Affirmative action

The UUP Research Department has been charged with creating an affirmative action research database that includes rank and professional salary level, gender, race/ethnicity, years of service and years in rank or salary level.

The database will also include an annual "snapshot" of part-timers by campus, gender and race.

Legislative agenda

Continue the restoration of full-time academic and professional lines

• UUP commends the state Legislature and the governor for the additional funding for faculty lines in the 1999-2000 budget, yet more full-time lines are required
• Since the beginning of the 1995-1996 academic year, SUNY has lost more than 1,000 full-time lines
• SUNY enrollment has increased by more than 3,300 students at state-operated institutions for the 1999-2000 academic year, compounding the faculty shortage
• Although part-time colleagues make valuable contributions to the University, the percentage of part-time faculty in SUNY continues to rise to unacceptably high levels

The power of politics

Here it is, only March, and many people are already sick of the constant barrage of blow-by-blow news reports about presidential primaries, accusations of mud-slinging from all camps, candidates' sound bites and more. Politics. Polls show that people just don't like politics - and often for good reason. But, like it or not, politics plays an important role in our professional lives. Just try to imagine what SUNY would look like if your union was not an effective political player in Albany. Let me jolt your imagination a little by reminding you what might have happened to SUNY if UUP did not "do" politics.

Several years ago, New York's Executive Budget aimed to cut SUNY's state-funded operations by about one-third, which would have forced massive layoffs and possible campus closings. Some trustees actually talked about campus closings; news reports identified campuses that SUNY "planned" to shut down.

It didn't happen.

You may recall another incident when a different governor attempted to lower our pensions by reducing payments into TIAA-CREF.

That didn't happen either.

And how about the proposal to privatize SUNY's teaching hospitals? In case you've forgotten, just keep your eyes and ears open because another dump-the-hospitals proposal is about ready to float to the surface again.

But don't worry. It didn't happen the first time and it won't happen the next time either.

UUP is an effective political organization capable of protecting our University from those bean counters and anti-public education fanatics who want to weaken SUNY and return to the "good old days" when only society's privileged few had access to higher ed.

UUP has made important legislative gains that improve both educational quality and the professional lives of every bargaining unit member. In 1998, we managed to gain passage of the crucially important hospital flex legislation that allows our teaching hospitals to compete on a more level playing field. And our version of "flex" - the one that passed - has strong job protections, thanks to UUP.

Last year, our good work secured:

• additional money from legislators for about 150 new full-time positions;
• extra funds for Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP), the New York State Theatre Institute, and day and elder care;
• passage of a pay bill prior to ratification of our newly negotiated agreement, which meant UUPers received their salary hikes on time;
• inclusion of TIAA-CREF in the early retirement legislation; and
• provisions reducing the tax burden to the maximum extent allowed by the IRS.

We're effective because hundreds of UUPers participate in our political action programs and thousands more give to our vital VOTE/COPE fund. It's a good thing we're active because we'll need all the clout we can muster this year. Lending your brains and muscle will make us even stronger. If you want to get involved, call me or send me an e-mail at bscheuer@uupmail.org.

Building a better relationship

Delegates adopted a resolution authorizing UUP to establish a relationship with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) based on recommendations of a special committee.

According to the resolution, the purposes of the relationship will be:

• for UUP to take a leadership role in unifying higher education nationally and in New York state;
• to foster greater unity and solidarity within the ranks of labor and to advance the cause of academic unionism;
• to protect and advance the interests of the members of UUP;
• to promote the standards and values of the academic workforce in terms of academic excellence and access; and
• to protect and defend the welfare of the academic professions, and to preserve academic freedom, shared governance, due process and the rights of university and college workers.

UUP statewide vice presidents Henry Steck and Thomas Matthews co-chaired the committee.

Capitol gains: UUPers make inroads in Albany

Back to The Well: Volunteer lobbyists blanket Albany for SUNY restorations

UUPers have been busy delivering the union's legislative message to lawmakers both in the state capital and on the road.

On Feb. 15, dozens of volunteer lobbyists convened in The Well of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) for UUP's annual Legislative Luncheon. Amidst sandwiches and soda, they shared the union's vision for SUNY in 2000 with some 200 state legislators and staff members.

"Our message to the Legislature is that access to a quality educational institution is required for the benefit of the middle class - and for those who aren't there to be able to attain it," said Robert Pompi, Binghamton chapter president and a member of the UUP Legislation Committee.

"Through the ladder of education, we were able to move into the middle class," Pompi said, in describing many second-generation Americans. "As UUP lobbyists, we are trying to ensure that the opportunity that was available to us is a step that remains available to future generations of students."

Some state politicians addressed the group of UUP volunteer lobbyists, sharing perspectives of their own.

"The issues that UUP and New York face aren't partisan issues," said Jay Dinga (R-Johnson City), ranking minority member of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. "I remain committed to doing what's best for the state university in the long run, to ensure that the SUNY system is enhanced."

Funding SUNY is "not just another expense," added state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. "It's an investment in the future that we have to make."

In a morning briefing held before the luncheon, UUP President William Scheuerman and Legislation Chair Patricia Bentley emphasized that, according to the governor's budget plan, the University is facing $121 million in cuts.

"While SUNY says that the governor's fiscal proposal is a good budget for the University, the bulk of the allocation is eaten up by contractually negotiated salaries for this year and last, inflation and 'RAM' (the trustees' funding allocation formula) rewards," Scheuerman said. "Once again, the trustees didn't ask for enough."

"We need enough money so that all of our campuses, from university centers to university colleges of technology, can meet their missions," Bentley added.

Meanwhile, from Canton to Buffalo and Plattsburgh to Stony Brook, district lobbyists have been bringing the union's agenda to lawmakers at home.

At Voice press time, UUP activists were also getting ready for the NYSUT-sponsored Higher Education Lobby Day. Slated for Feb. 29, the annual event provides an opportunity for the union to present its legislative program to state lawmakers in Albany.

Another forum for spreading the union's message is planned for March 14, when UUPers will join their K-12 NYSUT colleagues in its "Committee of 100" education lobbying day at the LOB.

Scheuerman to Legislature: Support and safeguard SUNY

The 2000-2001 Executive Budget plan for SUNY contains a $121.59 million hole, and Scheuerman asked state lawmakers for help in filling it.

In testimony before a joint hearing of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees early last month, Scheuerman said that, while the governor's financial plan funds collective bargaining and includes minimal money for inflation, the union is "deeply troubled" by the substantial gap in the SUNY budget.

The rift is formed by the governor's failure to: address the $116 million revenue transfer from the University's teaching hospitals to SUNY's academic programs; include the $2.23 million necessary to continue restoring the more than 1,000 full-time faculty lines lost since 1995-96; and supply $3.36 million in support of economically disadvantaged students and child care services on SUNY campuses, he asserted.

This budgetary gap only serves to exacerbate the problems resulting from RAM, "where the trustees redistribute lump-sum appropriations in a way that underfunds a majority of campuses," Scheuerman said.

Alan Lubin, executive vice president of NYSUT, also addressed the legislators. He emphasized that while other states are making bigger investments in their public higher education systems - at an average of 5.8 percent over the last five years - New York is "rapidly falling behind." SUNY is, at best, "treading water," Lubin said.

Accordingly, the two union leaders asked the legislators to continue the support they previously gave the University.

"Last year, you and your colleagues led the fight to maintain SUNY's national reputation," by funding additional full-time faculty lines and essential programs for disadvantaged students, Scheuerman testified.

Because the governor failed to provide funding for the additional faculty in this year's fiscal plan, "we again ask you Éto provide the necessary leadership in safeguarding and supporting our great state university," he said.

"Your request to restore last year's full-time faculty lines - with money to enhance faculty a bit - is a reasonable, responsible proposal," remarked Edward Sullivan (D-New York), chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. "I say, especially to my colleagues, that I certainly see no reason why we can't respond to this modest proposal."

Scheuerman also stressed that the SUNY faculty "regularly receives national recognition, even after 10 years or more of continually having to produce high-quality results with fewer and fewer resources."

SUNY finds itself in this "predicament," Scheuerman told the lawmakers, because the University's trustees have "abdicated their fiscal responsibilities by failing to request sufficient resources for the state-operated campuses."

Moreover, the trustees' abandonment of their fiduciary obligations "is inexplicable in light of strong state revenues and budgetary surpluses," he asserted.

The Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a research and education organization, made a similar budgetary assessment. In an FPI budget briefing held after the executive plan was revealed, Executive Director Frank Mauro said that given the state's current fiscal climate, the governor's budget is a "missed opportunity" to use the current boom on Wall Street to address social disparities, foster access to the state university and build the state's middle class in the long run.

Mauro characterized the 2000-2001 Executive Budget as a "mixed story" in addressing the state's social and economic inequities. The proposal invests in some social needs, Mauro said. He cited, for example, the fact that there's no plan to reduce TAP. However, it simultaneously cuts funding for the state's "highly successful" higher education opportunity programs, such as the $2.59 million cut planned for the Educational Opportunity Programs, Mauro said.

2000 Winter Delegate Assembly: UUP celebrates union women

"... I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well ... and ain't I a woman?

"... I have borne 13 children, and seen most of 'em sold into slavery, and when I cried out, with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me ... and ain't I a woman?"

Abolitionist Sojourner Truth, 1851

Those words, first spoken nearly 150 years ago, rang out loud and clear at the union's 2000 Winter Delegate Assembly, during which historic and contemporary women activists were honored for their leadership in labor and higher ed.

Sojourner Truth's impassioned plea was just one of eight declarations of labor-union heroines included in the special presentation of "We Were There!," a multimedia project consisting of slides, music and narration. Eight UUP activists stepped into the shoes of these historic leaders by taking on their personae and reading their original writings, all against a backdrop of larger-than-life images of the sisters who shaped the union movement.

The presentation, developed as part of the Northeast Regional University and College Labor Education Association Summer Institute for Union Women, kicked off UUP's celebration of labor-union women. Former UUP President Nuala Drescher of Buffalo State and former UUP Executive Board member Judith Wishnia of Stony Brook were honored on their retirements.

Wishnia participated in the presentation, embodying the spirit of activist Sarah Bagley. Joining her at the podium were: Margaret Acara of Buffalo HSC as Jessica Govea; Lorna Arrington, SUNY Buffalo, as Sojourner Truth; Ora Bouey, Stony Brook HSC, as Charlotte Forten; Jean Dickson, SUNY Buffalo, as Mother Jones; statewide Women's Rights and Concerns Committee Chair Vicki Janik, Farmingdale, as Rose Schneiderman; Candace Merbler, Albany, as Pauline Newman; and Idalia Torres, Fredonia, as Dolores Huerta.

United Auto Worker Flo Stern and Musicians Union member Bev Grant brought the show to life.

And, as the presentation ended, the women brought the more than 300 delegates and guests to their feet to sing the original song, "We Were There," written by Grant on International Women's Day, March 8, 1997:

" ... We were there in the factories, we were there in the mills, we were there in the mines, and came home to fix the meals. We were there on the picket lines, we raised our voices loud. It makes me proud, just knowing we were there."

The celebration continued with a presentation to Drescher of a photo scrapbook and framed collage.

"I am a congenital mischief maker. Now I'm moving it to a different phase," Drescher said of her retirement plans.

Wishnia received a mock, framed Voice cover emblazoned with "Judy ... Judy ... Judy" and three photographs of her in action: one in heated discussion with Gov. George Pataki, another carrying a picket sign outside SUNY System Administration and the last in a warm embrace with UUP President William Scheuerman.

The UUP Communications Department also put together a photographic display under the banner, "Celebrating UUP Women: Leadership in Labor and Higher Education."

"The women of yesterday and today continue to make lasting impressions on the union movement," Scheuerman said.

Conference to explore faculty's academic freedom

Several groups with a vested interest in public higher education are joining together to host a conference on today's most pressing concerns about academic freedom.

The conference, set for March 31 and April 1 at SUNY Albany, is sponsored by the SUNY Faculty Senate and supported by UUP and the Office of the SUNY Chancellor.

Stony Brook UUPer Joel Rosenthal, a professor of history, is organizing the conference. He said the impetus for the event is to respond to the new challenges to academic freedom, which include distance learning, intellectual copyright and the "proprietary research" that comes from corporate contributions.

These pressing issues in academic freedom have all surfaced within the last decade, he said. The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for examining some of the problems associated with maintaining academic freedom as a central value in American education.

"Corporations give money for research and then want control over the findings," said Rosenthal, who was active in the American Association of University Professors academic freedom and tenure committees, and is now on the Stony Brook UUP executive board.

"We're going to look at a lot of different dimensions of academic freedom," Rosenthal said. "Our speakers are on the left and the right in the fights in the culture wars."

The opening speaker is Walter Metzger, Columbia University professor emeritus and an historian of academic freedom; Nassau County Community College President Sean Fanelli is the closing speaker. A majority of the sessions will include groups of panelists - including UUP President William Scheuerman, speaking on public university systems, and SUNY Trustee Randy Daniels.

Other guests include academics whose "writings have energized the contemporary debate and modeled the unfettered pursuit of truth in academe," said Joseph Flynn, Faculty Senate president.

Registration, which includes resource materials, is $50, payable to "The UFS Academic Freedom Conference." Checks can be sent to Carol Colby, SUNY Faculty Senate secretary, at SUNY Plaza, Albany, N.Y. 12246. Include telephone number and e-mail address.

Rooms are available through direct registration at Hampton Inn (518) 438-2822 and Days Inn (518) 459-3600, both in Albany. Indicate conference attendance when making hotel reservations.

Rosenthal said the conference was the brainchild of former Faculty Senate President Vincent Aceto, an Albany UUPer. Following a controversial women's studies event at SUNY New Paltz, it was decided to hold a conference delving into the even more intricate details of the overall challenges of academic freedom.

The conference will begin Friday afternoon and will include dinner on campus Friday evening.

Hillary sets off from SUNY Purchase

UUPer Jean Kyff of SUNY Purchase wasn't about to let Bill Clinton get away with a perfunctory handshake. She had something to tell the president and she was determined to get her message to him.

So while most eyes were on first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - at the Purchase gymnasium last month to announce her historic candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat from New York - Kyff moved to a set of side doors in anticipation that that was where the First Family would exit. She was right.

"All of a sudden, I was standing in front of the president," said Kyff. "I said: 'Thank you so much for the tuition tax credit' and he stopped for about 20 seconds. Bill Clinton is the first president to recognize what an extraordinary burden college tuition can be on a family."

Kyff, who has put two children through college, was one of about 2,000 Hillary supporters to join the Clintons for the Senate announcement. Purchase chapter President Caroline Kyzivat said several UUPers were involved in planning the campaign event as part of their campus responsibilities.

The Last Word

A right or a commodity?: Trade agreement could have dire impact on education

My work as a sociologist brought me to Seattle to observe the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings, where as many as 100,000 activists demanded reforms in the global trading system. Farmers, steelworkers, environmentalists, teamsters, church groups, students, local politicians and many others joined in the predominantly nonviolent (if disruptive) protests. A close look at the WTO and its implications for both democracy and policy show that the protesters had valid cause for alarm.

The more than 900-page agreement that defines the WTO touches nearly every aspect of the world's economies. It extends prior terms of international cooperation around trade in physical goods that crossed borders to include more complex exchanges in investment and services. The protests helped stop - for the time being - the expansion of the WTO's agenda. But powerful forces continue to press for stronger global agreements restricting local and national governments' abilities to define their own economic goals, including their abilities to provide public education.

The WTO agreement includes a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which requires governments to reduce regulations on public services, opening these "markets" to foreign competition.

One effect of the agreement is that the reductions in public funding for higher education that we have experienced at SUNY are mirrored around our nation and world, as government leaders anticipate the global liberalization of public education "markets." Free-trade proponents argue that reducing public regulation and funding higher education promotes greater efficiency, as education is privatized and as public institutions are forced to turn to private sources of funding. In practice, GATS restricts the ability of countries to restrict foreign ownership and control of their public education systems; it also threatens broad public access to quality education. GATS also poses serious threats to academic freedom and it undermines the notion that education serves purposes other than commercial ones.

Efforts to restrict further trade liberalization under the WTO agreement are consistent with UUP's work to protect our profession and the University. In fact, our struggle to improve public higher education in New York will be futile if global trade proponents succeed in advancing GATS, since the WTO agreement supersedes all national and local laws. A private company wishing to compete in New York's education "market" could challenge state regulation and funding policies within the WTO, arguing that they provide unfair trade advantages or that they otherwise impede free trade.

GATS can get us if we're not looking. Educators must stay informed about the WTO and challenge its efforts to change education from a right of every citizen into a commodity.

The following resources provide useful background on the WTO:

• A Citizen's Guide to the WTO at http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/publications/gtwpubs.htm#WTO;
• Whose Trade Organization?: Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy (Washington, D.C.: Public Citizen);
• and the International Forum on Globalization at http://www.ifg.org.
• For particular attention to trade and education issues, see the Web site of Education International, an international educators' union with which UUP is associated through AFT at http://www.ei-ie.org.
• To find out more about upcoming protests against the global trading system, go to http://www.A16.org.

(UUP delegate Jacquelyn Smith is an assistant professor of sociology at SUNY Stony Brook.)

At the LOB again: Tuesdays in 2000

First, the coffee shop. The strategy unfolds here on Tuesdays in 2000. UUP lobbyists check their appointment schedules and split into teams so that every senator and assembly member on the list is personally visited that day.

The union's volunteer lobbyists make sure they have everything they need for their presentations to lawmakers. Brochures? Check. UUP buttons? Check. Talking points? Check.

UUPers spill out of the elevators in teams to fan out in the Legislative Office Building. There are several first-time UUP lobbyists in this group: Valerie Madeska of Farmingdale, Vito Cavallaro of Optometry and John Marino, Stony Brook HSC chapter president.

This year, the message is about the $121 million hole in the proposed SUNY operating budget. UUP Legislation Chair Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh said SUNY for years has tapped into its teaching hospitals for revenue, creating a systemwide deficit.

"We feel there is a movement to privatize the teaching hospitals and we are not in favor of that," Bentley said to Assembly-woman Joan Christensen (D-Syracuse) during her first visit of the day.

"Neither am I," Christensen said. "I don't want to see any cuts either."

Assemblyman William Magee (D-Oneida) said UUPers have his "full support" to restore funding to SUNY.

Bentley talked about the shortfall of money for campus child care in the proposed state budget. SUNY Plattsburgh has the only licensed infant care facility in the county, she said. Parents depend on it.

In Sen. Mary Lou Rath's (R-Williamsville) office, Bentley talked of proposed cuts to the Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP).

"The senator's always been very supportive of EOP," said Rath's legislative aide Sharon Rich. She also talked about the importance of SUNY to the economy of the communities: "It's always boggled my mind that the importance of higher education has not been on the top of the list. It has everything to do with economic development."

Next stop: The office of Assemblyman Martin Luster (D-Ithaca). He was ready to hear about the plight of SUNY's hospitals.

"These are teaching hospitals with a dramatic teaching mission and that costs money," he said. "You can't compare them to a community hospital."

Joseph Morelle (D-Rochester), a SUNY Geneseo alum who also serves on the Assembly Higher Education Committee, said the governor would like to put aside this year's budget surplus for future tax cuts, "but the upstate economy can benefit from additional investment in SUNY and higher education."

UUPers told him how SUNY's colleges of technology are to implement four-year programs, but they haven't been given the funding for faculty to develop new courses.

Sen. Owen Johnson (R-Babylon) listened to UUP lobbyists talk about the need to restore full-time faculty lines. More and more adjuncts are being used to replace full-time faculty; a process retired professor John Hain, a New Paltz UUPer, called "a real shell game."

In a later visit, Assemblywoman Patricia Acampora's (R-Riverhead) chief of staff Rob Parker agreed that part-time employees are doing far too much teaching. UUPer John Schmidt, Stony Brook HSC, said Acampora "needs to make the leap from emotional attachment to, "Let's fund them.'"

Part-timers lack office space, phones and secretarial support, noted UUPer Edward Quinn of Stony Brook. "Eventually it affects the way students are educated," he said.

Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-E. Setauket) said the steady decline in SUNY funding has been "a root-canal like extraction of SUNY in the past years." He said SUNY is going to require a "cash infusion" and pledged "to carry this message even further and with increasing volume."

Englebright, a UUPer, said if there is a resistance to giving SUNY money this year - when there's a budget surplus - "then it's ideological (as) some of us believe it has been all along." He told UUP lobbyists not to accept an answer from the state that says the surplus is needed for a rainy day fund.

Englebright said he is "prepared to go to the wall" for SUNY this year.

It's responses like these that assure UUPers of the need to visit the LOB often and talk about what is happening in 29 corners of New York where state-operated campuses are located.

"Public higher ed can get lost in the shuffle," Bentley said. "If we're not here, the message gets lost."

Organizing drive

Delegates put UUP on record in support of efforts to organize Sodexho-Marriott food-service workers at SUNY Albany and on other University campuses.

The workers are struggling to win union recognition with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees' International Union (HERE).

In addition, delegates resolved to give chapters the authority to call for a boycott, in cooperation with HERE, should Sodexho-Marriott fail to bargain in good faith by March 30.

UUP advertising campaign feels University's pain

Ouch.

That's the painful message behind UUP's 2000 legislative advertising campaign that recently debuted on billboards, television and in newspapers across the state.

"SUNY cuts hurt us all" is the theme of the ad campaign designed to supplement UUP's legislative program. As in previous years, the ads target state lawmakers, their Albany staffs and taxpayers in an effort to build widespread support for a strong SUNY budget.

The billboard, print and television ads depict the future of SUNY, which would be impacted by the $121 million hole in the Executive Budget proposal for the state university.

A $116 million deficit at the teaching hospitals, $2.5 million cut from the Educational Opportunity Program for economically disadvantaged students, $2.23 million cut in new full-time faculty lines, and an almost $100,000 cut from child care services for University students, faculty and staff constitute the gap in the governor's fiscal plan for SUNY.

"They're talking about cutting $121 million from SUNY," the television narrator says. "We're talking about how much those cuts will hurt."

Ouch.

The ad campaign is scheduled to continue through early May, primarily in the Albany area. However, to support UUP's new district lobbying initiative, the ads are also running in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Long Island. The union is also offering to subsidize smaller, upstate chapters that are interested in placing the ads in local newspapers and on local television stations.

Going on leave? Retiring? Let UUP know

Bargaining unit members who are taking leave without pay or are looking toward retirement need to act quickly in order to maintain their union membership - and the benefits that go along with it.

Those taking leave without pay have 30 days after going off the payroll to send a check for $47 to cover dues for one year; shorter periods may be prorated. The checks should be mailed to the UUP Administrative Office in Albany.

This ensures continuation of UUP membership voting rights and the $6,000 life insurance and $1,500 accidental death plans. Access to other UUP-, NYSUT- and AFT-member-purchased benefits is also continued.

However, these dues are not payments that continue health, dental, vision or prescription drug plans.

Unionists contemplating retirement can retain their UUP membership by sending a check for $34 to the UUP Administrative Office.

A person who has retired as an active member of UUP can choose to become a retired union member at any time.

The $34 covers annual dues to UUP; membership does not include coverage for health insurance or prescription drugs, but ensures coverage under the UUP Group Life Insurance ($1,000), a discount vision plan and access to discounted affiliate (NYSUT and AFT) retired member benefits.

Retired members looking to take advantage of dental and/or vision plans can sign up for the federally legislated COBRA plan, which continues dental and vision plans with the same benefits as active members. To continue coverage, retirees must call the UUP Benefit Trust Fund within 60 days of losing eligibility. UUPers have 90 days from retirement to enroll in one of the union's three dental plans.

For more information and required forms or applications, call the UUP Benefit Trust Fund at (800) 887-3863.

In solidarity

In solidarity for human and worker rights issues, delegates:

• gave UUP the go-ahead to write the appropriate government agencies to demand the immediate release of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted under improper circumstances of murdering two FBI agents in 1975;
• congratulated Cortland Auxiliary Services Corporation workers on organizing a union; and
• affirmed their support for CSEA and PEF during contract negotiations with the state.

SUNY sound bites

Assembly Higher Education Committee Chair Edward Sullivan: "There are people who prepared the Executive Budget who don't seem to understand that, in order to do a job, you need tools. You need to convince my colleagues that they really want to give you the tools you need to continue doing the job you do so well."

Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Kenneth LaValle: "I believe the Legislature must begin the process of addressing the SUNY hospital issue and the $116 million deficit in the 2000 budget. With that will flow good things for the campuses throughout the SUNY system."

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall: "For the future of New York state's economy, we have to invest in the state university system."

Assembly Higher Education Committee Ranking Minority Member Jay Dinga: "I remain committed to doing what's best for the state university in the long run, to ensure that the SUNY system is enhanced."

NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin: While other states are making bigger investments in their public higher education systems ... New York is "rapidly falling behind." SUNY, at best, is "treading water."

UUP President William Scheuerman: "Once again, the SUNY Board of Trustees didn't ask for enough."

No better substitute: Oswego UUPer shares life's lessons with students of all ages, backgrounds

You could say that Alfred Frederick is diving into unfamiliar territory. After all, he teaches graduate students how to teach, yet he had not been in a classroom since 1978. So, last year, he worked as a substitute teacher in Syracuse city schools and surprised many of his students when he stuck it out the entire year.

"It was a challenge," said Frederick, an Oswego UUPer. "And I challenge other college professors to get out there."

Frederick has lived and taught all around the world. But the lessons he learned growing up in Opelika, Ala., are the ones he remembers most vividly and incorporates in his style of teaching: Students from different walks of life, backgrounds or economic situations can succeed when given the right tools.

A professor of curriculum and instruction at Oswego, Frederick received his bachelor of science degree from Northern Illinois University and taught middle school general science in Chicago for four years. He later taught for 13 years in Brussels and seven years in Brazil before receiving an associate professor appointment at SUNY.

"I've been able to compare and contrast the urban, suburban and rural classroom environments in America to the teaching and learning environments in other countries," Frederick said. "We have a particular need to be preoccupied with the future of the next generations."

Growing up in segregated Alabama was not easy on Frederick and his four older siblings. His parents worked as sharecroppers in the cotton fields and Frederick was the only child in his family to receive a formal high school education.

"I graduated from the J.W. Darden High School as valedictorian of my class," Frederick recalled. "Positive expectations and reinforcement created an environment that served to enhance the teaching and learning process. The students at my high school were highly motivated, regardless of the obstacles created by the segregated and racist socio-cultural environment of the community."

Frederick is "known as a teacher who always provides a unique and challenging perspective to his discipline," said Gregory Auleta, president of the UUP chapter at Oswego and a member of the union's statewide Executive Board. "This is especially true when he is able to incorporate his extensive classroom and research experience from his years of teaching in South America."

Frederick, a two-time Fulbright scholar, is currently in West Africa on a Fulbright award. He plans to continue substitute teaching when he returns to the States, he said.

VP a full-time post

Recognizing that UUP is more active than ever, delegates agreed to restore to full time the statewide positions of vice president for academics and vice president for professionals.

According to the resolution, the vice presidents will work under the same guidelines and conditions as were in effect May 30, 1995 - the last time the posts were full time.

The change will be effective with the upcoming elections, set for the Spring DA, May 12-13.

Keeping watch

Delegates took an historic first step toward making SUNY a "Fair Labor Practice Employer" when they adopted a joint resolution from the Task Force on Labor and Higher Education and the statewide Solidarity Committee.

The resolution calls on SUNY to ensure that its contractors engage in practices that: ensure good-faith bargaining; pay a living wage; offer equal opportunity employment and affirmative action; provide humane working conditions in an environment that advances academic unionism; and require prospective contractors and their parent companies to disclose state or federal violations, judgments, decisions or actions regarding unfair labor practices.

In a separate matter, delegates supported a resolution encouraging members to work with NYSUT through their chapters on charter school issues and to monitor proposals that carry college affiliation or cooperative arrangements.

Women's History Month: Yesterday

Eleanor Roosevelt changed how people view the role of women

For those who know of her early life, it seems ironic that Eleanor Roosevelt is today a feminist icon. Her upbringing was Victorian. As a young woman, she embraced a submissive definition of a woman's role. Following her marriage in 1905, she spent nearly a decade primarily having children. She was not initially a women's suffragist, and she was only a lukewarm supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

However, Eleanor Roosevelt deserves to be considered a leader of the rights of women. Soon after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, she began to take a different course in her life. Eleanor's initiation into politics began largely by meeting other women who were breaking barriers in their fields. In the 1920s, she established relationships with people like Esther Lapp and Elizabeth Read, two women activists in the newly formed League of Women Voters; Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, two activists in the women's wing of the New York Democratic Party, who became housemates at her Hyde Park retreat, Val-Kill; and Rose Schneiderman, president of the New York branch of the Women's Trade Union League, which Eleanor joined in 1922. With Cook and Dickerman, she became active in New York politics - writing for the New York State Democratic Party women's newspaper - and, when Franklin ran for governor of New York in 1928, she campaigned successfully across the state for women's votes.

Another important factor in Eleanor Roosevelt's breaking away from domestic life and striking out on her own was the discovery of her husband's infidelity with her secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1918. Eleanor looked to find her own interests, her own friends and her own role. In 1921, FDR was stricken with polio, never to walk unaided again. Were it not for Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR would most likely have retired to his country estate in Hyde Park and remained outside of history.

As first lady, beginning in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt began to make a real impact. She was the earliest first lady to hold her own press conferences, and allowed only women reporters to attend. During this time, she made a lasting friendship with Lorena Hickock, who made a lasting impact on Eleanor's understanding of public relations.

It was in strengthening the role of the first lady that Eleanor made her greatest contribution to women during the first two terms of the Roosevelt administration. Dealing with the Depression was the most important task facing her disabled husband. She earned a reputation for observing social and economic conditions and recommending solutions, becoming known as "Eleanor, Everywhere." She thus earned the respect, love and, in some cases, enmity of many people. People were not neutral about Eleanor Roosevelt. She received many irate letters, telling her to stay home. She took a forthright stand on issues of race, which angered many Southerners. The New Deal was also the first time an administration included women in important positions in government. This began with Frances Perkins as secretary of labor. Eleanor was so prominent that, in 1940, when it was unclear if FDR would win an unthinkable third term as president, she spoke to an uncertain Democratic Convention in Chicago and carried the day for his candidacy.

World War II, with all its terrors, really opened up opportunities for women. Someone had to continue war production. Eleanor argued for women on the production lines. (Remember the "Rosie the Riveter" posters?) Next, she succeeded in getting private industry and the government to establish day-care centers, eventually caring for 1.5 million children.

Following Franklin's death in 1945, instead of retiring from public life, Eleanor Roosevelt accepted President Truman's invitation to be the first woman on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. She earned a reputation for toughness in debate with the Russian representative over the fate of refugees after WWII. She also led the U.N.'s work to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - her greatest achievement. She remained prominent in U.S. political and international affairs as a private citizen, working for the U.N. Both Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960 sought her support for their candidacies for president. She chaired, at Kennedy's invitation, the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.

Eleanor Roosevelt was not responsible for major changes in women's status in our society through specific programs or legislation. Rather, it was by her example that she advanced women's rights in this country and around the world. She showed that a first lady could be more than just an ornamental figure. She demonstrated that a woman could overcome many hardships to achieve greatness. Aside from her roles as first lady and mother, Eleanor held down the roles of social worker, educator, news columnist and writer, wartime leader, college instructor (Brandeis), political party leader, presidential advisor and diplomat. She did this without a college education. No one since has made as much of an impact on our collective thinking about the roles of women.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill (ERVK) continues her work on women's empowerment, race relations, improving the lives of children and youth, and supporting human rights and the United Nations. ERVK conducts such programs as the Girls' Leadership Workshop, the Race Relations Project, Welfare Reform and Human Rights Monitoring, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Lectures, Elderhostel and the annual Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal Ceremony. See its web site at www.ervk.org, write to P.O. Box 255, Hyde Park, N.Y. 12538 or call (914) 229-5302.

- Daniel A. Strasser

(Daniel A. Strasser is executive director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill. UUP President William Scheuerman serves on the ERVK Board of Directors.)

Women's History Month: Today

Game designed with girls in mind

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), an assistant professor of media study at SUNY Buffalo is launching a unique software game that addresses the lack of computer educational activities oriented toward girls, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

UUPer Mary Flanagan has received a $199,920 NSF grant to get "The Adventures of Josie True" up and running on the Internet, where kids will be able to play it free of charge. If funding permits, Flanagan hopes to make Josie True available on CD-ROM for about $10, for schools or homes without an Internet connection.

The game is designed to attract young women, particularly girls of color, to computer-learning activities that are fun, challenging and full of characters from their own lives, neighborhoods and cultural histories. "The Adventures of Josie True" web site is http://www.josietrue.com.

The eponymous "Josie" is a frisky, computer-designed, 5'1," 11-year-old Chinese-American fourth-grader. With her black hair dancing and arms akimbo, she looks like she bolted straight out of Japanese anima to battle Mothra. And in one sense, she has.

"Believe it or not," Flanagan said, "most of the thousands of educational computer games on the market are designed and packaged to appeal to white kids, with the majority of games created in a boys' 'aesthetic.' It's one way girls are being shut out of computer technology."

"Rarely does a game feature a principal character of a nonwhite race or ethnicity," Flanagan added. "I hope to help girls, especially underrepresented girls, to embrace computer technology as a tool for play, study and all creative enterprises."

Josie games are very entertaining, but that's not all. They are also designed to reinforce specific lessons in the middle school social studies, science and math curricula. They introduce historical characters in their own, historically accurate milieu - characters who not only are accomplished and fascinating in their own right, but who serve as role models for girls.

Josie has been in the works for almost two years, but Flanagan's teaching duties, limited funding and her work with urban girls in a hands-on Saturday computer technology program have kept her and her students from working on the project full time.

"We really needed an infusion of funds, not only to develop the games without interruption," she said, "but to get them up on the Internet so girls could access them for free." The NSF agreed.

"The American Association of University Women (AAUW) produced a report a few years ago that pointed to gender gaps in our schools that shortchange girls," Flanagan said. "It asserted that schools fail to engage girls in computer activities - and even if the girls learn to operate the hardware, the AAUW report claimed that schools don't have the time to teach girls how to use this technology."

To aggravate the situation, she said, the software industry plays it safe when marketing technology to kids.

"They pitch computer software and hardware to the proven market - those children who already have the means to buy it and use it," Flanagan said.

Flanagan said past experience in the software field made her realize that public funding is absolutely necessary to provoke interest in the new technologies among girls, and particularly among girls of color.

When a project has noncommercial funding, Flanagan noted, "it can take the kind of risks in the design and marketing arena that commercial producers will not take."

Like many educators, Flanagan insists that, if the information revolution is to include people of all economic classes, races and ethnicities, computer material must excite the interest of the children who are now being ignored.

In the first Josie True adventure game, the heroine's science teacher, Ms. Trombone - who also is an inventor - vanishes. Josie sets off to find her. Her search eventually takes her to Chicago of the 1920s and to Paris, where Bessie Coleman, the first African-American aviatrix, offers assistance to Josie and the players.

"When racial discrimination denied Coleman the right to procure a pilot's license in this country," she said, "she went to France, where she trained and began her flying career."

To complete the search for the science teacher, players must navigate 14 smaller games that use principles of math, science and history to produce the clues that facilitate their journey.

Flanagan said future Josie True episodes are being planned. Like the first one, they will be available online and, if funding permits, offered on CD-ROM.

"If we, as a society, promote the concentration of technological knowledge and its power in the hands and heads of those who, by virtue of their race and economic class, already have it, we're making a big mistake," Flanagan insisted.

"Computer knowledge is essential for every child today," she said. "Educational games give us a variety of tools to teach computer skills and to help kids gain access to hundreds of educational opportunities in many disciplines."

"If we continue to rely on the marketplace for direct access to computer technology, we are denying equal access to girls, the poor and working classes, and to people of color," she said. "In doing that, we continue to rob ourselves of the intellectual and creative talents of the majority of our population. How smart is that?"

- Patricia Donovan

(UUPer Patricia Donovan is a senior editor with the University of Buffalo News Services.)