UUP members are moving full steam ahead, building coalitions to preserve and expand state support for SUNY.

UUPers have aligned themselves with student government organizations at their respective campuses to participate in a series of student rallies to protest state budget cuts. The most recent rally took place indoors at SUNY Potsdam on Dec. 3 and attracted more than 200 people, including about 60 UUPers.

“All of us are very concerned about these devastating cuts,” said Potsdam Chapter President Laura Rhoads, who was among the speakers at the rally.

“We need you to ask your parents, grandparents and friends to contact their lawmakers through UUP’s Web site to express their concern.”

Potsdam Chapter members drew support from Canton Chapter President Dave Butler and Plattsburgh Chapter President Dave Curry. Curry told the protestors how state support for SUNY had plummeted since 1990, when the state provided 75 percent of SUNY’s operating budget. Now, he said, with the most recent $90 million budget cut, students for the first time are financing more than half of the University’s operating budget.

Two Potsdam-area state legislators came to the campus to demonstrate their backing of the University. Sporting their “SUNY is the $olution” buttons, Sen. Joseph Griffo (R-Rome) and Assemblywoman Addie Russell (D-Theresa)—both of whom proudly proclaimed themselves as SUNY graduates—emphasized the importance of a SUNY education and the need to restore funds for the University.

Two other North Country lawmakers received dozens of letters from Plattsburgh chapter members. Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey (R-Peru) received the letters from UUPers sent through the union’s Web site asking them to protect SUNY from additional budget reductions.

“Our legislators understand the value of Plattsburgh State to the local economy, and now our members understand the value of reminding our legislators just how much we actually contribute to the local economy,” Chapter President Curry said.

UUPers at Cortland didn’t just send letters. They got students to sign union-authored letters as a follow-up to an earlier student rally attended by UUPers.

“We received approximately 500 signed student letters to legislators from around the state and UUP members addressed them and mailed them to Albany,” said Chapter President Jamie Dangler. Student representatives also were invited to join chapter members at a meeting with Sen. James Seward (R-Milford).

Dangler also said her chapter enlisted the help of the campus CSEA local by having about 100 of their members sign letters to lawmakers. The UUP chapter enhanced its alliance with other local unions by attending a local labor coalition meeting.

UUP’s Buffalo Center chapter is in the midst of building coalitions, having formed an ad hoc advocacy group. Outreach Committee Co-chair Thomas Tucker said the group is working with other Western New York campus chapters, unions, student groups and local businesses to mount joint efforts to promote SUNY as a top budget priority. Among those they’re reaching out to are business owners who stand to lose the most from budget cuts to the University.

“We’re making efforts to communicate with local vendors on campus to show them how important SUNY is to their businesses,” Tucker said.

While coalition building continues, UUPers continue meetings with state lawmakers in their district offices. Seven members from Upstate Medical and Cortland met with Sen. David Valesky (D-Oneida) in Syracuse in early December, hammering away at funding for SUNY and its hospitals and fighting so-called “flexibility.”

“Health care and education should be the last and least to be cut, not the first and most to be cut,” Brian Tappen of Upstate told Valesky. The senator pledged to help as much as he can once he sees the governor’s proposed budget for 2010-11.

Statewide, UUP upped its efforts to reach out to parents, who are feeling the sting as much as their children are.

During Thanksgiving week, the union placed half-page ads in 129 weekly newspapers reaching 1.5 million readers in New York’s major metropolitan areas.

“We want parents of SUNY students to find out what’s going on at their child’s campus and to take action if the news is bad,” said UUP President Phillip Smith.

Playing the role of the shocked mother is UUP Secretary Eileen Landy. Her daughter is portrayed by Sally Frank, UUP’s legislative intern and a grad student at UAlbany.

— Donald Feldstein