UUP has called on state lawmakers to develop a fiscally prudent plan to stabilize the health of its teaching hospitals and academic campuses. Presenting testimony at an Assembly hearing on SUNY financing, UUP President William Scheuerman told legislato rs that the $77 million budget shortfall facing the SUNY hospitals is due to an "ill advised cross-subsidy" between the state hospitals and academic campuses, rather than the "result of market-driven forces in the health-care arena" - as portrayed by Univ ersity spokespersons. The economic crisis at the SUNY teaching hospitals is "contrived," and is the consequence of a "structural flaw in the SUNY budget," he added. Scheuerman asserted that the New York state budget treats the three teaching hospitals as "cash cows," requiring them to generate $116 million in revenue that is not kept for hospital use but instead is transferred to academic campuses. This practice of "taxing the hospitals" to subsidize academic programs is fiscally irresponsible, he said. U nderscoring the union's bottom-line, Scheuerman stated that any possible solution to this "management-created crisis" that would include layoffs and cuts to student and patient services is unacceptable. When state Comptroller H. Carl McCall testified at t he same November hearing, he criticized the trustees for ignoring the hospital shortfall in their budget request. "SUNY has taken a strategy of denial and delay," McCall said. "The trustees have a fiduciary obligation to the SUNY system and I urge them to reconsider their course." This condemnation is consistent with UUP's often-stated position - reiterated by Scheuerman during the hearing - that SUNY faces a "leadership vacuum," because of the trustees' failure to "fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to the University." The statements were aimed at sympathetic listeners who offered SUNY-supportive observations of their own. Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman (D-Syracuse), who conducted the hearing, opined that the Assembly believes the state uni versity is "vital to the future" of New Yorkers and won't allow its hospitals and campuses to be "jeopardized in any way." That pledge received bi-partisan support. Assemblyman Joel Miller (R-Poughkeepsie) said he was "saddened" by any effort to reduce st ate funding for SUNY. "This is supposed to be a state university system and not a state-assisted program," Miller added. Bragman and Edward Sullivan (D-New York), chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, also rejected any plan that would privatiz e the hospitals or the SUNY system. When considering the range of New York's educational institutions, the state university is the "golden door," Sullivan said. "For the future of this state, we're not going to close that door or allow it to be closed." < /font>

In search of convenience?: Board of Trustees disregards SUNY selection procedures

The SUNY Board of Trustees has declared that the selection of a state-operated campus president is one of its most important duties. But watching the process in action has left observers wondering if the trustees' own search procedures carry much weigh t when the choice is finally made. Under the trustees' guidelines for choosing a campus president, a national search - with local faculty and student input - should be conducted, resulting in a pool of 20 applicants for consideration by the college counci l. The college council is an advisory group of 10 members, nine of whom are appointed by the governor, who also designates the chair. The council oversees the selection process and nominates a few candidates; the trustees make the final decision. Such a d etailed process could easily take a year to complete.

While this is the standard process, some SUNY observers have been left perplexed and raising questions of possible outside political intervention since, on at least two SUNY campuses, the trustees simply haven't adhered to their own detailed hiring pra ctices. On one, the trustees' process was blatantly disregarded; on the other, external influences seem to have tainted the process. Either way, the process seems to be breaking down. "The way the process has been established, there is no guarantee that t he trustees will follow their own rules," said William Scheuerman, UUP president. "What good are procedures if they're only used when it's convenient?"

Last summer, the Rev. Calvin Butts was chosen to preside over SUNY Old Westbury after a whirlwind search that lasted little more than a week. Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem section of Manhattan, was recommended for the pre sidency by the college council eight days after the search committee's first meeting. "Where was the process?" queried UUPer Gretchen Johnson, who chaired the Old Westbury Faculty Senate at the time of Butts' selection. At the initial meeting, the college council revealed that two interviews had already been scheduled for later that same day, she said. The candidates were Butts and Hubert Keen, Old Westbury's interim president, who received a last-minute waiver from the chancellor allowing him to "apply" for the presidency. That provided the trustees with the facade of "making a choice," Johnson said.

"In our (Faculty Senate) minds, this wasn't a real search process with full participation by faculty," said Johnson. A legitimate first meeting would have entailed a preliminary dialogue about what kind of a president the college needed and how the pos ition should be publicized, she observed. "The college council set this up in such a way that made it impossible for us to participate in good faith," said Johnson, an associate professor in Old Westbury's teacher ed program. "It was such a farce." The fi rst "serious problem" with the search was its summer timing - when many faculty weren't available to participate, Johnson emphasized. Also, the committee member chosen to represent the alumni was the campus vice president for student affairs. So, "there w asn't independent representation there, either," Johnson said. "Because of the haste of the reverend's appointment, which involved no input from campus faculty or students, it appeared to many of us that his nomination was political repayment for his endo rsement of Gov. George Pataki in his 1998 re-election campaign," she said. That perception was echoed in an Aug. 29, 1999, Newsday editorial, "Don't Destroy Old Westbury to Save It," which referred to the appearance of "vigorous string-pulling from Albany " in addressing various issues facing the Long Island campus.

About Butts' selection, which it characterized as a "symptom of Albany's heavy-handed pressure to turn the Old Westbury campus in a new direction," Newsday expressed the viewpoint that "this unseemly rush to appointment leaves the impression that his m ajor qualification is his political connection with É Gov. George Pataki." In 1997, the trustees' guidelines for selection of a new president at SUNY Oswego were followed - until the very end. Then, in what is characterized by UUPer Edward O'Shea, an Engl ish professor at Oswego and a member of the campus search committee, as "political interference from without," Deborah Stanley was appointed at the 11th hour. Stanley, a long-time member of Oswego's business department and, at the time, Oswego's provost, was the campus' "internal candidate," O'Shea said. Ranked third of five finalists the search committee recommended to the college council, she was also closely allied with Kerry Dorsey - who chairs the college council and was at one time the executive ass istant to the Oswego County executive, according to O'Shea.

The committee's ranking indicated a preference for two others, including Derek Hodgson, an academic with a "strong professional background and extensive administrative experience," O'Shea said. After an executive session that excluded most members of t he search committee, O'Shea said, the college council reversed the order of the ranking and recommended Stanley as the candidate to Chancellor John Ryan. This was followed some time later - apparently at the trustees' insistence - with an "official" submi ssion of Hodgson's name to the chancellor, O'Shea said. Following interviews and telephone conversations, Hodgson was ultimately called to a SUNY Board of Trustees meeting in New York City, expecting to be confirmed. Brought behind closed doors at the las t moment, he was told that the votes just weren't there to support his presidency, said O'Shea, who attended the meeting. Stanley, the "back-room candidate," was brought out and abruptly confirmed in a split vote. The circumvention of traditional SUNY sea rches is not unique to campuses, however. Joseph Flynn, president of the statewide Faculty Senate, estimated that as many as 40 high-level positions at SUNY System Administration have been filled in recent years without the usual national searches.

Meanwhile, Scheuerman said, "We're not objecting to the presidential choices that were made, but with how the process was employed. UUP will continue to work with the Faculty Senate to ensure that the trustees follow their own search procedures."

Assembly to review process

Because SUNY is a public university, the Board of Trustees "has to understand that it can't go behind closed doors and do things" - the trustees have to operate in the open, said Edward Sullivan (D-New York), who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Co mmittee. When the trustees act secretly, the "credibility of the person they choose is undermined by the lack of process," Sullivan remarked. The Assembly committee is planning to hold a hearing early this year on the overall "lack of process" at SUNY, Su llivan said. SUNY's basic problem is that "the Board of Trustees doesn't think the process is necessary," he said. However, "this is a public university, owned by the people of New York;" the trustees are "merely the temporary caretakers" of that public s ystem. "They don't really believe in process," Sullivan said of the trustees. "They believe in dictation."

King crowned SUNY chancellor

Robert King should have no trouble adapting to his new job at SUNY. After all, UUP has provided him with a job description that, if followed, will make his transition from state budget director to SUNY chancellor a success. King, a former colleague of Gov. George Pataki when both served in the Assembly, was named chancellor by the Board of Trustees late last month. He replaces John Ryan, who will remain with the University as its first chancellor emeritus.

Just before the trustees selected King to lead SUNY, UUP disseminated a list of characteristics it expected to be embodied in the new chancellor. According to UUP, the chancellor should be: -- the most vocal advocate on behalf of the University, promoting adequate financial support for SUNY programs, faculty, staff and students; -- a champion of academic freedom; -- an enthusiastic participant in the principle of shared governance, ensuring that the faculty is included in all decisions affecting the academic programs of SUNY; and -- an independent protector who stands up to all political expediencies - internal and external - that threaten SUNY's mission of quality, access and affordability.

"These are all attainable standards, fundamental to higher education," Scheuerman said. "We expect Mr. King to embrace them. If he does, he will undoubtedly find that the faculty will support him."

The trustees were pleased with King's selection, citing his organizational skills, his experience in the fiscal arena at a time SUNY is experiencing budgetary problems and his understanding of the political realities in Albany. However, critics of King 's appointment were quick to point out that he has no academic background, had presided over the state Division of Budget (DOB) during attempts to downsize the University and has had close ties to Change-NY, the tax-PAC organization that has been critical of the University. Scheuerman acknowledged that King's background was a concern. He said that DOB has not been a friend of SUNY in the past, repeatedly putting forward budgets that do not adequately address inflation and contractual obligations. He point ed to the trustees' 1999-2000 budget request that was reduced from an increase of 8.2 percent to 2.8 percent after a call from the DOB. And, Scheuerman said, DOB budgeting practices are to blame for the $77 million shortfall faced by the University's teac hing hospitals.

"But if Mr. King takes off his budget-cutting hat and puts on his chancellor hat, becoming a strong advocate for SUNY, we can work with him," Scheuerman said. "UUP is not going to make a judgment about the past; we'll judge him based on his performance ."

Meanwhile, Joseph Flynn, president of the statewide Faculty Senate and a member of the six-member chancellor search committee, said King's lack of experience in academe might ultimately prove beneficial. "I think he'll need the faculty," Flynn said.

King, 52, graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. A native of Rochester, he served for three years as director of the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform before being named state budget director in 1998. He also served as Monroe County executive, is a former county prosecutor and was a member of the Monroe County Community College Board of Trustees. The trustees recently voted to boost the chancellor's salary to as muc h as $350,000 a year.

Apparently, the only other candidate given serious consideration was Stanley Koplick, chancellor of higher education in Massachusetts. Koplick had also led the university systems in Missouri and Kansas. Ryan announced his intention to retire last Janua ry. He will stay on with SUNY as a part-time consultant.

UUP to lawmakers: Scrutinize land deals

UUP is calling on state lawmakers to scrutinize SUNY's proposed land lease deals with private and not-for-profit corporations. UUP President Scheuerman in mid-December testified at an Assembly hearing on land leasing policy at SUNY. While these deals m ay promote cooperation between private concerns and SUNY, Scheuerman said the state university has secretly attempted to use recent legislation to privatize SUNY and to reduce public accountability. "SUNY is using leasing bills as a back-door method of es tablishing a quasi-public university that exists parallel with the SUNY system, but without legislative oversight," Scheuerman said. SUNY's land transfers to corporations are known as "leasing bills" because the land - used mostly to build facilities - ar e often transferred by lease, and are subject to legislative approval. Scheuerman cited four recent land transfers that UUP believes were meant to evade public disclosure requirements or laws and were inconsistent with the University's academic and resear ch missions. -- At SUNY Albany, a not-for-profit corporation decided it was not subject to "prevailing wage" laws to build on university property, despite building with predominantly public funds. These management decisions were ultimately found to have violated state law. -- At SUNY Stony Brook, the leasing bill that created a not-for-profit corporation to construct an Asian studies building originally provided that the new organization would operate the building. "SUNY attempted to grant this quasi-public entity the power to employ its own non-state, non-public, non-union workforce," Scheuerman said. Though eventually unsuccessful, SUNY's attempt to privatize the employees would have left them without state and federal labor protections and without the right to unionize. -- At SUNY Old Westbury, the college council developed, in secret, a land-use plan to transfer a quarter of the campus' undeveloped, environmentally sensitive property to a private foundation, without input from faculty, students or even the campus presid ent. -- At SUNY Purchase, employees of a proposed campus dorm would likely be non-public workers since, UUP asserts, the Board of Trustees tried to skirt legislative and executive approval by going through the Alumni Association rather than the state-controlle d Dormitory Association. UUP hopes that legislative oversight will "ensure that SUNY is and remains a public university," Scheuerman said.

Alliances: UUP, Faculty Senate, community colleges join forces to fend off trustees' attacks

It was probably unintentional, but the behavior exhibited by the SUNY trustees in recent years has precipitated some new alliances and bonds within the higher education community that could, ultimately, prove to be their own undoing. Last year, in resp onse to the trustees' unilateral adoption of a core curriculum at SUNY, UUP and the statewide Faculty Senate - two organizations that often had separate agendas - joined forces for an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the University's governing board .

The outgrowth of that action has been the establishment of a healthy, respectful, working relationship between UUP and the Senate. Now, with the development of the core curriculum under way and the fall 2000 implementation date approaching, other group s - sometimes considered adversaries in the past - are finding common ground and taking steps to work together.

In what was termed "historic" by some and "unprecedented" by others, community college representatives from locals of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and the National Education Association (NEA) met late last month with Faculty Senate leaders at the request of UUP. They convened in Albany to discuss the impact of the core curriculum, working to develop a strategy to fend off attacks on SUNY and on the principles of shared governance and academic freedom. "Recent developments have shown us that w e need a united front," said UUP President William Scheuerman. "No matter what union badge we wear, we need to promote a common agenda."

NEA Vice President Robin Rapaport agreed, saying past rivalries had to be put aside for the good of SUNY and its academic and professional faculty. Joseph Flynn, president of the statewide Faculty Senate, said one of the effects of the vote of no confi dence "was the realization on the part of many faculty that the University is politicized in a way that it's never been politicized before." Flynn repeated charges that the trustees' action on the core curriculum - or general education program - was a bla tant disregard for the traditional role of faculty in the development of academic programs.

His counterpart at the community colleges, Faculty Council of Community Colleges President Herbert Merrill, called the core curriculum "a nightmare" for the campuses he represents. The core curriculum does not apply to SUNY's community colleges. But Me rrill and the other community college representatives said the new requirements will wreak havoc on many articulation agreements community colleges have with SUNY's four-year institutions. Those agreements generally make it easier for community college st udents to transfer credits to the four-year schools. But, with a new curriculum in place at the four-year institutions, those credits may no longer be accepted. The core curriculum "creates a dilemma if we can't have programs that are seamless," Merrill s aid.

He warned that, as a result, many New York state students might opt for private or out-of-state colleges. General education "could force students to migrate away from the state university system," Merrill said. At the urging of NYSUT Executive Vice Pre sident Alan Lubin, the participants agreed to form a group to "work on issues on which there is general agreement" such as the core curriculum. The group would meet regularly and be modeled after the New York State Educational Conference Board, an advocac y committee made up of a number of K-12 constituencies, including NYSUT.

"A group like this for higher education makes everyone aware that we speak with one voice," said Lou Stollar, chair of the NYSUT Community College Council. "To allow ourselves to be divided will only weaken us." Lubin agreed: "We should take the tough positions to do what's right for our members and for our schools."

Cover story: SUNY goes global

While SUNY is the largest public higher ed system in the country, it is also a University that is well-respected beyond the borders of America. More and more, SUNY's academic and professional faculty are reaching out to share their knowledge and skills with other countries, and to learn from newfound friends and colleagues in other lands. A growing exchange of cultural traditions, technical expertise, social structures, global economics and philosophies is enriching SUNY. Shared information about art a nd history is bringing about new, creative endeavors, as well as revealing the past. As Eastern and Central Europe evolve in social changes on a grand scale, numerous groups of faculty from many SUNY campuses share programs for social justice and social w elfare. Faculty travel to lecture on art, math, feminism and democracy. As African countries build their education system, SUNY faculty reach out with books, lectures and programs. SUNY engineers learn from Asian countries devastated after earthquakes and return to the states with homework for American buildings and bridges. While there are an extensive number of in-depth global exchanges between SUNY and the rest of the world, this issue of The Voice depicts a microcosm of the many ways in which the Univ ersity is truly going global. The World Wide Web is not the only place where the world becomes closer with information; SUNY is there in person.

Tragedy offers lessons in transportation safety

Across the newswires, on front pages and on television, the news flashed: More than 18,000 people died in an earthquake in Turkey last summer. SUNY Buffalo's John Mander, an associate professor of civil engineering, was called to take stock of the afte rmath. Mander, a UUP member, went from America to Asia within two days of the August quake, joining a reconnaissance team of geologists, social scientists and industrial facility experts to analyze the damage. His specific charge was the transportation sy stem - including bridges, roads, port facilities and railways. He remembers well the sadness and stench of thousands of rapidly decaying bodies in the Turkish heat. Mander said the actual number of people who died was closer to 30,000: Many of the dead we re Muslim and, according to their custom, they were buried immediately and never accounted for. "The reason a large number of people died is so many people live in non-engineered structures," the SUNY engineer said. In Turkey, homes are built heavily with reinforced concrete columns and wood frames with hollow bricks between the columns, a design vulnerable to earthquakes. Computer models helped the reconnaissance team see why and how things failed when the earthquake arrived. Mander has been working on a research contract for close to seven years. The project, sponsored by the Earthquake Center, gets funding from the Federal Highway Administration. He also has a corporate grant from a French firm that builds shock-absorbing devices to mitigate the effect s of an earthquake, and he is on a code-writing committee for seismic design of U.S. bridges. In November, Mander was in Japan at a conference of bridge engineers, presenting a paper on his findings from the August earthquake, when a second shudder went t hrough the Turkish ground. This quake was in a remote area and not nearly as disastrous. The first quake came from a fault that runs eastward, parallel to the Black Sea at the fringe of Istanbul. Of the thousands of people who died, only a dozen were kill ed because of the transportation system. A bridge collapsed on a highway, killing 10 people on a bus after the fault erupted in a gap between the bridge pier and abutment. Overall, the bridges were reasonably engineered, but they could use improvements, M ander said, noting that Turkey was fortunate to have as little structural damage as it did. The country's bridges are made of pre-cast segments rather than being continuously supported. "Think Lego blocks," he said. The roads that Mander examined held up for the most part, and the response-and-recovery plan for Turkish roads was good. "You can't avoid all the damage when the ground moves dramatically," Mander said. "But you learn lessons and apply the design codes." Mander's job is to apply these lessons back in the states where, he said, many bridges are built like they are in Turkey. Many of the wharves at Turkish ports are not continuously built, either, and the U.S. has the same problem, he added. The U.S. has been given "a wake-up call," he said.

Bookbound: Literacy program helps U.S., foreign families beat poverty

A family literacy program created by two Buffalo State UUPers has gone far beyond the horizons of Western New York and into other continents and countries. Betty Cappella, a professor of educational foundations and chair of the department, and Geraldin e Bard, a professor of English, are co-directors of this literacy program called Project Flight. Basically, they bring books to others. Their mantra is simple and unshakable: They want to empower women and children through education to take them out of po verty, violence and poor working conditions. As professors, they know the route to this freedom is through knowledge. One of the ways that knowledge is passed on is through books. The pair presented its strategies at the World Conference for Women in Beij ing in 1995, and the United Nations subsequently accepted the literacy program as part of its world document for countries to follow as a means to empower women. As a result, women's organizations from other countries are now using Project Flight as a mod el for literacy within their borders. As a former UUP chapter president, Bard joins Cappella, a former chapter vice president for academics, with firsthand experience about the power of solidarity through the union. Now they use that concept to coordinate book drives with the Buffalo News to bring stories to children; to bring large-print books four times a year to needy senior citizens; and to raise money for Flight scholarships for single moms who want to go to college. They work with Native Americans a nd Hispanics, focusing on children defined as poor by the current poverty index. Literacy, they believe, will turn lives around, not just turn pages. "Education is something they can never take away from you," Cappella said. They also look through a lot o f books (300,000 last year) to make sure each one they pass on holds up to standards of learning and non-violence. To deepen that message, they invited Harun Gandhi to talk to faculty on campus about humane literacy. Gandhi, grandson of the famous Indian leader of non-violence, runs a center for conflict resolution in Atlanta. Its belief is that literacy will uplift families from socially disastrous problems, Cappella said. Last November, Cappella and Bard joined UUPer Jean Gounard, a professor of America n studies and director of international affairs at Buffalo State, to coordinate a drive for a quarter-million-dollars worth of books (10 pallets full) that were shipped to Cameroon. This region of Central Africa is one of the poorest in the country, and t he books are going to a couple establishing schools there. The couple's daughters attended Buffalo State and let the college community know about the needs of Le Groupe Scolaire Les Hirondelles, a K-12 school that also offers adult education. Project Flig ht lifted its wings to help, and Buffalo-area Rotary clubs helped to raise money to ship books, computers and printers to the growing school. The trio of UUPers will join others from Buffalo State in a trip to Africa in March to visit the school and a nei ghboring university, ever expanding SUNY's global reach.

To Russia, with love

Like a thick braid, the time and talents of SUNY Geneseo's UUP women are being woven together and then separately to make a strong link between the United States and the needs of Russia. Faculty are helping hurting mothers and homeless children in a co untry that has been in upheaval since the collapse of communism. Their assistance is focused mainly in the heart of the family structure within the city of Novgorod. Karen Duffy, a distinguished service professor in the department of psychology who will b e spending the spring 2000 semester teaching in Russia, has been to the country six times. Prodded by the escalating instances of alcoholism, drug abuse, suicides, poverty and the 90 percent divorce rate she witnessed in Russia, she decided to offer her s kills as a psychologist and become involved with a foster care initiative through Linkages, a Rochester-based organization that helps Russian children. Duffy also wrote and obtained a grant for a training and resource center for families in crisis and is helping to develop a resource library. She is currently working on developing internships and career centers for Russian students. "In Russia, in a half a day, I can make a big difference," Duffy said. "It's a culture in tumult. It's galloping social chan ge. One woman I know there said, 'Every day I wake up, it's a new country.'" When Duffy reached out to her UUP colleagues to help her with these initiatives, the plaiting began in earnest. She was joined by Mary Mohan, an associate professor of communicat ions, who worked with students in her advanced public relations class to create a foster care public information campaign. "The problem in Russia is there is no concept of adoption and foster care," Mohan said. "There isn't even a word in the Russian lang uage for foster care." Cultural beliefs and economic constraints block the very nature of the idea. With the collapse of the communist state, Russian orphanages suddenly had no funding. And as families fell apart, other things peeled away too: jobs vanish ed, life expectancy for men decreased and more children were abandoned at orphanage doors. "In that society, if a child isn't absolutely perfect, or is perceived as having something wrong, they're not wanted," Mohan said. Her students met with Russian nat ives in a Rochester focus group to do cultural research before designing a campaign of brochures, logos and story boards for potential TV commercials. Articles on the situation on Russia have brought out more awareness of the country's plight. Meg Stolee, UUP chapter vice president for academics, used her background in 20th century Russian social history to have articles published on children's homelessness in Russia in East/West Review. "The transition from communism to free market is hitting the hardest on the weakest members of society," Stolee said. The population of the former Soviet Union, now 15 separate countries, is about 225 million, she said. Russia alone has 155 million of those people. "In modern Russian history, there were four waves of home less children (from two wars and two famines), and what's happening now is the fifth wave. It's a very tragic pattern," she said. Stolee is a foster mom herself. She and her husband, UUPer William Gohlman, an associate professor of history and former UUP chapter president, have adopted four American children. Duffy also invited UUPer Roseanne Hartman, an assistant professor of communications at Geneseo, to work with her on two videos that were used at a conference in Novgorod. The topics were conflict med iation, and foster and adoptive families. Hartman spoke about the latter from experience: She has adopted a Russian child whose family could not afford to feed her. Last year, while on sabbatical, she also helped to raise money and medical supplies for a foundation that aids Russian citizens. The underpinning of the help that these women are offering to Russians is to give them the tools they need. As academics and professionals, they are showing the Russians how to build, rebuild and bond. "Only the Russ ians, I think, can fix their own country," Duffy said.

From synagogue to seaside carnival: Art and history from across the sea

Art professor Murray Zimiles went to a Jewish museum in Warsaw to research information for paintings of the Holocaust he'd been creating. Stumbling upon a dust- and grime-coated pair of carved lions in a corner of the museum, he was intrigued by the be autiful folk art carving in the animals, which seemed to have such personality. As he stared at them, an American walked by, saw what was absorbing Zimiles, and said, "You know, there's stuff like that in America as well." Zimiles, a UUPer at SUNY Purchas e, stood there wondering where in America this type of "stuff" possibly could be. When he got back home, he went to the Museum of American Folk Art and was sent to the director's office. He asked about Jewish folk art, and walked out with an assignment to be guest curator of a show on this subject at the folk art museum now under construction in Manhattan. Serendipity. Paths that crossed in a museum corner. And it was the follow-up, the probing of his curiosity, that led Zimiles on a wide new path. "It ch anged my life," he said. "I'm a painter - an artist - not a historian." But he was asked to become both. And more. He was asked to draw out himself, and to connect two continents. The project, which is called "The Synagogue and The Carousel," will use a t elevision documentary, an exhibit and a book to tell the story of the folk building and carving tradition of Jewish Eastern Europe. Zimiles is bringing to life the wooden synagogues of Europe filled with carved arks and bimahs (speakers' platforms), woode n vaults and tombstones. These masterpieces of folk art and architecture evolved over hundreds of years and then were destroyed by the Nazis, he said. "But the skills of the wood and stone carvers and painters who made them came to the United States in th e hearts, hands and minds of immigrants and refugees from Eastern Europe," Zimiles said. While these artisans decorated many American synagogues, Reform Congregations came along, modernized the synagogues, and either threw out the old folk art or sold it. "There was almost as much destruction in America," he said. People found carved animals in the garbage, and bought discarded carved arks and lions. Some of the pieces will be in Zimiles' exhibit. The European artisans also found non-secular uses for thei r talents - including what Zimiles described as "the glories of the carved and painted lions and horses found on carousels." Yes, that's right, the teal blue mane you held onto as you were spun around the carnival or fair or Coney Island was most likely c arved by a talented artisan from Eastern Europe. The ponies with the painted legs and dancing hooves were envisioned by the same people who filled churches with color and form. Zimiles sees his projects as a way to mainstream this religious folk art, much as has been done with Shaker, Quaker and Mennonite art. "Jewish folk art is rarely, if ever, shown, which I find a bit strange," he said. "It's part of American heritage. I want to give it its place in the sun." Zimiles hopes to do this with his ongoing lectures at high schools, his work on the book and documentary, and his exhibition, which is scheduled for 2001 in the new Museum of American Folk Art being constructed next to the Museum of Modern Art. He plans to have fiberglass reliefs of Eastern Europ ean tombstones filled with color and detail from folk-art stonecarvers. The exhibit will also contain Zimiles' extensive photographs, archival material from all over Eastern Europe, and art objects from museums and collectors throughout the world - many w hich once held their sacred place in the synagogues. Since this particular painter became a historian, those neglected lions in the Warsaw museum are now one of the star exhibits.

NYSUT secretary-treasurer to retire

NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer Fred Nauman is stepping down after more than 13 years of leading the nation's largest state teachers' federation to prosperity. His resignation is effective this spring. As secretary-treasurer, Nauman administers the union's $ 63 million budget. He has also been a member of the NYSUT Board of Directors since the union's inception in 1972 and has served as chair of NYSUT's Election Committee. "For the past 13 years under Fred's steady hand, NYSUT has become one of the most finan cially stable unions in the world," NYSUT President Thomas Hobart said. "Thanks in large part to his leadership, we are in a position to be able to provide representation, programs and services of unprecedented quality to our members." Nauman, a 1938 refu gee of Nazi Ger-many, is a product of the New York City public school system and of CUNY's Brooklyn College. In 1959, he began his teaching career as a junior high school science instructor in Brooklyn and quickly signed on with the United Federation of T eachers (UFT). He was soon elected UFT chapter chair at JHS 271. But it wasn't until 1968 that Nauman got his first real taste of the powerful impact of labor unions. In that year, he and 18 of his teaching colleagues were fired without cause in what has been dubbed the "Ocean Hill-Brownsville controversy." As the union's district coordinator, he became a major player in the UFT-endorsed strike to preserve teachers' due-process rights. NYSUT continues to work with the state Legislature to improve due-proc ess laws by making the procedure fairer and faster, and by including provisions for discovery hearings and complete disclosure of penalties sought by school boards. Before being elected as NYSUT secretary-treasurer, Nauman served as director and administr ator of the UFT's million-dollar scholarship fund. Nauman has been a delegate to all NYSUT and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conventions since 1969, and he has been an AFT vice president since 1987. He also serves as a member of the National Democ ratic Seniors Coordinating Council.

Delhi's winning ways earn titles

When sports fans are asked about the Broncos, they usually answer with a comment or two on the team's back-to-back Super Bowl wins. Not any more. When that question comes up now, the answer is apt to refer to the SUNY Delhi Broncos cross-country teams that, in November, swept the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III National Championships to bring home both the men's and women's titles. Under head coach and UUPer Robert Backus, Delhi's cross-country teams have earned an arm 's length of honors: This year, the college retained the Pepsi Cup, signifying the best combined cross-country program in the nation. Backus, for the third time, was named NJCAA Division III coach of the year. The NJCAA titles "solidify the importance of athletics at Delhi," said Backus, who spent nearly four years working to bring the national championship meet to Delhi. "It took a great deal of preparation to bring the event here and to have our squad run well on that day" made it well worth the effort, he added. The women's team won its first national crown with a record-setting 28 points. The nearest competitor was Mohawk Valley Community College with 74 points; Cobleskill finished third with 75. The men's team - NJCAA Division III champs for the fift h time in the 1990s - closed out the decade with 29 points in the competition, racing past second-place Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (54 points) and third-place Cobleskill (114) for its second consecutive title. "It was a perfect day for our college and for our athletic program," Backus said. "It shows what students can accomplish if they make the right choices." Backus, who was a runner throughout high school and college, boasts that he can go down his roster and tell you why these outstandi ng athletes chose Delhi. "They came here because they wanted to run, as well as go to school," he said. "These student-athletes represent the college in a very positive fashion. ... It's exciting to be a part of it."