Scheuerman had asserted that the shortfall actually discloses a long-time structural deficit built into the system by SUNY's continued transfers of revenue from the teaching hospitals to academic programs at the campuses. "Second," the testimony contin ued, "UUP adamantly opposes any attempt to bridge this gap - with layoffs or program cuts. Students and patients must not be penalized; we will do everything in our power to protect the academic campuses and hospitals."

Union unveils 2000 legislative program

UUP has launched its legislative program for the millennium, announcing an overall goal of restoring SUNY to its rightful place of preeminence in American higher education. In developing its 2000 legislative plan, the union shaped six proposals seeking adequate state fiscal support for SUNY. UUP's Executive Board is expected to adopt the legislative agenda, crafted by the Legislation Committee under Chair Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh, at its Dec. 3 meeting. "SUNY continues to be New York's most inte lligent investment. We will persist in our endeavors to strengthen the SUNY system through careful planning and legislative support for our agenda," said UUP President William Scheuerman.

First, UUP will urge the state to continue restoring the full-time academic and professional lines lost over the last five years.

"The additional funding for faculty lines provided in last year's state budget were a step in the right direction," Scheuerman said. "It is imperative that lawmakers continue this allocation each year until all of the more than 1,000 full-time lines lo st since 1995 are restored."

The number of classes taught by part-timers continues to increase on SUNY campuses, where part-timers now comprise 40 percent of the faculty, Scheuerman said. Because many part-timers are not afforded office space and teach at several institutions simu ltaneously, students sometimes do not get the counseling and advising they should expect. "While UUP recognizes the valuable contribution part-timers make on SUNY campuses, the percentage of part-time faculty at SUNY continues to rise to unacceptable leve ls," Scheuerman said. "This situation raises questions regarding the direction of the University and the state's commitment to maintaining a quality institution, which requires a permanent and accountable academic and professional faculty."

UUP will also seek funding for the recently expanded SUNY-wide missions, which include the implementation of four-year programs at the Colleges of Technology and new requirements for teacher education programs.

"While SUNY is a fluid institution that continues to adapt to the needs of the community at large, the state must provide the financial backing required to meet these needs," Scheuerman said.

SUNY teaching hospitals must also be adequately funded, so their missions - to provide health care education and public health care - are safeguarded. UUP will also request that the state end its practice of "taxing" the teaching hospitals to fund camp us operating budgets.

Lawmakers will also be asked next year to institute a five-year operating plan, to enact a permanent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all state retirement systems, and to restore funds to the New York State Theatre Institute.

Donations make all the difference

The 2000 election season is already well under way in New York and UUP is positioning itself to wield some significant influence.

The best way to do that is to increase the union's VOTE/COPE contributions, according to Eileen Landy, UUP's statewide VOTE/COPE coordinator.

VOTE/COPE is NYSUT's voluntary, non-partisan political action fund. UUP collected $103,000 last year and is looking to do even better in 2000."This is a really big election year, with the president, U.S. Senate and state Legislature all up," Landy, of Old Westbury, said. "Hopefully, we can keep climbing and become a stronger player."

UUP's campaign will begin in January. That's a change from the past; UUP traditionally ran its VOTE/COPE drive during the academic year while other NYSUT locals were on a calendar-year schedule. The result, Landy said, was that UUP didn't have access t o the most current support materials until midway through its campaign.

"This change puts us in synch with the rest of NYSUT," she said.

As usual, Landy will rely on her regional coordinators to reach out to the chapters and to develop creative and effective ways to solicit VOTE/COPE contributions. This year's coordinators are: Patricia Bentley, Plattsburgh; Edison Bond, Brooklyn HSC; W illiam Canning, Oswego; Edward Van Duzer, Brockport; Frederick Floss, Buffalo State; Frank Maraviglia, ESF; Robert Pompi, Binghamton; Edward Quinn, Stony Brook; Fayez Samuel, Farmingdale; and Doris Weisman, Stony Brook HSC. In addition, Frederick Valentin e of ESF will serve as VOTE/COPE's liaison to UUP retirees.

Members receive lump-sum payment in Nov. 24 paychecks

UUPers who are eligible for the $500 lump-sum payment from the new contract should have seen it in their Nov. 24 paychecks, according to SUNY System Administration.

Employees who are on the payroll Oct. 1, 1999, and who have worked at least one semester or five months between Sept. 1, 1998 and Aug. 31, 1999, will receive this payment. Full-timers on leave at partial pay will receive the full $500. Employees on aut horized leave without pay will receive the lump-sum payment if they return to the payroll before Dec. 31, 2000.Part-time professionals and academics who do not teach courses and who earn up to $9,104 will receive $100; $9,105-$13,657, $200; $13,658-$18,21 0, $400; and $18,211 or more, $500.Part-time academics who teach in either the fall 1999 or spring 2000 semester will receive $50 if they teach one course; $100, two courses; $200, three courses; and $250, more than three courses. Part-time academics who teach in both the fall and spring 2000 semesters will receive the appropriate payment in both semesters.

Members who believe they are eligible for the lump-sum payment, but have not seen it in their paychecks, should contact the UUP Administrative Office at (800) 342-4206 or their UUP/NYSUT labor relations specialist.

A grant by any other name ...

One of the many grants available to UUP members has simplified its name from Professional Development and Quality of Working Life - commonly referred to as PDQWL - to Professional Development.

This negotiated New York state/UUP joint labor/management initiative offers UUP members money for faculty development, librarian study leaves, professional study leaves and classroom scholarship grants. It helps to fill gaps left by campuses that often lack funding for pre-service and in-service training, and faculty and staff development.

One of the recipients of the last round of funding was SUNY Buffalo's Educational Opportunity Center (EOC), which applied for and received a Professional Development campus grant of nearly $7,000 for training and equipment for its technology committee.

The EOC used the money to purchase a desktop projector to enable staff to use Microsoft PowerPoint for presentations. The grant also paid for 12 of its staff members to attend a conference on instructional technologies held at SUNY Utica/Rome.

"We learned some new applications that we're going to be applying here at the center," said UUPer Roosevelt Wardlaw, senior staff assistant and co-chair of the EOC Instructional Technology Committee.

"We are presently integrating computer technology into the curriculum," he added.

Right now, students in some programs already require training for computer literacy, and the center's master plan calls for computer training for the entire curriculum.

The EOC provides adult education for economically and educationally disadvantaged adults. It offers vocational, occupational and technical training, including training for entry-level careers such as computer and secretarial work. The center also provi des basic education, graduate equivalency diplomas and college preparatory classes.

Other grant programs available to UUPers are: Employment, for retraining fellowships; Affirmative Action, including Nuala Drescher affirmative action leaves and grants for employees with disabilities; Safety and Health, including the Herbert Wright Mem orial Safety and Health Training Awards for employees with safety, health and environmental responsibilities; and Technology, for issues related to the application of technology to work.

Campus grants - for projects such as teaching across the curricula, writing workshops and technology training - are available through all the joint labor/management committees.

For more information - including applications - go to www.albany.net/~nysuup.

Laptops key to Morrisville curriculum

Laptops are so prevalent at SUNY Morrisville that by the time you leave campus you feel like you should be typing as you walk. Briefcases are obviously passe - anybody who's anybody carries a laptop.

At Morrisville, the anybodies are the students in 27 majors who use laptops as part of their curriculum. And on some parts of campus, students can use their laptops - including accessing the Internet - without even plugging into a port. That's because Morrisville is going wireless. In partnership with Raytheon, Morrisville has installed equipment in residence halls and other campus buildings that act like radio transmitters, carrying the message from laptop to web. Wireless. Mobile. Welcome to the camp us of the new millennium.

Originally, Morrisville intended on wiring all the dorm rooms so there was a port for every pillow. The cost was more than expected, and necessity became the mother of invention: Going wireless cut the cost of wiring. Support from Raytheon clinched the deal.

Jean Boland, director of computer services, said dorms were installed with wireless equipment this fall; the rest of the academic buildings will be outfitted in the coming year.

In partnership with IBM, Morrisville is the first SUNY school to become a ThinkPad campus. Students pay for laptop computers as part of their tuition. The laptops come equipped with a variety of software. Boland is one of the administrators who loads t he software, tags each computer with an anti-theft device (only one laptop has been reported missing so far), takes inventory and sets up a database. At orientation, each student is given safety tips and operating instructions. Then they carry their slim black computers to class, where some professors have put their slides and lectures on the "R" drive. That makes its easier for students to follow along, and/or to call up the lecture at a later time as a refresher. They are assigned links to web sites for supplemental information and, with a soft click, everyone in class is on the same page - again. They can even e-mail each other notes during class: good-bye to paper airplanes and furtively scribbled notes.

"Technology brings life and color and animation," said UUPer Joan Johnson, travel and tourism professor. "I've been teaching for 18 years, and with the laptops, the students are much more engaged in the learning process."

Some courses even offer on-line testing. After students type in their answer, they are informed if it is right or wrong. An explanation is given about the correct answer, including references to appropriate pages in the textbook and helpful web sites.

"Since the response is instant, I think their recall is better," Johnson said.

Students can create their own web pages as part of the laptop package. They can hang out in places like the new "Laptop cafe," where each seat has a port. In the travel and tourism department, students can issue airline tickets from their laptops, and they can also apply for jobs on-line.

"My bias is to use whatever it takes to get their attention and be prepared for lifelong learning," Johnson said. That learning has already resulted in students savvy enough to win first place with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation at an internationa l food service conference. Students created the program by "burning" their own CDs (installing text, photos and sound). They also use PowerPoint to present reports to their classmates.

UUPer Anne Englot, an assistant professor of architectural technology, taught one of the pilot programs for the laptops. Architecture is a new major at the evolving Morrisville campus, so it came on board when the laptops were coming online. Initially, Englot had students prepare academic assignments and e-mails. By the second semester, her students began drawing designs right on the laptop. Students in last spring's graduating class successfully used their laptops to present portfolios for jobs and tr ansfers to other colleges.

Englot herself uses PowerPoint in the classroom now, circumventing straight lectures.

"I almost never write on the chalkboard anymore," she said. Actually, the laptop comes with its own chalkboard. It's called "Smartboard."

Those faculty members who may not be as technically astute as their students can take advantage of their own Teaching and Educational Change Center, a technology-based classroom that was built and equipped through a state/UUP Joint Labor/Management Tec hnology Committee grant.

Students with cyber snags can trot across campus to the Help Desk. Their laptops are either fixed on the spot or students are issued a loaner from Ginger MacRae, the Help Desk coordinator.

How did a small SUNY school with an enrollment of 2,800 dare to permeate its atmosphere with technology?

"We come from a culture of doing things," said Charles Blaas, Morrisville's vice president. "How could we not do it? We could've been cut off from the development of things in the future."

If the institution doesn't connect those dots, it'll be precluded from doing important things down the line. So we jumped off the cliff and built the bungee cord on the way down."

Lights, Camera, Action

In a vast warehouse, tucked away on one of Albany's industrial streets, two student interns watch intently as UUP member Peter Davis cuts letters out from a wooden sign, leaving a negative space in each letter's place.

Next, the trio lifts and moves a large cutout of a crest, which will be used in the fall production of the Jules Verne classic, "Around the World in 80 Days." The man with the saw, UUP chapter President Davis, production technical supervisor for the Ne w York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI), is a 17-year veteran at educating students in his area of expertise. Dan Peczka from Shenendehowa High School and Billy Davis from Albany High appear to be eager to learn.

Off in a corner room, NYSTI properties master Doug Lange instructs Albany High intern Heather Adair in the fine art of making telescopes, which will be used as props for the production. Interns study all aspects of professional theater during a three-m odule semester.

Meanwhile, back at the Russell Sage College campus where NYSTI holds its productions, Karen Kammer, UUP chapter vice president for professionals, instructs her own group of interns. A display of mannequins, dressed in a vast array of costumes, is exhib ited outside the costume shop. It is here, in her quiet manner, that Kammer shares her knowledge of fabrics, folds and minute details.

Currently in its 24th season of performing and educating, NYSTI proves why it is an award-winning theater institution. Its internships - available to high-schoolers, college undergrads and graduate students from around the globe - provide an excellent transition from school to work.

While the mission is to produce professional theatrical productions that can be incorporated into the school curriculum, the commitment of institute workers doesn't stop there. NYSTI staff - from performers to artists, technicians to set designers - us e theater to motivate students of all ages, not only to excel on stage but also to dedicate themselves in every endeavor.

Other phases of NYSTI: The institute's education program is not limited to internships. Heightening students' understanding and appreciation of the workings of the theater happens in a variety of ways, many of which take place in the schools.

In-class preparation sends members of NYSTI's education department straight to the schools, to introduce students to the creative process of mounting a professional theater production before their actual stage experience. To further enhance their under standing, institute staffers develop guides for each production with a synopsis, vocabulary exercises, background information and, often, costume sketches and set renderings. Provided to all teachers making ticket reservations, the guides also contain the performance activities.

In-services are free, behind-the-scenes views of making NYSTI productions, complete with brief glimpses at rehearsals. They are designed for educators, but are open to the public.

NYSTI also offers a Theatre Arts School, Summer Stage program and a Summer Theatre Institute.

The New York Times views NYSTI this way: "It may well prove to be one of the most important theatrical institutions in the state, if not the entire country."

CLUW addresses serious workplace issues

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) has spent the last 25 years improving the participation, position and influence of women in labor unions and society.

A non-partisan organization within the union movement, CLUW was formed in 1974 to tackle the issues that affect working women - pay equity, work and family conflicts, and affirmative action - and to find a way for women to have a greater voice in leadi ng the labor movement.

The coalition has worn a path to Capitol Hill and state legislatures fighting for decent child-care facilities for working parents, pregnancy disability coverage, a decent minimum wage, safe workplaces and other laws that benefit all workers.

"Women and their unions have been encouraged to take positive action against job discrimination in hiring and promotion," said UUPer Lorna Arrington, an associate professor in the Educational Opportunity Center at SUNY Buffalo and a member of CLUW's Na tional Executive Board. "Through leadership training, the members become informed advocates."

"CLUW primarily focuses on women's issues," she added. "That's just one reason women should join."

Arrington, along with UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud of Brooklyn HSC and UUP Women's Rights and Concerns Committee Chair Vicki Janik of Farmingdale, attended the coalition's 10th biennial convention in Chicago this September. Delegates stressed t he coalition's motto: "We didn't come to share recipes then in 1974 nor did we come to share them now in 1999.""In other words," Arrington said, "CLUW is about the business of addressing serious workplace issues and, when done collectively, can have a gre ater influence on political and legislative actions leading to positive changes."

CLUW is looking to increase its membership and "UUP can have a significant impact," Arrington said. She is hoping at least 100 UUPers will join this national network geared toward working women and their families.

Annual CLUW dues are $25 for regular members. For more information on the coalition, contact CLUW by phone at (202) 466-4610, by e-mail at CLUW@Pressroom.com or by mail at CLUW, 1126 16th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Workers organize for a just economy

They talked about the "false gods" of corporations who value puffy profits over the needs of workers and retirees. They talked about the need to organize workers, and to put that need into action by showing up 150 strong to demonstrate with the Hotel E mployees & Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE) on behalf of cafeteria workers struggling to unionize at SUNY Albany.

As part of the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition conference, "Organizing for a Just Economy: The Nuts and Bolts of Ethics and Economics," held last month in Albany, participants heard from Brian O'Shaughnessy, director of the coalition. O'Shaughn essy said General Electric, for example, had a $13.8 billion surplus and voted a 50 percent increase to its board of directors (to $75,000 annually), yet denied its retirees increases. One retiree earns an annual pension of $6,912 after 39 years of work.

Kim Bobo, executive director of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, believes the challenge is to educate the religious community about unions. Many people, she believes, still have uninformed ideas about unions.

Jane Sweeney, special projects coordinator for Queens College Labor Resource Center, said people need to keep fighting for worker justice, both here and abroad. Companies refuse to adopt codes that provide for living wages or decent working conditions or to hire workers over the age of 15 because of market competition in the apparel industry, she said. Sweeney advocated the passage of an international code to protect workers, as well as the environment that is compromised because of these factories. Sh e urged participants to "be difficult, be visible" in their quests for change.

"In the 1950s, American garment workers lived as well as auto workers," she said. "We have lost that in the United States."

UUPer Michael Zweig, professor of economics at SUNY Stony Brook and author of The Working-Class Majority, America's Best-Kept Secret, said 62 percent of Americans are working class. Power can be found in mobilizing labor, he said.

Zweig finds that people like to peg declining family values, welfare, government, immigrants and the rich for problems in this country. But it's about power, and the solutions come from "putting a box around the power." Zweig said students can make sur e school administrators do not order sports uniforms, caps and other apparel made in sweatshops.

"Work with other unions, religions and the whole of society to put a box around the power of capital," he said. "We can't do it alone."

UUP, he explained, is a union protecting public higher ed from powers that want to change SUNY to a campus system with smaller staff, larger classes and privatization of research. Those powers also want to change its mission and its place in society to serve corporations. Faculty are told to find research money from corporations.

"Do you think corporations want to know how to make pharmaceuticals broadly available? How to empower workers?" Zweig asked. "We have people trying to protect public higher education. That's your future."

UUPer draws on talent for Link fund

UUP delegates and committee members know fellow unionist Fred Miller likes to draw. During most Delegate Assembly plenary sessions or committee meetings, Miller doodles on napkins, scraps of paper, gum wrappers. On anything he can get his hands on.

His colleagues also know that Miller is good. Very good, in fact.

But getting one of this unassuming man's coveted pen-and-ink sketches is another matter. If you're lucky, Miller will hand it over when he's done. But the union's 1993 Nina Mitchell Award winner from Oneonta may not truly know the value of his work: ho w many smiles he elicits from the other delegates when they see pen in hand; how many of his delightful paper-napkin sketches hang on office and home walls. Or how many people want to buy one of the two signed drawings that the UUP Link Scholarship Develo pment Committee - of which Miller is a member - had printed on celebratory cards for gift contributions to the union's annual scholarship fund.

Well, he may soon have a chance to find out. The Link Scholarship Development Committee, chaired by UUP retiree Gertrude Butera of Alfred, has commissioned a third Miller pen-and-ink drawing for a limited-edition, Series III all-occasion card. Using Mi ller's original covered-bridge design, the committee has printed and packaged a set of 10 blank cards, with envelopes. This series will not be reprinted, Butera said.

Members can get a set of cards with a minimum donation of $10; the full amount is tax deductible.

"Fred didn't hesitate when we asked him to draw one of his remarkable landscape sketches for our scholarship fund," Butera said. "I am confident these cards will generate proceeds for the fund's coffers. We should all be eternally grateful to Fred for his commitment to SUNY students, who are the ones who will directly benefit from his generosity."

The cards, according to Butera, make the perfect holiday gift.

The cards can be ordered from UUP, 159 Wolf Road, Albany, N.Y. 12205-1177. Send check, payable to the Eugene P. Link College Scholarship Trust Fund, to the attention of Kathy Trudeau, UUP comptroller. They will also be available at the 2000 Winter Dele gate Assembly, set for Jan. 28-29 at The Desmond in Albany.

Because this is a separate fund-raising project, Butera said, members' proceeds will not be credited toward the Link 500 Club campaign, which recognizes chapters that collect at least $500 for the scholarship fund during the academic year.

Link scholarships of $650, for two semesters a year, are given annually to as many as four SUNY undergraduates who maintain a 3.75 grade-point average and who exhibit a dedication to the goals of the labor union movement. Thirty-seven students have rec eived the award since it was established in 1985 as a testimonial to Eugene Link, professor emeritus of history at SUNY Plattsburgh and a founding member of the union.

AFL-CIO, AFT back Gore for president

Vice President Al Gore recently received the backing of the AFL-CIO when convention delegates overwhelmingly approved a resolution endorsing him for the presidency.

In a speech to AFL-CIO delegates that observers called "the most pro-labor speech since FDR," Gore committed to the inclusion and enforcement of workers' rights in new trade agreements and "an unhampered right" of workers to join together and speak wit h one voice.

"As president, I will be a voice for working families in everything I do and say," Gore told delegates. "Al Gore has used the power of his office to defend the freedom of workers to choose a union free from interference by their employers, and he has r epeatedly urged other elected officials to do so."

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Executive Council has voted to endorse the vice president in his bid for the White House.

"Al Gore has been a leading force for the needs of America's children and working families," AFT President Sandra Feldman said. "He has fought for better schools. He has fought for better health care. It is vitally important that he be elected presiden t."

The AFT, UUP's national affiliate, represents more than a million people. In August, UUP's statewide affiliate, NYSUT, urged the AFT to endorse the vice president.

Librarian takes cover: Oneonta's Bulson is wedded to words

Many people wrote reviews about the "The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1999," including James Michener, Jimmy Carter, Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley. But Oneonta's reference librarian, Christine Bulson, is the one who wrote the review that made t he cover of the famous reference book.

"For the most information in one source, 'The World Almanac' remains the champion," are the words emblazoned across the paperback cover of the 1999 book. On the hardcover edition, Bulson's review is on the book jacket.

UUPer Bulson's comments were actually made in a Booklist magazine review she did last year. She reviewed another almanac, and deferred to the World Almanac as being the hero.

A relative of hers was giving the World Almanac to his daughter, and Bulson saw him wrapping it and said, "That's my quote on the cover!"

Librarian by day, she is a book reviewer by night. Some people yank weeds from their garden to reduce stress; Bulson pulls words from her mind to enrich the reading of others. She has reviewed cookbooks, reference books, dictionaries, books about music and opera, and atlases. She writes reviews for specialized magazines, telling readers which books are worth reading and why.

Almanacs are probably her favorite.

"I went to SUNY Albany for library school," Bulson explains. "Bill Katz was my professor, and he said any librarian could answer any question anyone could ask with a telephone and the World Almanac."

Today, she said, Katz might modify that answer by saying any question could be answered with a computer and the World Almanac.

Bulson begins extolling the virtues of almanacs: They contain information about sports, movies, trivia, Social Security, the code of etiquette for the U.S. flag, members of Congress, statistics, lists of colleges, leading businesses, an economic direct ory. ... For her, every category is a page-turner.

When Bulson reviewed atlases, she used a professional development grant from UUP in order to have release time with pay. Librarians are academics in the SUNY system, but they do not have the same time off, so paid leaves are important for their researc h work. Researching atlases, she said, in turn provides good publicity for SUNY because her reviews always mention her SUNY Oneonta connection.

On one map, she found a town near Syracuse that should have been in the Adirondacks. Not only does she save people from wasting time reading poorly written books, she saves them mileage on their cars.

On campus, Bulson is active in UUP as a delegate and a member of the statewide Elections and Credentials Committee.

When she's not wedded to words, Bulson enjoys horse racing at nearby Vernon Downs, classical music and opera, and she likes to travel. What atlas reader wouldn't?

In the news:

A gift from the heart UUPer Peter Hare, a distinguished service professor in the department of philosophy at SUNY Buffalo, has given two gifts totaling $1 million to support activities of the department. A cash gift of $500,000 has established an endow ed professorship named for American philosopher Charles S. Pierce, while a $500,000 bequest will support the Peter and Daphne Hare Fund to help the department pay for such things as benefits for visiting professors from foreign countries.

Medal winner UUPer John Vena, a professor and associate chair of the department of social and preventive medicine at the Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has received the Medicina Cracoveinsis 2000 Medal for fostering continuing prog rams on environmental medicine and epidemiology between SUNY and Jagiellonian University in Poland.

United Nations representative UUPer James Rubin, a professor and chair of the art department at SUNY Stony Brook, has been named to the International Committee of the College Art Association (ICCAA). He will serve as the group's first representative to the U.N., which recently recognized the ICCAA as a registered non-governmental organization.

For he's a jolly, good fellow UUPer Phillip Lewis, a leading professor of computer science at SUNY Stony Brook, was recently named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in recognition of his outstanding technical and professional contribu tions to the field of information technology. A 40-year veteran of the computer field, Lewis is also a Coolidge fellow and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

The Last Word:
In our defense: UUP has fund for members' legal recourse
By UUPer Vicki Janik

UUP's pledge to serve its members and agency fee payers is no idle promise. This is particularly applicable to those who believe they suffer from unfair treatment in SUNY. Of course, the grievance procedure is available; but, in addition, UUP has a Leg al Defense Fund - a pool of money totaling between 1 percent and 2 percent of dues and fee income. The fund is used to support individual and class-action lawsuits of members and agency fee payers seeking legal recourse in job-related discrimination.

Has legal defense been successful? Recently, litigants claiming gender or racial discrimination within SUNY have settled or won civil suits at Stony Brook, Geneseo, Empire State and Albany. Last year, Randy Kaplan, an assistant professor of theater who was fired from SUNY Geneseo (and who benefited from the defense fund), regained her position and four years' back pay. Suits can also be successful without the help of the fund. Sophia Lubensky, a professor of Russian at SUNY Albany, without the fund's a ssistance, gained back pay and a pay increase in a pre-trial settlement in September. Other cases are pending.

Why do we need the fund? According to the collective bargaining agreement between UUP and the state of New York, Article 10: "No Discrimination," individuals' claims of discrimination on the basis of "but not limited to race, creed, color, religion, se xual orientation, national origin, sex, age, disability or marital status" are not subject to review under the grievance procedure.

Consequently, those who believe that they have been discriminated against in these ways must seek a legal remedy in state or federal court. Though lawsuits can be more difficult and costly than a grievance procedure, settlements in court can be more si gnificant and considerations more far-reaching.

How does one apply for fund assistance? Following a procedure that was updated at the 1999 Spring Delegate Assembly in May, members or agency fee payers who believe that they have been discriminated against may speak to chapter leaders or to their labo r relations specialists, who then refer them to the UUP Administrative Office. UUP informs individuals of funds available and sends application forms and further information. The individuals then return the completed forms, as well as the required documen tation. No applicant may receive more than 25 percent of the fund's total annual budget in any UUP fiscal year, which runs from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31.

What does the UUP Legal Defense Fund Committee do? Currently chaired by UUP chapter President Edward Alfonsin of Potsdam, the committee is comprised of six members, including two from the union's statewide Affirmative Action Committee and UUP's statewi de treasurer. The committee reviews applications for financial assistance and makes recommendations to the president of UUP.

What is the procedure for payment and reimbursement? If the president, with the advice and counsel of UUP's General Counsel, concurs that a litigant should receive funds, UUP makes a disbursement to that member or agency fee payer upon receipt of docum entation for expenditures. After successful completion of litigation, the individual reimburses the fund "up to the amount received over and above any award of back wages."

The Legal Defense Fund is evidence that UUP is structured to help each individual member. That is why the union can successfully work for everyone.

(Vicki Janik is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Farmingdale.)