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To the Point: Our survival is at stake

By William E. Scheuerman, UUP President

The presidential election is over. It didn’t go the way we wanted, but it’s over. So, let’s throw away the crying towels and move on. Our survival is at stake and if we don’t keep moving, fighting, and bobbing and weaving, we’ll be run over by an ideological freight train. If you think I’m exaggerating or trying to be funny, think again. You just need to look at the kind of higher education policies coming out of the federal government. I want you to take a good, long look … and then remember this basic fact: Unions are the only institutions with the power to stop or modify these policies.

Here are some of the proposals coming out of Washington. Are they scary? You tell me.

The Bush administration—backed by what it calls a political mandate and a Republican majority in Congress that conspicuously lacks traditional political moderates—is likely to act on many of the political proposals that threaten to bring federal political meddling into the sacred halls of the academy. For starters, look at the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The reauthorization has galvanized much debate on how best to punish students and those higher ed institutions that don’t conform to Congress’s political yardsticks. Pell grants, for instance, are again likely to remain at the same level, thereby encouraging students to take loans. But, if Congress has its way, students would get variable-interest rather than fixed-interest loans. That is, a student would have to pay more back as interest rates go up. So low-interest student loans aren’t low interest any more and banks pocket the difference. So what if the United States eventually lacks the educated labor force it needs to compete in a global economy. That’s not a concern now. In a world of Darwinian economics, bankers have lobbyists and make big campaign contributions; students don’t, so it’s pigs to the public trough and students, tough luck.

That’s one way that students would suffer. Here’s a good example of how institutions would feel the pain. Imagine a publicly funded institution that’s forced to raise tuition in response to a state budget cut. SUNY, you recall, did that after the University’s budget was chopped by $183.5 million two years ago. Without a large tuition increase, the University faced massive faculty layoffs, program cuts and the closing of doors on thousands of qualified students. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? But not to our elected leaders in Washington, who would prefer layoffs, program cuts and the denial of student access over a tuition increase. If the ideologues have their way, institutions that raise tuition would lose federal aid no matter what the circumstances behind the increase. I also want to point out the lack of discussion on a third funding option: adequate federal assistance to institutions of higher learning!

There’s more … and it doesn’t get better. Many of our elected leaders in Washington believe that the academy is dominated by left-leaning liberals who brainwash innocent students. Articles of faith are never a rational substitute for the facts. But in the best tradition of irrational behavior, 31 members of the U.S. House of Rep-resentatives have substituted their ideological beliefs for the facts by introducing a resolution that calls for all colleges and universities to adopt an Academic Bill of Rights. The title sounds good, until you look at it. In the name of ideological balance, the Academic Bill of Rights calls for political oversight of the curriculum, reading lists, selection of speakers and even classroom lectures.

In the past, only the political fringe discussed proposals such as the ones I’ve described. Past debates over the reauthorization of the HEA were generally nonpartisan discussions of how much the nation could afford to spend to help students and what the benefits of these expenditures were to the long-term interest of the country as a whole. But that’s not the case any more. We’re in a new epoch of extremist politics and everything we stand for is up for grabs. It’s up to unions like UUP to make sure that public higher education in the United States weathers these latest assaults.

Theme: Arts and Entertainment

Art may very well be our oldest expression of humanity. Before there were organized systems of government or settled societies, people around the world were creating—and leaving behind—art of all types. Carvings and paintings have been found in Europe that pre-date modern humans. Drama, dance and storytelling followed. Painting, sculpture and the decorative arts reached new heights in the Renaissance.

The role of higher education in the preservation and cultivation of the arts goes back hundreds of years. Universities have long been incubators of creativity, and SUNY is continuing that tradition.

The arts are flourishing at SUNY campuses across New York. Painters, sculptors and ceramicists are using their media for personal and even political expression. Graphic designers are making their mark on industrial design and commerce. Choreographers, musicians and dramatists are creating, conducting, playing and acting—and passing those talents along to a new generation.

There’s another story to the arts at SUNY, that of the professional faculty who manage the productions, sew the costumes, handle the lights and hammer together the stage sets.

“The UUP professionals in the arts are behind-the-scenes heroes and, without them, the show quite literally could not go on,” said UUP’s Vice President for Professionals John Marino. “Audiences don’t always see them, but they have critical roles, as sound technicians, technical directors and set designers, to name just a few of their specialties. We know how much students and academic faculty appreciate the talents and efforts of the professionals, and we hope that audiences also realize how important they are to a finished production.”

The arts at SUNY also perform a public service, noted UUP’s Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss.

“If you look at the reach of the arts programs at many of our campuses, you realize that, in a number of communities, SUNY is the main or sole source of art,” Floss said. “Concert halls and theaters, galleries and museums are open to the public. Our academic and professional faculty live as well as work in their campus towns and often get involved with the local arts scene. Students are inspired to carry on this tradition, by running campus radio stations that feature different types of music, or forming their own theater companies.

“The arts showcase what SUNY can do, but they also raise consciousness, foster dialogue and even provoke controversy,” Floss said. “And that’s good, because it means we’re a thinking society.”

UUP members from around the state talked to The Voice about what it means to have a career in the arts at SUNY. They described the excitement of seeing a former student on Broadway; the 18-hour days that end backstage with loading a moving van; the visual thrill of recognizing a student’s graphic design in a public place; and those occasional, unforgettable you-couldn’t-make-them-up moments that happen in live performance.

—Darryl McGrath

Artists combine creativity, teaching

In the golden age of patronage, artists in Europe 500 years ago vied for the attentions of wealthy sponsors whose financial backing provided them the freedom to produce their music, painting and sculpture.

Fast-forward to the 21st century, where circumstances have changed, but the most basic need of artists—the means to pursue their life’s work—remains the same. Wealthy individuals and families still help the arts to flourish, but so do museums, private foundations and … public higher education.

Artists who work as academic faculty at SUNY often combine the best of both worlds, by pursuing their art while remaining connected to their professional career off-campus. When artists are teaching and creating, instead of waiting tables or temping, their artwork has a better chance of flourishing and being passed along to the next generation. Hundreds of UUP members who work as academic faculty in the arts at SUNY have achieved this dream.

Warren Lehrer, the vice president for academics at SUNY Purchase and an associate professor of art and design, said the location of the college is a major advantage for working artists.

“It’s right outside of New York City,” said Lehrer, an award-winning book designer, author and graphic artist. “And one of the reasons I was attracted to Purchase is that the faculty are very actively engaged in being artists—they are known quantities and sometimes pioneers in their fields.”

UUP member Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, a professional director-choreographer and director of music theatre at SUNY Buffalo, travels around the country in her work, but still has a strong connection to Buffalo’s bustling theater district.

Her husband, Michael Formato—a UUP professional—is the production manager in the SUNY Buffalo department of theatre & dance, and the couple often work together on shows. It’s not unusual for Kurdziel-Formato to encounter a former student in a local professional show.

“I would say we have an incredibly close connection to the arts community in Buffalo,” she said.

Several arts programs at SUNY encourage students to incorporate other disciplines, such as languages, into their arts studies.

Five students from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam accompanied music faculty members last summer to Puebla, Mexico, where they combined intensive language instruction in Spanish with teaching at the Julian Hinojosa School, a residential elementary school for underprivileged children.

“We all learned a lot,” said Patricia Riley, a UUP member and an assistant professor of music education, who was one of two Crane faculty members to travel to Mexico. The program received an $8,000 Chancellor’s Grant for Internat-ionalization from SUNY, and students, as well as faculty, came home with a new appreciation for the benefits of learning about other cultures, Riley said.

“The value of a program like this comes from integrating the cultural aspects with teaching and learning,” she said.

At SUNY Fredonia, Karolyn Stonefelt—a UUP member and chair of the percussion faculty at the SUNY Fredonia School of Music—has seen a growing number of students follow her example of combining an artistic focus with other academic disciplines. Stonefelt spent a Fulbright Fellowship in Ghana from 1993 to 1994, an experience that broadened her already strong interests in anthropology and ethnomusicology—the study of the music of a particular region and its sociological and cultural implications.

At Fredonia, Stonefelt founded the African Drumming Ensemble, which allows students to explore the drumming patterns that have such a strong role in Ghanaian recreation and spiritual observations. The master drummer of the National Dance Ensemble of Ghana is a visiting scholar at the Fredonia campus, and some of the students participating in the ensemble have traveled to Ghana.

“We are opening their minds,” Stonefelt said of her students. “Now some of my students are double-majoring in international studies—that never happened before—and they’re studying languages.”

That theme of a practical application of the arts resonates through other programs at SUNY.

“This is what I call ‘The rubber meets the road’—you are using art in your profession,” said UUP member Russell Kahn, an associate professor in the department of humanities, communication and social sciences at SUNY Utica/Rome.

Students in the department can get a bachelor’s of science degree in professional and technical communication, or

a master’s of science degree in information design and technology, but whatever path they choose, they’re going to get a heavy emphasis on writing, as well as art, design and technology.

“We like to think that we create the whole package—that is, someone who can think visually as well as verbally,” said Kahn, who oversees the master’s program in information design and technology. “Students are very visual, and the writing is something they don’t want to focus on. But our point is you have to have the writing to be successful.”

Kahn takes personal satisfaction in seeing the majority of his students land good jobs in their field.

“Part of our mission is to give back to the community,” he said. “And I think these students are doing that in this program, and this program is doing that for these students.”

— Darryl McGrath

Professionals make sure the show does go on

What do you do when a baby elephant bolts off stage in the middle of a performance?

Act as if nothing happened and keep the show going smoothly, advises UUP member Elizabeth Silver, technical director at the Staller Center for the Arts at SUNY Stony Brook.

Although this sounds like a trick question from a job interview, the startling ad-libbed performance by the baby elephant actually occurred when Silver was on the job. A trainer waiting in the wings halted the runaway, and the audience apparently thought the elephant’s abrupt departure was part of the show.

“If we can keep the audience in the dark when things go wrong, then I’ve done my job,” Silver said.

The arts professionals at SUNY are the talented anomalies of the performance world. In a setting where most people thrive under the spotlight, the professionals are rarely seen on stage and actually try to deflect attention from themselves on the few occasions when they do go in front of the audience. Silver and her colleagues deliberately dress in head-to-toe black when they have to slip onto the stage to move a piano or otherwise assist a performer.

The professional’s work is often physical—Silver has spent many a late hour loading a moving van, so that a performance can head to its next venue—and the hours are brutal. A morning-to-midnight routine with few breaks is not unusual on show days. All the while, professionals are likely to be juggling unexpected technical problems, scheduling crises and a to-do list that keeps changing but rarely gets shorter.

Still, professionals say they relish their irreplaceable role in a performance—even if it is one that unfolds off stage. They were the kids who hung around the audio-visual department in high school, learned how to rig their own sound equipment at home and then discovered they could actually earn a living by having so much fun.

“I love my work,” said UUPer Michael Formato, production manager in the department of theatre & dance at SUNY Buffalo. “I get tired—physically tired—but I love my work. I’m very blessed in this way. I love the creative activity that I’m constantly around.”

Formato also loves the fact that he can share that enthusiasm at home. His wife, Lynne Kurdziel-Formato (see story at left), directs the music theater program at SUNY Buffalo and is an academic UUP member there.

Professionals also provide guidance to students, as faculty advisors or intern supervisors, often bringing their own perspectives and experiences to those tasks. David Barnett, a UUP member and the technical director in the SUNY Stony Brook theater department, is the faculty advisor to the “Pocket Theatre,” a student-operated drama club on campus. Barnett’s love of the theater started early—he worked as a professional stage hand when he was a Stony Brook undergraduate—and he’s a strong advocate for the arts in a university setting.

“We’re creative beings, we’re expressive,” Barnett said. “It’s fundamental to what we are as a society.”

And he’s encouraged about career prospects in the technical end of theater work.

“The entertainment industry is a tough industry but, from a technical standpoint, there’s always work,” said Barnett, who oversees the lights, scenery, sound systems and all other technical aspects of productions at Stony Brook.

Students also figure strongly into the operations of the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI), both as interns and audience members. All 30 NYSTI employees are UUP professionals and their audiences are mainly school children.

Visit the production areas of NYSTI’s Troy headquarters and you’ll see every aspect of a full-time, professional repertory company in action, one that is also charged with making a trip to the theater so enjoyable that the kids in the audience don’t think of it as the live classroom it is. Costumes, masks and period headgear spill out of storage boxes. Colorful lengths of fabric are laid out on the cutting table, awaiting their transformation into costumes. In the back of the auditorium, interns study the lighting and sound systems.

NYSTI fulfills a unique role, as a state-sponsored production company that incorporates lessons in history, social studies and critical thinking into its performances. The NYSTI members are very aware that the impression they make could convert a child to a theater lover for life, and it’s not difficult for them to convey an inspiring message from the stage.

“I love what I’m doing,” said John Romeo, the UUP chapter president at NYSTI and an actor with the company. Most actors suffer through regular periods of unemployment as each role ends and they either wait for another to begin or have to begin looking for work, Romeo said. But the NYSTI professionals always know that they’ll have that next assignment as the company moves through its season schedule.

“It’s amazing that we’re all able to work in theater here,” Romeo said. “And that’s what keeps you going.”

— Darryl McGrath

Capitol corner: UUP testifies on budget vetoes; gets ready for 2005

From developing a legislative agenda to delivering testimony, UUP has been busy this fall working to make sure SUNY receives sufficient funding to protect members’ jobs and provide services students need.

The state Assembly Higher Education Committee held hearings around the state to determine the impact of the governor’s vetoes on higher education, and UUP was represented at each venue. Statewide Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss testified in Rochester and chapter presidents Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh; David Butler, Canton; Edward Drummond, Stony Brook HSC; Candelario Franco, Old Westbury; Glenn McNitt, New Paltz; and Michael Smiles, Farmingdale, presented testimony in their respective regions.

Lawmakers in late August passed a budget that added much-needed funding for SUNY, including: $50 million for full-time faculty and other operational needs; $2.42 million for the Technology Sector Colleges to facilitate development of four-year programs pursuant to an unfunded mandate of the SUNY Board of Trustees; and $820,000 for the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). The governor vetoed the funding for the technology colleges and EOPs, and effectively vetoed two-thirds of the $50 million by capping its spending.      

All the UUP members spoke about the statewide effect of the vetoes.

“The governor ... chose to veto each of these important lines in the Legislature’s budget, once again making the state university system struggle to meet its needs and maintain its reputation as a leader in quality public higher education,” Drummond said.

Regarding the appropriation cap, he testified: “This limitation on expenditures will likely lead to layoffs at some SUNY campuses. ...”

The UUPers also addressed the fiscal hardships of the vetoes on their own campuses, campus types and programs. For example, to develop baccalaureate programs, the technology colleges “need increased staffing of academic and professional faculty to assist in program development, teaching and student services,” Butler said.

“Recent flat SUNY budgets, however, which do not allow for the hiring of more full-time faculty, have put tremendous demands upon existing faculty and hindered this process,” he continued. 

Without the $2.42 million the Legislature added for the technology colleges, those colleges “cannot meet the standards necessary to be competitive with other four-year institutions,” Butler said. “An override of the governor’s veto is necessary to supply this critical funding to the technology colleges to meet the requirements of the new four-year programs.”

Franco testified about the EOP: “EOP … provides underprivileged students with a much-needed opportunity to further their education, and is critical for maintaining access to the University ... enabling many New Yorkers to pursue their dreams. These institutions also play an important role in providing local businesses and industry with a well-educated, trained and skilled workforce, which is vital for our state’s economic recovery.”

Floss also presented UUP testimony about University funding at a late October public hearing of the SUNY trustees.

“UUP again calls on the board to step forward and request an increase in funding for the SUNY system. ...,” he said. “Simply put, it is your responsibility as trustees to ensure that SUNY becomes a top priority in the state’s budget process.”

Earlier in the fall, the union’s Legislation and Political Action committees—under the leadership of McNitt and Thomas Tucker of SUNY Buffalo, respectively—met in Albany to draft UUP’s annual legislative agenda and to discuss nominations for the union’s 2005 Friend of SUNY Award.

The UUP Executive Board, at its November meeting, approved the committees’ actions, adopting the union’s 2005 legislative program.

The board also accepted the group’s recommendation to award the SUNY Student Assembly for its efforts to increase voter registration across the University’s campuses through the nonpartisan, collaborative SUNY Rock the Vote campaign. The annual Friend of SUNY Award is slated for presentation next month during the 2005 Winter Delegate Assembly in Albany.

—Lisa Feldman Reich

Hobart set to retire as NYSUT president

NYSUT President Thomas Hobart announced early last month that he will not seek re-election when his term expires April 9. NYSUT is UUP’s statewide affiliate.

Hobart, below, has served as NYSUT president since the union’s inception in 1973. Under his leadership, NYSUT has grown from 100,000 members in 1973 to more than 500,000 members today. The union represents 95 percent of the classroom teachers in New York state, along with tens of thousands of school-related professionals, the academic and professional faculty of SUNY and CUNY, and thousands of health care workers across the state.

“The greatest honor in my life has been to serve as president of NYSUT,” Hobart said. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’ve grown strong, stayed united, and we’re ready for the future.”

UUP President William Scheuerman, a member of the NYSUT Executive Committee, said Hobart turned NYSUT into a “powerful advocate of our interests throughout New York state and nationally.”

“Tom understands that there’s strength in numbers and has operated on the union principle that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all,’” Scheuerman added. “His work has helped knit NYSUT’s diverse constituencies into a highly unified organization with the clear goal of representing all members as effectively as possible.”

Delegates to the NYSUT Represen-tative Assembly will elect Hobart’s successor when they convene in New York City next April 7-9. Scheuerman said UUP will honor Hobart at its Spring Delegate Assembly, May 6-7, in Albany.

—Frank Maurizio

ADA: UUP finds many campuses not in compliance

Disabled students and faculty find it difficult, if not impossible, to perform efficiently and effectively at many SUNY campuses, according to a survey by UUP’s Disability Rights and Concerns Committee.

The committee surveyed 234 UUP members with disabilities during the 2000-01 academic year to assess SUNY’s compliance with the federal American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA, which became effective in July 1992, prohibits discrimination in employment and requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodation” to disabled workers. It also requires state and local governments to give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all programs, services and activities; to provide access to all buildings; and to communicate effectively with people who have hearing, vision or speech impairments.

UUP found that, despite some improvements since the ADA became law, too many of SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses don’t fully comply.

“SUNY has made some progress in achieving accessible campuses, but people with disabilities still report many places and programs that are difficult or impossible to access,” said UUP President William Scheuerman. “The general picture is very uneven.”

Committee Co-chair Sara “Sally” Knapp of SUNY Albany added: “Our report reflects the concerns of faculty and professional employees, but has much wider implications in terms of the increasing number of students with disabilities who want and should be able to attend SUNY.”

Knapp said that, while SUNY has been successful in making buildings accessible to people with disabilities, safety and barrier deficiencies could still be identified on 60 percent of its campuses. Common infrastructure problems included poor maintenance of floor and road surfaces; lack of or poorly designed sidewalks; insufficient handicapped and van-accessible parking; presence of chemicals and allergens in the air; inadequate walkways, ramps, curb cuts, audible walk/light systems and entrances; lack of accessible restrooms; and the absence of elevators.

Deficiencies in the classroom included the lack of listening and amplification devices and lack of Web accessibility for the visually impaired. Many building emergency evacuation plans also fail to account for disabled students and employees, the survey found.

“There is a serious lack of needed accommodations for disabled employees at SUNY,” said committee Co-chair David Dubois of Empire State College. “The governor and state Legislature need to provide the financial resources SUNY needs to address these deficiencies.”

In response to the committee’s work, SUNY System Administration said the University had moved even closer to full compliance since the survey was conducted.

Kenneth Kallio of SUNY Geneseo, the UUP Executive Board’s liaison to the Disability Rights and Concerns Commit-tee, said the survey findings should be of concern to all UUPers.

“Disabilities can strike anyone and at any time,” Kallio said. “Many employees with disabilities did not have them when they were first hired. This is an issue that has relevance for all of us.”

Based on its findings, the committee has urged UUP chapters to create local committees to work with campus administrations, the faculty senates and disabled members of the SUNY community to fully comply with the ADA.

Scheuerman said UUP will also press the SUNY Board of Trustees and chancellor to fund a professional evaluation of all University facilities and to provide the money needed to implement the ensuing recommendations.

The committee report is on the UUP Web site: www.uupinfo.org.

—Frank Maurizio

NYSUT suit forces $29 million payout

GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of the drug Augmentin, has agreed to pay up to $29 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by UUP’s state affiliate, NYSUT, and other plaintiffs.

“This should send a loud, clear message to the prescription drug industry,” said NYSUT President Thomas Hobart. “The tide is turning against pharmaceutical companies that choose profits over people,” added NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, chair of the state AFL-CIO’s Task Force on Prescription Drugs.

The class-action suit—which NYSUT joined in September 2002 to encourage competition in the prescription drug market—alleged GlaxoSmithKline illegally maintained a monopoly over Augmentin, an oral antibacterial commonly prescribed for ear infections in children. Without a generic equivalent, consumers were forced to pay more for the drug.

Most UUPers are not affected by the suit, but those who do not get their prescription drugs through New York state may be eligible to file claims with the settlement fund. All proof-of-claim forms must be postmarked no later than Dec. 16. To obtain a claims form, call (866) 404-0129; write Augmentin End-Payer Settlement Administration, c/o Complete Claim Solutions, P.O. Box 24771, West Palm Beach, Fla., 33416; or visit the Web at www.augmentinlitigation.com.

Late last year, UUP—along with other state unions—filed suit against Express Scripts Inc. (ESI), the pharmacy benefits management company that manages the state’s prescription drug plan. The suit—still in the courts—alleges ESI managed the plan for its own financial benefit and that plan participants were not realizing the savings the company was negotiating.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently sued ESI, saying the company was conducting elaborate schemes that inflated by millions of dollars the costs of prescription drugs to the state’s largest employee health plan, the Empire Plan.

UUP-to-date

UUP Working Paper Series calls for submissions

UUP is launching a new initiative designed to inspire and share good ideas and good writing.

The UUP Working Paper Series, the brainchild of Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss, is seeking its first submissions. It is open to both academic and professional SUNY faculty.

“Contributors can write on any subject in any discipline,” Floss explained. “We’re looking to increase discussion among our campuses and to help our junior faculty colleagues in the tenure process.”

The papers submitted to the series will go through a peer review process; reviewers’ comments will be shared with the authors, who will also retain the copyright to their submissions.

“Submitting a paper to us will not preclude the authors from publishing them in academic journals or other publications,” Floss said.

Accepted submissions will be posted on the UUP Web site and sent to UUP’s 33 chapters and all SUNY libraries.

Papers should be e-mailed to Floss—in Microsoft Word format—at ffloss@uupmail.org. UUPers interested in serving on peer review panels should also contact Floss at that e-mail address.

—Frank Maurizio

Chicago faculty settle three-week strike

The 1,300 faculty and professional staff and the 60,000 students of the City Col-leges of Chicago were back in class the first week of November after the union and administration met face-to-face for the first time in months of negotiations, settling their differences in nine hours.

Both sides credited the intercession of the Rev. James Meeks, an Illinois state senator, in bringing them to the table. The Rev. Meeks intervened at the request of students, who have been organized and vocal in supporting their teachers.

The new agreement was ratified at a Nov. 7 meeting, where 95 percent of union members present approved the agreement. The four-year contract provides 4 percent salary increases each year and keeps family health insurance cost increases to $750 a year. While the administration wanted to increase the workload for full-time faculty from 12 to 15 classroom hours per semester, that discussion is off the table until the next round of contract negotiations.

Talks came to a bitter impasse this fall after 14 months of negotiations. The parties sought federal mediation, which began in September, but produced little movement. In early November, faculty and professional staff and students tried to gain admittance to an open meeting of the City Colleges Board of Trustees. Most were barred from the meeting and a student was arrested. Addressing the board, Cook County College Teacher Union President Perry Buckley complained that the union had been forced to negotiate only with outside lawyers who do not have authority to make final decisions. He made a direct offer to the board to “split the difference” between board and union proposals.

That offer, along with the pressure applied by students, apparently made headway with the board. After the contract was ratified, Buckley thanked the Rev. Meeks and the Rev. Albert Tyson, a City Colleges board member, for their assistance in bringing board Chair James Tyree and City Colleges Chancellor Wayne Watson to the table.

The settlement covers four separate agreements for the 550 full-time faculty, 200 full-time and 150 part-time nonteaching professionals, and 500 campus police officers.

—AFT staff and Chicago Tribune

AFL-CIO: Unionists are urged to buy American

When consumers buy union-made products, they’re buying quality and taking a stand for workers’ rights.

Look for the “Union Label” on a product, the “Union Shop Card” or the “Union Store Card” placard in a place of business, or the “Service But-ton” worn or exhibited to solicit patronage for union establishments or union members. These symbols demonstrate that the union employees who make the product or provide the service are skilled workers who are treated fairly and decently by their employers. It’s a “win-win” for everyone—labor, management, consumers and the community, where the economy benefits from the paychecks and the taxes of well-paid workers.

UUPers can shop online for union-made goods and services at www.ShopUnionMade.com.

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO has endorsed dozens of international boycotts. For a complete list and background information on each, go to the AFL-CIO’s

Union Label & Service Trades Department Web site at www.unionlabel.org or link to the AFL-CIO from UUP’s Web site, www.uupinfo.org. Among those on the Don’t Buy List are:

Entertainment & Recreation—Big League Theatricals national tour of “Miss Saigon,” American Federation of Musicians/Actors’ Equity Association; and Echo-Star Dish Network Satellite TV Service, Communications Workers of America.

Food & Beverages—Algood Foods, Reeses peanut butter, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT); and Diamond Walnut Co., canned and bagged walnuts and walnut pieces, IBT.

Transportation & Travel—Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo, International Union of Operating Engineers; Best Western-Grosvenor Resort in Buena Vista, Fla., Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE); Four Points by Sheraton, Waterbury, Conn., HERE; Grand Hotel in Minneapolis, HERE; New Otani Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, HERE; Turtle Bay hotel and golf resort in Kahuku, Hawaii, owned by Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, and managed by Benchmark Hospitality, Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees/HERE.

Others—R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. cigarettes: Best Value, Camel, Century, Doral, Eclipse, Magna, Monarch, More, Now, Salem, Sterling, Vantage and Winston, plus all Moonlight Tobacco products, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union; Vance Security, and the Vance Workforce Staffing Team, which is dedicated to strike-breaking, Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and Wackenhut Security, SEIU.

AFT Report: Treat grad employees better

AFT recently released a report that calls for a coordinated program to improve the financial and professional circumstances of graduate employees working at institutions of higher education across the country.

Recognition and Respect: Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Graduate Employees offers suggestions on compensation, fair employment practices, professional responsibility and rights for graduate employees in their union. The report was released Oct. 8 at a Columbus, Ohio, news conference, where graduate employees announced plans to organize a union at Ohio State University.

“Universities treat graduate employees like teachers and researchers when there is work to be done and as second-class citizens when it comes to compensation and fair treatment,” said AFT President Edward McElroy.

The AFT represents more college and university faculty than any other union and was the first to organize graduate employees.

The report is available online at http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/higher_ed/grad_employee_standards.pdf.

UUPeople: Would you like fries with that fill-up?

Leftover fast-food cooking oil helps UUP member beat gas-pump sticker shock

Joseph Rappa doesn’t mind passersby sniffing the air when the engine of his 1996 Dodge diesel pickup truck is idling. He knows the exhaust has a familiar odor to those who worked their way through college behind a fast-food counter.

Nor does he mind the friends who tease him about driving a Fryolator on four wheels.

These days, with prices for gasoline and diesel at the pumps exceeding $2 a gallon, Rappa is likely to have the last laugh. The homemade biodiesel fuel he pours into his truck’s diesel tank for his 228-mile roundtrip daily commute from the town of Mexico, outside of Oswego, to the Canton campus, costs about 50 cents a gallon.

Fat—either from animal or plant products—is a key component of biodiesel fuel, and leftover french fry oil from a fast-food restaurant is cheap and plentiful. Rappa is known to several restaurateurs around his hometown as the guy with a ready supply of empty 35-gallon plastic vegetable-oil jugs, and a willingness to take what would otherwise be a waste product off their hands. The finished mixture has a bouquet of french fries: a familiar, even pleasant aroma, but so unexpected coming out of a tailpipe that the uninitiated tend to pause, inhale and then do a double take as they walk by a vehicle using biodiesel fuel.

The other ingredients of biodiesel are methanol and lye which, when mixed with the fat, form a liquid that has the consistency of bottled salad dressing and is “chemically so close to diesel fuel that you can pour it in your tank and run it,” Rappa explained. Many biodiesel advocates like Rappa mix their fuel in their garage at home, although Rappa understands why first-timers might feel some trepidation. As he put it, recalling the first time he fueled up with biodiesel, “You pay $20,000 for a car and you’ve just poured something in the tank that you made in your garage.”

Rappa’s work with biodiesel fuel has gained him the respect of his colleagues at SUNY Canton—where he is an instructor of automotive technology and a UUP member—and the attention of outside experts in alternative energy. He’s in demand as a speaker on biodiesel fuel, and his research and tests involving biodiesel are often cited on Internet bulletin boards devoted to the topic, where many of the other contributors are engineers. But Rappa deflects discussion of how much he can show others as an acknowledged expert on biodiesel and instead focuses on how much others can teach him.

“You start hanging out with engineers, you get humbled fast,” he said in a recent interview. “The best thing that biodiesel fuel has done for me—other than 50-cents-a-gallon fuel for my car—is that it’s put me in touch with some incredibly smart people.”

Biodiesel fuel is available commercially, but mixing your own is part of the fun for many people. Recipes for biodiesel fuel abound on the Internet, as do discussions by biodiesel devotees who love the idea of beating the oil companies at their own game. Rappa says his trusty Dodge pickup, with more than 110,000 miles, runs great on biodiesel.

As conventional fuel prices have gone up, more motorists are thinking like Rappa. An Associated Press article that came out last May, just as pump prices started to spike, described the growing number of people relying on vegetable oil as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. Many of these drivers have installed converter kits in their cars that allow them to switch back and forth between vegetable oil and traditional diesel fuel. Rappa runs his other car—a 1978 Mercedes Benz—with a vegetable-oil converter kit that he built.

Given that recycled vegetable oil clearly has a valid place in current automotive technology, why hasn’t the world converted to biodiesel? First, and most importantly, Rappa points out that there isn’t enough waste vegetable oil in the world to meet the demands of a whole planet. And while biodiesel reduces soot emissions by up to 70 percent, it may actually increase smog-forming emissions “enough to make it an issue for some people,” Rappa said.

“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t see that biodiesel will ever be a replacement for diesel,” he said. “It will be an additive for diesel, or you’ll see biodiesel blended in larger amounts with diesel.” Several states already mandate biodiesel as an additive to diesel, he noted.

“It’s not the perfect fuel,” Rappa said. “It’s a neat additive.”

A self-described tinkerer, Rappa was the kind of kid who was always taking things apart to see how they worked, and then putting them back together again—often with some improvements.

“You know how some people are born knowing something? They don’t have to learn it? I’m that way with electricity,” Rappa explained. “Tinkering around, messing around with machines—that was my mindset; I’ve never stopped.”

As a child, he once figured out a way to run his battery-operated toy helicopter by rigging the batteries to an electric toy train transformer, thereby indefinitely extending the lifespan of the batteries. It’s not surprising that this home inventor became an auto mechanic, and even less surprising that he progressed to a career with an automotive company that produced high-end diagnostic equipment, given his fascination with machines. He joined the Canton faculty almost six years ago, taking a cut in pay, but gaining a love of teaching and greater opportunities to pursue creative outlets for his inventive mind.

Now, there are discussions under way between Rappa and the Canton administration about a larger role for biodiesel fuel on the campus. The school, as part of its effort to rely more on alternative and renewable energy sources, has just bought a processor to produce its own biodiesel for diesel-powered campus vehicles and equipment. The school cafeteria is supplying the used vegetable oil. The Canton administration is also speaking to Rappa about greater exploration of biodiesel fuel, through research projects and in the classroom, and Rappa is applying for research grants that would allow him to take his work with biodiesel to a more advanced level.

“It’s something that our whole nation is going to have to take a look at—alternative energy sources—and Joe is running his vehicles on this,” said Arthur Hurlbut, a former SUNY Canton UUP member who became dean of engineering technology there. “This is good attention for us. He can field questions; he knows the stuff inside out, in layman’s terms. He is an excellent mechanic—really an asset to the school.”

And he is patient. Rappa knows it may be years before biodiesel fuel moves beyond its reputation as a hobby for Internet chemistry-class groupies and into the mainstream. That’s fine by Rappa; he has plenty to keep himself busy while he waits for biodiesel fuel to have its day.

“There’s not enough time for me to learn all the stuff I want to learn,” he said.

—Darryl McGrath

UUPer in the news: Oswego biology professor earns top honor

SUNY Oswego biology professor James Seago recently joined elite scholars in his field when the Botanical Society of America (BSA) awarded him its highest honor. Past recipients of the award include winners of the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science.

The merit award recognizes “outstanding contributions to botanical science.” The society’s awards committee wrote that, while Seago’s research is “solid and substantial,” he was honored above all for fostering undergraduate research and encouraging talented students to pursue careers in botany.

“If students do not enter botany, the field will wither away,” the committee wrote. Seago “has made remarkable and long-standing contributions to the flow of students into our discipline. He has the ability to spot interest and aptitude, to involve students in research and, thus, to nurture their ability and interest.”

The committee noted that, in the last 30 years, Seago on many occasions has co-authored papers with students. At last year’s BSA meeting, for example, three recent graduates presented a paper co-authored with Seago.

One of the first students to study with Seago was Joe Armstrong, a 1970 graduate who is now a professor at Illinois State University.

“It is notable that this is the first time the award has gone to someone whose career was spent at an undergraduate college,” Armstrong said. “No one can find another comparable-sized school that has produced so many botanists.”

Benefits

Choosing a health plan: It may be one of the most important decisions you make this year

It’s that time of year when you have to decide whether to change health care plans. The annual Option Transfer Period allows you to change your health insurance for the next calendar year. The Option Transfer Period deadline is Friday, Dec. 17.

In order to choose the plan that is right for you, take the time to assess lifestyle, health, budget and benefit preferences for you and your family. Once you have assessed your medical needs and resources, you should review the available information on all of the plans offered under the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP). You may obtain this information by calling (800) 833-4344 or visiting the Web at www.cs.state.ny.us.

How to Compare Health Plans

After you have reviewed what benefits are available and decided which are important to you, it’s time to compare the plans. You should review costs, services offered, choice of providers, location and quality.

Cost: Create a chart to compare costs among the plans you are considering.

Quality—Empire Plan: The state Department of Civil Service administers the plan and closely monitors the performance of the insurance carriers. The carriers provide the necessary expertise to credential the providers and manage the provider networks. The plan also provides specialty programs. No specific quality assessments are available for the Empire Plan.

Quality—HMOs: Many HMOs have attempted to measure quality through patient-satisfaction surveys or claims data. Listed are a few tools currently available for measuring the quality of HMOs: National Committee of Quality Assurance, (800) 839-6487, www.ncqa.org; state Department of Health, (800) 206-8125, www.health.state.ny.us; and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, (630) 792-5800, www.jcaho.org.

Services: What services are limited or not covered? Is there a good match between what is provided and what you need?

Choice: What doctors, hospitals and other medical providers are part of the plan? Are there enough of the kinds of doctors you want to see? Do you need to choose a primary care doctor? If you want to see a specialist, can you refer yourself or must your primary care doctor refer you? Do you need approval from the plan before going into the hospital or getting specialty care?

Location: Where will you go for care? Are these places near where you work or live? How does the plan handle care when you are away from home?

Letter to the Editor: Another perspective of AFL-CIO President Meany

To the Editor:

When I read Irwin Yellowitz’s article on George Meany in The Voice (September 2004), I wondered if this was the same George Meany, inset, whose record I knew. Yes, in the 1930s Meany, the pragmatist, had indeed been a tough negotiator, credited with many improvements in “bread-and-butter” issues. But more critically, Meany’s post-World War II total acceptance of Cold War ideology and anti-progressivism opened the way to the abandonment of the militancy of the AFL-CIO and the eventual weakening of the labor movement, a weakness that is apparent today.

Buying into the extreme anti-communism of the government and Sen. Joe McCarthy, Meany purged some entire unions from the AFL-CIO, as well as thousands of militants—communists, progressives, just plain activists—thereby depriving the labor movement of its most vigorous members. Meany’s AFL-CIO did not even defend the many union workers and intellectuals who were fired and blacklisted, victims of the McCarthyism of the period. Moreover, by attaching itself so concretely to the Cold War ideology and fearful of being labeled “red,” the AFL-CIO had to swallow much anti-union legislation, such as the Taft-Hartley Act and the various state right-to-work laws. Meany’s tepid or nonsupport of civil rights activists—mentioned by Yellow-itz—prevented him from encouraging unions to admit minority workers, though its most catastrophic effect was the failure to organize the South when unionized New England mills and Midwestern auto and steel factories shifted there.

Nor did Meany stop at weakening the U.S. movement. In Europe, the AFL-CIO funneled money from the CIA to the dissident unions in France and Italy (see State Department documents in the National Archives) set up to split the national labor movements that had unified in the fight against fascism. The result was a weakened and disunited labor movement, rife with interunion animosity and 50 years of right-wing governments.

There are many factors, including the exportation of union jobs, which contribute to the current numerical and political weakness of organized labor, but in addition to Meany’s traditional craft-union mentality, his wholesale swallowing of the Cold War anti-progressive ideology is certainly one reason the AFL-CIO has failed to have enough strength to fight these trends.

The Last Word

Thanks, but no thanks: Cortland UUPers battle against ‘Invasion of the Wal-Mart’

I was born to shop, but not at Wal-Mart. Not at Wal-Mart since UUP, NYSUT and the AFT all have passed resolutions condemning the biggest conglomerate retailer in the immediate world for:

—consistently violating the spirit and the letter of the National Labor Relations Act;

— continuing pressure on its suppliers, which has contributed to decline of unions and worldwide exploitation of sweatshop labor;

— entering saturated retail markets, forcing a race to the bottom in wage and benefit policies and then spending millions in advertising, telling the public how much good they do;

—being sued in the largest sex discrimination suit in the U.S. On average, women earn $6.10 per hour—or $12,688 per year—if permitted to work full-time, putting their families below the poverty level;

—violating the Clean Water Act at 24 sites in nine states (twice in three years) for failing to manage storm-water runoff, in some cases contaminating surrounding bodies of water; and

— endangering the entire state of Vermont because Wal-Mart plans to erect seven supercenters. The company was cited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation for this intrusion, among other things.

A Web site launched this month—www.walmartcostsyou.com—describes how Wal-Mart policies force its employees to turn to taxpayer-funded public programs for their health care; violates workers’ rights; and drains community coffers. Even as Wal-Mart workers and consumers pay the price at Wal-Mart, five descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton were recently listed among the nation’s top 10 billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. For more information, go to www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/ ns10052004.cfm?RenderForPrint=1

Now, Wal-Mart wants to build a supercenter to replace the existing Wal-Mart in Cortland on the site of the Polo Fields on Route 13 just south of the K-Mart shopping center. The company has plans for a “big box” center of more than 200,000 square feet and parking spaces for more than 1,000 cars. That field is situated over the last remaining sole source aquifer in Cortland County.

No issue is more important to the health and well-being of a community than its water supply. Given the history of Wal-Mart’s blatant disregard for the environment and its callous failure to protect groundwater sources, it would be a potential disaster if Wal-Mart were permitted to continue with its proposed project.

Right now, the company has a proposal in front of the Cortlandville Town Planning Board and, ultimately, the Town Board itself, which would require zoning changes and conditional permits.

The Committee for Aquifer Protection and Employment (CAPE) is actively involved in the fight to preserve Cortland’s water supply. CAPE has received small grants from UUP to continue its work. Many members of the group are your colleagues and friends.

We welcome your help in protecting our communities from the Invasion of the Wal-Mart.

(D. Jo Schaffer is a retired professional in art and art history at SUNY Cortland. She continues to serve UUP as a delegate and as an elected member to the statewide Committee on Active Retired Membership.)