During Professional Development Day on September 12, FA President Dante Morelli, second from left, hosted the FA table alongside Grievance Officer Kevin McCoy and Adjunct Coordinator Kim Ng Southard. Guild President Sean Tvelia, left, stopped by to say hello. (photo by Victoria Pendzick)

Heading into my fifth year as FA president, it makes me happy to start this new academic year with some great news.

I was first elected in May 2019 so, as you know, we were immediately greeted with a global pandemic. Working through that as a new union president was not easy but if I’ve learned one thing, it is the importance of having a positive perspective.

Our current contract status

So I’ll start off with great news: As chief negotiator for the FA contract, I am pleased to announce that our proposed stipulation of agreement was overwhelmingly approved by the FA membership. The elections committee reported on September 19 that of the total ballots received, 90.4% approved the stipulation and 91.8% approved the proposed FA Bylaws amendment. This is a strong contract approval rate compared with some other votes during my time at the college:

2005 — 90.2%
2010 — 88.4%
2014 — 89.5%
2020 — 89.3%
2023 — 90.4%

We greatly appreciate your support for the work of our negotiations team and Executive Council. Many of our members worked hard on these proposals—meeting and discussing and debating each provision through several drafts—and we are grateful to you all. I also thank FA Executive Vice President Courtney Brewer and our NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist Damon Levenstien for being present at the negotiating table with administration as well as the following members of the FA elections committee who counted ballots for us on September 19: Cynthia Eaton (Chair), Kerry Carlson, Laura Galletta, Donna Krompinger, Dan Lauterman, Andrew Stone and Becky Turner.

Then, as you may know, the college Board of Trustees (BOT) unanimously supported the stipulation of agreement proposal at their September 21 meeting. Next it will go to the Suffolk County Legislature's Education & Labor Committee on October 4. If it passes at the committee level, the last step is for approval to the full Suffolk County Legislature General Meeting on October 11. 

FA energy keeps us moving forward

All of the collaborative negotiations, the give and take, throughout the past year and more reminds me of the constant effort that is required to keep the college moving forward. Often we think of a new semester as one where classes start and students return to campus but the processes, energy and commitment to serving our students is performed all year round by the members of the FA.

For example, the FA thanks our members in Student Affairs, especially professional assistants and counselors, for getting our new students matriculated and registered for the semester. Additionally, we saw FA members in ETU installing new projectors and equipment in our classrooms up to the last day before the semester started.

Diligent FA work extends through nonclassroom and classroom settings. We thank our members for working hard to adjust to the many modality changes and semester/term changes happening at the college post-pandemic as well as for doing their best to respond to administrative initiatives like the new Early Alert program.

Other members’ good work also merits applause. I congratulate the FA members in the Jane F. Shearer School of Nursing for having the highest student NCLEX scores out of any large community college in New York State. Additionally, the nursing students had the highest NCLEX scores out of any of the bachelor-degree granting programs on Long Island that offer nursing.

Congratulations also go to our FA members who received SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence this year and were celebrated at Professional Development Day on September 12:

• Cynthia Eaton, Faculty Service
• Christopher Jentsch, Adjunct Teaching
• Meridith Leo, Teaching
• Iordan Michev, Teaching
  

External collaborations also help us succeed

And just as we know that it takes all of our different and varied internal constituencies to keep this institution moving forward, it takes a variety of types of external engagement to ensure the college’s success as well. This means not only engaging internally with our membership, staff, students and administration but also externally with our other stakeholders.

That’s why I will conclude with a list of our endorsements of candidates for the Suffolk County Executive position and the Suffolk County Legislature. Keeping the positive momentum moving forward at SCCC necessarily includes political action. As noted above, the county executive and legislators have input on our contract, so when we conduct screenings of each candidate, we ask a series of questions to determine their levels of support for

1. Suffolk County Community College as well as public education more broadly
2. Our union as well as public employees in general.

If a candidate is an incumbent, we consider their past voting record; if someone is not an incumbent, we look for evidence in other positions they’ve held or work they’ve done.

After careful vetting, discussion and debate by the FA’s political action team, the following candidates were presented to the Executive Council at the August 24 meeting and were approved. In this fall’s elections, then, please consider casting a vote in support of the following individuals who have demonstrated or indicated their support of the work we do.

Let’s keep our positive perspectives moving us forward in 2023-24.

* indicates an incumbent