This still from the March 19 SCCC Board of Trustees meeting video shows FA President Dante Morelli addressing the board regarding how upset members were about a presentation at local district’s Board of Education meeting the week prior.

Noah Wylie was awarded the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor at the 2026 SAG-AFTRA awards for his performance in the hit show “The Pitt.” In his acceptance speech, Wylie highlighted his SAG union card and pointed to the “protections and privileges it affords me.” He also talked about what it means to be an actor and mentioned “I love actors: working with you, playing with you, and when necessary, marching alongside of you.” This proud union moment for Noah Wylie came to my attention at a time when our union is being tested.

Sounding the alarm about Beacon

That test came at the March 19 SCCC Board of Trustees meeting to protest a proposal that local high schools enact a plan by which they are encouraging their students to “accelerate” their learning to earn an associate’s degree simultaneously with earning their high school diploma. The proposal explicitly involves the college’s Beacon dual enrollment classes and is being advertised at a high school at which only 64.3% of their students earn an advanced Regents diploma (as of August 2025), yet they want to push students to achieve a full college associate’s degree.

This proposal alarmed our FA members.

Before I continue, it’s important to be clear that Beacon classes are SCCC classes offered in the high schools, during the regular high school day, for which students receive both high school credit and college credit. These are different from Early College classes, for which high school students come to our campuses and take classes at SCCC.

Also, you should know that the FA has had provisions in our contract since 2005 that allow for this kind of dual enrollment program (called dual credit in the contract) and that it was negotiated to have several important “checks and balances” among administration, academic chairs/departments and FA members as follows:

• Article IV.I.1 locates the determination of Beacon teachers’ credentials with administration: “The course’s instructional content will be delivered by a high school teacher whose academic qualifications are judged by the College to be comparable to those of the college faculty teaching the course.”
• Article IV.I.2 indicates that academic departments consult with administration regarding which courses are appropriate to be offered through Beacon: “The appropriate academic discipline/department will consult with the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs as to which existing College courses are appropriate to be offered in a dual credit program.”
• Article IV.I.3 provides for a mentoring program (currently called liaison program) by which more direct, individual collaboration between FA members and Beacon teachers should take place to ensure academic standards are upheld: “A full-time Association faculty member in the appropriate discipline will be assigned as the faculty mentor.”

In the beginning, the program was called Excelsior (until 2017) and was much smaller in scope. Prior to the Covid pandemic, however, the program was significantly expanded under our previous Vice President for Academic Affairs.

This latest “expansion” is of serious concern to our membership. At our March 12 FA Executive Council (EC) meeting, EC representatives spoke about numerous labor and financial concerns, academic standards concerns (including academic quality, credentialing of Beacon high school teachers, assessment of student learning and liaison communications) and concerns regarding the transparency offered by SCCC administration regarding the Beacon program. We’ve been listening to and documenting our members’ concerns for the past few years now.

When the liaison program (formerly called mentoring program) was put on hiatus for restructuring, for example, our members wanted us to clarify the duties of and compensation for the liaisons. We did that through a labor-management committee last summer and fall and documented the revisions in the Beacon Liaison Handbook.

Now we are hearing our members’ concerns about this pilot program and its potential negative impact on the institution and on students. Please read FA Vice President Courtney Brewer’s article to better understand the negative impacts of a pilot program like this on high school students, both academically and developmentally.

I want to thank the FA members who took the time to travel to the Eastern Campus on March 19—during Spring Recess—for that Board of Trustees meeting as well as the 85 people who joined the meeting online. The FA will continue to protect our contract when it comes to Beacon. Please read FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton’s article in this issue for a deeper understanding of the historical and national context around the Beacon issue.

State and local political activism

	On February 5, FA President Dante Morelli attended Higher Ed Advocacy Day. In the photo above, Dante (left) and SCCC Director of Government Relations Ben Zwirn (right) pose with New York State Assemblyman Joe DeStefano. (photo courtesy Joe DeStefano)

Two major union events have taken place in Albany in the past month that show the power of solidarity when fighting for education.

On March 8, NYSUT sponsored a 15,000+ person rally to Fix Tier 6 at the MVP Arena in Albany. The rally included many unions from across New York State to advocate for retirement and tier equity. Nearly half of our full-time FA members are in Tiers 5 or 6.

On February 5, I was proud to go to Albany with college administration, President Bonahue, Board of Trustees members and most importantly our students (a record 26 students attended this year) to advocate for more state funding. This year’s visit also included an opportunity to meet briefly with Governor Hochul to advocate for expansions to the popular SUNY ReConnect program. Working collaboratively—faculty, students and administration—for increased state funding is critically important for the institution.

Finally, the FA’s Executive Council approved the contract negotiations team at our February 12 meeting. We began our work last night (Monday, April 6) with our initial negotiations team meeting. We will also distribute a contract survey so members can share their opinions, concerns, ideas and suggestions. Here are the dates, times and locations of our contract forums this month. The first one is tomorrow so please attend if you are on the Grant Campus.

• April 8, 12:30 p.m. — Grant Campus, Suffolk Federal Credit Union MD105 Lecture Hall
• April 15, 12:30 p.m. — Eastern Campus, Montaukett 107/108
• April 15, 5 p.m. — College-wide, Zoom (link to be sent by email)
• April 22, 12:30 p.m. — Ammerman Campus, Southampton 25

Be sure to join one of our contract forums to share your ideas or do so via our survey.

When he accepted his SAG award, Noah Wylie discussed how proud he is to be part of a community of unionized actors. I too am so proud of our union and was humbled to see so many members in attendance wearing red and logging in online during the March 19 SCCC Board of Trustees meeting. Coming together to mobilize around an issue is how we show strength and solidarity in our union.

I am proud to march alongside all of you.