Alfred UUP News
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Alfred UUP News Volume 1, Issue 4 May 12, 2014 Spring Delegate Assembly, May 2—3 Alfred State College officers, committee mem- Students in teacher preparation programs who bers, and observers attended the UUP Spring planned to graduate in Spring 2014 were re- Delegate Assembly in Albany on May 2-3, 2014. quired to pass the edTPA to receive teaching A number of issues were discussed at the meeting, certification in New York State. including: The State Education Department had refused to Teacher Certification Exams (edTPA) push back its May 2014 edTPA implementation date, even though educators have not had enough Contingent Equity issues time to modify their curricula and adequately prepare students to successfully complete the SUNYIT & CNSE Merger edTPA. SED predicted that up to 40 percent of graduating seniors will fail the edTPA and be SUNY Downstate & LICH denied teaching certification. SED had refused Harris v. Quinn to listen to educators' concerns about the ed- TPA's validity as a predictor of teaching excel- Open SUNY lence. (For more on the edTPA, see page 5 in this newsletter). The edTPA Contingent Equity Issues The edTPA is a new high-stakes certification re- quirement for student teachers developed by the UUP President Fred Kowal discussed contingent Chapter President Earl Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and salary strategies, including an update to the Ad- Packard Equity. The edTPA is a complex performance junct Salary Study, and an FTE Salary Structure assessment with multiple components that include Study. Later in the day, the Contingent controversial videotaping in K-12 classrooms. (continued on page 4) Inside this issue: SUNY’s Future 2 edTPA changes 5 Workload Creep 5 Mayday $5K 6 NYSUT Ad 7 List of Officers 8 Ezra Zubrow of the University at Buffalo (right) makes a point while Jamie Dangler and Joe Petrick look on at a meeting of Vice-Presidents for Academics during a DA. PAGE 2 ALFRED UUP NEWS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 sors (AAUP), as well as historical forces entities expressed interest in represent- SUNY’s Future and trends. ing SUNY faculty, including CSEA, the AAUP), and SUNY Faculty Senate. The The Creation of United University Pro- SUFT was a faculty organization, and (Adapted from remarks made by Joe fessions had no interest in representing non- Petrick at the SUNY Voices Confer- teaching professionals (NTPs). Simi- Faculty unions largely did not exist before ence, “Shared Governance for Institu- larly, the AAUP had no interest in repre- the late 1960s. In their book Unions on tions of Higher Education in the 21st senting NTPs. A position in the AAUP Campus: A National Study of the Conse- Century: Beyond Stereotypes,” April 23 specifically in relation to SUNY was quences of Faculty Bargaining Kemerer and - 24, 2014). that attempting to represent professional Baldridge pointed out that nationally there employees as affiliate members would were “virtually no unionized institutions” in violate federal law, and thus AAUP did Institutions are determined by contingen- 1965, but 450 bargaining unit organizations not change its membership criteria. cies, and their futures depend on how they had come into existence by 1975, just ten Nonetheless, the AAUP wanted to repre- respond to the historical imperatives with years later. Unionization of public higher sent faculty at both CUNY and SUNY, which they are confronted. The conditions education in New York State did not grow investing $100,000 in the effort, accord- that have determined the present state of the out of motivated self-interest, but was di- ing to Philo Hutchinson in his book A State University of New York (SUNY) are rectly related to a completely unrelated Professional Professoriate: Unioniza- rooted in its history, and the future of event, the New York City Transit Strike tion, Bureaucratization, and the AAUP. SUNY has always depended on circum- which began on January 1, 1966 which stances that could not have been foreseen by lasted for twelve days. A few days after the faculty and administrators, whether those SUNY Senate had existed for only fif- end of the strike, Governor Nelson Rocke- teen years when it petitioned to become circumstances were economic or political. feller announced a Committee on Public Three events in the history of the faculty the negotiating agency for academics Employee Relations chaired by George W. and NTPs in SUNY. SUFT had already union of the state-operated campuses of the Taylor, a Professor of Industry at the Uni- State University of New York (SUNY) may challenged the right of the Senate to versity of Pennsylvania. This committee represent faculty because Senate had represent how unionism has had an impact recommended legislation that included the on shared governance. The creation of the participating representatives of SUNY “inapplicability of strikes,” and the creation System Administration. The Public union was itself a function of shared gov- of a New York Public Relations Board. The ernance. A second example may be a plan- Employee Relations Board ruled that the enacted legislation is known as the Taylor Faculty Senate was an employee organi- ning document from 1990 entitled SUNY’s Law, after the chair of the committee which Future. A third representative example may zation, and the Senate Professional As- advocated it. With the legislation in place, sociation (SPA, later to become UUP) be the 1999 action that united University in November 1967, Governor Rockefeller Senate and United University Professions was allowed to compete for the right to announced that three negotiating units engage in collective bargaining on be- (UUP) against the SUNY Board of Trustees. would be created: The Civil Service Em- These historical events by no means exhaust half of faculty and professional staff at ployees Association (CSEA) was recog- the state-operated SUNY campuses. the union’s role in shared governance, but nized as a general unit for state employees, illustrate union interaction with governance. a second negotiating unit was created for The State University Federation of Faculty senates and faculty unions are un- state police, and a third would be created for Teachers appealed the decisions of the derstood to have separate roles, the former professional employees of the State Univer- Public Employment Relations Board, being involved in shared governance and sity. Community colleges would have to and the decision was handed down on the latter terms and conditions of employ- negotiate with the counties in which they November 10, 1970. The Senate with- ment. From this perspective, senates have were located, requiring each professional drew from contention as the representa- no direct say on collective bargaining issues staff to form negotiating units. tive agency for collective bargaining, and faculty unions have limited input re- leaving the Senate Professional Associa- SUNY teaching faculty had little enthusi- tion (SPA) as a separate agency to com- garding academic issues. United University asm for organizing, however. In his book Professions (UUP), the bargaining unit of pete for representation. The CSEA, Administering the Taylor Law: Public Em- AAUP, SUFT, and SPA and “no repre- faculty and professional staff employed by ployee Relations in New York Ronald Dono- the State University of New York (SUNY), sentation” (i.e. the option of having no van noted, “The concept of collective bar- collective bargaining unit) were on the nonetheless has a history of participation in gaining seemed at odds with, if not offen- governance. The union was created because ballot. SUFT won a plurality of the votes sive to, their views of a self-governing com- cast, with SPA coming in second. Ac- of historical conditions stemming from munity of scholars.” Nonetheless, it had be shared governance structure. Subsequent to cording to the rules established by ordered that SUNY faculty bargain collec- PERB, a runoff was undertaken, and its founding, the union has respected the tively. mission of SUNY University Faculty Senate SPA won the runoff election. (UFS), but it has on occasion attempted to Several organizations were interested in In 1973, members of the Senate Profes- engage in shared governance either on its representing SUNY faculty. In May 1968 sional Association met with members of own or through collaboration with UFS. an organization named the State University the State University Federation of This engagement is related to governance at Federation of Teachers (SUFT) was created Teachers to discuss merging the two the national level through relations with the to negotiate for five SUNY units, but other Association of American University Profes- PAGE 3 ALFRED UUP NEWS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 SUNY’s Future (continued from community and with the Board of Trus- previous page public.” The preface continued by saying that people are important to planning proc- tees, and excluding the legitimate repre- esses, and that the SUNY’s Future report sentatives of the faculty and professional organizations. The name of the merged was created by inquiring of constituent staff .” unit was SUNY/United, later renamed groups what was needed for the future of As campus groups endorsed the resolu- United University Professions. Robert the State University of New York. As a tion, the New York Times explained the Granger of SUNY Alfred was the SPA result, the report was formulated from lis- primary cause of concern to SUNY fac- President prior to the merger. tening to the broad base of faculty, non- ulty: “Although the faculty and trustees teaching professionals, students, and other SUNY’s Future had been discussing a core curriculum for interested parties in a manner which was two years, the list of 10 subjects, includ- In the late 1980s, amidst talks of campus the polar opposite of the SUNY 2000 plan ing mathematics, American history, for- closures to reduce a gap in the New York which was driven by SUNY System Ad- eign language and Western and world State Budget, SUNY System Administra- ministration with goals that were largely civilizations, was not shown to campus tion announced that it was undertaking a imposed on campuses.