You Are Not Alone – Conference Guests

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo

Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo was first elected in November 2004 and is currently in her fifth term representing the City of Binghamton and Towns of Union and Vestal. She has a number of leadership positions in the Assembly including: Chair of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families; Vice Chair, Legislative Women’s Caucus; Co-Chair, New York Legislative Aviation Caucus; and President, New York Conference of Italian-American State Legislators. Assemblywoman Lupardo also serves on the following Assembly Committees: Economic Development, Environmental Conservation, Higher Education, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. She is a former Lecturer at Binghamton University and was the Director of Education for the Mental Health Association prior to her election.

Topic – Effective Political Organizing

Bill Buxton – President, SUNY Cortland UUP

Associate Professor SUNY Cortland Literacy Department

Anne Wiegard

Ms. Wiegard has been a full-time Lecturer in English at SUNY Cortland since 1999; she is
UUP Cortland Chapter Secretary;
UUP Academic Delegate;
UUP Negotiations Team, 2011-16 Contract;
UUP Statewide Executive Board;
Executive Board Liaison to the statewide Contingent Employment Committee;
a NYSUT Delegate; and an
AFT Delegate;
Member, College English Association;
Member, MLA.

She chairs the board of directors of the NFM Foundation and was a founding member of New Faculty Majority as well as its Secretary from 2009-2011. Anne was one of the organizers of the Mira Costa Community College bargaining unit in 1997-98 in San Diego. She taught at both SU and SUNY Cortland in part-time appointments from 1988-1994, and at various public and private institutions in Southern California from 1995-1998. Her first career was in public libraries in Northern Virginia.

Jaclyn Pittsley

SUNY Cortland – English Department Lecturer I

Jackie is a full time lecturer one (I) in the English Department at SUNY Cortland. She has been the elected Officer for Contingents for six years with UUP Cortland Chapter, and is a Delegate to the Statewide UUP Assembly. Although she currently works full time, Jackie was contingent for seven years in a part-time teaching position. Jackie works with contingent faculty because she is one of them, and because she believes not many people seem to know/care about their lack of job security or poor wages.

Jeffrey Baker – NYS AAUP has done well in protecting academic freedom and integrity. There is much more to do. Continuing funding cuts and the decline in tenured faculty have hurt higher education. Anti-unionism is rampant.

Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology, Monroe Community College (Rochester); Online faculty and subject matter expert (psychology) Excelsior College (Albany). Formerly Adjunct Professor at RIT (Rochester).

Risa L. Lieberwitz – Expanding Unionization in Private Universities: New Possibilities Pending at the NLRB

Professor of Labor and Employment Law in the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and an Associate of the Worker Institute at Cornell. She was appointed to serve as General Counsel of the AAUP for a two-year term, beginning July 1, 2014. She has also served as a member of AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Much of Risa’s research has focused on the “corporatization” of colleges and universities and the impact of these developments on academic freedom and the role of higher education in a democratic society. Her current research addresses the role of collective bargaining in higher education in creating contractual protections for academic freedom and faculty governance. Risa is a longtime activist in faculty governance at Cornell.