UUP Press Releases
CONTACT: Denyce Duncan Lacy or Don Feldstein at (518) 640-6600
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 11, 2008
UUP Delegates elect Smith statewide president
Representatives to the United University Professions 2008 Winter Delegate Assembly elected Phillip H. Smith, Ph.D., as the union’s statewide president in a special election in Albany on Saturday, February 9. Smith is a professor of cell and developmental biology from Upstate Medical University Hospital in Syracuse and a long-time UUP leader at the statewide and local union levels. The Delegate Assembly is the policy-making body of the 34,000-plus-member union that represents academic and professional faculty of the State University of New York.
“I am honored by the faith the delegates have placed in me to lead this great union,” Smith said. “I’m ready and eager to get to work on developing the skills of our new UUP leaders, strengthening our UUP chapters and continuing to advocate for the resources SUNY needs to be the greatest public university in the nation.”
UUP conducted the special election to fill the remaining term of office of William E. Scheuerman who resigned on Nov. 30, 2007 to become president of the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. Scheuerman’s term ends May 31, 2009. Smith is on leave from his faculty position at Upstate Medical to serve as statewide UUP President.
Smith previously served UUP as statewide Vice President for Academics from 2000 to 2004 and as the union's chief negotiator for the 2003-2007contract talks. He also served as President and Grievance Officer for the Upstate Medical University Hospital chapter.
Frederick Floss, Ph.D., who had served as acting UUP president since Scheuerman’s departure, returns to his previous elective office as UUP’s statewide Vice President for Academics.
UUP represents more then 34,000 academic and professional faculty on 29 New York State-operated campuses and is an affiliate of New York State United Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the AFL-CIO.
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