The SUNY system has been very good to Fern Becker—and, likewise, she has been very good for SUNY! Fern took her Associates degree at SUNY Farmingdale before taking a job at SUNY Stony Brook. It was at Stony Brook that Fern first took notice of the value of union membership. Starting there as a CSEA member and, later, as a UUP member, Fern funded the completion of an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences with financial support from her unions.
After serving in various positions for 17 years at Stony Brook, and a brief stint with Price Waterhouse, Fern began her work here at Purchase College in 1997 as Assistant to the Dean of Natural Sciences. She currently works in the same capacity for Suzanne Kessler, who oversees the recently combined School of Natural and Social Sciences. What she likes most about her position is awarding scholarships to worthy students, working in close collaboration with LAS on the combined scholarship fund.
Like most long-term employees, Fern has done her share of “community service” for the college, in the past working on several search committees and serving for several years on the Student Hearing and Appeals Board. Most recently, she was a member of the Professional Staff Council’s Criteria on Promotions Committee. In addition, Fern was already active in UUP before her election as delegate, representing the UUP on the college’s Committee on Professional Evaluations, which reviews “unsatisfactory” evaluations of professional staff members and makes recommendations for further action to the president of the college. She attended the statewide UUP organization’s New Leaders retreats this past academic year and recently agreed to serve the chapter as a member of the newly reconstituted Membership Development Committee.
As a delegate, Fern looks forward to learning about the union, how it works and how it benefits college employees. Acting on her own impulse to “get involved,” Fern hopes to work with her UUP colleagues to develop a better sense of “community” here at Purchase. Both the college and the union should work to improve employee morale, according to Fern, who wonders, “Why don’t we work harder to hold onto good people?” Indeed, she would like to see the college develop a formal orientation process for all new employees. Training opportunities to enhance job skills and to develop new ones should also be provided to employees by the college.
In her spare time, Fern enjoys her two daughters and grandchildren. Gardening, reading, knitting, and travel are other favored pastimes, and Fern has begun to develop her interest in photography, having participated in the UnseenAmerica project at Purchase this past spring. To view her exhibition photos and that of other participants in the project, please click this link to go to complete collection of exhibition photos.
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