In addition, a UUP-endorsed early retirement incentive was included. The effective date will be determined by the SUNY Board of Trustees; interested UUPers should contact their human resource office or labor relations specialist for more information. Meanwhile, a separate bill was introduced in both houses of the Legislature to address pension inequities.

SUNY’s loss of more than 1,000 full-time positions since the mid-1990s hindered students’ ability to take the courses they need to graduate in four years. Campuses dealt with the loss by hiring thousands of part-timers. “Massive layoffs of part-time faculty will again make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for students to graduate next year,” Scheuerman warned in early May.

Moreover, the University will reportedly impose a 2.1 percent growth cap this fall, “further limiting access and making it ‘more exclusive’ to gain admission to SUNY,” he said.

UUP’s advocacy for legislative increases to the proposed Executive Budget plan for SUNY’s state-operated campuses had previously intensified when dozens of University part-timers on several SUNY campuses -- including Albany, Fredonia and Purchase -- received non-renewal notices. Some were later informed that their non-renewals had been withdrawn.

“Our main concern, apart from the obvious matter of the loss of our members’ jobs, is that more faculty cuts will hurt SUNY students,” UUP President William Scheuerman said in a letter distributed to every state lawmaker in an immediate response to the notices.

“If implemented, the cuts will virtually destroy those academic departments that now rely heavily on part-time faculty,” he said. “The solution to this problem is to increase the SUNY budget so state-operated campuses can rebuild -- rather than reduce -- the faculty.”

In a letter to the editor of the Albany Times Union, which publicized the SUNY Albany layoff notices, Scheuerman further admonished: “SUNY students shouldn’t be shortchanged on their education.”

Unionists advocated too for increased investments in the EOP, during earlier spring visits with lawmakers. State funding for the legislatively-created program -- which tutors, counsels and aids academically challenged and financially disadvantaged students -- has dwindled dramatically, further threatening accessibility to SUNY, UUPers said.

Funding for the New Paltz EOP is now about 25 percent lower than it was in 1995, and the proposed 2002-03 budgetary levels would have forced the program to reduce its enrollment this fall by 69 students, or 12.5 percent, according to UUPer Lisa Chase, director of the campus’ program.

“It’s been a decline in service by mandate, which is directly related to budget cuts and not need,” Chase said.

While Buffalo State’s program once served 1,000 students, its enrollment is now just over 700, said UUPer Roslyn Berkovitz, campus senior academic EOP advisor, in a meeting with Assemblyman James Hayes (R-E. Amherst). What’s worse, this is happening “as there’s an expanding underclass,” she said.

Yet EOP enables great academic successes and UUP advocated for a greater state investment to ensure eligible students do not experience barriers to higher education. At Buffalo State, more than 30 EOP students will graduate with a 3.0 grade-point average this spring, several of whom have applied to graduate school or are interviewing for jobs, Berkovitz said. “Without the program, these students never would have gotten into college,” she said.

EOP is a “sound economic investment,” Chase emphasized in a meeting in Assemblyman Thomas Kirwan’s office (R-Newburgh). “Children of the earliest EOP grads from the ’70s are now college age, and they’re not applying for the program,” Chase said. “You only need to intervene once in the general succession of families; with EOP, we’re breaking the cycle of poverty.”

Meanwhile, the flat $1.8 billion planned for SUNY in the Executive Budget maintained last year’s $92 million funding level for the University’s teaching hospitals; UUP also achieved inclusion of an additional $90 million over three years for the facilities in this year’s Health Care Reform Act. The union continues to monitor proposed hospital flexibility legislation to ensure bills protect its members’ jobs.

“Hospital flex legislation is a management bill that will help SUNY,” Scheuerman said. “We support it provided that employees are protected and stay in the bargaining unit, and the legislation is not on the backs of the labor force.”

UUPers spent time in Albany reminding lawmakers of the chronic issues confronting SUNY’s health science centers (HSCs) in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Stony Brook and Syracuse. In meetings with legislators, UUPers advocated for the funding needed to restore the SUNY centers -- which educate many of the state’s health care professionals, and provide research and critical medical services for thousands of New Yorkers -- back to health.

“At Upstate, there’s a campus-wide hiring freeze, with new cuts in clinical departments to be met shortly,” said UUPer David Duggan, MD, chair of the department of medicine. “The final solutions are not fully developed, but we’ll have to look broadly at what we need to do.”

These restrictions will exacerbate an already dire situation at Upstate where, over the last few years, hiring freezes and lags have plagued the campus, Duggan told Senator John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse). “There’s no capital budget whatsoever, which is sorely needed,” he said. “Right now, it’s a dilapidated old jalopy we’re driving and we need a new car.”

His colleague, UUPer Umesh Patil, MD, a professor of urology, agreed. “The solution lies in capital,” he said. “We haven’t had anything significant in 15 years; in teaching students and serving patients, University Hospital is a relic.”

“I understand the problems; we’re going to try to correct them,” DeFrancisco told the Upstate group.

Like other HSC advocates, Downstate UUPer Barbara Habenstreit thanked Senator Thomas Duane (D-New York) for this year’s Health Care Reform Act, noting: “With the money, management thinks we’ll be stable for the next two years and that’s a big advance -- we haven’t been stable for so long.”

Other items on UUP’s legislative agenda -- such as funding for the New York State Theatre Institute, pension equity and a sweatshop code of conduct -- remain union priorities. UUP will post finalized budget information on the Web site as details become available.