Of mice and modems: UUP tackles technology

Looming large: Leading critic calls distance education the ‘biggest threat ever to institutions and faculty’

A leading critic of distance learning — who travels the continent in person rather than by Internet, to implore groups to heed his warnings — brought his message to UUP members at the 2000 Fall Delegate Assembly in Buffalo. David Noble, who was recently featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and is the author of five major works on technology, spoke about the need for academic and professional faculty to be alert to the potential perils of distance learning.

“There is no evidence that computerization will result in pedagogical advantage,” he said. “The main energy is coming from vendors who view higher education as the next great moneymaker after health care. Online courses are a potential means of generating revenue for universities, while cutting labor costs to the core.”

Noble went so far as to say he views distance education as “the biggest threat ever to institutions and faculty.” As forthright in person as he is in print, the speaker put it bluntly: “Machinists didn’t think they were going to be undone either. It’s high noon for higher ed.”

In this view, Noble continued, faculty is an occupation targeted for elimination, equal to the elimination of physicians in the health care field by HMOs.

With technology, college managers assess the commercial viability of the course: Which courses will sell? Those who make courses that are marketable will get preferential treatment, Noble said.

This speaker is not all paper and pulpit. He led York University faculty on a two-month strike in 1998 over a requirement that faculty create Web sites for all courses; faculty gained contractual protection against such requirements.

Distance learning opens the gate for another issue that UUPers have been tracking: outsourcing of courses. Noble said most people teaching online are adjuncts.

He also touched on another cause and effect of distance learning: how it will result in yet another class distinction. “The have-nots will be taking courses on computer, and the haves will have face-to-face instruction,” Noble said.

Well-established colleges and universities know the value of a distance education degree is less than a traditional degree, Noble said, so they will maintain their traditional education. Students with fewer financial resources will be forced to take courses online from other institutions.

“There is a growing disenchantment with the quality of online courses,” Noble said. “People are taking them more for certification than education.”

Interest in distance learning, for all its fanfare, actually was faltering considerably until its advocates decided to “call in the cavalry,” Noble said.

“The entry of the Department of Defense radically altered the landscape,” he said, noting that “... The Army is the largest consumer of distance education” and emphasis is on training over education. Distance education vendors have the military to underwrite their programs, a practice which the speaker said has created “an artificial market that I believe will radically change the face of higher education.”

Censorship concerns surface here again: “The Pentagon can review and access courses,” Noble said.

Delegates responding to Noble’s talk said student feedback is that distance learning is OK as a supplement, not as a substitute. Others said that, by monitoring the growth of distance learning, faculty are safeguarding the integrity of a public resource — the public university — and people need to be educated about that. Unions need to protect not just jobs, but the public interest.

Michael Silverberg of Stony Brook HSC said faculty should “fight the battle not on the basis of technology, but on what is the concept of a university. In this country, the administration really thinks it’s the university.”

Noble picked up on that theme, saying, “We’re at a point in our history where universities as we’ve known them are facing extinction. We as faculty are the last line of defense.”

Universities, he said, “have become a culture of silence, intimidation and retribution. Unions can change that. UUP has a role.”

The irony of the success of public higher education is that “universities are now seen as too important to be left to the university,” Noble said. A typical university president is not a traditional academic, but someone who sits on the boards of big companies, according to Noble, who started tracking this trend in 1983. “They’re pin-striped pirates looting public resources for private gain.”

Touching on an issue covered in The Voice in May/June 2000, “The selling of academe,” Noble talked about the influence of industry on academe that began when Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which gave universities the right to patent the results of their faculties’ federally funded research. “It was the biggest give-away in history,” Noble said.

While the goal of the legislation was to bring ideas out of academe and into the marketplace, it marked the university as the source of commercially valuable ideas. At stake is how much commercial forces determine a university’s education mission and academic ideals — the same posits now appearing with the advent of distance learning.
Liza Frenette

UUPers support distance ed, but ...

UUP members are overwhelmingly receptive to the academic opportunities available through technology, but are skeptical about the quality of the education that can be provided through distance learning. They also have concerns about SUNY’s commitment to providing the financial, technical and professional support needed to ensure effective distance learning programs.

Those are some of the findings of a telephone survey conducted for UUP to examine its members’ attitudes and experiences with distance learning programs on SUNY’s state-operated campuses. The survey results were discussed at a special forum during the Fall DA in Buffalo.

Of the 400 members responding to the “UUP Educational Technology Telephone Survey,” 90 percent said they have never taught a distance ed course, but 60.5 percent indicated their willingness to teach one.

The faculty’s enthusiasm was tempered, however, by their concerns about the quality of the distance learning courses offered to SUNY students and the University’s support of their professional development. For example, a majority of the respondents (68 percent) do not believe that distance learning courses offer the same quality as traditional courses, and more than 83 percent feel the electronic courses should only supplement — rather than replace — traditional courses.

In addition, more than 76 percent of the faculty have not undergone any distance learning training and almost 67 percent of those who have taught distance education courses were not provided any professional assistance in developing the courses.

“These responses show that SUNY faculty members are not Luddites when it comes to distance learning,” said UUP President William Scheuerman. “How-ever, the faculty is concerned about the quality of the education SUNY offers its students, and the University must back the faculty’s entry into expanded instructional efforts by providing adequate re-sources for training and technical support.”

Other perceived disadvantages of distance learning included the potential for student cheating (74 percent) and the risk to faculty’s proprietary rights to course content (72 percent).

As electronic technology continues to expand the educational opportunities that the academy is able to offer today’s students, with this survey, UUP sought to measure members’ impressions about distance learning.

“Our goal was to receive a large enough response to get a statistically accurate picture of the membership’s attitudes toward the use of technology in academe,” said UUP Vice President for Academics Phillip Smith, who led the DA discussion with UUP Director of Research/Legislation Thomas Kriger. “With this survey, we accomplished that goal.”

Some 5,000 of the nearly 24,000 UUP members were surveyed in August and September by NYSUT’s Polling Center in Albany.

Who owns the work?

Who owns the work: my employer or me?

The answer to that question has become one of the “most rigorous copyright debates in the higher education world,” according to AFT In-house Counsel David Strom. He shared with delegates the troubling news that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have narrowed the protections on intellectual property interests.

States are turning to obscure 11th Amendment immunity protections to win a number of lawsuits brought by state employees seeking monetary damages under federal Trademark, Patent and Copyright acts. Little by little, the courts have chipped away at public workers’ rights, Strom said.

In a June 1999 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Congress — when passing legislation to enact, for example, copyright laws under the Constitution — does not have the authority to abrogate a state’s immunity from a lawsuit, Strom said.

That decision was later used by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reject claims by a University of Houston professor that the institution had violated her rights under the Copyright Act by continuing to publish her book without consent.

The nation’s top court “is interested in limiting the role of Congress,” Strom said. “Unfortunately, public employees have been caught in the middle.”

However, Strom cited four ways that public employees may be able to secure protections:
— Public colleges and universities may still be sued for injunctive relief. It might be possible to use the Copyright Act to prohibit an institution from misappropriating an employee’s work.
— Individual officials in public higher education institutions may still be sued if they clearly act outside the scope of their duties and violate federal law.
— Claims may still be made under state law against public university officials.
— Contractual language enforcing intellectual property rights is still enforceable.
“The punchline here is: Collective bargaining is the only effective, clear means to address intellectual property rights,” Strom said.

AFT offers guidelines for distance education

The AFT continues to be a leader in policy debates regarding distance education. The federation has long argued that the quality of education — and not financial gain — should determine how distance education is used. In its first report, Teaming Up With Technology, the AFT urged higher education unions to become ardently involved in distance learning issues on their campuses, from cost to copyright protections.

Gary Ruberti, a UUP/NYSUT labor relations specialist, and Thomas Kriger, UUP director of research/legislation, reviewed for delegates to UUP’s Fall Delegate Assembly the AFT guidelines aimed at helping faculty better apply traditional teaching standards to distance education and to aid administrators in putting quality at the center of campus technology programs.

“We hope these guidelines will assist faculty who are teaching, or preparing to teach, distance education courses, as well as aid higher education locals negotiating distance education issues with managers,” Ruberti said.

Ruberti outlined the following AFT standards:
— In order for faculty to retain academic control, distance education courses should be taught by faculty appointed and evaluated through a traditional process.
— The institution must provide adequate training and technical support, as well as proper compensation.
— Courses should not simply mirror traditional courses.
— Close personal interaction between faculty and students must be maintained.
— Traditional faculty channels should be used to determine class size.
— Experimentation with a broad variety of subjects should be encouraged; however, institutions should discontinue courses that are unsuccessful.
— Equivalent research opportunities must be provided.
— Student assessment and advisement opportunities should be comparable.
— Faculty should retain creative control over the use/re-use of distance education materials.
— Full undergrad degree programs should include same-time, same-place coursework.
— Evaluation of distance coursework should be undertaken at the institution, by the federal government, and through regional and specialized accreditation agencies.

Materials and technical assistance for locals attempting to work with management on technology issues are available from the AFT. Check out the Web at http://www.aft.org.

E-ppreciation

Melissa Bishop of SUNY Stony Brook was awarded a certificate of appreciation from UUP President William Scheuerman for her work on the union’s redesigned Web site.

The new site was unveiled at the DA; it has an updated look to provide more accessible, relevant UUP- and SUNY-related news and information. New features include links to scholarships, grant programs, research and constituencies; forms and applications can also be downloaded.

HSCs bring TLC – and more – to their communities

They treat the citizens of a 15-county region in central New York state with tertiary care, educate a majority of the doctors who practice in the metropolitan New York City area and supply thousands of jobs on the northern shore of Long Island.

“They” are Brooklyn Health Science Center, Stony Brook Health Sciences Center and Upstate Medical University, and they’re all part of SUNY.

These three comprehensive facilities are each doing it all — providing necessary health care, training future physicians and making a vital economic impact — in their own communities and throughout the state. Yet, the hospitals are threatened with an uncertain fiscal future.

Last fall, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall identified and disclosed a critical, $116 million annual budget deficit facing the SUNY hospitals. He determined that the root of the problem includes, among other things, “changes in state funding of SUNY.”

While the state had supported the three HSCs through direct subsidies in the 1980s — with no expectation that the hospitals would “make money, because of their teaching mission and the higher costs it en-tailed” — it reversed its approach a decade later, according to testimony McCall and UUP President William Scheuerman gave to the state Assembly in November 1999.

The comptroller said: “Instead of receiving a subsidy, the hospitals were required to contribute some of their revenues to support SUNY academic programs.”

McCall criticized the University for the “backdoor” nature of this “structural problem,” supporting Scheuerman’s testimony and oft-repeated assertion that funding the University in this manner constitutes a “state-budget imposed deficit, caused by a cross-subsidy between SUNY hospitals and academic programs, which is an unsound, ill-advised state spending scheme.”

McCall testified: “The SUNY campuses have already suffered too many budget cuts, and we should not allow hospital problems to spill over into academics or student charges.”

He also denounced the SUNY Board of Trustees for “ignoring the shortfall,” dealing with it through borrowing, and noted that “by ignoring the problems creating the shortfall, SUNY would create an even larger deficit.”

When the University system failed to heed the comptroller’s warning to address the shortfall — and this year borrowed $114 million to close the budget gap at the end of its fiscal year on June 30 — McCall expressed a frustration he shares with UUP, that SUNY’s Board of Trustees does not serve as a strong independent proponent of the system.

“It’s hard to advocate for a university that won’t advocate for itself,” he said.

Echoing UUP’s previously stated concerns about the University’s failure to seek sufficient funding from the state to resolve the hospital shortfall and support campuses’ academic programs, McCall noted: “For two years running, when SUNY submitted its budget request, it has never even asked for funds to cover the deficit.”

Following the comptroller’s disclosures and last November’s Assembly hearing, the University and state Division of the Budget hired a financial consultant to study the hospital’s operating systems.

PricewaterhouseCoopers — the $1.1 million consultant — found that the three hospitals “compare favorably” to and “operate more efficiently than 75 percent of their peer academic medical centers.”

Its February report also noted that each hospital has done an “exceptional job” competing in significantly different markets, and “all are responsive to their communities’ needs, are programmatically sound and provide a needed level of clinical care to their patient populations.”

Furthermore, SUNY’s consultants found: “The ability of each hospital to remain fiscally viable and continue the SUNY academic mission is under considerable stress.” Continued progress toward understanding the complex fiscal issues “must be a high priority of the SUNY system and its health care delivery components if continued growth and enhancement of the academic mission is to be achieved.”

Notwithstanding Chancellor Robert King’s response that the hospitals must continue to fulfill “their vital academic missions,” now — almost a year after the consultant’s findings — neither SUNY nor its trustees have announced a plan to resolve the enormous, chronic budgetary problem facing the three teaching hospitals and the University at large.

UUP represents nearly 8,000 full- and part-time academic and professional faculty at the SUNY hospitals. Following is a sampling of how these three institutions make critical contributions to the quality of life for the citizens of New York.
Lisa Feldman Reich

Stony Brook HSC: Servicing to the community

Getting children to sit still can be challenging under the best of circumstances. When a youngster needs to be motionless in order to undergo an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imager) exam, technologists in Stony Brook HSC’s Radiology Department are there to help — in a unique way. The facility is the only one in Suffolk County that administers pediatric outpatient sedatives.

“People coming in with children who need an MRI are very apprehensive,” said UUPer Frank Reynolds, a radiologic technologist. “No one wants to see his or her child sedated, but we allay the parents’ and children’s fears,” Reynolds said. “By the time the family leaves, the procedure’s been successfully administered and they’re all relieved.”

Stony Brook is so renowned for this offering that Reynolds and fellow UUPer Michael Luongo, two of the HSC’s long-time radiologic technologists, have been performing these procedures for children three times a day for the last 10 years.

Reynolds and Luongo are also busy staying current on the technological front in order to keep up with the fast-paced changes in their field, Reynolds said. He explained that new software is constantly being developed that will speed up the MRI procedure and help to improve image quality.

A quicker procedure makes the exam “more tolerable” for patients, Reynolds said.

“It’s a tunnel, a tight squeeze, and a lot of people get anxious,” Reynolds said. “By improving image quality, we are able to get a better study in a shorter period of time. People say that they appreciate the speed of our exam because it reduces their anxiety.”

In general, about 30 percent of the population finds it extremely difficult to endure an MRI, due to claustrophobia, stress or another condition that prevents them from remaining perfectly still — which is a requirement for this procedure, according to John Marino, UUP statewide vice president for professionals and a former chapter president at Stony Brook HSC, who is himself a technologist.

Marino said that, while the MRI is widely available on Long Island, the offering at Stony Brook is distinct. At the HSC, routine “extras” — such as highly trained radiologists and nurses who help to medicate the patients — result in the ability to accommodate and serve that 30 percent.

“All those extras cost money, so other area community hospitals are unable to take the time to treat MRI patients in the same way,” Marino said. “At the HSCs, revenue is not our focus — we’re interested in serving the public.” For adults facing the physical and emotional traumas of AIDS, UUPer Darlene Ernest offers rescue and relief. Counseling adults with HIV or AIDS and their caregivers, Ernest is a social worker at Stony Brook HSC’s AIDS Treatment Center — one of only three designated AIDS centers on Long Island and the sole provider of this service in Suffolk County.

“When you are sick with HIV or AIDS, your whole life changes and the people who you love — who are part of your life — their lives change too,” Ernest said. “Here, we work with people every day to try to ensure that as much of their lives can remain intact so they can continue to function in society in the healthiest way possible.”

Because so many people are responding well to anti-retro viral drugs, they are healthy enough to receive outpatient care, Ernest explained. However, the number of infected people is continually on the rise, and Ernest now treats more HIV-infected patients in the center’s outpatient clinic than ever, she said, noting that the outpatient AIDS clinic currently serves more than 600 adults with HIV or AIDS.

“We see new patients there every day,” Ernest said.

A seven-year professional at Stony Brook HSC, Ernest was initially one of three social workers serving this “population in crisis.” Due to budget cuts over the last six years and scarce University re-sources, she is now the only social worker treating the numerous outpatients, as well as the center’s “20 or so” inpatient clients admitted each week, she said.

Inpatients are often at the end stage of their lives and are in the “process of dying — which they and their families are trying to come to terms with,” Ernest said. As part of a discharge plan that Ernest creates for these patients, they are either brought home and provided with home health services, or placed in a nursing home or hospice program.

Making an assessment that is not only in the patient’s best medical interests but will be workable for the patient’s family or other caregiver is crucial, and the support Ernest offers at the center helps the caregivers get through this painful planning process.

Also, many of the HSC patients have myriad social problems, ranging from a lack of money for food or housing — the cost of which Ernest said is exorbitant on Long Island — to transportation difficulties. Ernest finds community resources that will help her patients overcome these obstacles.

“People are dying and others are spreading this awful disease. AIDS claims people’s dignity, their lives and changes the very fabric of the way they live,” she said.

Chapter President Edward Drummond added: “From one of the finest cardiology departments, which is renowned for angioplasty and bypass surgery, to a burn unit that serves the entire east end of Long Island, Stony Brook HSC is one of Long Island’s most valued — and valuable — assets.”

Upstate Medical University: Training the next generation of health care providers

More than 1,000 students attend Upstate Medical University (Upstate) in Syracuse — where comprehensive educational programs are offered in the university’s colleges of medicine, health professions, nursing and graduate studies — and more than 90 percent of them are New York state residents.

Medical students undergo clinical training in their third and fourth years, learning patient interviewing techniques, clinical diagnostic tools and operating room procedures. Upstate could boast of distinction here as well, due to two unique opportunities for these students — the Rural Medicine (RMED) program and Upstate’s “Clinical Campus at Binghamton.”

About 15 medical students participate in the RMED program, spending nine consecutive months of their clinical education by serving in an apprenticeship role. They engage in one-on-one training with community physicians who practice family-type medicine in rural areas outside Syracuse, according to Phillip Smith, UUP statewide vice president for academics, who is on leave as a professor of cell and developmental biology at Upstate.

Modeled after a highly successful University of Minnesota program, RMED is run by Upstate’s department of family medicine. Its students live in, and get immersed in, these rural communities.

“The idea of the RMED program is to encourage students to practice — as physicians — primary care medicine in rural New York,” Smith said.

Several dozen other medical students agree to attend the “Clinical Campus at Binghamton” for their clinical training when they are accepted into Upstate, formerly known as the Syracuse Health Science Center.

This community-based “campus” in the Southern Tier is an Upstate satellite. It includes its own space in Binghamton, an entirely separate administrative structure with 70 to 80 Upstate faculty members and connections to a Binghamton hospital, according to Raymond Colton, Syracuse HSC chapter president and a professor of otolaryngology and communication sciences.

The program was initiated some 20 years ago, enabling a space-constrained Upstate to accept more medical students, Colton said.

In general, clinical training entails “concentrated teaching for faculty,” who work with only four or five students at a time, Colton explained, emphasizing that it takes more staff members to teach third- and fourth-year students. “Because of the clinical training in the later years of medical school, a lot of faculty are needed to teach these smaller groups of students — and this makes the clinical campuses a big expenditure,” he said.

And that leaves Colton and other SUNY hospital faculty members concerned.

“The potential outcomes to the pending hospital budget problems could impact the fine programs offered at the SUNY hospitals, such as RMED and the Binghamton clinical campus,” Colton said. “The budget crunch might just jeopardize the continuation of these unique training opportunities for New York’s medical students.”

Brooklyn HSC: Empowering the economy

The population of central Brooklyn — the area in the middle of the borough where Brooklyn HSC, now “SUNY Downstate,” is located — is close to 700,000. Two-thirds of the residents are minorities — native-born African-Americans; African-American immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa; Hispanics, including Puerto Ricans and Dominicans; and a growing Mexican immigrant population. The other residents are white, and include a large number of Italian- and Polish-Americans, Chasidic Jews and Russians.

Brooklyn HSC serves as a catchment area — a collecting point and supplier — of much of the medical care and many of the employment opportunities for this diverse community.

By providing nearly 4,000 jobs, creating a “multiplier effect” of almost 2,000 jobs in New York City and more than 500 throughout the state, Brooklyn HSC made a direct, indirect and induced employment impact on New York state of some 6,500 jobs, according to “The Impact of SUNY Downstate,” a September 1998 independent study of, among other things, the center’s economic impact.

The HSC also attracted $39 million in external research funding.

Yet, the hospital’s impact isn’t just calculated in dollars and cents. Its programs and services benefit the community’s high number of minority and impoverished patients who are given exceptional access to medical procedures, such as angioplasties and pediatric outpatient dialysis.

“This facility provides quality health care for a population that is primarily poor and, therefore, generally underserved by medicine,” said Rowena Blackman-Stroud, Brooklyn HSC chapter president and UUP treasurer, who is on leave as the center’s assistant director of nuclear medicine.

In addition, the HSC offers an extensive number of preventive services, which saves the community money in the long run, Blackman-Stroud explained.

These unique “outreach” services include a teen peer educators program, where adolescents bring HIV/AIDS prevention messages to their contemporaries in the community, and a health clinic Brooklyn HSC runs for students in neighboring high schools. One of the first school-based clinics in New York City to offer comprehensive health care to its high school students, the HSC clinic provides immunizations, information about and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and referrals for mental health services.

All services are provided free of charge to recipients.

“These are great programs, offering specialized services that are available through the HSC and are not otherwise available elsewhere in Brooklyn,” Blackman-Stroud said, emphasizing that, whatever the community, performing preventive medicine provides an important, positive economic impact.

In fact, “The Impact of SUNY Down-state” noted that the “long-term economic impact of preventive services provided” through Brooklyn HSC is “particularly dramatic.” For example: “The average lifetime costs of one case of AIDS have been estimated at $705,000. If University Hospital’s AIDS prevention services avert the transmission of HIV to just 200 of the thousands of Brooklyn residents who receive these services each year, the community would save $141 million in avoided lifetime costs each year.”

The HSC is also a leading provider of the community’s jobs, which “run the gamut from full to part time, from physicians and administrators to lab technicians,” Blackman-Stroud said, noting that a majority of the UUPers who work at SUNY Downstate live in the community.

“At the three HSCs, we serve communities that suffer from complications of diseases that are largely preventable,” said physician Miriam Vincent, interim chair of Brooklyn HSC’s Department of Family Medicine and a UUP academic delegate.

“The cornerstone in fulfilling our mission is the clinical care we provide,” Vincent added. “If the state does not continue to support the HSCs, then our most needy citizens will suffer by losing access to the high quality, state-of-the-art medical care that helps to maintain their health and the health of New York state.”

Editor’s note: Like its counterparts in Brooklyn, Syracuse and Stony Brook, Buffalo Health Sciences Center — staffed by academic and professional UUP members — offers teaching, research and medical services to the community. But Buffalo HSC is unique in its structure and operation; for example, there are six hospitals affiliated with the medical center. The Voice will feature Buffalo HSC in a future issue.

Coalition assesses state of higher ed

Public higher education in New York state is plagued by chronic underfunding, an overreliance on part-time faculty and micromanaging trustees who have abdicated their responsibilities as fiscal advocates.

That was the assessment recently presented by the newly formed New York State Public Higher Education Conference Board (NYSPHECB) at the Regents Legislative Public Policy Conference in Albany. NYSPHECB was formed earlier this year to bring together constituencies with a stake in public higher education in New York. Its member organizations include UUP and NYSUT. UUP President William Scheuerman is the board’s acting chair. In a statement submitted to the Regents during a discussion held at the state Education Department, NYSPHECB looked at the common problems facing CUNY, SUNY and the community colleges in New York:

“Today’s discussion about higher education funding takes place at a unique moment in history. Both CUNY — the nation’s largest, oldest and most visible urban university — and SUNY — the nation’s largest and most diverse system of rural and urban colleges, universities and health science centers — have new leaderships. These new administrators have proposed or continue to propose sweeping changes in resource allocation, curriculum and programs. Indeed, these changes call into question the very identity of these vast systems.

“In addition, the state of New York and the city of New York, which support their respective public university systems, are enjoying record-setting budget surpluses. At the same time, public recognition of the value of higher education has never been stronger. Clearly, this is an appropriate moment to reconsider the questions of how these systems are funded and why these funding arrangements are in place.”

NYSPHECB offered a series of recommendations for the state’s higher education systems:

• state allocation of 40 percent of the funding needed to operate community colleges;
• funding to ensure appropriate student-to-full-time-faculty ratios;
• funding for instructional technology and professional development at community colleges;
• funding for improvements in professional conditions and competitive salaries at CUNY;
• funding to implement core curricula at CUNY and SUNY; and
• monitoring by the Regents of any proposed solutions to the fiscal crisis at SUNY’s teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse.

Delegates say: Curriculum meddling must stop

UUP wants to make sure that a temporary SUNY curriculum committee doesn’t become permanent.

Delegates to the 2000 Fall Delegate Assembly in Buffalo overwhelmingly supported a special order of business to condemn the SUNY trustees for their interference in curriculum matters and in defense of academic freedom. At issue: the SUNY Provost’s Advisory Committee on General Education (PACGE), which delegates contend has been meddling into curriculum affairs usually reserved for faculty.

The resolution calls on UUP to continue to reaffirm that faculty — without interference from political or administrative authority — have sole responsibility for all issues of curriculum structure, textbook selection, course syllabus design and teaching methods.

“This committee changes our role in the University,” said UUP delegate Judith Wishnia, an associate professor of social sciences at SUNY Stony Brook. “If PACGE becomes permanent, every change in every course will have to go through (SUNY System Administration in) Albany.”

Stony Brook is already experiencing the repercussions. PACGE has rejected a number of courses on that campus that faculty believe should be part of the curriculum; faculty contend the courses were discarded solely for their multicultural content.

“The courses that have been questioned — and ultimately denied — were all courses on diversity and multiculturalism,” said delegate Arnold Wishnia, an associate professor of chemistry at SUNY Stony Brook. “PACGE is not an academic committee and we must reject it.”

Delegates agreed. The resolution — which states that SUNY’s interference poses a “grave and immediate threat to academic freedom and the integrity of public higher education” — directs UUP to work to abolish the advisory committee.

Additionally, the union will continue to monitor, at the campus level, all attempts by SUNY administrators to infringe on academic freedom; will encourage UUPers to avoid self-censorship in anticipation of possible challenges by trustees; and will join forces with other higher education organizations to defend academic freedom.

Robert Pompi, an associate professor of physics at SUNY Binghamton, said: “When the core curriculum debate first began, UUP, the SUNY Faculty Senate and campus faculty senates were opposed.” The senates have since fallen silent, he said. “UUP is the only player left. If we don’t stop this, no one will.”
Karen L. Mattison

Civil rights and the 11th Amendment

Higher education employees face attacks on a number of fronts, not the least of which comes from the U.S. Supreme Court.

AFT In-house Counsel David Strom outlined the various Supreme Court decisions that use obscure 11th Amendment language to give immunity to states when public employees claim violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Copyright, Trademark and Patent acts. The Equal Pay and the Americans with Disabilities acts are also in jeopardy, he said.

“The Supreme Court has expanded on the concept of sovereign immunity to the point where public higher ed employees are effectively second-class citizens because they lack the protections under many federal employment laws that their brethren in the private sector enjoy,” Strom said.

Options still available to public employees: They can sue under state laws; they have limited rights to sue state officials for injunctive or declaratory relief; and they can sue state employers if the state consents to the lawsuit.

DA notebook:

And the awards go to — Delegates recognized several UUPers for their long and dedicated service to the union, and honored this year’s scholarship winners:

• Former statewide VP for Professionals Charles Hansen of Stony Brook and UUP Legislation Chair Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh were honored as this year’s recipients of the Nina Mitchell Award for Distinguished Service.

• Margaret Acara of Buffalo HSC, who is retiring, was presented a certificate of appreciation for her work as chair of the union’s statewide Affirmative Action Committee.

• The UUP Chapter at Maritime, Eugene Link of Plattsburgh and UUP President Scheuerman received “Link 500 Club” awards for their annual contributions of more than $500 to the scholarship fund.

• This year’s Eugene P. Link scholarship awards went to Kelly Burdick of Cortland, a senior majoring in secondary social studies, and Breelynd Eggleston of Geneseo, a junior majoring in psychology.

Data entry — Acknowledging the importance of information in the fight for fair treatment, delegates OK’d three resolutions to gather data on retention, salary disparity and gender issues. Delegates:

• voted in favor of exit interviews at each UUP chapter. Currently, there is no systemwide means to determine why SUNY employees leave;

• authorized UUP to gather gender data on discretionary awards at each chapter, beginning with the 1999-2000 awards; and

• charged the UUP Research Department with updating the union’s salary-disparity study.

Union YES! — Downstate chapters are being encouraged to send members and students to help kick off the inaugural campaign to make higher education institutions Fair Labor Practice Employers.

The kick-off is set for Nov. 26 at Judson Memorial Church in New York City.

— Delegates agreed to promote student participation in the Union Semester Program at Queens College/CUNY. The program brings students to New York City for a semester-long course in labor studies in conjunction with an internship at a union or the city’s Labor Council.

Fairness for all — Delegates supported Initiative 2000 and the Spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Campaign.

The union’s Disability Rights Committee noted that the ADA is threatened by Congressional legislation designed to weaken it and by judicial challenges that would exempt state governments from compliance.

The resolution calls on individuals, communities, SUNY, government leaders, and service and advocacy organizations to renew their commitment to promote full citizenship and employment for people with disabilities.

Private matters — The Senior Management Prescription Program, proposed by the Department of State and Civil Service Division, caused great concern among active and retired UUPers.

Delegates consider the plan — which is designed to monitor seniors’ usage of more than eight prescriptions — to be a possible invasion of privacy and of patient/doctor confidentiality. Currently, the plan would only monitor those over age 65.

UUP officers were called on to investigate the proposal and to report on their findings prior to the 2001 Winter DA.

Honoring union retirees — Delegates praised 2000 Outstanding Retiree Award winner Hyman Kuritz of Albany, who was chosen for the annual award by the Committee on Active Retired Membership (COARM).

The award recognizes Kuritz for his long and dedicated service to UUP and his work on behalf of retiree issues. Kuritz, who chairs the union’s Retiree Legislative Action Group, is an active member of the AARP National Legislative Council and took over in June as chair of AARP’s state Legislative Committee.

— COARM Chair Pearl Brod of Farmingdale was honored by UUP delegates on receiving the AFT/AFL-CIO’s “Living the Legacy” award for 30 years of leadership and union advocacy in support of women’s rights. “All my life I have been exposed to unionism,” said Brod, who was also recognized during the recent AFT Convention in Philadel-phia. “My father had been very involved in union organizing at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The first thought that came to mind on receiving the Living the Legacy award was, ‘If only my father could have been here. He would be so proud.’”

SUNY makes the grade in national rankings

UUP members — as well as other SUNY staff — have always known what a good job they do. Now, once again, the whole world knows.

Nine colleges and all four of SUNY’s university centers are featured in the college guide issued by U.S. News and World Report; Binghamton University ranked fifth for best buys for out-of-state students in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s 100 best values in public higher education; and Geneseo, Albany, New Paltz, Oswego, Stony Brook and Fredonia also placed in the top 100 list.

Students also played a primary role in yet another SUNY success story: Seven campuses were commended in a survey of college students conducted by the Time/Princeton Review’s Best College For You/2001.

SUNY colleges were distinguished for some interesting achievements. Binghamton, for example, was recognized in the Time/Princeton Review for offering “a top-notch education at a state-school price.” In U.S. News and World Report, Binghamton was 13th among second tier national universities for students graduating with the least debt. U.S. News also ranked Geneseo second for top northern public colleges, and it was also praised for its high graduation rate. The publication ranked Purchase second among top northern public liberal arts colleges, second tier. SUNY Buffalo’s School of Pharmacy ranked 13th in pharmacy programs, while Farmingdale made the list of best schools in engineering in the U.S. News report.

The Time/Princeton Review noted that Stony Brook “is best known as a national caliber graduate research center with a particular strength in the sciences and a ‘strong engineering program.’”

Fredonia “offers numerous solid majors including nationally recognized programs in the arts,” according to the same survey.

“These successes are due in no small part to the talent, dedication and hard work of many UUP members,” UUP President William Scheuerman said.

UUP publications earn international awards

UUP has been recognized for its outstanding publications by the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA).

The Voice and the union’s 25th anniversary booklet earned a combined six awards in ILCA’s annual international journalism competition. The union’s monthly magazine won two first-place, one second-place and two honorable mention awards, while the 12-page, two-color viewbook (inset) received first-place honors for best institutional profile in the Labor History category.

The original four-color “Citizen SUNY” illustration by freelancer Jason Yungbluth in the November 1999 issue of The Voice earned UUP a first-place award for best front page/cover. The cover art, of several UUPers holding their neighborhood above their heads, was used to illustrate how members serve as the backbone, brainpower and heart of their communities.

“This is a highly stylized depiction of union members; (it) connotes strength,” according to the judges.

The silhouetted photo of anthropologist Dean Falk of SUNY Albany facing a human skeleton also won top honors as best original photograph. The cover shot, taken by Albany photographer Marie Triller, ran in the May 1999 issue. “A visually interesting way to illustrate how vital research remains to the academic mission,” the judges noted. The Voice’s in-depth coverage of teacher- and urban-education programs in the October and November 1999 issues received second-place kudos for best series. The articles were written by Lisa Feldman Reich, UUP media specialist, and Liza Frenette, communications specialist.

The monthly magazine also earned honorable mentions for general excellence for the September and October 1999 issues — which featured articles on the new UUP bargaining agreement, women and the labor movement, and teaching teachers to teach — and for Yungbluth’s “Y2K: Turning back the clock” best original cartoon that ran in the January 1999 issue.

There were 1,297 entries submitted by 156 member publications this year.

Among the judges: editors, reporters, communications directors and labor leaders from international unions, public relations businesses, newspapers and magazines, including Jerald ter Horst, a retired Washington, D.C., reporter and White House press secretary, and art director John Anderson of National Geographic.

On track: Buffalo UUPer shifts from organizer to mechanic

In Dave Ballard’s world as associate director of the student union at SUNY Buffalo, it takes four years for a student to finish college. In his weekend world as a mechanic on the NASCAR Winston Cup/Busch racing circuits, it takes just four hours for a driver to cross that finish line.

But what a trip it is preparing for those four hours.

For Ballard, a UUPer, it starts with traveling. He leaves Buffalo and heads for points north, south, east and west, to dusty, oblong, high-speed race tracks soon to be filled with screaming fans and the drone of car engines. He leaves a large wooden desk and a bleating telephone for the belly of a race car and a bunch of metal tools. A directive to “suit up” means a jacket and tie on campus, or a mechanic’s uniform at the race track.

During the week, Ballard oversees student activities and helps manage different student centers for the 30,000 or so students attending SUNY Buffalo. He helps line up social events and speakers. In the hall outside his office, there’s a poster announcing a visit by comedian Dennis Miller. Just inside his office, there’s a blur of artwork about anything race track: drivers, flags, cars.

On the weekend, he is one of about 20 men and women who work at the track for the Roush Racing Team. His specialty: the chassis and suspension, videotaping the pit stops and updating race data on the computer. He says his avocation — car racing — enriches his vocation — working with students. Race car driving is a competitive sport that emphasizes teamwork. To remain competitive when a driver makes a pit stop, the crew has about 15 seconds to change four tires, adjust the chassis and add 22 gallons of fuel.

In reverse, he said that at SUNY Buffalo he learns about leadership and understanding people; he takes that knowledge back to the track.

Ironically, when Ballard went to a trade high school, he eschewed auto mechanics in favor of a printing curriculum. He picked up the knack for mechanical work on his own.

“Years ago, I took a car off a scrap heap in my cousin’s junkyard, put it together and went racing,” he said. Ballard built cars, maintained them and hauled them to drag races. His first stock car for the oval track was a blue Chevrolet Impala, No. 88. As car racing became more refined, Ballard said he had to decide “whether to hold a wrench or hold a steering wheel.” He figured the world of fast cars needed more mechanics than drivers. He’s been part of the Exide racing team (now sponsored by Citgo), with driver Jeff Burton, for five years. Ballard takes part in 32 Winston Cup races a year, plus 14 Busch Grand National races.

Ballard’s team has won two Winston “No Bull” races last year and one this year: They offer a $1 million bonus per race. Bonus cash is in addition to the $70,000 to $250,000 purse for the NASCAR races, which run from February through November.

“I think I’d get bored if I had to sit home 52 weekends a year and sit on the deck,” Ballard said.

NYSTI audio books win national honors

The New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI) has earned an Audio Publishers Association (APA) “Audie” Award for the production of its Family Classic Audio Book, Sherlock’s Secret Life.

Sherlock’s Secret Life, introduced by Oscar and Emmy award-winning actor Karl Malden, won in the multivoiced presentation category. An original mystery/comedy by UUPer Ed. Lange, the play speculates about early times in the Holmes and Watson collaboration. The original cast of the NYSTI premiere production recorded the audio book, including UUPers Joel Aroeste, David Bunce, John McGuire and John Romeo.

NYSTI’s production of the audio book Zoe Caldwell Reads Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales earned a silver seal as a finalist.

Family Classic Audio Books, a collaboration between Warner Music Group and NYSTI, was honored as a finalist for an Audie last year in the theatrical production category, for the two-volume set A Little Princess.

The APA is a not-for-profit trade organization consisting of more than 200 companies — including publishers, distributors and suppliers, along with industries related to the production, promotion and sale of audio books. For more on these and other NYSTI audio books, call (518) 274-3200 or visit the Web at http://www.nysti.org.

UUPers in the news:

Molecular research undertaken — Thomas Cronin, a visiting instructor at SUNY Cobleskill, recently spent two months working with a unique research team at the University of Akron (Ohio).

Cronin worked as a research associate in the laboratory of David Perry, an internationally recognized expert in the area of intramolecular energy transfer. The team was designing, building and testing a new, highly sensitive absorption technique to trace gas analysis and reaction kinetics.

Award to aid in pharmaceutical research — Huw M.L. Davies, a Larkin professor in the department of organic chemistry at SUNY Buffalo, has received a prestigious Focused Giving Award from Johnson & Johnson. The award, worth $80,000 per year over three years, will fund research on a revolutionary method to synthesize specialty chemicals, especially pharmaceuticals.

Faculty honored for work with students — More than a dozen UUPers on the SUNY Cobleskill faculty were recently recognized by the college’s Student Affairs Office for their dedication to students both in and out of the classroom.

Honored were: Charles Matteson, Ron Cleeve, James Nuhlicek, Angelika Hoeher, Salvador Rivera, Harald Abrahamsen, James Fort and Terence McGiver, all of the liberal arts and sciences division; and Karl Schwarzenegger and Nancy Burton, business and computer technology.

Also, Bonita Klemm and Kris Reape, early childhood division; Patricia Hults, librarian; David Campbell, culinary arts, hospitality and tourism; and David Tisch, agriculture and natural resources.

Cleeve and Fort were also singled out for “lifetime achievement awards” from the Student Affairs Office and were presented with bronze medallions to signify their efforts.

DCAAccount deadline nears

Here’s some good news about the Dependent Care Advantage Account (DCAAccount): UUP negotiated a $200, $300 or $400 contribution (based on salary) per year for each member who participates in the program.

If you make up to $35,000, the state will contribute $400 into your account. If you make between $35,001 and $55,000, the contribution will be $300; more than $55,000, the contribution is $200. To be eligible, you don’t even have to contribute your own money. But you do need to sign up for the DCAAccount by Nov. 17.

I’m sure the first thing you’re asking is: “What is a DCAAccount and will it help me?” Well, if you’re paying for dependent, disabled dependent or elder care so that you can continue to work, a DCAAccount can save you money. If you enroll, you pay those expenses with whole dollars, before state, federal and Social Security taxes are taken from your salary.

State employees already in the program save an average of $1,500 a year — and that’s before the state-contributed money.

Here’s how it works: During the open enrollment period, you choose the total amount for the year you want set aside in your account for eligible expenses. The total amount you choose to have deducted will automatically be reduced by the employer contribution. Then, each pay period, equal portions of the remaining amount will be deducted from your biweekly paycheck. This money is deducted tax-free, including New York City tax, if applicable.

After these deductions are taken from your gross pay, taxes are calculated on the remainder of your salary. Then, any other deductions you may have (such as NYSUT benefit plans) are taken out of your salary. The remaining amount in your paycheck is your take-home pay. Less tax means more spendable income for you.

So, how do you get your money back to pay for child or elder care expenses? After the dependent care services are rendered, you need to get an invoice or receipt, or you can have the care provider countersign the claim form. You will receive reimbursement for eligible claims up to the amount of money currently in your account. If your claim is higher than your balance, the plan administrator pays up to the amount you have and holds the remainder of the claim to be paid when future deductions are received. You can even have your reimbursement go directly into your bank account.

I’ve spoken to members who have used the DCAAccount and rave about its simplicity and, more importantly, about the money they save. If you currently have child or elder care expenses, take a few minutes to call the DCAAccount hotline at (800) 358-7202 or visit the Web site at www.albany.net/~ccac/dcaa. It is also possible to download an application directly from the Internet. Remember, if you want to save money, you must act by Nov. 17.

Supplemental disability plan available

SUNY provides long-term group disability coverage to bargaining unit members who are eligible for the state Health Insurance Program and have been employed by SUNY for at least one year.

The University’s plan insures members for up to 60 percent of their SUNY income. Recipients are likely to receive less than 50 percent of their income after taxes are deducted.

Members can supplement their TIAA-CREF coverage with the NYSUT Disability Insurance Plan, underwritten by First Unum Life Insurance Company. If a member is not eligible for the TIAA-CREF coverage, the member may apply for NYSUT’s short-term or long-term disability insurance plan, which provides up to 60 percent of annual salary, not to exceed $5,000 a month, in tax-free benefits. The long-term plan provides benefits to age 65; the short-term plan provides benefits for up to 12 months.

Eligible members who use payroll deduction to pay their premiums for long-term disability insurance will receive a discount of up to 20 percent on the premiums.

Bargaining unit members under age 64 who work 20 or more hours a week are eligible to apply for the plan. NYSUT also offers a disability plan for spouses or certified domestic partners of bargaining unit members, associate members and retiree members. Applicants must be under age 64, work 30 or more hours a week and meet underwriting guidelines.

For information, contact First Unum at (800) 515-2471.

Gail Maloy, Director, Member Benefits and Services

The Last Word
Critical issue: SUNY hospital budget shortfall hurts us all

By Edward VanDuzer, Brockport chapter president

In Brockport, we hear about problems with our SUNY hospitals and quickly dismiss them because we have no ongoing relation to them. They’re in Syracuse, Brooklyn and Stony Brook. Buffalo also has a medical school, but it does not have a hospital. How can this possibly affect us? The answer is: It does affect us, and very critically. The hospitals serve several purposes. They are teaching hospitals, part of the New York state medical school system and, therefore, being public, rightly belong in SUNY. SUNY Buffalo was originally a private school, which was purchased by New York in 1962. Its medical school was dependent on several hospitals in the Buffalo area. This arrangement has been continued.

Syracuse, Brooklyn and Stony Brook have their own hospitals because of their early development around these facilities. Because they are state hospitals, they serve the people of New York and care for many indigent patients, as well as train doctors and other health specialists.

The object of a state hospital is not to earn a profit. Or, at least, the object should not be to earn a profit. It should be to serve the state. Up until the 1990s, whatever money was received for services stayed within the hospitals. During the brief recession in the early 1990s, that changed and money was transferred to SUNY in order to reduce state budget appropriations. Under our present governor and the SUNY Board of Trustees, the sum demanded each year rose until, by 1998, it was $116 million. In other words, Brockport and other colleges were actually benefiting from the good management of the state hospitals. In order to meet the sum demanded, I would imagine they could not afford to offer salaries at a level that would keep employees. I review the weekly list of SUNY job openings. A rather large number are always opening at the hospitals. When I compare the skills required with the salaries offered, it’s obvious to me why so many vacancies exist.

No doubt, also, the hospitals have become understaffed and their employees overworked to save money. Rehabilitation of facilities probably also has not been as frequent as needed.

UUP has a very large commitment to the hospitals. About 26 percent of our members are employed in them. If they were to be separated from us, we would lose many vigorous union activists. As a union, we have a scale of service to our members that has been extraordinary. Not only do we have the money to do what’s necessary, but we have many bright, articulate members because we include the hospitals.

As a result of the U.S. government scaling back Medicare reimbursements, SUNY hospitals have suffered, as have all hospitals. Last year, our hospitals found themselves unable to meet the $116 million payment to SUNY. They reduced it to about $40 million by scraping up money from all accounts, putting off rehabilitation and using other savings (not hiring replacements, etc.). Our hospitals have been unable to pay the $116 million for the current year and, therefore, will be unable to come up with the $116 million for the 2000-2001 year, for a total deficit of $272 million. I’m sure the numbers may be fudged one way or another, but the amount is still staggering. SUNY is in the hole for around $270 million. But SUNY’s trustees have tried to hide the problem. Only when UUP and state Comptroller H. Carl McCall laid it out for the state Legislature did SUNY finally own up to its nasty, self-created problem. We forced SUNY out of the closet. When cornered, SUNY finally admitted there was a problem — and a significant one.

Admitting the problem and laying the blame are two different things. Our trustees are saying that the deficit exists because of poor management by our state hospitals. They’re trying to hide the fact that the real cause is their demand that the hospitals support the rest of SUNY to the tune of $116 million per year. They don’t want to admit they have created the problem by not requesting enough money from the Legislature to run SUNY.

If I were paranoid, I would see a more devious plot. By putting SUNY into this huge financial hole, there could be justification to severely downsize the University. It’s a ready-made crisis. People accept extreme solutions when faced with dire circumstances. UUP has been the lone voice for years, trying to avoid cutbacks and to get money restored to the SUNY budget. Now, we have McCall and members of the Legislature aware of the fiscal irresponsibility of the trustees.

This legislative session will be critical for SUNY. UUP will be fighting to fill the financial gap. Our trustees will be dragging their feet, kicking and screaming. Support VOTE/COPE. It’s the only game in town. It’s the only way we can lobby the Legislature for enough money to support SUNY.

(UUPer Edward VanDuzer is a retired lecturer of economics and business administration at SUNY Brockport.)

Snake oil no cure

By William E. Scheuerman
UUP President

Over the last several years, SUNY’s Board of Trustees tried to prescribe some bad political medicine for the University’s hospitals, including an ill-conceived effort to privatize them, which would have killed their public mission and removed them from legislative oversight and public accountability. Fortunately, some real doctors of politics — the Legislature — intervened and prevented the trustees from administering their deadly dosage.

The legislative cure focused on increasing the teaching hospitals’ competitive position in today’s tight health care market without undercutting their public mission or public accountability. From all indications, the cure would work — if given the chance.

SUNY’s trustees and the state Division of the Budget have contrived a crisis by using hospital revenues to fund SUNY’s academic programs. The practice of using the hospitals as cash cows for the state-operated academic campuses has created a structural deficit of about $116 million annually. After three years of deficits, they now face a shortfall of more than $200 million.

SUNY initially did its best to hide the structural deficit from the public by insisting all was well with the hospitals. Campus presidents quietly disagreed. UUP argued that SUNY was using hospital revenues to fund academic programs. When the state comptroller identified the shortfall and attributed it to SUNY’s misuse of the hospitals as cash cows, the Legislature and the public began to pay a lot more attention. That’s when SUNY reluctantly admitted there was a fiscal crisis.

The trustees’ response to the crunch was typical. Rather than seek public funding to end the practice of using hospital revenues to subsidize SUNY’s academic programs, SUNY spent more than $1 million to hire a consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to analyze the cause of the “problem.” The consultant’s report stated the obvious: SUNY’s hospitals are well managed, competitive, appropriately staffed to fulfill their public mission and chronically underfunded.

SUNY managers say they are in the process of presenting the Legislature with a proposal to “fix” the hospital problem — the very problem they created, then denied and are still reluctant to resolve. The Legislature has been awaiting SUNY’s plan for several months now, and some observers fear the hospitals will suffer while SUNY leaders slowly search for a cure. Is this what our trustees really want?

Independent legislative hearings and costly studies commissioned by SUNY resulted in the agreement that any real plan designed to address the hospital shortfall is fundamentally simple: Put more money into the University. Trustees, after all, are supposed to advocate for SUNY, so it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what the trustees need to do. The question is, will they? Or will they continue their tired old saw on how the state needs to change the hospitals’ governance structure, i.e., privatize them? A change in governance sidesteps the issue of adequate funding and undercuts SUNY’s mission while removing its teaching hospitals from public accountability. If this is a cure, it’s a quack cure.

SUNY’s hospitals are too important to let die or to remove from the realm of public accountability. As vital public institutions, the University’s health science centers and hospitals are leading educators of medical personnel, training the next generation of researchers and physicians. They are leading centers of biomedical research and important sources of high-quality health care in their communities. The hospitals play a major role in health policy. They also provide care for the indigent, the uninsured and anyone else dependent on public hospitals. The medical centers in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse are major players in their local economies. The hospitals are vital to the physical, mental and economic well-being of all New Yorkers. It’s time for the trustees to fix the problem by using their influence to bring needed funds into the University. How they respond will show all of New York if the trustees and their hired hands are doctors or charlatans.