CHAPTER ELECTION RESULTS

Election results are in.  Congratulations to all elected officers and delegates!

To see the results, click here.

Posted April 2, 2007

NEWS FROM UNITED UNIVERSITY PROFESSIONS

CONTACT: Denyce Duncan Lacy or

Don Feldstein at (518) 640-6600

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 27, 2007 

UUP sues to keep SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse part of SUNY

    The battle to keep SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse part of the State University system moved to a new arena today: a courtroom.

    United University Professions, the union representing SUNY faculty--including medical and teaching staff at Upstate--filed suit in state Supreme Court in Albany against the Berger Commission, the governor and other New York state officials. 

    The lawsuit alleges the Berger Commission recommendation to join Upstate and Crouse Hospital and put it under the control of “an entity other than SUNY” is unconstitutional, irrational and illegal because it usurps a decision-making role that by law belongs to elected officials.  In its lawsuit and media campaign, the union also makes the case that removing Upstate from SUNY governance jeopardizes its vital public health, teaching and research mission.

    “We are filing suit to protect the rights of our members and the health of the patients they serve, but at the same time we will continue to look for ways to work cooperatively with the state to resolve this issue,” said UUP President William E. Scheuerman.

    “Time limits in the court system require this step to keep all options open, but our hope is that this will be a negotiated solution and not a legal one,” said Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, UUP’s statewide affiliate.  NYSUT attorneys are handling the lawsuit for UUP.

    UUP maintains the Berger Commission did not have authority to recommend privatization or a change in governance of any SUNY entity, and that the Commission failed to explain why it suggested changing SUNY’s role or how it should be changed, as was required in the law that created the commission.

    “It was not up to the Berger Commission to make a public policy decision about a public institution,” Scheuerman added.  “Only the state Legislature has the authority to make a policy decision to take a public entity out of public control, and there is no rationale for making such a decision for Upstate Medical University.”

    UUP represents 32,000 academic and professional faculty throughout the SUNY system, including 2,200 employees at Upstate Medical University.

Posted February 26, 2007

United University Professions
2007 Alfred State College Chapter Elections Nomination List

President and Delegate:

Rees, Robert E. - Academic

Vice President for Academics and Delegate:

Richmond, Catherine W. - Academic

Vice President for Professionals and Delegate:

Gleason, Ray D. - Professional

Secretary:

Poucher, Carol M. - Academic

Treasurer:

D'Arcy, Mark E. - Academic

Wellsville Campus Vice President:

Drumm, Roger A. - Academic

Affirmative Action Chair:

Membership Development Officer:

Part-Time Concerns Representative:

Cassidy, Yvonne L. - Academic

Academic Delegate:

Butera, Gertrude A. - Academic
Cassidy, Yvonne L. - Academic
Drumm, Roger A. - Academic
Jamison, Thomas L. - Academic
Richardson, George H. - Academic

Professional Delegate:

February 5, 2007:

Important Information for Professional Employees:

• Performance programs:  Many of you came to our workshops in the fall on "Promotions and Salary Increases."  We discussed the fact that your performance programs need to accurately reflect what you do. 

If your performance program is vague and less specific then you would like, and your supervisor will not modify your performance program to include greater detail, you should file a rebuttal to your performance program, and send it to Human Resources to include in your personnel file.

Your performance program cannot include statements, such as "...and all other duties as assigned."  If it does, please let us know at once.

Your performance program must relate to the duties that you actually perform.  If you are regularly assigned to do something, your performance program should reflect that.  If it does not, you need to ask your supervisor to amend it.  If s/he will not, then you should tell her/him that you should only be performing the duties assigned to you on your program.  You should also let UUP know, so that we can help you to resolve the situation.

Most professional employees do not have fixed hours of work.  If you are being given fixed hours of work in your performance program, and have never had them before, then we should be reviewing whether that is appropriate.  Please get in touch with us to evaluate whether you are being appropriately treated.

• Compensatory time:  You should all have received a letter advising you whether you are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  If you are not covered ("exempt"), then you are entitled to compensatory time under Appendix A-29 of the Contract.  If you are asked to work late, come in early, come in on the weekends..., you should request compensatory time for that additional work.  You should, where possible, make that request before you put in the extra hours.  If you are denied compensatory time, then you should not have to work the extra time, especially if you have always gotten compensatory time in the past.  Please check with us.  If the manner in which you are compensated for your "extra work" changes, we need to know about it too.

Please remember that any communication with us is CONFIDENTIAL. 

To contact us, you can contact Bob Rees at x4671 or Tara Singer-Blumberg at tsinger@nysutmail.org or 716-634-7132 ext. 15.

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2007

UUP praises Executive Budget for SUNY

The president of United University Professions today applauded Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s budget proposal for 2007-08.

“Gov. Spitzer has taken a great first step in following through on his commitment to public higher education by adding money in his budget to continue strengthening SUNY,” UUP President William Scheuerman said.

“The governor’s proposal increases SUNY’s budget by $148 million, including $6 million for new research faculty.  These new state dollars will allow SUNY to build on last year’s progress toward correcting years of underfunding.”

“However, we are concerned about the potential negative impact of proposed health care cuts on the SUNY hospitals and the patients they serve. 

“We also want to ensure the SUNY hospitals are protected from the threat of privatization, and we will continue to advocate for the full funding of its public mission.

“UUP will also press for additional funding for enrollment growth and new full-time faculty on all state-operated campuses.

“We look forward to working with the governor and the Legislature to achieve these goals, to help maintain SUNY’s standing as a great university system.”

UUP represents 32,000 academic and professional faculty on 29 New York state-operated campuses, and is an affiliate of New York State United Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

UUP Talking Points on:

The New York State Commission on Health Care
Facilities in the 21st Century (Berger Commission) Report

By Bill Scheuerman

December 5, 2006

The Issue:

The recently released Berger Commission report recommends merging and privatizing SUNY’s Upstate Medical University and Syracuse’s private Crouse Hospital.  It also recommends privatizing SUNY’s other hospitals.  Below are UUP’s talking points against privatization.

Message to Legislators:

We urge you and your colleagues to reject the Commission’s report, and begin a rational, open discussion of the health care needs of New York’s citizens.  Recall that both houses of the state Legislature have rejected SUNY hospital privatization for the last five years.

The Approval Process for the Berger Commission Report is Flawed:

• These proposed changes will affect the professional lives of thousands of UUP members and the health care of millions of New Yorkers, yet there has been no public debate.

• The NYS Legislature has until December 31st to reject the proposed changes in this report or they become policy by default.  The report was only made public on November 28th.  Important health care issues such as hospital governance, patient care and staffing, and medical education – like those proposed in the Berger Commission report – must not be made with such reckless haste, nor should they take effect by default.

•  Decisions affecting the lives and medical care of New Yorkers should be made after careful consideration of their impact and with full input from all stakeholders, which has not happened with this report.

Why UUP Opposes Privatization of the SUNY Hospitals:

• The SUNY hospitals provide an invaluable service to the state’s taxpayers.  They are charged with a public health mission of providing high quality care to all citizens – regardless of their ability to pay.  If they are privatized, this important health care mission would disappear. Privatization would also jeopardize the high level of tertiary clinical care these institutions deliver to members of their respective communities.

• The SUNY hospitals/health science centers are responsible for cutting edge research, as well as offering affordable, accessible medical education to the next generation of doctors, nurses and other health care providers.  If they are privatized, students would be denied access to high quality, affordable medical education.

• Privatizing the SUNY hospitals would result in a loss of accountability.  They are currently directly accountable to the SUNY Board of Trustees, the Governor, the Legislature, and the people of New York State.  If privatized, the hospitals would be accountable to corporate bean-counters more concerned with saving money than lives.

• The SUNY hospitals are well-managed and efficiently run.  In 2000, PriceWaterHouse Coopers conducted an independent audit of the three SUNY hospitals’ operations. The PWC report concluded, “In general, [the SUNY hospitals] appear to operate more efficiently than 75% of their academic medical center peers.”

The Hospitals:

• Upstate Medical University (UMU) in Syracuse is the home of Central New York's only designated Stroke Center, a regional trauma center, and the well-regarded Clark burn unit.  UMU is also the only hospital in a 15 - county area – which stretches from the Canadian border to the Pennsylvania line and from Vermont to Rochester – providing essential, high-quality services to the indigent.  Upstate serves as the regional poison control and bioterrorism response center for a 35 - county area that encompasses almost all of Central, Northern and Eastern New York State.  After the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, UMU stood ready to treat the survivors.  Upstate Medical has an economic impact of over $1.5 billion annually to the Central New York economy. It is also the area’s largest employer.

• Brooklyn Health Science Center (SUNY Downstate), the only academic medical center in three counties, provides patient care to a diverse population of over five million people.  Brooklyn maintains a well-regarded intensive care unit, diagnostic and ambulatory surgery facility, and ambulatory care center, as well as three community health centers and a dialysis center.  SUNY Downstate also has a huge economic impact in the region. It is the fifth largest employer in Brooklyn, and creates over $800 million in revenues for the region.  It attracted over $55 million in research funding in 2004-2005.

• On Long Island, Stony Brook Health Science Center is home to the only designated burn care facility for the more than 1.5 million residents of Suffolk County.  Stony Brook HSC also has one of only three designated AIDS treatment centers on Long Island. Its physicians perform the only open-heart surgery procedures in Suffolk County.  Stony Brook HSC is the largest single site employer on Long Island, generating nearly 12,000 full-time and part-time jobs, with a regional economic impact of $2.5 billion. 

• In the Commission’s report, the role of Buffalo HSC in Western New York’s restructured health care system is not clearly thought out nor adequately defined.  Unlike the SUNY hospitals, which have dual teaching and patient care missions, Buffalo HSC assumes responsibility for medical education and patient care, but its faculty is affiliated with area hospitals.  Without state hospital funding, several departments at Buffalo HSC have been decimated, one residency program has been closed, and several more have been put on probation and are in jeopardy of closing.