Courage is doing something for others, no matter the consequences to oneself.
Such could be said for Morrisville UUPer Jan Tewes, this year’s recipient of the Fayez Samuel Award for Courageous Service by Part-time Academic and Professional Faculty (see page 16). Her relentless pursuit of fair and equitable treatment for her chapter’s part-time contingent is well documented—and came at personal risk.
When UUP?policy dictated part-time labor/management meetings, Tewes jumped at the chance to bring her concerns to campus administrators. That was 2005—more than 30 years since the chapter last held a labor/management meeting of any kind.
“It was Jan’s insistence that changed that,” said Chapter President Jim Engle. “Jan was prepared and relentless; management had no chance!”
The result: Tewes was instrumental in securing Discretionary Salary Increases, work schedules, seniority rights and pay increases for part-timers.
The “hard truth,” however, is that Tewes saw her course load drop from the required two courses to be eligible for UUP?benefits, to one and then to none. She opted for retirement to maintain health coverage, Engle said. She had been teaching psychology for more than 15 years, and earned high praise from students during that time.
“As she pushed harder and harder on part-time issues, she drew the enmity of some managers,” Engle said. “Some deans refused to meet with her since she was ‘only a part-timer.’ Jan took these slights in stride, concerned only with the plight of her fellow part-timers.”
Not to be deterred in retirement, Tewes continues to serve on the chapter executive board and as the elected part-time concerns rep. She is also a member of the statewide Part-time Concerns Committee.
“Jan is the ‘burr under my saddle’ making sure I never forget the part-time members of our chapter,”?Engle said. “I’m grateful to her for keeping me on task.”
(Before his retirement from SUNY Farmingdale in 2003, Fayez Samuel was an academic delegate and a pioneer in the fight for the fair and equitable treatment of part-timers at SUNY. He is a past chair of the union’s statewide Part-time Concerns Committee. In 2006, UUP recognized Samuel with an award in his honor for his dedication and commitment to raising the consciousness of the difficult working conditions of part-timers. He was one of the three inaugural recipients.)
— Karen L. Mattison