Wednesday, March 25 from 12-1pm Faculty Development Center, College Hall Refreshments will be served
Dear Colleagues:
Contract Negotiations are underway! We are aiming both for an on-time contract, and a strong contract that meets the diverse needs of UUP members.
Join Fred Kowal (UUP President) and Bret Benjamin (UUP Chief Contract Negotiator) on March 25 from 12 to 1pm for a statewide zoom update about ongoing bargaining discussions, and how all of us can get involved to help build the strongest possible contract campaign.
We encourage you to join your New Paltz Chapter watch party in the Faculty Development Center (College Hall), or you may register HERE to join the Zoom on your own.
For our contract kick-off call in early February we broke the zoom by having too many people logging on. We’ve doubled our capacity for this one, but challenge our members break it again. How’s this? Every time you break the zoom, we double our capacity!
Dues-paying UUP members should receive a ballot this week in the mail at your home address for our chapter special election. Please mark your ballot and return it—at this moment, while we’re in negotiations with the State, every opportunity to show the engagement of our members is important!
We are running this special election to fill two vacancies: as of May 31, Beth Wilson will be retiring and stepping down as Chapter President; we also have an ongoing vacancy for VP for Professionals. This election will fill these positions for the one year remainder of the current term, through May 31, 2027. (There will be a full set of regular chapter elections in Spring 2027.)
All members will be able to vote for President; only Professionals will see a spot on the ballot to vote for VP for Professionals. There is one candidate printed on the ballot for President; while all votes for VPP must be write-ins (no candidate will appear pre-printed on the ballot), we are happy to announce that two Professionals have stepped up to request your vote!
We present here statements from each of three candidates who have announced their interest in running for these offices.
Chapter President
Megan Sperry
Megan Sperry is an Associate Professor in the Department of Digital Media and Journalism. She holds an MFA in Integrated Media Art from Hunter College. Her personal projects focus on Social Justice issues like affordable housing, food access, restorative justice and living wage jobs. Sperry has served as the Ulster County Legislator for the Town of New Paltz since 2022. When Megan joined the SUNY New Paltz community in 2015, she immediately became an active UUP member and has since served as a department representative, member of the executive committee and most recently as the Vice President for Academics.
Vice President for Professionals (VPP)
(Write-ins only for this office)
Vanessa Netzley
My name is Vanessa Netzley and I am the Director for the Advancing Completion through Engagement Program (ACE). I have been an employee at SUNY New Paltz for the past 18 years, 11 of which have been within UUP. During my time here I have worked in various offices including Records and Registration, Accounts Payable, Financial Aid, Office of Academic Advising and ACE. I was fortunate enough to use my union benefits to earn both my Bachelors and Master’s degrees from SUNY New Paltz in ’15 and ’19.
Early on in my UUP career I was introduced to faculty governance and currently serve as a voting member for professional faculty. I have had the pleasure of serving on various committees, co-chaired the Academic Standing and Appeals Committee and currently serve as the co-chair for the Scholarship and Awards Committee. Additionally, I serve as the secretary for the Professional Faculty Council. It has been beneficial to have had the opportunity to participate in these committees because I have been able to learn more about what others do across campus and how we all work together to support our students. More importantly, these opportunities have connected me with many other academic and professional faculty that I may not have had the chance to interact with otherwise.
If given the opportunity to serve in this role, I look forward to connecting with even more members across campus and ultimately provide support and guidance while we navigate challenges and triumphs together.
Dariann Zielinski
Hello fellow UUP members. I’m Dariann Zielinski. I’m running for Chapter Vice President for Professionals and I’m asking for your vote.
With over twenty five years of service here at SUNY New Paltz, I fully understand what professionals actually face day-to-day. I’ve spent my career advocating for our students and the faculty and staff who support them across multiple departments. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when the people doing that work don’t have adequate support, clear expectations, or a voice at the table.
I have a BS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and am actively working towards my graduate degree in Business Analytics. I understand our workplace. I understand our contract. I understand the patterns such as compensation inequality. And I know how to look at a problem systematically rather than reactively. So, in addition to firsthand experience, I also bring a relevant educational background as well as analytical expertise.
The professionals at this institution deserve a VP who will show up fully prepared on Day One, ready to take on the challenges, ask the right questions, and advocate on their behalf. Advocacy backed up with factual information and actual statistics – not just good intentions.
That’s what I’m here to offer. “Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down.”
On the December 24 payroll, some 442 of our bargaining unit members received an increase to their base salary, along with a retroactive payment of that increase to either July 1 (calendar year employees), August 22 (for adjuncts) or September 1 (academic year employees). These increases came from a provision in our statewide Agreement, which requires the Employer to distribute .5% of the total UUP payroll to our members via Discretionary Salary Increases (DSI). Please note that the discretion involved in this distribution is solely that of the Administration.
The pool of money available for each type of increase is stipulated at .5% of the total UUP salary pool. The actual salary increases distributed in the 2025 round of DSI was $275,767.00, in amounts ranging from $100 to $1,563.
Attached is the list of DSI recipients (sorted by department and last name) and the amounts distributed by the Administration in 2025 in PDF format.
