UUP is mounting an aggressive advocacy drive, prompted by indications that this will almost certainly be a difficult budget year.

Gov. David Paterson left that impression in his State of the State address Jan. 6, when he said, “This is a winter of reckoning for New York.” He blamed what he called “cultures of addiction to spending” for leading the state into its current fiscal crisis.

As The Voice went to press, the exact scope of the challenge facing UUP was not clear, since the governor had not yet introduced his Executive Budget. Given the suggestion from the governor that all areas of state spending faced the budget knife, significant reductions in state support for SUNY appeared more than likely.

“We need to be and will be very visible in our budget fight this year,” UUP President Phillip Smith pledged. “More than ever, we need to educate lawmakers and the public about how valuable SUNY is to the future of this state and its economy to ensure the University is not undercut further by more budget cuts.”

The union’s advocacy drive in Albany was scheduled to begin Jan. 26, with members meeting state lawmakers to push for additional funding for the University. A series of advocacy days is scheduled through May. Smith urged members to join the effort.

“We can’t afford to have people sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “We need to have more people in the trenches fighting for the future of the University.”

UUP is also taking the battle for SUNY directly to the public in the form of a television and newspaper advertising campaign that begins this month.

Meanwhile, more UUP chapters are providing momentum for continued coalition building, aligning themselves with various groups and organizations to safeguard and broaden state support for SUNY.

The Purchase Chapter got into coalition building in a big way, co-hosting a campus forum with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). Titled, “Taking Back Our Education: A Student & Legislator Hearing,” the Dec. 10 forum zeroed in on the need for increased state funding for public higher education.

“SUNY has already taken an enormous hit from previous budget cuts,” UUP Purchase Chapter President John Delate told the forum, referring to the $410 million in state funding sliced in the last two years. “We understand these are challenging economic times, but SUNY has already taken more than its fair share of reductions. It’s more important to fund this economic engine rather than deplete it further.”

A crowd of about 75, mostly students, heard Delate make his case, along with three state lawmakers from Westchester County who attended. Students and faculty got the opportunity to address their concerns and questions to Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck) and Assembly members Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) and George Latimer (D-Rye). All three lawmakers pledged to work to ensure that public higher education receives proper funding. Delate said the groundwork for UUP’s cooperative relationship with NYPIRG grew from both organizations having worked together on a joint rally with CUNY faculty Oct. 27 in Manhattan.

UUP’s Cortland Chapter kept up its coalition building and advocacy activity. A four-member delegation from the chapter met with Sen. James Seward (R-Milford) in his district office to express their concerns about state support for SUNY.

Chapter President Jamie Dangler found that Seward empathizes with the union about the crisis facing the University.

“He stated SUNY isn’t the problem. It should be the solution,” Dangler said. He is concerned that SUNY will not have funds for basics like utilities in the coming year.”

Additionally, Dangler said Seward sought specifics about how the budget cuts are affecting the Cortland campus.

Dangler and Chapter Secretary Elizabeth Owens also reached out to build a coalition with the Midstate Central Labor Council at their December meeting. They handed out fact sheets about SUNY’s budget cuts along with a flier detailing Cortland’s economic impact on Central New York. The UUPers also broached the idea of having council members work with UUP to organize presentations to local legislators and community groups.

— Donald Feldstein