The Voice

UUP President Phil Smith talks with chapter leaders and members of the UUP Outreach Committee in August about the need for more member advocacy. To Smiths left is Rob Compton, Oneonta Chapter vice President for academics.

Like the fabled boy who cried wolf, our critics delight in claiming that we’ve overemphasized and overplayed the impact of this year’s round of SUNY state budget cuts.

They claim that even as SUNY faces $148 million in state budget cuts, our warnings that class sizes will grow, course offerings will be cut, student-faculty ratios will be lopsided and patient care will suffer are overreactions that aren’t nearly as dire as our echoes proclaim.

If it sounds like we’re repeating ourselves, it’s because we are. But we’re not crying wolf. Not by a long shot.

Gov. David Paterson has made it painfully clear that these budget cuts are not one-time reductions. Rest assured that the $148 million that SUNY is facing this year won’t be going away next year, or the year after that. And who’s to say that the governor won’t decide to take away the $109 million in SUNY revenues being held hostage by the state’s Division of the Budget?

So, yes, we’re pounding the same rock. And we’re going to keep pounding, because this same, simple message needs to be sent, over and over again. Without question, this is the worst situation the University has been in since the 1960s. We need to be loud and bold, because if we are not, academics and professionals, students and parents, and SUNY communities and businesses in those communities will feel real pain for years to come.

We’re not overstating fact here. Simply put, $148 million is equal to the entire operating budget of one of SUNY’s University centers or the operating budgets of three University colleges. The governor’s office and legislators across the state also need to know about the multiplier effect of SUNY campuses in their communities. SUNY is certainly an “engine of economic growth” in New York, with every dollar spent on SUNY returning an average of between $6 and $8 to local communities.

This is not rhetoric. This is fact. That’s why we need you, our members, to take our message to the streets, to your communities and to your local elected officials. The UUP Outreach Committee is working on plans to involve our members in this grass-roots advocacy mission, which could — and hopefully will — see UUPers join with small-business owners in their communities to illustrate SUNY’s powerful economic multiplier effect.

We need to think of new, innovative methods to send our message. I have suggested that advocates enlist high school juniors and seniors — many of who are future SUNY students — and their parents to help spread the word. We must remind them that these outrageous cuts are unprecedented, unfair and unacceptable.

UUP President Phil Smith chairs an AFT higer education committe meeting during the federation's biennial convention July 10 - 14 in Chicago.

Welcome everyone, especially our newer colleagues, to the opening of the 2008-2009 academic session. If you are new to SUNY, please take advantage of the services that your local UUP chapter leaders provide on campus. And also feel free to contact any of us at the UUP Administrative Office here in Albany. At the end of this article, I’ll provide the necessary contact information to reach out to UUP.

As a professor in the SUNY system for going on 31 years (gasp!), I can assure all our new colleagues that you’ve made a wise decision to either start or continue your career in academe here in our nation’s largest higher education system. UUP can be a productive part of your career growth, as I know our veteran employees and activists are interested in seeing SUNY grow. And no small part of that growth is by seeing our colleagues succeed.

Indeed, our collective success and a view of “The Road Ahead” is the focus of my message. Before beginning our journey, let’s take a brief look at some recent events that form a starting point. As many of you know, New York has a relatively new governor, David Paterson, who’s been in office just a few days less than my tenure as the president of UUP. After only a few months in office, Gov. Paterson has been faced with what may be the most difficult economic times for New York in many decades. And this, of course, translates into challenges for UUP as we focus our energies on maintaining and building SUNY as a good place to work, teach, do research, and all of those things that make our life in the academy what we all want it to be. For example, SUNY was faced with a cut of some $34 million by our former governor, which was translated into an eventual $38 million decrease of state funds by the Legislature. To make matters worse, within days of taking office, Gov. Paterson asked for a 3.35 percent decrease in overall state spending. For SUNY, that translated into a total cut of state funds of $50 million, plus an additional $100 million reduction of spending authority from sources such as tuition, dorm fees, and other institutional income. And to make matters even worse, in August, the governor announced an additional 7 percent cut to SUNY.

All of this may sound fairly dire to a newcomer. But for we SUNY veterans, it’s all part of the “same old, same old.”

It’s been approximately three months since I was elected UUP president. And in reviewing that relatively short period of time, I was struck with the thought that maybe I’m really living the life of Phil Connors and this is “Groundhog Day.” Remember the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray? That is, just like the hapless weatherman forced to live every day over again, we’re facing our yearly budget crunch with SUNY programs at risk and potentially “on the chopping block.”

UUP President Phil Smith Explains the union's position on Gov. Spitzer's proposed higher education endowment at a news conference called by the Governor in February.

Unless you’re reading The Voice for the very first time, you’ve no doubt noticed something new. This time, the president’s column is not presented as the very first article you see when opening the cover. Indeed, our opening article is focused on a former member, Dr. Raymond Damadian, whose seminal contributions at Brooklyn HSC brought the world one of medicine’s most valuable tools —magnetic imaging. To me, this is a fascinating story of one man’s dedicated work and the quest of others to see a significant “wrong made right.”

As a longtime (30 years!) SUNY professor at a health science campus, an article of this nature has special resonance. But, I promise you this: our total focus will not be on HSCs. In fact, we’ll be aiming to highlight the work and working lives of our members at all of our 29 state-operated SUNY campuses. And I’ve moved my column to the back of this magazine to make it clear I believe The Voice is your magazine. Indeed, if anyone wishes to write an article on just about any topic, and we’re short on space, I’d be most pleased to step aside and give someone the chance to express his or her own “voice.” Please do send me your ideas for future articles and please consider being a contributor yourself.

No doubt you’ve heard the phrase, “hit the deck running.” Having been elected as UUP president only a few short days ago, I’m sure you appreciate that I’ve had to get myself up to speed quickly. As a matter of fact, when I “hit the deck,”

I found it rising rapidly to meet me.

To illustrate this point: In the very first minutes of my very first full day on the job, I found myself in a face-to-face private meeting with Gov. Eliot Spitzer. We then joined a group of other statewide leaders, including SUNY Chancellor John Clark, to participate in the governor’s press conference on the proposed endowment for higher education.

And within minutes of leaving the press conference, I went across the street to the Legislative Office Building to host UUP’s annual Legislative Luncheon. At this event, we host the legislative leadership and begin the process of informing them of our Legislative Agenda. To put it mildly, that first full day was something akin to trying to take a drink of water from a fully pressurized fire hose. Thankfully, I can feel the pressure diminishing.

One of my hometown friends in Manlius, who’s employed by a major manufacturer, commented on my recent election as president of UUP. He said, “Well I guess as a union president you now have a farther view from top.” My response was, “No. Unlike the corporate world in which you work, as president of UUP, I’m actually on the bottom; I work for all the members.” I also went on to tell my friend an apt analogy might be that of a production and shipping manager; I’ve got to keep the product moving from the factory floor onward to the customers. And that’s exactly the way I view it.

In closing, let me say, I welcome the challenges of my new role. And I look forward to working with each and every member of UUP. Please feel free to call upon me in any way that you think I can help. And, to restate the invitation above, please do send suggestions on how we can make The Voice a publication with “news that you can use.”