AAUP meets on SUNY campus for first time in 30 years

Cooperation was the theme as members of UUP and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) gathered recently for the AAUP New York State Conference’s fall executive committee meeting on the SUNY Albany campus.

The meeting marked the first time in 30 years that AAUP has met on a SUNY campus. SUNY has been under national AAUP censure since 1973 over the downsizing of faculty, but UUP encouraged the AAUP leadership to hold its fall executive committee meeting at SUNY.

“Due to the persuasion of UUP leadership, we were able to convince AAUP that the censure was aimed at the administration,” said UUP Vice President for Academics Phillip Smith, who attended the Oct. 25-26 meeting. “By staying away, they were really punishing the faculty.”

UUP holds 1,000 AAUP memberships, and the bond forged three years ago between the union and AAUP has grown steadily.

“The relationship has been very fruitful for us,” said Francis Higman, president of the AAUP New York State Conference.

Two UUP members are on the New York State Conference Executive Committee: Smith, who heads the SUNY Council, and Patricia Bentley of SUNY Plattsburgh, who chairs the Committee on the Status of Women in the Academic Profession. Smith was also recently named to the national Committee on Teaching, Research and Publication. Bentley is a member of the national Government Relations Committee and is running for a seat on the AAUP National Council.

Several other UUPers are members of AAUP committees in the New York Conference. And, former statewide UUP Vice President for Professionals Thomas Matthews helped to develop AAUP’s “Statement on Academic Professionals.”

“We’re pleased to be associated with an organization that has championed academic goals, and especially academic freedom, for nearly a century,” Smith said.

The 20 conference attendees heard guest speakers address two topics of interest to UUP members.

Flo Hatcher, executive director of the AAUP Connecticut State Conference, talked about the growing number of part-time faculty members and issues affecting them.

“The latest numbers indicate that almost 60 percent of new hires are off the tenure track,” said Hatcher, who chairs the national AAUP Committee on Part-Time and Non-Tenure-Track Appointments. “There are millions of us, I would say, who are without any full-time health care.”

Despite their long hours and often low pay, faculty members hired off the tenure track — “contingent” employees, as Hatcher called them — are often passed over for permanent, tenure-track openings.

“The longer you’re contingent, the less opportunity there will be for full-time employment,” she said. “We need to convert more of those part-time contingent positions into full-time hires.”

UUP Director of Member Benefits and Services Gail Maloy spoke about the changing health market and the increasingly aggressive marketing of prescription drugs. She warned that prescription co-pays might eventually vary according to the type of drug being used, resulting in a small number of people paying disproportionately high prescription costs.

“I think that’s a scary road for us to go down, when you start basing the co-pay on the disease or the diagnosis,” Maloy said.

— Darryl McGrath