When it came time to act, UUPers at the NYSUT Representative Assembly stood up and called on NYSUT to publicly denounce continued state cuts to public higher education and SUNY’s Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act (PHEEIA).

When NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi asked delegates to call state senators to oppose raising the cap on charter schools, UUPers were quick to pull out their cell phones and let their fingers do the walking.

And after United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts finished a fiery speech about April’s tragic West Virginia mine explosion and the need for job safety and union solidarity, UUPers helped raise $15,000 to aid the families of the 29 miners who died in the disaster.

That’s how UUP members defined excellence at NYSUT’s 38th annual RA, held April 29-May 1 in Washington, D.C. More than 100 UUPers from across the state joined nearly 2,000 of their NYSUT sisters and brothers in the nation’s capital to make their voices heard.

The RA’s theme was “Defining Excellence,” and UUPers achieved that by winning unanimous approval on resolutions that put NYSUT on record against further cuts to SUNY, CUNY and community colleges, and PHEEIA.

The resolutions require NYSUT officers to recommend that its endorsement committees ignore elected officials and candidates who support or vote for PHEEIA or higher ed budget cuts.

“This is something that needed to be done,” said UUP President Phillip Smith. “We are gratified to have the backing of our 600,000 NYSUT brothers and sisters on these important issues.”

Two other UUP-sponsored resolutions were approved, dealing with providing parity in funding mechanisms to CUNY and SUNY, and opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

Necessary solidarity

NYSUT officers offered solid support for UUP and NYSUT’s higher ed affiliates, and urged them to keep fighting. “When you say you’re represented by 600,000,” Iannuzzi said of legislators, “they’ll know you mean it.”

“I will be out there to fight your fight because I believe in higher education,” said NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue.

Join a union!

Roberts delivered the session’s most impassioned moments. In a May 1 speech that sounded much like a sermon, he vehemently attacked Massey Energy for failing to improve safety conditions in its underground mines before the April 5 explosion that killed 29 West Virginia miners. He demanded that safety laws for workers be enacted and enforced by the government.

Moved by Roberts’ eloquence, UUPers leaped to their feet more than a half dozen times during his 20-minute oration, cheering with other delegates as he stressed—and sometimes shouted—the importance of union activism and solidarity.

“What every worker in this country needs whether they’re a school teacher, a professor, a coal miner or a construction worker, is the right to be able to join a union without interference from any boss or any CEO,” he said.

After Iannuzzi presented Roberts a NYSUT check for $10,000 for disaster relief, delegates dug deep and raised another $15,000 in 15 minutes. Roberts said the money will go to the families of the mining accident victims.

Senators speak

UUPers also listened to speeches by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, who promised to work to pass the $23 billion Keep our Educators Working Act, which would send $1.4 billion to New York to reduce budget cuts and avert teacher layoffs.

Iannuzzi and NYSUT officers, U.S. Congressman William Owens (D-Plattsburgh), AFT President Randi Weingarten, NEA President Dennis VanRoekel and New York state AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes were among other speakers who addressed convention delegates.

RA delegates also approved a far-reaching set of principals to help put educators at the forefront of defining excellence from pre-kindergarten to higher ed.

For higher education, the NYSUT principals stipulate that students “must be guaranteed” access to quality higher education. To achieve that, public funds must support higher ed. Also a necessity: investing in permanent, full-time faculty and staff, and ensuring faculty and staff the rights of academic freedom, shared governance, peer review and collective bargaining.

— Michael Lisi