State spending plan in place, finally

In finalizing the terms of the 2000-2001 fiscal plan for New York, state lawmakers endorsed two major components of UUP's legislative program for SUNY by including $4.4 million to continue reinstating full-time faculty lines and the opportunity for broader participation in the Board of Trustees' budget allocation process.

The appropriation for new full-time faculty lines almost doubles last year's budgetary allotment, and indicates the Legislature's commitment to rebuild the University.

"UUP appreciates the funding for new full-time faculty at SUNY," William Scheuerman, union president, said. "This legislative support enables us to get closer to our goal of restoring the more than 1,000 full-time faculty lines the Univer-sity lost since the mid-1990s," he said.

"It also demonstrates the lawmakers' belief in a strong, quality state higher education system, which requires an established base of full-time faculty members," Scheuerman said.

The Legislature addressed UUP's objections to the trustees' mechanistic "reward" system of allocation to campuses as well, by imposing reporting requirements on SUNY System Administration.

SUNY will now need to give five-days' notice to lawmakers and other interested parties before making Budget Allocation Program (formerly "RAM") disbursements to campuses. And, the administration will be required to notify the Legislature, state comptroller and budget director of each mission review allocation.

"These reporting requirements provide a needed oversight to SUNY actions," Scheuerman said. And it puts some needed legislative restraints on the trustees.

Other funds to SUNY's state-operated campuses under the new $77.5 billion budget include $2.7 million for the Educational Opportunity Program for economically disadvantaged students, $1.1 million in campus child care services and $1 million in academic achievement scholarships. The New York State Theatre Institute will gain $200,000 in "member item" support, obtained by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) as one of dozens of grants arranged by individual lawmakers for organizations and projects in their districts.

By design, the Legislature will address the SUNY hospital deficit outside of the budget process, pending a report by the University with its plan to solve the problem. UUP has maintained - ever since state Comptroller H. Carl McCall identified and disclosed the $116 million gap last fall - that the shortfall is due to a misguided state budgetary practice of transferring funds from the three teaching hospitals to academic campuses.

"The funding crisis at the SUNY teaching hospitals remains of critical concern to UUP," Scheuerman said. "We look forward to working closely with the Legislature and the University to resolve this chronic issue."

While this is the 16th consecutive year that the state's budget is late, the plan was adopted far earlier than in recent years - 35 days after the April 1 due date.

UUP, state agree on contract enhancements

It was good, and it just got better.

UUP and the state have agreed to a number of "important enhancements" to the union's recently negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

"Your strong support, UUP's increasing political clout and the relationship we developed with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations have made it possible for us to enrich salary and benefit provisions of our new contract," UUP President William Scheuerman said. "In short, the state will pay us six months sooner and, in the third and fourth years, the state will pay us more."

Scheuerman stressed that "these are enhancements and we have given nothing in exchange but the hard work and active support" of the membership.

Among the salary enhancements: Bargaining unit members will receive 3.5 percent annual salary increases in the final two years of the agreement, up from 3 percent; salary increases will be effective the pay periods closest to either July 1 or Sept. 1, instead of Jan. 1 or March 1 of the following year; annual inconvenience pay, for employees regularly scheduled to work at least four hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., will increase from $400 to $500; and the state will increase its contribution to dependent care accounts of employees earning up to $55,000.

Benefit improvements include: the hearing aid reimbursement will increase by $200 a year to $1,000 in 2001 and $1,200 in 2002; there will be a $250 reimbursement for annual, rather than biennial, physical exams; dependent student health insurance coverage, as well as Benefit Trust Fund dental and vision coverage, will be continued for three months following graduation; and employees called to national military active duty will receive premium-free dependent coverage.

The Memorandum of Understanding also resolves two issues under discussion since the contract was ratified last fall: Eligible part-timers can take advantage of the sick-leave exchange program, effective Jan. 1, 2001, and clinical practice participants hired after July 26, 1976, are now permitted the same 15 percent tax-deferral of clinical-practice income as employees in tiers I and II.

UUP bargaining unit members who participate in the state's Teachers Retirement System or the Employee Retirement System will be included in any legislation that affects employee contributions to these guaranteed retirement plans.

An addendum is being mailed to members to keep with their 1999-2003 agreement. Go to www.uupinfo.org for more detailed information. Click on "Contract."

CSEA contract ratified

In other negotiations news, state workers represented by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) have ratified a new four-year contract with the state, approving the agreement 44,245-2,478. CSEA members had been working without a new contract since April 1, 1999.

The new pact calls for two years of 3 percent pay hikes and two years of 3.5 percent increases, along with a $500 one-time bonus.

VPs again are full-time UUP officers

Delegates to UUP's 2000 Spring Delegate Assembly elected two new vice presidents who, for the first time since 1996, will do the jobs on a full-time basis.

The VP posts opened up following the retirements of Thomas Matthews of Geneseo and Henry Steck of Cortland.

Phillip Smith of Syracuse HSC was elected as statewide vice president for academics, while John Marino of Stony Brook HSC was chosen to serve as vice president for professionals. Smith beat E. Wayne Ross of Binghamton, 155-61; Marino ran unopposed.

The vice president positions shifted to part time as one of several cost-saving measures by the union during difficult SUNY budget battles and bargaining talks. The move back to full time allows the two officers greater opportunity to mobilize members against the newest wave of economic and political crises facing the state university, according to UUP President William Scheuerman.

Delegates also elected Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud of Brooklyn HSC, who ran unopposed for a fourth consecutive two-year term.

In statewide Executive Board races, challenger Frederick Floss of Buffalo State slipped past incumbent Michael Zweig of SUNY Stony Brook, 115-103, to fill the one-year academic seat vacated by Smith. Incumbent Albert Ermanovics of SUNY Buffalo ran unopposed for the one-year professional seat held by Marino.

Incumbents Caroline Bailey of ESF, Gregory Auleta of Oswego and Lorna Arrington of SUNY Buffalo were returned to the board for another two years. Bailey bested challenger Eric Russell of Brooklyn HSC, 130-84, while Auleta beat Barbara Silverstone of Syracuse HSC, 137-77. Arrington ran unopposed.

Kenneth Kallio of Geneseo and Edward Quinn of SUNY Stony Brook were elected to their first terms on the board. Quinn defeated Brooklyn HSC's Russell, 139-72; Kallio ran unopposed.

In related business, delegates approved by acclamation separate resolutions honoring Matthews and Steck for their years of dedication to UUP and academic unionism.

Steck "has taken the lead on issues such as protecting tenure, protecting academic freedom and advancing the interests of part-timers," the resolution noted. "We in UUP recognize these efforts and remain indebted to him."

Delegates also expressed their gratitude to Matthews for his work as vice president for professionals, treasurer and chief negotiator, as well as his 19 consecutive years of service on the Executive Board.

Matthews "has empowered hundreds of members by giving them the information and resources to solve problems affecting their terms and conditions of employment," according to the resolution.

UUP also feted former Faculty Senate head Vincent Aceto with UUP's Commenda-tion for Distinguished Service to SUNY for "uncommon courage in the face of attacks on the University, the Senate and himself."

UUP budget passes unanimously

Delegates unanimously adopted UUP's 2000-2001 spending plan.

The $5.36 million operating budget includes new line items to fund computer training for chapter secretaries and additional money for chapter release time.

"Our fiscally strong position allows us to fund new initiatives that will strengthen our union on both the state and chapter levels," Blackman-Stroud said. "This budget continues to reflect UUP's commitment to chapter leaders and chapter development."

DA briefs:

Chapter newsletter winners

-- Seven UUP chapters have been awarded for strong writing, editing and design in the union's first journalism competition.

In class II/III (chapter membership of up to 1,000), SUNY Farmingdale won best in class for general excellence, while Buffalo HSC took home an honorable mention in that category. SUNY Geneseo nabbed an honorable mention for best editorial or column.

In class IV (membership of more than 1,000), SUNY Binghamton received the best-in-class honor for general excellence; Stony Brook HSC picked up two best-in-class awards for feature story and editorial/column. SUNY Stony Brook earned awards of merit for general excellence and best editorial/column, while Syracuse HSC won an honorable mention for best feature story.

Contest judges were Eric Van Dyke and Karen Nelis, both former New York Teacher writers and editors, and Sara Hubbard, director of communications for BBL Construction Services Inc. of Albany.

AAUP affiliation

-- Delegates adopted a procedure for allocating additional memberships in the UUP chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Memberships will be allocated proportionately to UUP chapters, and appointed by the UUP president based on recommendations of chapter presidents, as approved by chapter executive boards.

Affirmative action

-- UUP's Research Department was charged with collecting and disseminating data that will aid chapters in monitoring affirmative action hiring, searches and waivers.

The information will be provided to the union's Affirmative Action, Disability Rights and Concerns, Grievance and Women's Rights and Concerns committees. The data will be collected on an annual basis, beginning retroactively with June 1996.

Tech talk

-- UUP chapters are being urged to form joint labor/management subcommittees on technology to make recommendations and report on technology issues.

The resolution, submitted by UUP's Technology in Higher Education Committee, stresses that the impact of technology on UUPers' terms and conditions of employment, as well as its effect on disability issues, must be constantly monitored and studied.

With thanks

-- Delegates recognized the Rev. Edward Werring, Affirmative Action chair of the UUP chapter at Farmingdale, for his integrity in defense of a colleague and his unwavering support of the principles of the union movement.

Werring faced retribution from management when, as chair of a Tripartite Committee, he ruled against the college in a case of wrongful retrenchment of an African-American colleague. A federal court awarded Werring $1,700 in back pay and damages of $200,000.

The rest of the story ...

-- Expressions of congratulations and thanks went out to the new union officers and staff of Professional Staff Congress/CUNY and to outgoing UUP Executive Board member Michael Zweig.

-- SUNY presidents will be asked to provide the union with information on contract renewal and continuing or permanent appointment by gender and/or protected class.

-- Delegates supported the Work and Family Bill of Rights that was drafted and adopted by the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council Advisory Committee and the Labor Project for Working Families.

The bill of rights recognizes that working families - through union representation - can secure child care and elder care services, as well as paid time off to care for family members.

-- Delegates opposed the deployment of a national missile defense system; and called for SUNY to terminate connections with sweatshops and to secure fair labor standards on campuses.

Technology tops agenda: Higher ed leaders talk quality, accountability

It wasn't a face-off between the Luddites and the techies. But AFT's Higher Education Issues Conference, held earlier this spring in Washington, D.C., did bring together an array of academic unionists with divergent opinions about the technologies that are transforming the university.

Nearly 200 higher ed activists from AFT locals across the nation - including UUP and NYSUT - debated the application of technology to their work. The consensus: Technology is now part of the fabric of higher education and faculty need to find a way to apply it without jeopardizing academic quality, or their jobs.

"Change is inevitable and it's not always comfortable," said AFT President Sandra Feldman. "But there's no surer way to become irrelevant than to be viewed as critics who are unwilling to accept the benefits that the new technology offers."

Feldman challenged faculty to "develop strategies that build on the opportunities provided by distance education."

Theodore Marchese, vice president of the American Association for Higher Education, kicked off the annual three-day conference with an overview of the prevalence of technology in higher ed. His statistics included:

• 80 percent of all courses taught in the U.S. somehow employ the World Wide Web
• 70 percent of all colleges and universities offer some distance learning courses
• Nearly 2 million students in the U.S. are enrolled in distance learning courses, although fewer than 750,000 receive academic credit for them.

Yet, Feenberg urged faculty not to fear technology's impact. "The choice is not 'whether or not' technology. The choice is what technology and how it's used," he said. "Computers are flexible, developing, and humans most definitely have a role."

NYSUT Representative Assembly: UUP up front

President William Scheuerman and three fellow UUPers were elected to the NYSUT Board of Directors during the statewide union's recent Represen-tative Assembly in New York City.

Thomas Matthews of Geneseo and UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud of Brooklyn HSC were re-elected, along with Scheuerman, as at-large NYSUT directors. Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh won election to her first two-year term.

RA delegates also chose a slate of NYSUT officers that included newcomer Ivan Tiger of the United Federation of Teachers as secretary-treasurer. Tiger replaces Fred Nauman, who retired from the post after 13 years. Re-elected were NYSUT President Thomas Hobart, Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, First Vice President Antonia Cortese and Second Vice Pres-ident Walter Dunn.

Delegates also supported two UUP-endorsed resolutions during the four-day convention. The first calls on lawmakers to restore full-time faculty lines at the state's public colleges and universities; the second seeks legislative and financial support for SUNY's teaching hospitals.

In other business,

• Delegates OK'd two constitutional amendments aimed at increasing and strengthening representation in UUP's state affiliate. NYSUT's executive committee will increase by five to 15. Also, locals, with board approval, will be able to form councils to elect representatives.
• Higher ed unionists got an update on the recent organizing success at Manhattan College. The private college in the Bronx won the right to have a union election last fall and awaits results pending an appeal by the National Labor Relations Board.
• Manhattan College faculty broke a barrier to organizing private colleges that stem-med from a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Yeshiva College.
• NYSUT's Hobart said the union faces two important tasks: to elect both Al Gore as president and Hillary Rod-ham Clinton as senator, and to protect public education. The two, he said, go hand in hand. "A year or two from now, I don't want to stand before you and have to explain that Title I has been converted into a voucher program because we lost this year's election," he said.
• UUPers Sandra Harper of Brooklyn HSC and Tonnalee Batchelor of SUNY Buffalo won prizes from NYSUT Benefit Trust-endorsed providers and AFTPlus. Harper won a $1,000 credit to an AFTPlus credit card; Batchelor won free car rental for three days.

AFL-CIO survey says working women need more time, pay, benefits

Working women around the country say that if they are to meet their obligations at home and at work, they need more time, pay and benefits. Their top legislative priorities are equal pay, health care, paid family leave and retirement security.

Those were the findings of the "Ask a Working Woman" telephone survey recently conducted by the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization with more than five million women members.

During 1999, the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department hosted 5,000 group discussions in workplaces, kitchens and town halls around the country.

In January 2000, the AFL-CIO followed up with a scientific survey of a large and nationally representative random sample of working women age 18 and older.

The findings were:

• Most working women today feel secure in their jobs. The overwhelming majority (69 percent) of women surveyed say they are not worried about a downturn in the economy affecting their jobs in the next few years.
• The frantic pace of today's economy continues to put a strain on a majority of working women - many of whom are working odd hours and schedules other than those of their spouses and partners.

For additional information, contact the AFL-CIO at (202) 637-5064.

The selling of academe: Some question how corporate donations affect the missions of public universities

If you're a parent paying your child's college tuition, how much influence do you think (even secretly) you should have over that child's academic major and later career?

Asking the same question on a broader scale, you could wonder: If a corporation gives money to a university, how much voice does it have?

As state funding for public universities narrows more each year, institutions have learned to simultaneously cut back on spending and cultivate endowments. That's where industry support enters the picture.

The Education Writers Association (EWA) recently hosted a conference in Atlanta that examined, in part, the influence of corporate money on public universities. EWA President Kit Lively of the Chronicle of Higher Education said colleges are being targeted by everything from soft drink companies, vying for exclusive rights, to product endorsements. "Does it affect publication of results? Does it shut out products with less commercial appeal?" she asked.

Panelist Margaret Walton Dahl, director of technology transfer at the University of Georgia, said "state support for public institutions is pretty dire." Although corporate money is penetrating the academic imperative, she said large partnerships between universities and companies are "not the norm."

Most industry-sponsored research, Dahl said, comes as a grant "paying the scientist to think," or in new equipment. The bulk of research money still hails from federal agencies, she said, with corporations giving about 10 percent.

"The real issue is, are we in alignment with society as a whole?" Dahl asked. "We have a real opportunity to solve real-world problems."

Susan Wessler, a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, said the most common corporate donations are made by companies like DuPont Chemical, which funds two graduate students.

"There's a real crisis in academic research these days," she said. "What we do best is basic research, and we're pushed to do applied research (for profit). ... So you look for industry money to keep your lab going."

Wessler said her specialty, plant genetics, nearly withered a few years ago until a company interested in gene sequencing pumped money - and life - back into the labs. The government, sensing competition, then jump-started its funding.

Panelist Eyal Press, co-author of an Atlantic Monthly cover story "The Kept University," was more forthright with wariness. He said the conflict comes when scientists have financial ties to the sponsors of the research. Some professors additionally own stock in companies funding their work.

Press said numerous articles have been published in scientific journals where industry ties were not disclosed by the academic authors.

And the bigger question, Press said, is not what kind of research is going on, but what kind isn't going on.

Furthermore, he pressed, "In a scientific world obsessively keyed to bias, why isn't this one discussed?"

He said that Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant and producer of genetically engineered crops, gave Berkeley $25 million to fund basic plant research. The company got first right to negotiate licenses on about a third of the department's discoveries (including research also funded by state and federal sources) and two of the five research committee seats.

Additionally, Press said research at the college that was not commercially successful was phased out. One such example: deciphering how to stop the spread of pests in Third World countries.

When campuses lean toward profit-making, universities tend to pour money into commercial research while downsizing humanities departments and cutting back on teachers, he pointed out.

SUNY for sale?

Throughout SUNY, there are many different relationships between state-operated campuses and private industry. Some faculty and staff view the different arrangements as positive, while others are wary of the implications.

"We like our friends in industry, although there's always the danger they'll have an undue influence," said John Boot, UUP chapter president at SUNY Buffalo and head of the School of Management.

Former UUPer Wayne Anderson, dean of the School of Pharmacy at SUNY Buffalo, said the cost to take a discovery into an actual, usable drug available on the market is hundreds of millions of dollars. Corporations are needed to make that happen. "No college has the resources to do that," he said. "It's not an option."

Anderson said several industry representatives sit on his school's advisory committee, and help to raise philanthropic support. "They don't try to control the research, nor do we want to let them."

He also said SUNY has a Universitywide, signed agreement that faculty must list any holdings, investments and honorariums to ensure there is no conflict between faculty and the sponsor.

"Our concern is that the University, in seeking money from the for-profit sector, opens itself to real specific problems and challenges to academic freedom," said Michael Zweig, a professor of economics at SUNY Stony Brook. Those challenges surface in the kind of research that is funded, the criteria for tenure, the content of curriculum and the availability of research findings to the public.

"The corporate connection is open to abuse," said Zweig, who with Henry Steck of Cortland co-authored a chapter in a forthcoming book Campus, Inc. examining the role of unions in preserving academic freedom in the face of corporate influence.

The weight of this issue is even more evident as SUNY announces a plan to connect the business world to the campus with a database allowing corporations to tap into the research specialties, academic programs and grants throughout the University.

Academic freedom under attack: Faculty examine effects on students, discourse

Higher education in New York is in danger of the same results as managed care, said Sandi Cooper, a 42-year faculty veteran of the City University of New York (CUNY), getting right to the heart of a conference on "Academic Freedom - Old Challenges and New." "I do not think I come with a cheerful message," she said.

The conference was held this spring at SUNY Albany to examine the effects of attacks against academic freedom on students and faculty. The SUNY Board of Trustees was the focus of some of the discussion. Faculty is concerned about how trustees are selected and how they have not advocated for the University, both through their failure to request adequate funds and through their aversion to involving faculty in governance.

Now, college education, at least on the public level, bears warning signs of being an institution for job training rather than for discourse.

"We need trustees who know the meaning of the word (trust)," Cooper said. "Not trustees who think education is vocationalism, or career training plus the catechism." She said trustees introduce tests to prove standards have been undermined by affirmative action. Then, to ensure a pass rate, faculty must teach to the test. Faculty are "trashed, bashed and ignored by trustees," Cooper said.

Academic freedom has been tied to standardized tests, while the budget is tied to test results and faculty jobs are tied to the budget, she said.

"How many tests do we need?" Cooper asked. "Every time I wake up in the morning, another one has been designed."

Cooper advocated restoring the selection process when choosing trustees. She said two bills currently pending could help. Assemblyman Edward Sullivan, chair of the Higher Education Committee, sponsored a bill (A-2560) to prohibit trustees from being employees of, or under the supervision of, the appointing authority, she said.

Assemblyman Martin Luster (D-Ithaca) sponsored a bill (A-6817) requiring prospective trustees to go through a process similar to appointments made within the legal system.

Historically, trustees have not always precluded faculty from decisions involving the future of the University. UUP President William Scheuerman said faculty have traditionally played a major role in establishing academic standards.

"It's called shared governance," he said. "We all have areas of expertise. We're committed to the life of the mind."

The test of those ideas, he said, comes in the "marketplace of ideas" that is the hallmark of any university. "It exposes your ideas to the test of truths," Scheuerman said. "What's true is strengthened."

A union president, faculty member and author, Scheuerman said even if all the current trustees were replaced, it wouldn't provide a solution to the problems facing the University. Top-down management is not responsive to local conditions, he said. Standards should not be confused with a political agenda. Rather, the process will take care of itself in terms of results.

What's true is strengthened.

Susan Lehrer, an associate professor of sociology at SUNY New Paltz, said faculty started making plans for the Albany conference on academic freedom following a highly publicized attack on a women's conference on her campus two years ago. The attack, she said, was "our wake-up call."

Fallout still remains. Lehrer said several professors have expressed reluctance to teach certain subjects.

"Self-censorship is a serious, but hidden, consequence of the attack," she said. "It is my hope that the conference can strengthen the rights of faculty to make judgments about our courses and our curriculum. ... Academic freedom is contingent on our exercise of it."

The academic freedom conference was sponsored by the Faculty Senate, which is headed by UUPer Joseph Flynn; UUP; the chancellor's office; and the Faculty Council of Community Colleges. Several representatives of the American Association of University Professors also spoke on some of the panels.

'Cheap labor:' Conference focuses on exploitation

Laura Watts Sommer has a Ph.D. in art history from Temple University. She teaches at both Niagara University and Daemen College. She has already been hired to teach at Canisius College in the summer and fall. She makes about $100 per week per class.

"I have a self-determined deadline on when, if I'm not full-time, I have to leave the field," Sommer told the "Academe at Risk Conference." It was co-sponsored by UUP to look at the use of part-time faculty in higher education, held this spring at Buffalo State. "My husband supported me all through school and I just can't ask him to support me while I work."

Sommer went on to tell how she attended the national conference of the College Art Association with hopes of getting a job bite. No full-time offers were listed at the conference.

Sommer was part of a discussion panel that included UUP President William Scheuerman; former SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone, now a UUP member at Buffalo State; part-time Buffalo State instructor Lawrence J. Shine; and keynote speaker Richard Moser of the American Association of University Professors.

Buffalo State UUPer John Morganti laid out the employment figures early for the conference, which was attended by about 150 students, faculty and administrators.

In 1991, SUNY employed 10,600 full-time faculty and 3,489 part-timers. In 1998, the figures were 8,809 full-timers and 5,273 part-timers. The ratio that was 3-to-1 in '91 is now 1.6 full-timers to every one part-timer. And, according to Morganti, the 37.4 percent of part-timers SUNY employs per 100 teachers is below the national average.

"You can boil a frog to death without him knowing it if you raise the temperature one degree at a time. We have no intention of going that quietly," Moser said. "This is a threat to academic freedom, an erosion of the quality of education. The attitude of some is it is OK to exploit the situation if you can get away with hiring an adjunct for $1,800 a course, because we can. I say exploiting cheap labor to teach is teaching of the worst kind."

Morganti made what seemed to be the key point of the conference: There is an important place for part-timers in the University and there has to be a common ground on how they are used.

He said adjuncts play an important role for three reasons:

• They supply universities with an expertise in an area it might not otherwise have been able to afford.
• They bring an applied perspective that full-time professors may not have.
• They can effectively cover sabbaticals and illnesses.

"We are in a boom time," he said. "What is going to happen during a bad time?"

Buffalo, Maritime faculty: 'no confidence' in managers

Twice in April, UUPers and other staff members voted publicly to express their disappointment and lack of confidence in managers on two SUNY campuses.

At SUNY Maritime, the faculty passed a vote of no confidence in President David Brown, calling attention to the lack of administrative accomplishments during his five years at the helm.

Maritime faced declining enrollments, a stagnating capital campaign and low student, alumni and staff morale when Brown was hired as college president in August 1995, the resolution asserted. With his presidency came the hope that Brown would develop plans to create an endowment, increase enrollment and promote harmony.

Noting that Brown has not met any of these objectives, the resolution cited the lack of progress during Brown's tenure. "The president has accomplished none of these [goals] in the first four years of his term of office."

In fact, throughout Brown's presidency, enrollment has idled at around 650 students. In contrast, about 950 undergraduates were enrolled in 1979, according to Barbara Warkentine, UUP vice president for academics at Maritime.

Also, by refusing to accept the Alumni Association as a valid stakeholder in the college, Brown has isolated this most active group - "traditionally the most generous per-capita within SUNY," the resolution said.

"Whereas the president has created an environment of mistrust on campus" and faculty have "no confidence in the president to lead the college into an expanded new direction that will include nontraditional programs that build on our traditional programs," the resolution asked Brown to step down as college president.

"The faculty hope that as a result of this resolution, President Brown will take initiatives that address our concerns," Warkentine said.

Earlier in the month, faculty members at SUNY Buffalo's College of Arts and Sciences issued two resolutions that similarly rejected management's priorities.

Objecting to the university center's hiring freeze at the college while it spends considerable funds on athletics and educational technology, the resolutions said the College of Arts and Sciences faculty do "not have confidence in priorities that are established for the university at large, or for the college in particular, without significant faculty participation" or "faculty endorsement."

New PSC/CUNY officers elected

A new slate of officers has been elected to lead UUP's sister union at the City University of New York.

Barbara Bowen, an associate professor of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center, was elected as president of Professional Staff Congress (PSC). By an unofficial, adjusted margin of 629 votes, Bowen beat incumbent Richard Boris of York College, who took over as interim president this winter following the retirement of longtime President Irwin Polishook. The final tallies are adjusted under current PSC policy to ensure retiree votes don't exceed 10 percent of the total.

Also elected were: Steven London as first vice president, who beat Jo-Ann Graham; Cecelia McCall, secretary, over Ruth Frisz; and John Hyland, treasurer, over Carlos Hargraves.

Winning vice president positions were: Eric Marshall, VP, part-time personnel, over Arnold Cantor; Michael Fabricant, VP, senior colleges, over Howard Ross; incumbent Peter Hoberman, VP, cross-campus units, over Stephen Leberstein; and Anne Friedman, VP, community colleges, over incumbent Katherine Stabile.

Winning at-large officer posts were: Stanley Aronowitz, Blanche Weisen Cooke, Frank Deale, Susan O'Malley and Sheldon Weinbaum, universitywide; Robert Cermele, Peter Ranis and Nancy Romer, senior colleges; and incumbents Steven Trimboli and Robbi Weaver, cross-campus units.

Three community college at-large officers will be named when 59 contested ballots are adjudicated.

Food-service workers rally for support

Freedom of speech was the order of the day at SUNY Albany, where students, faculty, unionists and community leaders rallied in support of food-service workers' right to organize and for a "sweatfree" campus.

The April 4 protest was prompted when the cafeteria workers were told to remove "Union, Yes!" buttons. The workers have been stymied in their attempts to unionize by Sodexho-Marriott Corp. In spring 1999, more than 70 percent of the approximate 500 food-service workers joined Hotel and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 471. Despite reaching an agreement with workers concerning union representation, University Auxiliary Services contracted out management of the dining halls to Sodexho-Marriott, which refused to recognize the union.

Workers have been deprived of accumulated sick time and have also seen their portion of health insurance premiums quadruple.

Students also staged a sit-in to protest the administration for failing to respond to demands that apparel sold on campus not be made in sweatshops.

Coalition fasts against workplace injustices

Janitors. Food-service employees. Home health aides. Farmworkers. Department-store clerks.

These often-forgotten workers were remembered in March when hundreds of activists took part in the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition's annual 40-hour fast for worker justice. This year's fast - "Invisible Workers, Hidden Abuses" - underscored the plight of far too many men and women in New York's workplaces.

"The coalition is doing everything it can to raise the consciousness of people everywhere," said UUP President William Scheuerman. "These fasts demonstrate the commitment of the labor movement and of religious groups to continue their fights against workplace injustices."

A handful of agriculture and service-industry employees spoke candidly about their circumstances during an Albany press conference to kick off the fast. They shared their stories about how poor working conditions and the lack of benefits affect their lives.

Coalition co-chairs are Bishop Howard Hubbard and NYSUT President Thomas Hobart. For coalition information, e-mail to nyslabrel@earthlink.net.

Spring break: SUNY Plattsburgh faculty and students team up to build homes as alternative to beach parties

Act I: Scene I

The parking lot of a college campus. Several vans are being loaded with backpacks and duffel bags as co-eds go off on spring break. Maps are unfolded. The vans head off in different directions.

Scene II

The mood is lively in this particular van. Music blares from the tape player. Many conversations are going on at once.

Scene III

One van driver, exhausted, pulls over to let a student take the wheel. At the rest stop, she stretches, feeling warmth from the southern sun. In the back, someone sleeps with headphones over his ears.

Scene IV

One of the vans arrives at its spring break destination. Students pile out. They have to get someone to unlock the gate around the church: it's a high-crime neighborhood. A member of Plattsburgh's professional faculty knows who to contact.

Director: "Cut! Are you crazy? They're sleeping in a church? High-crime neighborhood? Where are the beaches? Why are there faculty along? This is spring break!"

"They're taken aback by the homeless shelters," she said. "They see they're real people who are just down and out."

UUPers in the news

New responsibilities: UUPer Daniel Murphy has been appointed interim vice president for student affairs at SUNY Utica/Rome. He will retain a faculty post as an associate professor of technical communications.

In the interim position, Murphy will oversee a variety of college operations, including residential life and housing, student government and activities, athletics and recreation, counseling and career services, special programs, the campus health center, disabled student services and the student judicial program.

National research: Robert Beason, a distinguished professor in the department of biology at SUNY Geneseo, has been appointed to lead national research efforts aimed at reducing the number of migrating birds that are killed by colliding with cellular communications towers across the U.S.

Beason, a UUPer who is internationally known as an expert in the navigation of migratory birds, is leading a cross-sectorial effort to investigate and prevent mass bird kills, in which entire flocks die as a result of flying into tall transmission towers.

No fooling: UUPer Vicki Janik, an associate professor of English at SUNY Farmingdale, is the editor of a newly published anthology, Fools and Jesters in Literature, Art and History. Of the book's 65 essays, 27 were written by UUPers. The bio-bibliographical sourcebook includes pieces written by union members about such diverse characters as Jack Benny, American circus clowns, Hamlet, the Marx Brothers, Socrates, Hopi Indian clowns and the Three Stooges.

Janik said the "need to laugh, the need to see with an ironic or humorous eye," is common in all cultures.

The webs we can weave

I usually end each article with the phone number of the UUP Benefits Department. This article is no exception, but I'm also going to give you a couple web sites and tell you about some of the information you can access off the Internet.

First, I'll talk about the Davis Vision web site. You no longer need to call Davis Vision to request a voucher. When you (or a dependent) think you're eligible for your next voucher, sign on to www.davisvision.com. To enter the member site, you'll need to provide your Social Security number and the first five letters of your last name. Once logged in, you can search for a participating provider, get a claim form if you're using a non-participating provider, check on eligibility for a voucher and, finally, request a voucher.

If it hasn't been 24 months since you received your last voucher, it will note your next eligibility date. So far, members have been very happy with this site.

The Delta Dental web site can be found at www.deltadentalny.org. Select the Delta Dental location "New York." From here, you can obtain an updated list of participating providers by clicking on "Find a Dentist," selecting a plan (read on), entering at least your zip code and choosing a mile radius for the search. You can specify if you need a general practitioner or a specialist. Our office uses this site on a daily basis. We no longer keep a paper list of providers. If a member doesn't have access to the Internet, we will print a list directly from Delta's web site. The list is updated weekly.

The Delta plan you select depends on your status. If you are an active employee, choose Delta Premier. If you are a retiree, your selection depends on the plan you're enrolled in or the one that you have an interest in. The Discount Plan, Option 1, uses the Delta Premier list. The Preferred Plan, Option 4, uses the Delta Preferred list.

If you are an active employee or retiree in the Delta Care Dental HMO option, you can access providers by selecting "Click here to search for DeltaCare dentists."

A new feature, "Contact Us," was recently added to Delta's web site. If you want to check on the status of a claim, you can e-mail the details directly to Delta Dental. After choosing "New York," click on "Contact Us." A form will appear asking for name, e-mail address and phone number, followed by a short series of questions as to what they need to know. At the end is a place where you can type in your exact question, if need be.

When a Delta Dental representative gets your question, s/he will send a confirmation e-mail that includes a copy of your original question preceded by "Delta Dental has received the following message and will respond as soon as possible."

Don't forget, UUP can be reached via the web at http://www.uupinfo.org.

If you have a question on benefits and want to contact us the old-fashioned way, we can be reached at (800) 887-3863.

To The Point

A man, and matter, of principle

Sometimes it seems they just don't get it. I'm talking about SUNY's trustees and the ongoing imbroglio they've created involving the core curriculum. Last year, the trustees' unilateral imposition of the general education requirements created a brouhaha that still hovers over the University like a heavy smog threatening to smother academic freedom and the practice of shared governance. The smog is still there and it's not getting any lighter. Rather than attempting to lift it, the trustees continue to foul the air. Their most blatant action was to punish a former SUNY Faculty Senate president while simultaneously blaming him for the atmosphere caused by their own misbehavior.

Last year, then-Faculty Senate President Vince Aceto, a professor of information science at SUNY Albany, led the charge against the trustees' autocratic managerial style. I emphasize: Vince led the charge. He didn't act alone. In fact, the faculty was up in arms over the trustees' violation of the principle of shared governance in their quest to jam their version of a core curriculum down our throat. Vince didn't create the opposition. It was already there. He just organized and gave shape to it. You know the rest of the story. Vince's leadership efforts culminated in an historic no-confidence vote against the trustees. It is important to mention that faculty senates on each campus gave overwhelming support to the censure motion.

At the time of the censure, Vince was up for appointment as a distinguished service professor. His outstanding 40-year record as a scholar and generator of more than $4 million in grants convinced Albany President Karen Hitchcock and two groups of noted scholars to support Vince's nomination. But that didn't matter. Acting on the premise that SUNY's trustees would reject Vince's application, former Chancellor John Ryan pulled it from the board's agenda.

This year, Vince's application again sailed easily through the peer process and, this time, SUNY's new chancellor, Bob King, submitted his application to the trustees. The results were the same. After a 40-minute session behind closed doors, the trustees approved all applications but one - Vince's.

But less than a week later, yielding to increasing pressure and negative media coverage, their Executive Committee did approve Vince's nomination with a 3-0 vote (and one abstention) after another lengthy executive session - accompanied by the incongruous explanation that the board's own policy against micromanaging kept it from interfering in the award process.

The trustees' treatment of Vince sends a different message. On one level, they're warning us not to disagree with their lofty promulgations. Their actions tell us that SUNY is all about vindictiveness and small mindedness, and not at all about the open discourse and free dialogue so essential to intellectual development. Their treatment of Vince has a chilling effect on free speech and academic freedom. How sad for SUNY and all we believe in.

But the trustees' demonizing of Vince is contemptible on still another level. First, they victimized Vince by not acting on his application without fanfare. Then they blame Vince for causing their problems. Think about this for a minute: In blaming Vince, the trustees are shifting the focus of the dialogue away from the issues that united the faculty against them in the first place. If the trustees get away with this one, we'll no longer talk about their autocratic managerial style, their tendency to micromanage, their failure to advocate for decent budgets or the cultural and political agendas they're trying to foist on the University. We'll overlook the fact that the faculty was overwhelming supportive of the censure resolution. Instead, we'll talk about Vince.

So, yes, on one level the issue is about the trustees' treatment of Vince Aceto. But let's not lose sight of the larger issue: A united SUNY faculty speaking through their elected representatives took actions telling the trustees to stop violating their trust. Beating up on Vince is just a smoke screen for their own failures. We won't tolerate that.

This is my last column until The Voice returns in the fall. Have a great summer and keep in touch. E-mail me at bscheuer@uupmail.org to let me know what's on your mind and what you hope for in the next academic year.