NEW PALTZ – SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher was confronted with tough questions about faculty wages and racial relations, during a visit Thursday afternoon to the campus of New Paltz College.

Dozens of protesters holding placards in back demanded a raise in adjunct salaries from an average $3,000 to $5,000 per class taught. There is no minimum per class compensation for adjuncts in New York.

Find out more here: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2013/May/10/Zimpher_SNP-10May13.html

Photo By: Kelly Marsh for the Times Herald-Record

NEW PALTZ — As college protests go, this one was pretty polite — by design.

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher was scheduled to address the faculty Thursday morning, and some of the faculty were intent on addressing her with questions about pay levels for adjuncts and contingent teachers.

When it was all over, protest organizer and union chapter President Peter Brown declared the protest a success on one hand and a surprise on the other.

“We got the message across that adjuncts and contingent faculty are the lowest-paid people on campus, despite their keeping the educational enterprise going.”

Find more here: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130510/NEWS/305100369

Photo by Roberto LoBianco

For more than a century, May Day has been a celebration of the international labor movement and is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. The New Paltz rally focused on issues of concern to faculty, staff and students at the college. This event was sponsored by a broad coalition of unions and student groups, including the New Paltz chapter of United University Professions (UUP), CSEA, The Student Association, New York Students Rising (NYSR), Black Student Union (BSU), the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), Students for Justice in Palestine, the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter and Amnesty International, among others.

A principal focus of this event is the call for equitable pay and fair working conditions, including job security, for contingent faculty. The Student-Labor Coalition is demanding that all adjunct and full-time lecturers be paid a minimum starting salary of $5,000 per course. Adjuncts typically teach one or two courses per semester and currently make around $3,000 per course, earning them a salary just above the poverty level. Lecturers are paid about $4,000 per course, but are expected to teach five courses each semester, an excessive and unsustainable workload that is unique among SUNY colleges. Student and faculty leaders addressed this issue that directly affects educational quality, fairness and equity.

In addition to the working conditions of contingent faculty, speakers addressed other pressing issues of concern to students, including soaring student debt, deficient campus policies on maternity & family leave for faculty and students, as well as the marginalization of the Women’s, Gender and Sexualities program. While celebrating the contributions of campus workers, this event underscores the need to provide affordable, quality public higher education for students in New York State.

Organization Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/475763262495102 | http://www.uuphost.org/newpaltzwp

More pictures can be found in our online albums or here.

A tentative agreement between UUP and New York State was reached on February 13, 2013. In a day-long meeting on February 15 UUP’s Negotiations Committee and Executive Board reviewed the tentative contract with President Phil Smith and the Negotiations Team and voted unanimously to send it to the membership for a ratification vote.

The full text of the contract proposal—with an article-by-article comparison of major changes— is being prepared and will be mailed to members’ addresses of record. Included in the mailing will be information on the ratification vote.

Highlights of the Tentative Agreement:

• Salary increases starting in 2013 and in all subsequent contract years
• Service Awards for reaching career milestones (subject to continuation under Triborough)
• Maintenance of health benefits with employee premium share increase
• Increases in deductibles and co-insurance for out-of-network services under the Empire Plan beginning as soon as practicable after ratification
• Maintenance of drug co-pays for Tier 1 drugs; increases for Tier 2 and 3 drugs
• Elimination of co-pays for many yearly preventive care physical exams, screenings, tests, counseling, and vaccines
• Higher income eligibility level for Productivity Enhancement Program (exchange of vacation days for credit toward health insurance premium)
• Reinstitution of Labor-Management grant and other benefit programs
• Part-time employee time to term appointment reduced from 6 semesters to 4 semesters
• Expansion of eligibility for on-call/recall
• Procedural steps for Evaluation of Professionals put into Article 7 (Grievance Procedure)
• Additions to Appendix A-28 regarding performance programs and evaluations
• New class action grievance provision
• Ability to use 15 family sick days for adoption and foster care
• Deficit Reduction Plan for 9 days with 7 repaid at the end of the contract period
• Employee right to see unsolicited, signed letters in Personnel file
• Elimination of salary rank restrictions on eligibility for early permanent appointment
• Labor-Management commitment to discuss professionals titles and other issues, beginning with Information Technology

UUP/State Tentative Agreement 2011-2016 Details

Stay informed

As negotiations proceed, UUP members will be kept informed through regular website postings, mailings from President Phil Smith, and articles in The Voice. Periodic updates and other information will be sent to chapter presidents for distribution via chapter websites, newsletters, fliers, and meetings.

Members are encouraged to periodically check the UUP website (uupinfo.org) for postings at the “Contract Negotiations” link on the home page. Feel free to contact UUP Chief Negotiator Jamie Dangler at contract@uupmail.org for further information or to submit questions or comments.

“Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Institutional Racism: Alive and Well?”, a discussion panel hosted by UUP, will be on February 27th, from 4:30 – 6 PM, in the Coykendall Science Building (CSB) Auditorium. The participants are Prof. Major Coleman, Black Studies; Prof. Karanja Keita Carroll, Black Studies; Chanel Ward, Director of the Scholars’ Mentorship Program; Josette Ramnani, Political Science major; and Prof. Jerry Persaud, Communication & Media, moderator.

We very much hope you will attend this engaging event.

I’m sure you heard the dreadful news that Michigan yesterday joined the two dozen so-called “right to work” states, which will have the effect of further weakening unions and driving down wages.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, UUP and other unions will join with the faith-based leaders of Brooklyn for a noontime rally in Albany at the State Capitol. The purpose of this rally is multi-faceted: to protect the collective bargaining protections of ALL whom we represent; to save medical services and jobs at Downstate Medical Center; and to prevent a move toward privatization of ALL our public hospitals.

Our New Paltz UUP chapter plans to participate in this rally, beginning at 12:30 to about 2 PM. We will also have the opportunity to meet with our legislators and/or staff, and to have a display table in The Well of the Legislative Office Building to let the public know about what our SUNY campus is all about.

WE NEED TO HAVE A LARGE SHOWING. The Governor is giving his State of the State Address on January 9, and we want to get his attention beforehand. SO P-L-E-A-S-E HELP!!!!!!

We will be forming car pools or renting a bus, depending on how many participants we have. If you can support our union by attending this event, please contact our Chapter Assistant, Mary Thompson, by phone (ext. 2770) or email: thompsom@newpaltz.edu. A sign-up sheet will also be available at tomorrow’s gathering.

In union,

Peter D.G. Brown
Chapter President

This is a watershed moment for higher education. The “reform” agenda that brought relentless testing and widespread privatization to K-12 schools has surfaced in higher education. Forty years of public policy focused on access to college is being replaced by a single-minded demand for increased graduation rates—whatever the cost in academic quality.

The battle for educational quality is being fought hard by faculty and staff at The City University of New York (CUNY), long a focal point in struggles for educational justice.

CUNY’s educational mission is under attack. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and the CUNY Board of Trustees, led by Benno Schmidt, Jr., are trying to impose a diluted system of general education, “Pathways,” that seeks to save money at the expense of students’ learning. Facing intense faculty resistance, the CUNY administration has resorted to threats and intimidation. Under the pretext of easing student transfer and increasing graduation rates, Pathways will deliver a minimal curriculum for CUNY’s working-class students: it removes science lab requirements, limits foreign language requirements, and cuts back on faculty time with students in English classes. Pathways is an attempt to move students through the system more quickly even as budgets are cut—by reducing academic requirements. Pathways is austerity education for an austerity economy.

With your help, we can defeat Pathways and achieve a victory for educational quality that could have national implications. Please add your voice to ours and take a stand for the integrity of higher education.

Barbara Bowen
President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

Terrence Martell
Chair, University Faculty Senate

For more information and to sign the petition, click here!

The panel will examine some of the most pressing issues facing students, explore the connection between labor and education, and empower students to take action. With its dynamic student and faculty panel, featuring Brian Obach, Chair of the Sociology Department, and Peter D.G. Brown, UUP Chapter President, the discussion will raise awareness of the close interaction between student and labor needs, enabling students to assume greater responsibility for their quality higher education.

Thursday, November 8th,
4:30 pm, CSB Auditorium

The Chicago Teachers Strike: Reframing Education Reform and Teacher Unions

This talk will discuss the national significance of the Chicago teachers strike and its potential for the future of education reform and teacher unions in the U.S. Over the past two decades federal, state, and local governments in concert with corporate philanthropies have advanced education initiatives based on top-down accountability and the redirection of schooling to economic competitiveness. These initiatives include overuse of high -stakes tests, corporate-driven charter schools, evaluation of teachers by test scores, among others. To date, the recent Chicago teachers strike is the most significant mass opposition to this agenda.
Led by a revitalized Chicago Teachers Union and widely supported by parents, the strike was about more than compensation – it was in opposition to the current direction in public education and its effects on teaching and learning. The CTU’s new brand of teacher unionism – democratic, grassroots, and allied with parents and communities in promoting education equity and holistic education – will be examined in the talk.

Workshop
Drawing on her book, “The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the City”, Pauline Lipman will discuss the political and economic context that is shaping the contest over education change in Chicago. She will describe the intersection of housing, economic development and education policies in Chicago, the dynamics of race, and the growth of grassroots movements. She will engage participants in a discussion of the ways in which these dynamics, the context for the recent Chicago teachers’ strike, is being replayed in various ways across the U.S.

Pauline Lipman
Pauline Lipman is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Director of the Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Pauline’s research focuses on race and class inequality, globalization, and political economy of urban education. Her newest book, “The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City” (Routledge, 2011) draws on multidisciplinary frameworks including critical geography, urban sociology, anthropology, critical studies of race, and sociology of education. Pauline is active in Teachers for Social Justice in Chicago and was involved in the recent Chicago teachers strike.

Resolution Opposing the NYSUT Endorsement of Congressman Chris Gibson

Whereas, The board of directors of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) voted in June 2012 to endorse Republican Chris Gibson over Democrat Julian Schreibman in the newly-created 19th Congressional District race;
Whereas, NYSUT is an affiliate of the United University Professions (UUP), and the UUP statewide organization has membership on the NYSUT executive board, and the UUP is bound by NYSUT endorsements;
Whereas, The NYSUT local presidents voted to take a position of neutrality on the race between Chris Gibson and Julian Schreibman;
Whereas, The NYSUT board of directors initially adopted a stance of neutrality on the race between Chris Gibson and Julian Schreibman, and then later changed their position to endorse Chris Gibson without consulting the NYSUT local presidents;
Whereas, Chris Gibson supported Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget plan which would – among other things – devastate education funding;
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted to extend Bush-era tax cuts through 2013;
Whereas, Chris Gibson has voted to support voucher programs for education, depriving public schools of important funding;
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted in support of school vouchers in Washington, D.C., schools;
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted in support of increasing the interest rates on student loans;
Whereas, AFT and NYSUT’s own ranking of Chris Gibson on Education issues before Congress is a mere 38%;
Whereas, Chris Gibson has called for the scaling back or closing down of the Department of Education;
Whereas, Chris Gibson has voted to prevent the E.P.A. from spending money to enforce its standards regarding the reduction of mercury emissions from cement plants across the U.S.;
Whereas, Chris Gibson has supported building additional nuclear power plants along the Hudson River;
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted in support of the Defense of Marriage Act and this year voted twice against efforts to repeal it, and opposes same-sex marriage;
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted to restrict the ability of unions to organize and effectively enforce safe labor standards;
Whereas, Chris Gibson was rated at a shockingly low 14% by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (a grade of “F” on worker’s issues);
Whereas, Chris Gibson voted to ban federal health coverage that includes abortion; and
Whereas, A vote for Chris Gibson is also a vote for the anti-labor, anti-education leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives;
Resolved, That the UUP New Paltz Chapter Executive Committee opposes the NYSUT endorsement of Representative Chris Gibson for the 19th Congressional District.

—UUP New Paltz Chapter Executive Committee, September 21, 2012