For Immediate Release

September 14, 2020

What follows is a statement by UUP President Kowal on a Memorandum of Agreement between UUP and SUNY for mandatory COVID-19 testing of employees who are represented by UUP:

“We welcome this opportunity to make the SUNY state-operated campuses as safe as we possibly can for students, for the surrounding campus communities and for our UUP membership, with this new agreement for mandatory COVID-19 testing of employees represented by UUP.

“We also welcome and appreciate the cooperative effort extended to UUP by Chancellor Malatras in reaching this agreement. We thank the chancellor for aggressively dealing with the challenges posed by COVID-19 at SUNY’s 64 campuses.

"SUNY and UUP have the same goal: to protect students and to provide them with an outstanding education under these very challenging circumstances. We will continue to meet that challenge.

“To that end, we urgently need the help of individual campuses. We need campus administrators to greatly increase the scope and frequency of the testing of students for COVID-19. This is the best way to protect our SUNY communities during this challenging time. UUP also looks forward to continued telecommuting opportunities for our members to ensure the health and safety of all.

“UUP looks forward to continued productive discussions with Chancellor Malatras and SUNY, so that we can safeguard our students, our communities and our members, and grow and improve the university system we serve.”