During our April 11 leadership appreciation luncheon, President Dante Morelli thanked FA leaders for their good work as well as retirees for their many years of service and congratulated this year’s recipients of our FA Member Excellence Awards. (photo by Victoria Pendzick)

It is the time of year when summer, and thankfully the warm weather, is upon us. We celebrated another terrific Commencement in addition to other ceremonies and year-end celebrations.

This is usually the best time of the year but unfortunately it ended on a sad note. On the morning of Commencement, we learned that one of our current student leaders, along with her mother, had been detained by ICE the previous day. Her 17-year-old brother remained behind, without his family, with strangers because he is a minor. This student has never had contact with law enforcement, committed no crime and was in the process of obtaining a green card. She wanted only to improve her life by attending our institution where we proudly transform lives, which is exactly what Commencement is a celebration of: Our community.

This student had a 3.9 GPA, was involved in Campus Activities and was loved by her fellow students and faculty. Because our hearts break for this student and her family, we encourage you to please consider contributing to her GoFundMe account to help defray legal costs and to provide much needed financial support. A good number of colleagues already have, and we are grateful to them.

You can learn more about Sara’s situation by reading this article by FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton: My student Sara: Please support an ICE-detained SCCC student.

This is yet another egregious act by this cruel, bullying federal administration. The federal government is directly harming our students. I wrote about this in my previous article that SCCC can stand to lose up to $9 million in federal funding which will harm students and put FA jobs at risk. These are continued fights that we must not back down from in these times. This federal administration has only been in office for five months; that means 43 months remain to further hurt and harm our institution, our profession and the students we all love to serve.

The current and devastating budget bill drafted by the federal administration has passed the House and will go on the Senate very soon for a vote. Please encourage our state Senators to vote no on this budget that would cripple our institution and further hurt our students.

Also, continue to call your Congressional representatives to stop the ICE raids that are happening across our communities. More than 40% of our students come from Hispanic, Latina, Latino and Chicana communities, and it is no secret that ICE overwhelmingly targets these communities. This creates a chilling effect of fear and incredible anxiety for our Hispanic students. This could cause some to remain “invisible” and not come to campus to take courses, make friends and build community. To summarize, a population of our students is being highly profiled for arrest and detainment by our federal government, and it is disgusting.

State news

	Assembly Bill A5979, which recently passed, provides for the inclusion of a nonvoting faculty or staff member on the board of trustees for community colleges.

There is some good news that came from the state, and it makes me thankful to be a New Yorker: The Board of Trustees’ bill passed and will become law! This would allow for a nonvoting faculty member to serve on the SCCC Board of Trustees. I want to thank NYSUT for their incredible lobbying and advocacy work on this bill. And thank you to FA members who made calls and sent emails. Advocacy matters!

There was more positive news that came from this legislative session. The Assembly and Senate passed Artificial Intelligence Labor Protections for all K-12 and higher education institutions across the State. This bill provides more human oversight into AI practices and tools. In addition to the oversight, there are protections to ensure they will not impact labor practices and existing rights under our collective bargaining agreements. The bill still allows for local unions to negotiate AI-related language moving forward.

Also in the budget, the college received a little more than $900,000 to support additional full-time faculty lines, but there was not an increase in operating funding. New York State needs to do a better job of supporting its community colleges.

Suffolk County Legislature

	On June 23, the FA Political Action Committee met with Suffolk County Legislators Stephanie Bontempi and Jim Mazzarella to discuss issues facing our union. From left are Kim Ng Southard, Dante Morelli, Stephanie Bontempi, Jim Mazzarella, Courtney Brewer, Nick Giordano and Kevin McCoy. (photo by Cynthia Eaton)

Although New York State can do a better job of supporting community colleges, the Suffolk County Legislature has been our biggest supporter and partner in furthering higher education in Suffolk County. The Legislature is voting on the college’s budget on June 24. It calls for a 2.1% additional contribution from the County. Legislators always ask the college administration about full-time lines being filled. This only happens because of the advocacy work we do with the Legislature, and we are grateful for their support.

We are also currently holding screenings this summer for all candidates running for Suffolk County Legislature. It is critical for them to hear about the range of concerns facing our members and the college as a whole. We will present our endorsements to the membership should they receive approval by the Executive Council.

FA spring 2025 election & other news

Thank you! I am absolutely honored to be re-elected to serve the FA as your president, and I look forward to continuing to serve with Courtney, Cynthia, Pete, Kevin and Kim. Kevin McCoy has been appointed by the EC to remain as grievance officer until December 31, 2025.

I also want to congratulate our incoming and continuing EC reps as well as Andrew Stone, Kerry Carlson and Lisa Behnke for being elected to our NYSUT/AFT delegate positions. Thank you for running for these important leadership positions in our union. My fellow officers and I look forward to working with you. I also want to thank the Elections Committee for their outstanding work and dedication to our union and in particular I must thank Donna Krompinger for her leadership while serving as Elections Committee chair this spring.

Kevin McCoy had decided to not run for re-election as grievance officer (however, he is not yet ready to retire from the college), but unfortunately there was a violation of the Elections Procedures. Please read the very important, thorough article written by the Elections Committee. They had to develop and conduct an investigation into one of the campaigns for grievance officer, determined there was a violation and presented their report and recommendation to the EC on May 29. The EC voted to accept the recommendation to hold a re-vote for grievance officer during the fall 2025 semester. Please pay attention to the September edition of The WORD and please be sure to vote.

Speaking of September, please also read Courtney Brewer’s article on the exciting, timely professional development workshop that we will hold on Friday, September 12. The workshop will focus on today’s student and the various needs they bring into our learning and teaching spaces.

Finally, I’m thrilled to end with a happy note. The Guild of Administrative Officers has a contract proposal that was ratified by their membership, fully supported by the Board of Trustees and awaits a vote in the Suffolk County Legislature. Congratulations to Guild President Sean Tvelia and his leadership team on securing a fair contract for the Guild members who we proudly work with to serve students.