How can UUP get younger faculty to become active in the union? That was the question UUP Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss put before academic delegates during the Spring DA.
Past underfunding of SUNY has exacerbated the problem, Floss said. “At various times, SUNY stopped hiring academics,” he said. “As a result, we don’t have a lot of mid-level people to move up.”
Floss said the union is doing what it can to get younger academics involved, ranging from leadership and tenure workshops to the Working Paper Series. A Task Force on New Academic Recruitment has been assembled and is working on the issue.
“We know that new academics are busier than ever,” said Laura Rhoads of Potsdam, task force chair. “So we’re looking at using new technology to connect with academics at a time that’s more convenient for them.”
There was no shortage of suggestions from the audience.
Knowing that younger academics can get frustrated rounding up the backing they need for their projects and research, Thomas Windt of Canton suggested the union could help. “We should help make it easier for new faculty to obtain the support and funding they need,” he said. “We hope they’ll say, ‘The union helped me. I’ll help the union.’”
Zhongchun Jiang of Cobleskill said his chapter has achieved some success approaching new academics.
“Our chapter has a lot of newer, younger academics who have not yet signed a membership card,” Jiang said. “We go out and talk to them, encouraging them to join and to get involved.”
Bruce Altschuler of Oswego suggested a similar grassroots effort: “It’s incumbent upon each of us to talk with new faculty and get them interested. If each of us activates a couple of members, we’ll be set.”
Geneseo Chapter President Margaret Stolee surprised her fellow academics with an approach her chapter has used with good success.
“We drew a large crowd of young members to retirement workshops,” she said. “We were surprised that so many people in their thirties would be interested in hearing about retirement plans.”
The five-member task force is working to present its report in June to the union’s statewide Executive Board. Task force members fully realize the importance of their mission.
“If we don’t get faculty involved in the union in their first five to 10 years, chances are they’ll never get involved,” said task force member Timothy Hoff of Albany.
— Donald Feldstein