FA President Dante Morelli welcomes new faculty during the orientation session held on August 21. (photo by Cynthia Eaton)

Welcome back! It felt like summer decided not to stick around for too long.

The weather this summer has been extreme and dangerous at times. If any members have been affected by recent flooding, please look into the Disaster Relief and Scholarship Fund program offered by New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), our state union.

Now, I hope we are all ready to head into a new academic year with renewed purpose and positive energy.

Welcome, new members!

Last week, my fellow officers and I met our newest adjunct and full-time faculty hires. We are so happy and pleased to welcome them into the Faculty Association. We love to hear when the new full-time faculty come from our adjunct faculty ranks. These members not only have a commitment to SCCC students and our community, they are already proud members of our union.

If you have a new adjunct or full-time member in your department, please join us in welcoming them. We will continue to engage our newest hires in our New Member Program led by Lisa Behnke.

Upcoming events for members

I wrote in the July issue of The WORD about the great work our Local Action Project (LAP) team started in our week of planning and strategizing during the upstate LAP conference. All of our upcoming programming for the FA is outlined on our popular annual wall calendar, including a professional development workshop titled Navigating Controversial Topics on Campus; our Executive Council’s EC101 training; the annual retirement workshop; an October Health, Wellness & Benefits Fair; FA office hours; VOTE-COPE drive; and other important dates. Printed wall calendars will be distributed this week, and in the meantime the pdf calendar can be downloaded from our website.

Here is something new! In both the fall and spring semesters, the FA will hold on-campus office hours at all three of the campuses as well as monthly virtual office hours. These office hours provide an opportunity for members to meet directly with FA leadership to discuss issues, ask questions, get clarification on policies, etc. While we are not in contract negotiations, we still want to hear from members about issues that matter to you.

We’re already at work on some issues we know concern our members. We will continue to engage our membership on Fix Tier 6. We have more than 150 members who are affected by weakened retirement Tiers 5 and 6, for which those members have to pay throughout their entire working career.

Members have also approached us about the Beacon program, and we have started engaging the college on this issue with a labor/management committee. Two weeks ago we had our first meeting with administration to lay out some essential issues.

Ongoing work also includes advocating for more full-time lines to support student success. And, as always, we will continue our advocacy work with elected officials in the Suffolk County Legislature. We could not have gotten our contract passed 17-0 without engagement with the Suffolk County Legislature, and we are grateful for their support of our members.

A positive perspective

Finally, as a we start the new academic year, I want to point out that as of September 1, 2024, the recently negotiated contractual raises will be in effect. Our adjunct faculty, along with those who are performing overload assignments, will receive a 3% pay increase and full-time faculty will receive a 2.95%.

These salary increases were a top priority in our last round of negotiations, and we are proud they are in effect for our members. Let’s continue working hard to show all stakeholders all the reasons why we deserve every penny—because our working conditions are students’ learning conditions.

The FA looks forward to engaging with members throughout the year. Our membership does incredible work with our students. I often say from the moment a student starts thinking about college, through the entire process of learning up through to graduation, our members are performing this great work for students.

I’m proud of the work we do and I’m deeply proud of our union. It will be another busy year, but your union is prepared. Have a terrific, productive year and know your union is with you every step of the way.