It’s that time of year when UUP shows once again what an effective and unique union we are.

We’re unique because UUP members from all over the state have begun their weekly treks to Albany to advocate for SUNY with the clear goal of making our good University a great one! I’ll emphasize: Our goal is to promote the interests of SUNY and the academic and professional faculty represented by UUP. We’re an interest group, not the extension of any political party. Consequently, our political activities are bipartisan or, perhaps better put, nonpartisan.

In any case, before the legislative session ends sometime this spring, more than 300 UUPers will have traveled to Albany to spread the gospel of SUNY. This is impressive. Some even say that UUPers are like the Energizer Bunny; UUPers just keep going and going and going! No other union brings its members to the Capital on a weekly basis.

Our advocacy program is also very focused. In addition to several general “enhance SUNY” days, we have a special advocacy day for each of UUP’s constituent groups. These include advocacy days for the hospitals and health science centers, university centers, comprehensive colleges, the technology sector colleges, opportunity programs, part-timers, librarians and our colleagues at the New York State Theatre Institute.

But UUP’s political action work goes beyond advocating in Albany. Many of our members meet annually with representatives in their home districts; hundreds more work on political campaigns for endorsed candidates; and thousands of UUPers contribute to our crucially important VOTE/COPE campaign.

What are the results of these activities?

The results are positive and good for the University.

During the state’s recent fiscal crunch, UUP’s political efforts were instrumental in keeping SUNY’s infrastructure in place. We worked with the governor and leaders in both political parties in both the Assembly and the Senate to avoid budget-driven layoffs. For the last two years, we’ve worked closely with SUNY and managed to get decent add-ons to the University’s budget. We’ve protected and enhanced our teaching hospitals and health science centers; we’ve gotten a bill providing pension equity through both houses, as well as dozens of other laws beneficial to the SUNY community.

This year our work with the new administration produced the best Executive Budget for SUNY in many years. Gov. Spitzer proposed full state funding for the inflationary and mandatory expenditures at the state-operated campuses — in other words, for contractual salaries, fringe benefits, energy and other nonpersonal service categories. Much different from what we’ve seen in recent years! Now that the budget focus has shifted to the Legislature, we’re working to get additional state dollars to hire more full-time faculty, for historical base budget needs and to support the hospitals and health science centers.

Enrollments at SUNY are at record highs, but we’re down more than 1,000 full-time faculty. The quality of education at SUNY is at stake here. If SUNY is to become a great University, it must hire more full-time faculty. We’re also advocating for increased state support for the hospitals and health science centers; and, most importantly, we need to protect the hospitals from privatization as suggested in the Berger Commission report. I’ve talked about privatization many times before and how it would negatively impact health care in New York. No need to do it again here. Just remember, privatization will transform the hospitals’ bottom line from health care to profit. This will have a serious negative impact on the communities served by our hospitals.

UUP’s strength is in our members’ willingness to work together to make SUNY a better University. We’re an inclusive organization and we want every member to join us in this struggle. So I’ll close by inviting you to help in any way that you can. It’s fun, it’s productive and it’s the right thing to do. Just call me or send an e-mail to bscheuer@uupmail.org and I’ll tell you how you can help.