To the Point: Contract, funding, hospitals are key issues

By William E. Scheuerman UUP President

Although the mid-winter freeze has descended on New York state, here at UUP activities are heating up. I want to give you a short update on what we’re doing on the three issues of crucial importance to our members: negotiations; the SUNY budget; and the status of our fine teaching hospitals.

I’m pleased to say that negotiations are proceeding as planned. Our Team, led by Vice President for Academics Fred Floss, spent the fall collecting input from the membership. As you know, our negotiations process is as open and democratic as any in the country, probably more so. In early January, the Team met with the Negotiations Committee to review the data and prioritize members’ demands. The Committee has the constitutional charge of approving or rejecting our package. In short, we can’t take our demands to the bargaining table without the Committee’s approval. Consequently, on Feb. 2, the Committee unanimously approved our bargaining package.

We’re now ready to go to the bargaining table. But there is a problem. The new governor has not appointed a new director of the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER). Since we bargain with GOER, at this juncture we’re not quite sure who will represent the state at the negotiations table. There’s nothing new or unexpected about this minor snag. It happens every time there’s a change in administration. That’s why we expect a favorable resolution to the problem in the immediate future. We’ll keep you informed as the process unfolds.

We’re off to a great start with the SUNY budget. During the fall, we worked with the new governor’s transition team and with Chancellor Ryan. SUNY opened the process by submitting an aggressive budget proposal. We thank the chancellor for that. In late January, Gov. Spitzer, who has made many public statements in support of public higher education, released his budget proposal for SUNY. I’m pleased to say the governor backed his words with action. The governor wants to add about $143.2 million to SUNY. His proposed budget covers inflation and mandatory costs, including salary increases; it provides new monies for research faculty; funds for energy; and some more money for the hospitals. We think his proposal is a great start, but it doesn’t go far enough. We need more funding for full-time faculty positions; after all, student enrollment at SUNY has skyrocketed, while the number of full-time positions has plummeted. Over the last decade, SUNY enrollment increased by 40,000 students, but the state-operated ca
puses are down more than 1,000 full-time faculty positions. We also need more funds to correct historical base-budget underfunding. The hospitals also need additional funding.

As usual, UUP will launch an active political action campaign that will include bringing hundreds of UUPers to Albany to advocate for a well-funded University. We’ll also be very active in legislators’ home districts. We again plan to work with NYSUT and our K-12 colleagues in delivering our message to decision makers. I’ll also meet with editorial boards across the state and, as usual, we’ll sponsor a statewide ad campaign. If you’d like to join us in our advocacy efforts, contact me at bscheuer@uupmail.org.

Finally, I want to give you an update on the status of our teaching hospitals. In November, the Berger Commission released its report on health care reform in New York. The report recommended the privatization of the teaching hospital in Syracuse and asked for a study to determine the feasibility of privatizing the SUNY hospitals at Stony Brook and Brooklyn. Since the Legislature didn’t have time to vote on the report, the report’s recommendations took effect Jan. 1, 2007.

Since early January, I’ve met with key legislative leaders, members of the executive branch and NYSUT’s legal team. We’ve determined that the hospitals cannot be privatized without additional legislative action. We also believe there is insufficient support in the Legislature to privatize the hospitals. Despite our sound legal position, we are still working for a definitive political solution to the issue. As long as the uncertainty over privatization exists, the hospitals will face difficulties recruiting students and new faculty. We cannot allow this to continue indefinitely. The good news is that legislators in both houses are aware of these problems and we hope they will soon respond favorably.

So there you have it. These are the three most pressing issues facing us for now. We’re in pretty good shape and have reason to feel optimistic. But our optimism will disappear unless we are backed by your active support. We need you! I invite you to join our mutual struggle to make SUNY a better place for the entire SUNY community.

Hope to hear from you.