October 16, 2023

If there’s one lesson UUP has learned from its first proud half-century as a pioneering higher education union, it’s this: No sooner do you achieve one victory for your members than you see your next fight for equity and justice coming right at you.

In other words, as UUP President Fred Kowal reminded delegates at the Fall 2023 Delegate Assembly at the Rochester Hyatt Regency and Rochester Convention Center, Oct. 12-14, there is rarely time to sit back and relish your wins.

The DA doubled as a policy-making assembly and a joyous commemoration of UUP’s 1973 founding. The celebration also marked recent back-to-back victories for UUP: One of the best budgets for SUNY in more than a decade—thanks in large part to UUP’s advocacy—and one of the strongest contracts ever, which members resoundingly ratified in August.

In his Oct. 13 plenary address, Kowal deftly dovetailed an overview of UUP’s guiding principles— equity, social justice and a commitment to a well-funded public university system as a path to a productive, successful life—with a call to action regarding the latest threat to SUNY.

“For those of us in UUP, these principles will be needed as we confront the destructive forces of 15 years of austerity budgets for SUNY,” Kowal told an assembly that included many past UUP leaders who could recount their own battles against retrenchment and threats of layoffs. Even when SUNY finally got the funding it needed to help 19 financially distressed campuses, the SUNY central administration sent only half of the $163 million to the most cash-strapped campuses. The balance went to other purposes in the SUNY system.

UUP’s goal, as Kowal laid it out: to stop planned program cuts at SUNY Potsdam, and prevent the administrative fiasco at Potsdam from replicating throughout the SUNY system. To the UUP Potsdam Chapter delegation, led by Chapter President Kevin Smith, Kowal pledged that “We are all in Potsdam, because that’s where the battle has been joined.”

Celebrations, congratulations

More than a dozen past statewide UUP officers and founding members traveled to Rochester to mark the 50th anniversary with the delegates. Many of those delegates were not born when UUP began in 1973, and UUP’s success in retaining members and attracting new ones was a recurring theme of the celebration. The emeritus officers and members recalled overcoming threats such as the 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case that ended the fee-paying system for nonmembers.

Elected statewide leaders also joined the celebration, with New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli addressing delegates during the Oct. 14 plenary session. Three other strong friends of UUP in the New York State Legislature offered video link congratulations: State Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins, and the respective Senate and Assembly chairs of the higher education committees, Toby Ann Stavisky and Pat Fahy.

Rochester Assembly members Harry Bronson and Sarah Clark presided over a well-attended forum on how union members can effectively engage with lawmakers in legislative advocacy efforts.

Bronson and Clark also joined two of their colleagues from the Rochester-area legislative delegation—Sen. Jeremy Cooney and Assemblymember Jen Lunsford—in delivering congratulations to UUP at a Friday reception.

Looking back, planning ahead

Every department in UUP’s central office had a hand in the 50th anniversary celebration, with the Research, Organizing and Outreach, and Political and Legislative departments engaging with members in the central gathering area outside of the hotel ballroom Friday. Research and Organizing and Outreach also provided figures used by several officers to back UUP’s solid track record of signing new members, and by Kowal as he made the case to the delegates about the state’s long history of cuts to SUNY funding.

A highlight of the Friday dinner: A 50th anniversary video produced by UUP Director of Communications Mike Lisi. Using UUP’s extensive photography and video archives, the video told the union’s story through its documentation of rallies, marches, protests and press conferences from the farthest reaches of Upstate New York to Washington, D.C.

Academic and professional delegates met Saturday morning before moving to the second plenary session for spirited debate over resolutions.

Delegates approved a constitutional amendment that will guarantee one place each for academic and professional contingents on the statewide Executive Board. Also passed: resolutions supporting the newly organized Starbucks Workers United and calling for solidarity with UUP’s colleagues at West Virginia University, where programs have been significantly cut; and a resolution supporting legislation in favor of reducing the U.S. Defense budget without compromising the pay or benefits of active service members.

The longest debate came over a resolution authorizing UUP to contribute $6,000 to two reproductive rights organizations. Delegates voted to refer the proposed expenditure to a subcommittee of the statewide Executive Board for review.

UUP will not be basking in the nostalgia of its 50th anniversary too long this fall. Although the celebration will continue into the spring, with more commemorations planned for the Spring 2024 Delegate Assembly, the union’s attention is already turning to a strategy in Potsdam.

During the plenary, Kowal recounted a recent conversation with SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. That conversation set the tone for what lies ahead—a future that UUP is well prepared to face as it defends Potsdam against SUNY’s proposed cuts.

“I told the chancellor that our membership is engaged,” Kowal told delegates. “This is a stronger union than we have ever been, and we are well-positioned to stop it dead in its tracks.”