United University Professions
2008 Legislative Agenda

Budget Priorities

Restore Full-Time Academic and Professional Faculty Staffing.
• Provide funding for at least 70 percent full-time academic and professional faculty at each campus.
• Provide part-time faculty the opportunity for full-time positions through additional equity allocations to each campus.

Eliminate the State Funding Crisis that Threatens the Vitality and Integrity of SUNY’s Hospitals and Health Science Centers.
• Protect SUNY hospitals from privatization.
• Resolve the state-imposed fiscal crisis at the teaching hospitals with a long-term solution that protects programs, jobs, and the public health mission of the hospitals.
• Increase state support to the SUNY Health Science Centers, health science and health-related programs, and other health-related institutions throughout the SUNY system.
• Establish a State University Hospital in Buffalo.

Invest in Campus Needs to Safeguard Access, Quality, Safety, and Programs that Promote Student Success.
• Provide funding for enrollment growth at state-operated campuses.
• Invest in the Technology Sector campuses as they transition to four-year status.
• Fund infrastructure improvements within SUNY, including libraries, laboratories, and information technologies.
• Fully fund the SUNY Opportunity Programs, EOP and EOC.
• Solve the remaining fiscal uncertainties at NYSTI by returning members of the NYS Theatre Institute to 12-month status.

Fully Fund SUNY’s Multi-Cultural Initiatives, Especially the Office for Diversity and Educational Equity and its Programs.

Legislative Priorities

Support Equity for UUP Members and Retirees
• Provide unemployment insurance for part-timers.
• Pass the Fair Pay Bill.
• Permanently prohibit public employers from diminishing health insurance benefits to SUNY retirees.
• Support legislation to make Research Foundation Employees public employees.
• Restore Public Employee Rights by Supporting Sovereign Immunity Legislation.

Support Legislation protecting SUNY Faculty and Students

• Incorporate SUNY’s Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs) and the Office of Diversity and Educational Equity, bringing them under Education Law.

• Support Comprehensive Campus Security Legislation that Ensures the Input of SUNY Faculty and Staff in its Development and Implementation.

Enact Socially Responsible Initiatives

• Support Paid Family Medical Leave to All New Yorkers.
• Support Health Care for All New Yorkers.