For Immediate Release

September 25, 2019

United University Professions, the nation’s largest higher education union, congratulates Dr. Merryl Tisch and Cesar Perales on their appointments by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as chair and vice chair of the State University of New York Board of Trustees, respectively

“A state university of SUNY’s national stature will benefit from the knowledge that Chairwoman Tisch and Vice Chair Perales bring to the University, and we are glad to see them assume their important leadership positions at the start of the academic year,” said UUP President Frederick E. Kowal, Ph.D.

As the largest public university system in the country, SUNY faces numerous challenges because of its many different campuses and program offerings, as well as a student body that ranges from recent high school graduates to adults returning to college after a decades-long absence, Kowal noted.

UUP represents the academic and professional faculty at the 29 SUNY state-operated campuses, a system that includes four university centers, a law school, three hospitals, four medical schools, and health care programs that provide training in dentistry, nursing and other medical professions. SUNY campuses are in some of the state’s most rural regions, as well as several major urban and metropolitan centers.

“As such a diverse University, SUNY faces some unique and major challenges,” Kowal said. “SUNY needs sustained investment, and it needs to meet the challenge of its students’ changing educational needs.

“The state also has an overtaxed health care system that directly affects our SUNY hospitals, which are required by state law to serve the public without regard to a person’s ability to pay, and which meet that challenge every day.

“Dr. Tisch will now oversee policies and decisions that affect all components of SUNY, and I look forward to working with her toward the goal of maintaining this great University’s role as a national leader in so many fields,” Kowal said. “Our UUP members, and I, stand ready to work with Chairwoman Tisch; the rest of the SUNY board, Chancellor Kristina Johnson, Gov. Cuomo and the state Legislature to make SUNY even better than it already is.”