To the Point:

The not-so-glamorous work we do

By William E. Scheuerman
UUP President

It’s outrageous!

The start of a new academic year always brings something new with it: New classes, new students, new colleagues, new ideas, in fact, a whole series of new challenges. This year, it brought something else too: a leftover, unresolved struggle over the state budget and adequate funding for SUNY.

In early August — just hours before breaking the record for a late budget — the Legislature passed what it characterized as a “bare-bones” budget that was supposed to get everyone angry enough to take some kind of political action. Their budget scrapped most of the governor’s programs without any legislative add-ons. It’s getting a lot of people angry! Real angry. And that, after all, was the Legislature’s intention. If everyone starts screaming and hollering at the Legislature and the governor, budget talks among the state’s political leaders should begin again and we’ll finally have a state budget.

We at UUP have to make sure the final budget addresses SUNY’s many problems: the need for faculty lines, and for more money for our teaching hospitals, the University Colleges of Technology and the New York State Theatre Institute. We also want to resolve the pension inequities facing members enrolled in optional retirement programs. That’s the good news ... and the bad. Good because public anger jumpstarts the budget process. Bad because UUP is just one of many organized groups doing the political screaming and hollering.

But that’s OK. We know what we have to do in the political arena and we’re good at doing it! We know we don’t really have to scream and holler. We just have to be visible and present a clear and practical message.

So how do we do that?

We didn’t wait for the beginning of the school year to send our message to the state Capitol. In early August, we launched an aggressive campaign that builds on the solid foundation of support we have in both houses of the Legislature and on the respect we’ve earned from the governor. Our political campaign (see related story, page 4) includes letter-writing and telephone campaigns; weekly lobbying; joint efforts with the many coalitions we’ve joined and formed over the years, including other unions, the Alliance for Excellence in Public Higher Education and the New York State Public Higher Education Conference Board; and an advertising campaign that, among other activities, sent each member a tear-off postcard with a political message to send along to appropriate political leaders of both parties.

Yes, as usual, thousands of UUPers will play a major role in ensuring the success of our campaign and the emergence of a better University. Success in this campaign is a good way to begin the year. And, with our membership’s considerable effort, this campaign may already be won by the time fall classes begin. (And if the budget is still up in the air by the time you read this — and it very well may be — it’s not too late to send in your postcard if you haven’t already.)

Thanks for your help!