January 26, 2020

UUP’s VP for Academics Jamie Dangler has been working closely with the membership to address key on-the-job issues at SUNY: salary compression; workload creep; student evaluations of teaching; workplace civility; equity for adjuncts; family leave; intellectual property; and online education.

She has answered the call time and time again—as a statewide Executive Board member, as chief negotiator for the 2011-2016 contract with the state, and as a chapter president. She’s walked picket lines, met with lawmakers and State Education Department officials, and spoken truth to power.

Now, Dangler is being honored by NYSUT for her service to her union: She is NYSUT’s 2020 Higher Education Professional of the Year.

Dangler, above, second from left, shares the award with former PSC/CUNY officer Michael Fabricant, far right. NYSUT announced the awards Jan. 24. Dangler will receive the award at the NYSUT Representative Assembly, May 1-2 in Albany.

“We couldn’t be more proud of Jamie, who is absolutely deserving of this award,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “Jamie is dedicated to unionism and to her union. She truly cares about UUP’s members and has never been afraid to speak out to defend them or stand in opposition to anything that would impact them negatively or weaken UUP.”

At the Forefront

Dangler has been front and center in tackling the issues that affect her colleagues. She is working with fellow UUP members on a new workplace civility survey to address bullying and harassment on SUNY campuses, and is helping to collect information about SUNY’s new online education initiatives.

She teamed up with the Contingent Employment Committee on a survey of academic contingent workers in 2018, and has worked with various committee members to develop resource materials on family leave, intellectual property, piracy of course materials, and workload creep.

She leads UUP’s Task Force on Teacher Education, a committee that strongly—and successfully—advocated against SED teacher certification mandates instituted in 2014. Working with NYSUT, UUP members and state Board of Regents members, Dangler led a three-year fight against a certification process that was unfair, flawed, and discouraged students considering a teaching career from entering the profession. Thanks in large part to her efforts, the Regents ordered significant changes to the process in March 2017.

In July 2017, Jamie spoke out against a SUNY Charter Schools Institute decision to allow charter schools to bypass the state’s teacher certification requirements and certify teachers after just weeks of training. The Institute’s ruling was overruled in state Supreme Court in 2017; the state’s Appellate Division affirmed the ruling in October 2019.

Dangler started the Family Leave Committee in 2001 and chaired it from its inception to 2010. She worked with UUP’s counsel and labor relations specialists to compile the Family Leave/Work Life Services Guide for UUP members, and was instrumental in assembling UUP’s “Guide for Academics.”

A Proven Leader

Dangler, who’s been a UUP member for more than 30 years, has served as UUP’s statewide vice president for academics since 2012. She’s held several leadership positions; she has been an elected member of the statewide Executive Board since 2008, and she serves on the NYSUT Board of Directors.

Dangler was UUP’s chief negotiator for the union’s 2011-2016 contract with New York state and served on the Negotiations Team during bargaining talks that produced the 2007-2011 contract.

At the Cortland Chapter, Dangler served as vice president for academics, membership development officer, and chair of the Joint Labor/Management Health & Safety Committee. She was the Cortland Chapter President from 2009-12.

A Fierce Fighter

Dangler has participated in hundreds of union rallies and protests. In February 2018, she spent hours on a bus with UUP officers and members to travel to Washington, D. C., to protest in front on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the justices listened to oral arguments in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31.

She has waved the UUP banner from the podium at a March for Science rally in Ithaca, at Labor Day parades around the state, and in demonstrations against efforts to privatize Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Dangler began her career as a part-time faculty member at SUNY Cortland in 1985. She became an assistant professor at Cortland in 1991 and earned her promotion to associate professor in 1996. Dangler is a 1980 SUNY Cortland graduate. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Binghamton University.