John B. Cote'
Dear UUP Potsdam
I hope you are safe and well as we move through the next challenge of the pandemic.
The chapter is once more holding elections for officer positions. I am running for the position of Chapter President. This is a two-year term and I ask for your support in this election to continue the progress we have worked so hard to achieve.
I have been a SUNY Potsdam employee for over 32 years and serving our Union members both in local and statewide leadership roles for 14 years. I have served as your elected and acting Chapter president, Vice President for Professionals, Membership Development Officer, Affirmative action/ diversity equity and inclusion officer, Scholarship coordinator and Statewide committees connected to the chapter titles.
Most recently I was honored to be elected your Chapter President and vowed I would bring a new approach working diligently to re-activate our membership and ensure that both Professionals and Academics issues and concerns were equally addressed.
We have worked on new and creative ways to engage members, safely, and yet a way to improve moral and participation, on and off campus during the COVID pandemic and beyond. Most notably establishing a uniform intakes process, working diligently to enforce members contractual rights as well as offering many zoom meetings, regular newsletter updates, and most recently our upcoming Run/Walk campus competition and UUP Movies Under the Stars.
Although slow going at first with some resistance, from both our own members and administration, I am happy to report over that our diligence and new approaches over these past two years are proving positive. We are making great strides, much in thanks to our very involved officers Alexis Foster and Maria Freitas Ladouceur, who you will see are also running for re-election. Their new visions of inclusion, willingness to learn the contract, and positive approach as well as member engagement have brought great value to our leadership. They are appreciated, and I stand behind them as they also run for re-election.
Much like our two newest officers noted above, you too can make a difference, and I implore you, regardless of your vote for me, that you openly participate in your union. You too can be involved at the simplest level such as reading our Updates Newsletter to keep abreast of new changes that may affect your employment, attending chapter meetings, joining one of our standing committees, or to serving on elected local or statewide boards. As our statewide President Fred Kowal has stated many a time, This is Your Union, and I again implore you to be involved. Knowledge of our contract, of your rights and standing in Unity is Power! And this cannot be accomplished without your participation.
As you can see I have an abundance of experience for the chapter to draw from in addition to full understanding of our agreement with the state and would be honored to continue our progress.
I respectfully request your VOTE for Chapter President
In Solidarity,
John Cote’
David J. Reeder
The members of SUNY Potsdam are a diverse and powerful group IF we work together, with each other and for each other. There are many changes coming to Potsdam, and SUNY in the coming months. I promise to represent you and fight for your rights and your future in higher education as your chapter president. I will work hard to make the Potsdam chapter of UUP the best it can be. UUP is as solid and powerful as you are, for you are the union. I promise to involve everyone in moving forward to make sure that SUNY is strong and vibrant, and our jobs and careers are safe and secure. My plan is to increase our chapter participation and make membership more meaningful for everyone.
I realize how important our involvement through our union is to our wellbeing, now more than ever. This is a time of momentous change in the American experiment. Our institutions, our careers, and our very lives are under threat from all sides. As Americans, and educators we realize the importance of standing together, and presenting a unified and strong voice. The voice of reason, the voice of truth, is our best hope. Education professionals have always known this.
I came late to employment in higher education, having come from a long background in private industry in the performing arts. I know, firsthand, the insecurity of working as an individual negotiating with larger and more powerful corporate and governmental players. The power of collective bargaining, the unions, our union, make the workers of this country peers with rather than subservient to management. This is as it should be. I have been a union member for over 35 years, starting out as a member of I.A.T.S.E. in Texas, a right to work (right to starve) state. I have been a member of UUP since 2003, and chapter Vice President for Professionals at Potsdam since 2017.
Please vote starting the week of March 10th. You should receive your ballot in the mail at your home.
I ask for your support for my candidacy for UUP Chapter President.
MARC LEUTHOLD
Hi, UUP is one of our best tools to fight for decency and fairness in the workplace.
I’m Marc Leuthold and am running for Vice President of Academics and re-election as an Academic Delegate (since 2005). How will I serve you? I will work to keep UUP strong.
Maintaining high membership levels is essential – without that UUP can be decertified. That would mean we would have to accept whatever a governor offers. From past proposed executive budgets, we know that would mean reduced yet more expensive health benefits and no raises. Perhaps tenure would be abolished.
Fundamentally, I want to reach out to every non-member and new academic hire to share with them the benefits of being a member. I reached out to the UUP statewide Membership Committee to get statistics and learn about the tools available to build a strong membership. Some academics don’t see themselves as union workers. Statewide, we are running at 37% with signing them up for UUP Membership. This is not an acceptable level to avoid eventual decertification.
At Potsdam, there are 24 fulltime and 19 part time employees who are not UUP members. Signing up these colleagues is our top priority. As you know, membership has benefits and privileges. One of the most attractive is if you are in trouble, the Union will provide you with skilled professionally trained support to help you keep your job. If you are not a member, you will have to hire a lawyer. I began to attend UUP Delegate Assemblies in 2002 after my department tried to unfairly get rid of me.
Members also have the right to vote in Union elections and participate in the contract renewal process. There are many other benefits – mostly with mortgage financing, insurance and purchase discounts. The most important advantage is that during contract negotiations we are 50000 people instead of just one.
Right now, UUP is fighting to re-instate our contractual 2% annual raises that have been illegally deferred. Also, there are interest groups that are fighting to prevent us from being able to trade unused sick days upon retirement for free health insurance. Without UUP, would any of us be able to fight these depredations?
The good news is thanks to you, 90% of eligible employees at Potsdam are UUP members. The statewide average is 86%. Systems Administration is nearly 99%. If SUNY Central was pro-worker, would 99% sign up for UUP membership and better protection? Draw your own conclusions!
At Potsdam, we have the lowest salaries of the SUNY colleges. Do we have a good campus climate? Do you feel respected? If you do, great. If not, that’s where UUP comes in. How can we help you? Is morale on campus high? Is your morale high? What are your ideas to improve our campus work culture?
Can you reach out to me/us and share your suggestions?
Every department is different, and every member is unique. Share your views so we can make SUNY Potsdam a better place to work.
ALEXIS L. FOSTER
I have had the honor to be chosen and serve as the chapter secretary for the past few years. I have enjoyed the ability to serve by taking notes during meetings, so the membership is kept up to date with important information. I continue to encourage everyone to get involved with the UUP Chapter!
I am honored to be nominated for VP for professionals for the UUP Potsdam Chapter. I would love the opportunity to connect and serve the professionals on campus. Providing the ongoing and new education and resources to professionals would be a focus as well as gathering feedback from the professional community to bring forward to UUP. I want to foster unity between the professionals and UUP on this campus and beyond!
LAURA S. RHOADS
I ask for your support as I am running for an academic delegate position for the Potsdam UUP Chapter. I have been a member of the SUNY Potsdam community and UUP chapter since 1999 when I first arrived as an assistant professor of biology. I have served as an academic delegate for Potsdam since 2005 and have only missed one Delegate Assembly in all of those years. I have also served as the Potsdam UUP chapter president (2007-2017) and as a member of the statewide Executive Board (2007-2020) and currently co-chair the statewide Grievance Committee. My union roots run deep, as my grandfathers worked in the automotive industry, my father worked at Xerox in the manufacturing plant, and all of my brothers have worked for the unionized Wegman’s bakeries. I have been employed as a faculty at non-unionized universities, so I recognize the great importance of having a union that represents us with the governor and SUNY. We need to mobilize our members on campus to join the union fight and press back against management’s actions. We need to secure our place at the table and ensure that our members are treated with respect. We need to make our voices heard both on campus and in Albany so that Potsdam UUP members are recognized for their hard work and dedication. Our contract negotiations begin again in 2022, and as a delegate I would like to reach out to academics and professionals alike to hear what you would like to see different in the next contract. Thank you for your support and solidarity forever!
HEATHER SULLIVAN-CATLIN
Heather A. Sullivan-Catlin, Ph.D.
UUP Candidate for Delegate
Heather Sullivan-Catlin arrived at SUNY Potsdam in 2000 to join the Sociology Department. She has been active in the Environmental Studies program since its inception and helped to build it into an independent interdisciplinary department. She currently has secondary appointment in Environmental Studies and serves as chair.
Her primary areas of work center on families, qualitative methods, sustainable communities and community food security. She is passionate about applied learning and incorporates service-learning activities into many of her courses, involves students in community-based research projects, serves as sponsor for student interns, and leads travel courses abroad and field trips closer to home - all in an effort to provide students with important opportunities to develop into engaged global citizens. Putting these ideas into practice in her own life, Dr. Sullivan-Catlin has been active in a variety of local sustainability efforts, chiefly though her long involvement with GardenShare, a non-profit community food security organization for which she served as president from 2008 to 2013, and her current leadership role on the North Country Sustainability Day and Green Living Fair organizing committee.
Her favorite pastimes include movies, seeing live music and theatre, reading eco-apocalyptic novels, games and puzzles, cooking, canoe camping in the Adirondacks, hiking, biking, and having fun with her husband, two daughters, dog and two cats.
The proud granddaughter of union leaders in Troy, NY, she first became involved in labor organizing in graduate school with the GSEU at SUNY Albany in the mid-1990s. She served as delegate to the Potsdam UUP Chapter from 2003 -2010, stepping back after the birth of her second daughter. She is eager to get more actively involved once again.
United University Professions
Email: potsdam@uupmail.org
Website: https://www.uuppotsdam.org/
Location: SUNY Potsdam
Phone: 315-267-3177
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UUPPotsdam/
