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Dante Morelli
This may be the best time of the year for anyone who works in higher education. The weather is warm, and thousands more SCCC students have just graduated. I cannot think of a better moment in the work that we perform that tops SCCC Commencement. Additionally, we had opportunities to celebrate our students through the Veterans Honors Ceremony, ESL Graduation, Nursing Pinning Ceremony and Honors Convocation. These are in addition to a number of honor society celebrations and other ceremonies celebrating our students this month. I am really proud of our student leaders and what they have done this year to serve their constituents. This was the first academic year where the Association Board of Directors, formerly overseen and governed by the college Board of Trustees, acted as an independent body. I congratulate Association Board of Directors President Ethan Rothburd for leading this group, which oversees more than $2 million in student activities fees. We also learned this month that student veteran Joseph Gonzalez was awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which has not been won by an SCCC student since 2019. I also have some students who have “good problems” in making the choice of which prestigious school they wish to enroll in for the fall. Despite the challenges faced by our students, they are doing incredible work. College Trustee Gemma deLeon-Lopresti spoke to me prior to the May Board of Trustees meeting and said her son constantly talks about the high quality level of instruction he received while he attended SCCC. These stories are a testament to the great work our members perform on behalf of students, and I am happy to see their success celebrated each May. In addition to the great work our students have accomplished, there is so much more to celebrate as we close out another academic year. We successfully negotiated a fair contract for our members and secured an additional three years on the Employee Medical Health Plan contract, which provides cost savings for the county, college and our members. We also saw a significant victory on the Fix Tier 6 campaign. The first major piece in the process of fixing Tier 6 was to change the final average salary from five to three years. This is a real win for our members in retirement Tiers 5 and 6, as it will increase their pension payout upon retirement. The other inequitable factors of Tiers 5 and 6 will continue to be part of the campaign to Fix Tier 6.
Earlier this month, FA officers and your elected NYSUT/AFT delegates attended the NYSUT Representative Assembly where we debated and voted on the agenda for our state union for the upcoming year. I was also fortunate to be elected by the NYSUT membership to serve as NEA State Director for the next three years. One of the responsibilities of this position is to visit Washington D.C. to advocate for public education and labor to our NYS Congressional delegation. I will make sure they hear about the great work performed by our members in addition to talking about the need for support and resources to help our community college students succeed. When I began to write this cover story, my motivation was to write with a theme of optimism and positivity. Some days, this can be hard to find with the current state of affairs. With ongoing wars, campus protests and disruption, and a divided electorate heading into a presidential election, it can be difficult to find the good in the present. For us, we have to look no further for the good than to look at our students and the strength of our union. |
