spent the last 19 years as an unswervingly loyal supporter of and contributor to UUP. I am eminently qualified and have the temperament, dedication, aplomb, energy and experience to help carry us forward as a union. I am therefore seeking your support, because I believe that membership on the Executive Board will afford me additional opportunities both for service and for championing new ideas to respond to yet unseen demands of the future.
Because of the individuals involved in the current national primaries, it has been said that we are living in historical times and that the nation needs to say in unison, "Yes, we can!" and embrace one of the two candidates who, if elected, would change history. For all of these reasons, I am asking your representatives to the Delegate Assembly to vote for me, Philippe Abraham, for Executive Board because their vote will translate into a resounding, Yes, we can!- "¡Si?, se puede!"- on the part of UUP.
Highlight of experience and service to UUP: VP for professionals, Albany Chapter; member, current Negotiations Team; chair, Legal Defense Committee; co-chair, Statewide, Affirmative Action Committee; Secretary, United Caucus of UUP; chair, Latino Affairs Committee; co-chair, Task Force on Emerging Issues of Diversity; chair, Task Force on Pay Equity Based on Race; chair, statewide Affirmative Action Committee; chair, Affirmative Action Committee, Albany Chapter; Assembly delegate, Albany Chapter 1993-Present; NYSUT delegate (various years); NYSUT Leadership Institute, 2007; AFT delegate (various years); AFT Higher Education Special Leadership Workshop, 2007.
For Executive Board
Lorna Arrington,
SUNY Buffalo
The key word we are hearing recently is "change." It has certainly been used abundantly in the current presidential campaign. Change is inevitable in all phases of our lives. Our hope is that the changes are positive.
Yet, there are some things, regarding UUP, that I hope will continue and be built upon. These would include: the political effectiveness exhibited during recent years; the work to broaden activism and participation among the membership; the efforts to resolve issues for all constituents within our union; the current fiscal soundness of UUP; the establishment of those policies and procedures that being required of organizations such as ours; advocating on behalf of SUNY.
I have been able to participate in these endeavors through the following service: I am a member of the Finance Committee and the Compliance & Audit Committee; I’ve just completed serving on the Negotiations Team for the fourth time;
I chair the EOC Concerns Committee;
and as the UUP co-chair of the Joint Labor/Management Employment Committee. I have spent a considerable amount of time (along with the GOER co-chair) reviewing and making awards to the technical college faculty who were pursuing doctoral degrees as their campuses evolve towards becoming four-year colleges.
As I seek another term on the Executive Board, I feel the experience I’ve gained being involved in this work will continue to assist me in making decisions that are in UUP’s best interest, and that means in the best interest of the members.
For Executive Board
Jacqualine Berger,
Empire State College
My name is Jacqui Berger; I am a faculty member at Empire State College and am asking for your vote for an at-large seat on the Executive Board. Empire State College serves non-traditional students, delivering traditional education in a non-traditional way. My college has a culture of collaboration between academics and professionals, giving me a true perspective on, and deep appreciation of, the issues faced by both branches of our organization. In addition, as a part-time faculty member who works in genuine collaboration with my full-time colleagues, I share an understanding of the challenges to academic freedom and shared governance that we face in higher education. Therefore, I seek your support for election to the Executive Board so that I can bring these sensitivities to the state level.
As a member with less than 10 years experience, I embraced UUP from the outset, not just at Empire State College, but also when I was a part-timer at Buffalo State College. I have been an active chapter leader, working in partnership with my chapter president and officers to deal with the challenging logistics of running a statewide chapter. I have spent the last several years traveling the state- talking, listening and supporting chapter members. I am Empire State College’s elected part-time representative and serve on our labor/management committee. As an active member of the UUP Outreach Committee, I regularly advocate for SUNY and UUP with our legislators. In addition, I serve UUP as co-chair of the Part-Time Concerns Committee and as a member of the Negotiations Committee. I take real pride in the high profile that part-time issues were afforded at the negotiating table.
These service opportunities are invaluable experiences for a potential board member.
But it is not just part-time issues that engage me. Minority and disability issues are of equal and growing importance. I have spent my entire life as an advocate for children and people with disabilities, developing real expertise, which I now want to bring to UUP’s governing board. I believe we need to be proactive, responsive and diligent in our work to protect members’ rights. UUP’s membership is diverse and we need to consciously be inclusive and responsive to all of our constituents.
I realize there is only so much that a board member can do, and I have no illusions about revolutionizing things in one term. But I promise to be vigilant to ensure that the chapters get the resources that they need to design programs suited to their needs and special conditions. I will work hard to be sure that members and the general public are educated about the issues SUNY and UUP face. UUP has always called for broad access and high quality public higher education. My vigilance to that commitment will not be forgotten.
Thank you! Please support me for election to the Executive Board!
For Executive Board
Peter D.G. Brown,
New Paltz
I am running for a position on the Executive Board because I want to work with our new leadership and find ways to revitalize our union. As VP for academics at New Paltz, I see the need to reverse the decline in membership participation throughout the union. The suggestions below describe a number of ways we could re-energize UUP:
Generate more frequent media coverage by a variety of actions promoting our causes, including organizing public events, whether lectures, debates, rallies, demonstrations, etc., and announcing and discussing them in news conferences and media interviews. We need to focus more on doing positive things to get and stay in the news, activate our membership, educate and reach out to the public.
We should make a much greater effort to activate contingent faculty, women and minorities. Most officers are great guys, very capable and highly experienced. However, by remaining in office for so many years, they thwart the participation and development of a broader section of the membership. Members do get turned off by "lifetime" leaders. We should also encourage more newsworthy events and activities at the chapter level.
A redesign of The Voice could raise its overall intellectual level and also encourage differing viewpoints. By allowing members to unsubscribe, we could save money. One option would be to redesign The Voice on the model of Inside Higher Ed and include unsolicited articles and uncensored letters from members, reprint excerpts from chapter newsletters, or publish as an e-zine only and distribute by e-mail.
It’s time to move away from an organizational structure that unnecessarily mirrors authoritarian one-party government and corporate models. It invariably stifles initiative, creativity, involvement and a sense of collective ownership. We should actively solicit more member input by welcoming electronic discussion lists and dissent. Our members need to be heard on a continuous basis, not just once every few years. By showing more concern for sustainability, waste reduction, greater resource and energy conservation, we could also "green" the union.
We might make Delegate Assemblies more relevant and surely save money by reducing the number to perhaps two annually. We could change the focus from periodic meetings to sustained activities, reviewing current committee structures and allowing chairs to be elected. It would be useful to have e-discussion lists for standing committees, others for entire chapter memberships, and another for all chapter presidents and VPs.
We should make equitable wages and greater job security for contingent faculty a far greater union priority. This would also increase UUP revenue and help attract greater participation among this segment of the membership.
UUP needs to develop more efficient communications structures. We can study other Web sites, then launch a redesigned, interactive Web site with responsive links and a Help Desk with dedicated staff. We could create a link, discussion list and Web page for each of the standing and ad hoc committees.
Your vote will give me a chance to help the new leadership revitalize our union.
For Executive Board
Jamie Dangler,
Cortland
During this time of transition for UUP, the prospect of building an even stronger union presents serious challenges and exciting possibilities. As an independent candidate for an academic seat on the statewide Executive Board, I ask for your support.
My service to UUP over the past 15 years has been motivated by a strong commitment to the values of democratic unionism and a passion for grassroots organizing. I’ve been guided by two key objectives. The first is to facilitate UUP leaders’ responsiveness to and understanding of members’ needs. The second is to develop effective strategies for solving problems and removing obstacles to change.
Over the years, the scope of my work for UUP has expanded steadily from the chapter to the state level. I believe I am now well prepared to take on the responsibilities of an Executive Board member.
I am currently serving my second term as VP for academics for the Cortland Chapter. My other chapter-level work has included chairing our campus Joint Labor/Management Health & Safety Committee for a period of 10 years. I also established a campus Family Leave Committee in the early 1990s and over the years I have served as chapter membership development officer, Executive Board member, and delegate to the statewide DA.
My state-level involvement has expanded considerably in recent years, culminating in my service for the past 18 months on the Negotiations Team for the 2007-10 contract.
I am UUP’s representative to the state-level Joint Labor/Management Family Benefits/ Employee Assistance Program Advisory Board. I’ve held this position since 2001.
It has given me extensive experience working with other state employee unions as well as with representatives from SUNY and the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER).
In 2001, I organized UUP’s state-level Family Leave Committee and have chaired it since its inception. With the help of other committee members, I have led a seven-year effort to expand campus-based grassroots efforts to give visibility to our members’ increasing need to balance work with family responsibilities surrounding elder care, birth, adoption and sick relative care. This has resulted in a statewide UUP program to advance family leave and family-friendly policies in SUNY. Considerable progress in this area was made in the new contract as a result of these efforts.
My academic training as a sociologist and my research experience enabled me to meet UUP’s need for research on salary inequities, gender inequities and family leave problems. I designed and was principle investigator for a research project on these issues conducted during the 2006-07 academic year. Some of the findings from this research were used for contract negotiations and I am in the process of completing an extensive report, which will provide information and policy proposals for potential use at the chapter level and for UUP’s legislative and other statewide efforts.
As my involvement in UUP has escalated over the years, I have become more and more excited about my potential to contribute even more to our continued development as an effective, democratic organization. I ask for your support in my bid for an Executive Board seat and pledge my commitment to build a union that functions equitably at all levels in representing its diverse constituencies.
For Executive Board
Raymond
Dannenhoffer, Buffalo HSC
I am asking for your support for a third term as a professional representative to the Executive Board of UUP. I hope my actions on the board and my other work at UUP have been sufficient to justify that election. I have certainly done my best to represent the interests of the rank-and-file members.
During my four years on the Executive Board, we have had to deal with some difficult issues and make some difficult and delicate decisions. While we are debating the issues I try to ask the questions that I believe the membership would ask and to get answers which the membership will be satisfied with. I have not hesitated to ask the uncomfortable or unpopular question even when the answer to that question might be difficult to hear. I respect the divergent opinions of others and believe that we must do what is the best for the union and its members and not what is easy or popular.
Sometimes that has gotten me on the wrong side of folks, but to do otherwise would not be fair to the membership. If along the way I have made some folks upset with me, I’m OK with that. I do not believe you elected me to the board to make friends and have fun. I believe you elected me to represent your interests and I have strived to do that to the best of my ability and will continue to do so if you honor me with a third term.
In addition to serving on the Executive Board, I serve on the Joint Committee on Health Benefits, and the Health Sciences Concerns and
Legislative committees. On those committees, I do not hesitate to ask the hard questions required to represent you. During the past two years in addition to the regular responsibility of reviewing the annual rate renewal process for health benefits. I, along with my colleagues, fought and won a battle with the state to provide our members and their families coverage for the Guardisil vaccine which provides protection against cervical cancer.
I served on the last two Negotiation Teams and am proud of the work that that those Teams did in negotiating contracts for you. The many hours spent on the details and the days away from family as we worked to represent your needs proved to be more rewarding than I could have imagined. Both times I have come away with a renewed respect for the power of the work of the Team as a whole and an appreciation for what we can do together. The whole really is greater than the sum of the parts. I promise to continue to work for a balanced effort to improve things for all our members while keeping our collective strength focused on the needs of our members who are in the greatest need. We need to find a way to resolve the long-standing issues at our technical colleges, for our librarians, and for our part-time faculty and staff and do so without pandering to the topic of the day where we risk becoming a slave to special interests dividing our collective strength.
I am now in my fourth term as president of the Buffalo Health Science Chapter. During the years I’ve been involved, I’m happy to say that along with the rest of the executive board of the chapter I’ve worked to change the way the faculty and staff think about the union and I believe we have succeeded in doing so.
There is lot of work that remains to be done and there will always be new challenges for the organization and for the members. I hope that my past work and specifically the way I have represented you on the board for the last four years has met and hopefully exceeded your expectations. I ask for your vote and your support for my re-election to the Executive Board.
For Executive Board
Raúl Huerta,
Morrisville
Brothers and sisters, my name is Raúl Huerta from Morrisville State College. I am asking for your support and vote for the specialty college seat on the Executive Board. I am a cuitlapilli ahtlapalli who grew up in the heart of Aztlán. I have spent the last three decades in public higher education. My experience spans both the academic and student services side of the house. My professional interests have focused on questions connected to success for Hispanics and other first-generation college students. My interest in this set of questions is connected to my passion for social justice and equality.
My engagement in these issues has been a search for the good life. I believe that human activity is, for the most part, a search for community. The fortunate few of us engaged in higher education quickly discover that university life is not about truncating life’s possibilities; instead constantly seek to expand our possibilities. I note this because learning is an unending search for life and growth. This process requires a rigorous commitment to truth no matter where it leads.
My grandfather’s union motto was "Preguntando se llega a Roma" (by asking questions you’ll arrive in Rome). He was firmly convinced that unless you rigorously seek the truth it is almost impossible to be an authentic person. He viewed union work as an important means to uncover your social self and by extension create community. I learned from him that a central feature of being a union person was to ask questions; after all "Quien bien te quiere te harar llorar" or a true friend will reprove and not flatter you.
My decision to run for the Executive Board is rooted in my life-long commitment and passion for creating community rooted in the truth-seeking process. I firmly believe that our work within UUP is to ensure that SUNY remains a place of excellence for all New Yorkers. Without the efforts of our members, SUNY would cease to be an open, intellectually rich and vibrant intellectual community. This is what has motivated my work over the last few years within UUP. For example, Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera and downstate members have become strong advocates on SUNY’s behalf. Assemblyman Rivera in conjunction with UUP forged a strong partnership with the Chancellor’s Office that led to the creation of SUNY’s Office of Diversity and Educational Equity. Our coordinated efforts will eventually create a better University and one that reflects the diversity of the Empire State. Throughout this process, I never took "no" for an answer. I approached my union work with tenacity and a belief that we are capable of accomplishin the impossible.
Last but not least, it is through our praxis that we, as union members, authentically create a good life for ourselves on an individual and communal basis. My commitment to you, if you elect me to the board, is that I will bring a fierce dedication our collective needs and the truth.
For Executive Board
Robert Reganse,
Farmingdale
My name is Robert Reganse and I am running for an academic seat on the Executive Board. I have been an active member at my local chapter since 1979. Some of the positions I have held at Farmingdale are vice president for professionals, vice president for academics, chapter president, grievance chair for professionals and grievance chair for academics. Last year, I was honored to receive the Nina Mitchell award.
In 1987, when I was chapter president, we established the first Part-Time Concerns Committee in UUP, and I appointed Fayez Samuel as its chair. Fayez went on to become the chairperson of the first statewide UUP Part-Time Concerns Committee. In 1988, we established the first Retiree Concerns Committee in UUP; I appointed Pearl Brod as its chair. Pearl also went on to become chairperson of the first statewide UUP Retiree Concerns Committee.
For the past nine years I have served as the chair of the Farmingdale Labor/ Management Committee and co-chair of the Part-Time Labor/Management Committee. Some of the agreements we have negotiated through these committees are:
For part-timers- Promotions; discretionary awards; inclusion for campus service awards; extended appointments; a 7 percent salary increase in 2007, over and above the state negotiated increases.
For full-time members- Last year, we successfully completed negotiating with our administration for a multiyear plan, which has begun the process of addressing salary inequities at Farmingdale. Last semester, we took the first step in this process when 154 full-time UUPF members had between $800 and $4,500 added to their base.
For professionals- In 1999, we systematized the promotion process, negotiating an application form and procedure, and aligning the process with the faculty promotion cycle. This made it far more difficult for administration to deny professional promotions because of "fiscal constraints" when simultaneously granting faculty promotions.
At the statewide level, I am a founding and continuing member of the EOC Concerns Committee and am proud of its work overturning some of the most egregious management practices in SUNY: full- time faculty and staff working for more than 10 years without receiving tenure or permanent appointment; unilaterally moving faculty from 10- to 12-month obligations without any increase in salary; disallowing faculty promotions so that faculty would remain in the instructors rank in perpetuity. Through the efforts of the EOC Committee, we have worked together and rectified all of these problems as well as many others.
Of course, the keyword in all of this is "we," as all union members understand. Nothing is achieved without the wisdom, strength and courage of our members. In our union, success is measured not by individual actions, but by how well we work together for the common good.
If I am extended the privilege of being your representative on the UUP Executive Board, I promise to work with all the passion and conviction I have to make our union even more responsive to the needs of its members.
For Executive Board
Donald Pisani, Stony
Brook HSC
Brothers and Sisters, I am Donald Pisani from the Stony Brook HSC Chapter and I am seeking your support for re-election to the statewide Executive Board for an at-large professional seat. My experience with UUP starts in 1980 when I was first hired, becoming my department rep. Over the course of my time here, I have been involved in both local as well as statewide issues- chapter delegate, vice president for professionals, and chair of various local committees. Statewide service has included membership on different committees – Legislation; Affirmative Action; Solidarity; Disability Rights; Part-time Concerns; HSC Concerns; Negotiations; Appendix – A32; Professional Issues; and now statewide Executive Board.
The past two years on the board has been a period of transition, from one type of leadership to a new type of leadership. I have been able to work on the board under the previous leadership and now welcome the opportunity to continue this work with our new leaders. This period has been unprecedented in UUP history and being there has given me a perspective on what we need to do to lead this union forward. The members elected me last time to the board as an independent thinker, able to listen and develop my own opinions and put those into action. I remain an independent thinker, looking to represent all members to the best of my ability. The last two years on the board have been a complete learning process, from representing a single chapter to now representing all 33,000 members, yet being able to bring my expertise to play in this representation. We as a board must be able to develop leadership for the members that is inclusive of all members, excluding no one, yet being able to do what is best for all the members- a difficult task, but very similar to what I do on a professional basis daily. We also need to develop the next set of leaders to take our place, in order for the union to move forward.
If you believe that I can represent your needs and concerns, then I humbly request that you re-elect me to the board for the next two years. Many of the delegates know who I am and what I have done over the years, and I have garnered their trust and support. The new delegates do not know me, yet I hope that I can represent their concerns and also gain their trust that I will represent them fairly and honestly and to the best of my ability.
Thank you for your support.
For Executive Board
Brian Tappen,
Upstate Medical University
I would like to request your vote to the Executive Board of UUP (professional). I work nights at Upstate Medical University in the coronary care unit. I have a unique skill set that sets me apart from all the other candidates and would be beneficial to lead the union.
I came to work for SUNY after I worked the night shift as a paramedic in the city of Syracuse and a flight medic with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Air-1. Work as a paramedic trains you to make life-and-death decisions in seconds and to do it in adverse conditions. The example is: I can, and in the past have, made life-and-death decisions at two o’clock in the morning, in a burnt-out crack house with a November gale blowing through the window to save someone’s life. Concurrent with my nightlife, I have during the day worked and achieved a BS and MS in biology from Syracuse University, plus further graduate education at SUNY ESF and UMU.
When problems with management developed at Eastern Ambulance, the employees made a decision to unionize and I was chosen as the chief steward. While the patients I cared for put their lives in my hands, my co-workers chose to put their livelihoods in my hands. I led the unionization of the company into a shop of Teamsters Local 317, and negotiated its first contract. I am the only person in UUP to have unionized a company. Further, I am the only person in UUP to negotiate a primary union contract and am one of a handful in UUP who have led a union negotiations team.
I presently serve as a member of three statewide UUP Committees: Grievance, HSC Concerns, and Outreach. I co-chair the Grievance Committee and am one of the organization’s most knowledgeable members on the CBA and terms and conditions of employment. As a member of the Outreach Committee, I am one of UUP’s foremost advocates for our legislative agenda, especially hospital issues. On the HSC Concerns Committee, no meeting ends without the chair asking if I have anything to add. No committee I serve on remains static after I arrive. I bring new ideas and change where ever I go. As a chapter leader I have served or am serving as Grievance chair for professionals, Legislation Committee chair, and Bylaws Committee chair.
Leadership is when people follow you into the crack house at two in the morning to save someone. Leadership is organizing a group of employees at a company to unionize and stick together when faced with lawyers and card counts.
As an alumnus of the NYSUT Leadership Institute and most if not all of UUP’s leadership workshops, this organization has invested a great deal of time, effort and money to train me to help lead this organization. I feel I can make the command decisions necessary affecting the direction and livelihood of our union and its 30,000-plus members.
Think Tappen- a bridge to the future, don’t you Zee. Thank you for your vote.