2002 Spring Delegate Assembly: Delegates re-elect UUP leaders

For the second year in a row, UUP delegates displayed their unity by electing a slate of state-wide officers without dissent.

Delegates to the 2002 Spring Delegate Assembly (DA) in Albany returned to office full-time, incumbent vice presidents Phillip Smith of Upstate Medical University and John Marino of Stony Brook HSC, and re-elected Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud of Brooklyn HSC. In each officer race, the DA directed the secretary to cast one vote in the name of the body.

There was one contested race for an academic at-large state-wide Executive Board seat. Incumbent Kenneth Kallio of Geneseo beat back the challenge of Edward Wesnofske of Oneonta, 148-63, with one abstention.

Re-elected to the statewide board without opposition were Lorna Arrington of SUNY Buffalo, Caroline Bailey of ESF and Edward Quinn of Stony Brook.

Candelario Franco of Old Westbury was elected to his first board term.

All terms are for two years.

Budget adopted

Delegates approved an operating budget of $6.05 million for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. The union’s spending plan includes additional allocations for legislative activities and for upcoming negotiations — the union’s priority items, according to Treasurer Blackman-Stroud. She pointed out that $110,000 is earmarked for upcoming contract talks, with the “understanding that expenditures over and above will come from the union’s reserve fund, since negotiations is UUP’s highest priority.” The contract expires July 1, 2003.

At the same time, the union is bracing for “tough state and SUNY budgets next year,” Blackman-Stroud said, noting that NYSUT already kicked in an additional $50,000 in “new support” for UUP’s legislative ad campaign.

Also included in the budget is an extra $20,000 “to further promote chapter development, such as building and solidifying our department representative system, and recruitment of new activists,” she added.

A first-time allocation of $10,000 was included to assist chapters in keeping their Web sites up to date.

“Other items in the budget reflect our commitment to allocate resources to issues that continue to be of concern to the members,” stressed Blackman-Stroud. Chief among them is release time for chapter leaders.

In other business:

— Delegates overwhelmingly supported a resolution that calls on each chapter to “encourage its campus to offer an appropriate recognition, perhaps beginning Veterans Day 2002, to honor the service of these veterans.” The resolution was submitted by the union’s new statewide Veterans Affairs Committee.

— Oswego UUPer Greg Auleta was recognized on his retirement from the statewide Executive Board. He had served six consecutive two-year terms.

— UUPer Wes Kennison of SUNY Geneseo has decided to run for New York state lieutenant governor, and he’s asking his fellow unionists to lend a hand.

Kennison, who serves as town supervisor of Geneseo in Liv-ingston County, must collect 15,000 signatures on a nominating petition if he hopes to secure a spot on the Democratic primary ballot this September.

During the DA, Kennison distributed a flier seeking 200 volunteers statewide (registered Democrats) to each gather 100 signatures during June.

For more information, go to www.weskennison.com.

— Delegates adopted two resolutions submitted by the statewide Solidarity Committee, chaired by Tom Hoey of Albany.

• The first resolution calls on Missouri Gov. Bob Holden to defend academic freedom and scholarly inquiry in Missouri. The resolution claims that civil liberties, as well as the quality of higher education, are under attack in a “campaign of misrepresentation and character assassination” aimed at University of Missouri/Kansas City faculty member Harris Mirkin. UUPers can join the fight by writing to: Office of the Governor, State Capitol, Jefferson City, Mo., 65102; Holden can also be reached by fax at (573) 751-1495 or at constituentaffairs@mail.gov.state.mo.us.
• The second resolution throws UUP’s support behind public workers in the City of Buffalo, who are being fired in exceedingly large numbers as a way to offset burgeoning budget deficits there. UUP is asking officials to “seek solutions to these recurrent fiscal crises without retrenching public workers.”

— Karen L. Mattison