FA President Dante Morelli, second from right, attended the September 9 Labor Appreciation Reception hosted by Governor Kathy Hochul (center) at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Dante expressed gratitude to her for the SUNY ReConnect program. (photo courtesy Dante Morelli)

This past year, I lost three amazing mentors who helped shape my view of the world and who helped me understand my potential as a high school, undergraduate and graduate student.

• Mr. Eugene Kravits was my high school art teacher and his personality and love for students was obvious in every conversation. He would see me and shout, “Dante, Dante, sing a Paris song!” I have no clue what that meant, but it made me laugh as 16-year-old high school student. Mr. Kravits pushed students to find their passion and to “make that passion your paycheck.” No better than an art teacher to force us to be creative in our own lives, not just on paper or canvas.
  
  
• Dr. J. Drew McGukin was my college advisor at California University of Pennsylvania. Dr. McGukin had a more relaxed, quiet personality but his commitment, love and dedication for his students were just the same as Mr. Kravits. Dr. McGukin encouraged me to attend graduate school and pursue “RUH-search” as he often said in his Georgia accent. Dr. McGukin was the quintessential professor: he had the glasses, the tweed jacket with elbow patches, blue jeans and the intellect and scholarship to back it all up.
  
  
• In graduate school at Radford University, Dr. George Grice was my advisor and mentor for my master’s program. I had the fortune and opportunity to be mentored by Dr. Grice to teach public speaking as a graduate teaching fellow. Dr. Grice had one of the best-selling public speaking textbooks in the country. He was well known and deeply respected in the field of speech and rhetoric. Dr. Grice would tell you the best part of his life was teaching and working with students. He would also tell you that he finally got to see his beloved Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2016.
  

As I graduated from high school, undergrad and graduate school, I kept in touch with my mentors who eventually became my friends, and they became known to me as Eugene, Drew and George. When I learned the news throughout this past year that each had passed, it made me sad and wish I had one more conversation with them. We never forget the people who have an impact on our lives, and I will never forget what my mentors have done for me.

Every one of us can probably name an educator who has had some level of impact on our learning journey, and that is the labor and service we all perform in our union. The members of the Faculty Association are in a privileged position because of the mentorship we provide to students.

SUNY Reconnect

Mentoring cannot take place without students, and this semester we have more than 1,400 students in the SUNY Reconnect cohort which has brought in more than $3.3 million in additional state aid. This landmark legislation from Governor Hochul provides free community college for 25 to 55-year-olds in specific programs.

SUNY Reconnect has been a major success for the college over the past two years. This has been incredibly helpful, as we see continuous decline in traditional college age students. I had the opportunity to meet and thank Governor Hochul last week on this important program that is transforming the lives of Suffolk County residents.

Contract negotiations

Our previous stipulation of agreement with the college and the county ended on August 31. We contacted to the college and the county to engage in negotiations and are hopeful to begin the process in the coming weeks.

Thank you to the more than 500 members who filled out our contract negotiations survey. The contract survey informs the negotiations team about priorities for our members and our next contract. I will be keeping members updated on the process and progress of negotiations throughout the semester.

FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton

	FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton has had to resign effective September 24, 2026, after nearly two decades as an FA officer. (photo by Victoria Pendzick)

Cynthia Eaton notified the Executive Council that she would have to resign from her postion as FA secretary effective September 24. Cynthia has served the FA as an officer for nearly 20 years, first as adjunct coordinator then as secretary.

Cynthia has also been the long-standing editor of The WORD where she has done an impeccable job editing as well as writing more than 300 articles. Her outstanding work on The WORD has earned her 28 NYSUT Journalism Competition Awards and 20 AFT Communications Competition Awards. Also here at SCCC, Cynthia secured a $35,000 grant for and is co-founder of our popular, successful JEDI Institute.

Cynthia’s passion for distance education brought her to a leadership position within our state union, where she served as chair of the NYSUT Committee on Educational Technology. Cynthia also chaired the NYSUT Community College Distance Education Committee for 12 years, for which she led a team of state union members to publish Negotiating the Distance: Bargaining Contract and Policy Language for Community College Distance Education Programs. This publication assisted many community colleges in negotiating appropriate parameters around distance education. Cynthia was also invited to write a total of 15 articles as a guest columnist on distance ed for our national union’s newsletter, AFT On Campus.

More recently, Cynthia served on NYSUT’s Women’s Committee and, over the decades, has delivered numerous presentations at the NYSUT Community College Conference, AFT Higher Ed Conference and the National Collective Bargaining Conference.

Cynthia was awarded NYSUT’s Higher Education Member of the Year in 2018 for her exceptional work and also has been awarded two SUNY Chancellor’s Awards—one for Excellence in Teaching and one for Excellence in Faculty Service.

All of Cynthia’s work as a unionist has been nothing short of outstanding. Our union has been incredibly served by Cynthia’s labor, energy and creativity. This union is grateful for all the service, leadership and mentorship she has provided to our union and its members.

Looking ahead

At the August 19 new full-time faculty orientation, we had the pleasure of welcoming 19 new full-time members, many of whom started at the college as adjunct faculty. At the August 20 new adjunct faculty orientation, we also welcomed 62 new adjunct members to the college. More members mean more opportunities to mentor students.

This academic year, let’s make a commitment in celebrating all the positive work we do for our students, our departments and the entire institution. Let’s set an example and set a tone for our students, especially through mentorship, and demonstrate that collaboration, listening and most importantly kindness are always the first steps toward human civility.