Team FA poses with the FA breast cancer quilt during the 2023 Making Strides event. Teresa Noto, our top fundraiser, proudly stands behind the FA breast cancer quilt. (photo by Russell Malbrough)

• Teresa Noto launches FA to new Making Strides Against Breast Cancer fundraising record: Teresa Noto, associate professor of automotive technology, is a force of nature! She is among the top 10 individual fundraisers for Making Strides of Eastern Long Island this year, and she has launched Team FA into being among the top 10 out of 59 teams.
  
  It is not too late to chip in! Please consider donating to Team FA to nudge us into the top 5. These funds help people like Teresa who are or have had to fight breast cancer, providing free information and support, as well as help others reduce their breast cancer risk.
  
  
• Updated FA Benefit Fund Booklet is now available: The trustees of the FA Benefit Fund, which include all six FA officers and Guild President Sean Tvelia, have been working over the past year to update the FA Benefits Booklet. Since distribution of the previous Benefits Booklet in 2016, the trustees have made many changes that reflect the supplemental benefits members want and use.
  
  The newly updated 2023 Benefits Booklet describes all the benefits currently available to covered members and the procedures to access those benefits. Access the pdf on the FA website: 2023 FA Benefits Booklet.
  
  
• Sabbatical applications: This year’s sabbatical applications will be due before 10/16 because 10/15 falls on a Sunday. Contact Cynthia Eaton if you have questions about applying, especially if you missed her two September sabbatical workshops.
  
  
• Pay date information: There will be seven adjunct/overload paychecks on the following dates: 10/5, 10/19, 11/2, 11/16, 11/30, 12/14 and 12/28.
  
  For early end classes, pay dates are 10/5, 10/19, 11/2 and 11/16. For late start classes, pay dates are 11/16, 11/30, 12/14 and 12/28.
  
  Full-time faculty who are promoted on 9/1/23 will receive their promotion bonuses (5% of base salary) in a separate check on 10/12.
  
  
• Adjunct/overload pay rates: Below are current pay rates by contact hour.
  
  

  PA	$873
  PA 1	$1,028
  PA 2	$1,137
  specialist 1	$1,218
  specialist 2	$1,310
  instructor	$1,347
  assistant professor	$1,460
  associate professor	$1,565
  professor	$1,716

  
  

• 2023-24 academic year holidays: Below are the agreed upon 2023-24 holidays, and you can find the N and U days on the FA website or on the SCCC Human Resources website.

• The WORD editorial policy: The WORD is the voice of our local. This is our primary vehicle for bringing members, on a regular basis, the views and actions of the leaders. Throughout the publication will be descriptions and reports on the union’s programs, positions and politics as well as showing the variety of ways dues are expended. It is our intent to publish 6 to 8 issues per year.
  
  This newsletter, unlike a newspaper, is not designed to have a letters to the editor column nor does it accept an advertisement unless it has been screened and approved as a member benefit by NYSUT or AFT. The FA receives a rebate for each NYSUT/AFT ad it runs in an issue of The WORD.
  
  The WORD is also the voice of its membership. Articles about the FA, its membership and their concerns are welcome. All articles should contribute positively to the welfare of the FA and its members. We will not accept partisan articles or articles which attack any union leader or member. We accept thoughtful discussions of issues of concern to FA members. We reserve the right to edit articles not only for space and content but also those that seem to reflect a misunderstanding of the union and its policies or those which contain misinformation.
  
  The editors are the final authority for all editorial decisions. In the event of any inadvertent misstatement or factual error, the correction will be made in the next issue of The WORD.