UUP Press Releases

CONTACT: Denyce Duncan Lacy or Don Feldstein at (518) 640-6600
Lacy’s cell number is (518) 265-3114

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE:
Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005

UUP unveils legislative priorities, meets with key lawmakers

Today, legislative leaders will address United University Professions (UUP) President William Scheuerman and dozens of other UUP members during the union’s Legislative Luncheon in The Well of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.

The annual event will begin at noon and is slated to run until 1:30 p.m.

Among those scheduled to speakare: Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), deputy majority leader for legislative operations; Assemblyman Paul Tokasz (D-Buffalo), Assembly majority leader; Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Selden), chair, Senate Higher Education Committee; Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari (D-Cohoes), chair, Assembly Higher Education Committee; and ranking Higher Education Committee members Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) and Assemblyman Joel Miller (R-Poughkeepsie).

UUP President William Scheuerman will also outline the union’s legislative priorities.

“SUNY says it needs $85 million to meet its operational costs,” Scheuerman said. “If those funds are not available in public dollars, students and faculty will be hurting.”

“We are concerned that without sufficient public funding, SUNY campuses will have to lay off faculty, cut programs and cut the quality of a SUNY education,” Scheuerman added.  “We’re asking lawmakers to make a commitment to continue to invest in SUNY, to ensure that SUNY remains a high quality university system that is accessible to all New Yorkers.”

UUP’s 2005 legislative program seeks the following investments in SUNY for the state to keep its promise of offering a high quality, accessible, affordable public higher education to generations of New Yorkers:

• more full-time faculty;

• adequate funding to safeguard access and quality; and,
  
  
• additional resources for SUNY health science centers and the New York State Theatre Institute.

UUP will also tell state lawmakers that the union opposes the following proposals in the 2005-06 Executive Budget:

• cuts to Medicaid funding and the Educational Opportunity Program;
  
  
• 0.7 percent tax on gross hospital revenues; and,
  
  
• the plan to privatize the SU NY hospitals.

 

UUP represents more then 34,000 academic and professional faculty on 29 New York State-operated campuses, and is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).    

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