UUPer Kenneth O’Brien was elected last spring to a two-year term as president of the University Faculty Senate.

An historian of modern America at SUNY Brockport, O’Brien has served the University Faculty Senate on several committees, including the SUNY ad hoc Committee on System-wide Assessment. He is also the author of numerous history books, and he is the recipient of two Chancellor’s Awards for excellence in teaching and faculty service.

In an interview with The Voice, O’Brien shared his goals for the Senate and how he looks to tap UUP’s expertise in advocating for SUNY.

The following is a summary of his comments:

Q: What is the No. 1 concern of the Faculty Senate?

A: There has been a national trend of disinvestment in public higher ed that began in the mid-1980s. The work we do is critically important to society. We serve a diverse state and international population, and we are committed to offering the highest possible quality public higher education in the nation.

Q: What is the Faculty Senate doing to reverse this trend?

A: We are working to make certain that the people of our state have a clearer understanding of the value we have added to our economic prosperity and quality of life. We have increased the human capital through innovative research and by skilled practice. We are doing this by participating in SUNY’s strategic planning process, and by creating alliances that seek to better the common good through a better-educated public.

I want to talk with union leadership about common goals, particularly as we begin to work toward greater advocacy for the University this winter and spring.

Q: Does being a UUPer help you as Senate president?

A: The union has been the steward of our common working conditions for decades, providing a powerful reminder of what we have in common, what we share as educators. For me, that reinforces my own work in the shared governance, which I see as working to articulate our shared passion for the work we do, the students we teach.

Q: Any parting thoughts?

A: Many taxpayers have long supported public higher ed, but have never earned a single college credit or stepped foot on a college campus. We have asked them to provide a healthy portion of the resources needed to do our jobs. What we must remember is that we owe them not only our best work, but a frank understanding of the consequences of fewer resources. No one should believe we can do more with less, because we can’t. But whatever the constraints, faculty will do all we can because we are committed to teach, to research, in other words, to educate.

— Karen L. Mattison