UUP Binghamton

UUP represents Professionals on campus. Like Academics, Professionals can obtain the permanent appointment (tenure) after seven years of employment. Until that time, however, Professionals have term contracts that may or may not be renewed. Consequently, Professionals are vulnerable to the vagaries of the university’s priorities in dealing with budget cuts.

UUP has received numerous reports over the past four years that Professionals have been non-renewed because of budgetary reasons. A Professional can have five years of stellar performance reviews, but is non-renewed in the sixth year, just because a manager has received a reduced budget and the only way to deal with the reduced budget is to non-renew a vulnerable Provessional.

Management decisions about personnel, and statistics about non-renewals, do not begin to tell the whole story. There is another side, a human side, to these decisions. The following is a letter UUP has received, showing the human side of non-renewal.

”The end of [my] employment is coming closer (April 2012), and I have been unable to obtain any employment in the Southern Tier area either here at the University (I have been applying for every opportunity that I have the requirements but keep getting rejected because I don\'t have \"academic\" experience and have only worked at […]). Of course, I\'ve been applying like crazy to other employers, but it is even harder to obtain employment in the Southern Tier area (or anywhere else because of the financial problems in the country) since this area is so depressed.

”This has been the most stressful time in my whole life (I am 59). At a time when my husband and I were planning how we would retire and stay in our home, this situation could have been avoided by a Management that would have been more creative in regulating its budget by not hurting hard-working and dedicated employees. Now, my husband and I face the possibility of losing our home and being forced to relocate if I can\'t find employment that will meet our financial needs. If Management had been honest and forthcoming with information, I would have taken a reduction in pay rather than have my employment end.

”Management needs to know how their thoughtless actions impact people\'s lives. They need to realize that they are actually hurting themselves by eliminating good workers who would do whatever is needed to move the University in a positive direction. I only had 5 years to go to retire (I am a Tier 1 who took some time off to raise my children and was trying to make it up to 20 years to retire), my husband was out of work for 8 months last year due to his company\'s downsizing and had to accept a lower paying job (1/2 of what he was making) but we thought we would be able to support ourselves because I had my job, good evaluations, and I was on the verge (I just finished my 5th year) towards tenure in my contract. …”