UUP-to-date

Health: UUP members help in public health preparedness

The SUNY Albany School of Public Health is one of 15 public health centers in the country recently designated a “Center for Public Health Preparedness” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SUNY Albany will receive $1 million annually for the next three years to train public health workers and emergency agencies to respond to bioterrorism, said UUPer Carol Young, director of continuing education at the School of Public Health.

“The purpose really is to better prepare the public health workforce,” said Young, who helped write the grant application. “Part of it will be used in developing some distance learning models. We’re serving New York state, and we have tiny health departments in the Adirondacks. Infectious disease is the primary concern, but the systems you develop can also respond to emergencies such as ice storms.”

The School of Public Health will also use the grant to develop a summer institute in disaster management for public health professionals and emergency response workers, beginning in June, Young said.

The School of Public Health is well qualified to act as a public health preparedness center, Young noted. The state’s Wadsworth Laboratory —where the public health school has two academic departments — is the second-largest public health laboratory in the country.

The Wadsworth Lab-oratory figured strongly in last fall’s response to the deliberate spread of anthrax through the mail. The anthrax sickened several people in New York City and Washington, D.C., and killed a New York City hospital worker.

Wadsworth tested hundreds of mail samples for anthrax contamination.

— Darryl McGrath

Pay equity: ‘Paychecks’ available

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and UUP members will receive a special discount on the second edition of “Paychecks: A Guide to Conducting Salary-Equity Studies for Higher Education Faculty.”

The guidebook — a joint effort of Lois Haignere Inc., UUP and AAUP — is a “full-service” resource for those in the higher education community who want to conduct analyses of bias in faculty salaries or to understand and interpret the results of studies presented to them. The new, expanded edition of “Paychecks” will help readers to: detect gender and race bias in current rank; select a salary-equity consultant; understand different perspectives on how bias occurs and ways to remedy it; and accomplish many other tasks related to ensuring equity in faculty salaries.

The full list price is $28 per copy, plus shipping and handling. AAUP and UUP members can purchase the guidebook for $18 each, or $14 apiece for orders of 10 or more, plus shipping and handling.

Members can order over the Internet at www.aaup.org, by fax at (202) 737-5526 or by mail to AAUP, P.O. Box 96132, Washington, D.C. 20077-7020.

Internet: AFT launches revamped higher ed Web site

The AFT’s higher education division recently launched a revamped, up-to-date area of the federation’s Web site that covers issues of interest to academic and professional faculty at the nation’s campuses.

The new site includes weekly “News from the National” sections for each constituency group within higher education, as well as organizing materials, helpful maps, information on new collective bargaining agreements and links to related Web sites.

Check out the site at www.aft.org/higher_ed/.

Science: Psychological Association slates conference

Psychology students may be able to gain free admittance to the New York State Psychological Association’s (NYSPA) annual conference and Student Mini Convention at Turning Stone Resort and Conference Center in Verona, Oneida County.

Thanks to a helping hand from NYSUT and the American Federation of Teachers, students can attend without paying the $85 conference fee simply by joining NYSPA’s Organization of Future Psychologists (NOFP) for a $25 membership fee.

NOFP applications and information are available on the Web at www.nyspa.org or by calling NYSPA at (800) 732-3933.

SUNY: Senate confirms two trustees

The New York State Senate has confirmed two new members to the SUNY Board of Trustees. The Rev. John Cremins of New York City succeeds Edward Nelson for a term expiring June 2007. Steven Alfasi, deputy commissioner for the Bronx County Public Administrator’s Office, was appointed to a term expiring June 2003.

The arts: UUPer to exhibit photographs of Arab culture

Photographs by UUP member Melvyn Rosenthal, a distinguished teaching professor at the Metropolitan Learning Center of Empire State College, will be on display at The Museum of the City of New York through Sept. 1.

“A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City” is the first exhibit ever produced on the history of the city’s Arab populations. The exhibit includes 50 original photographs by Rosenthal that draw attention to contemporary Arab-American life.

The exhibit was commissioned by the museum.