(ALBANY, NEW YORK) - Delegates to United University Professions (UUP) Spring 2023 Delegate Assembly re-elected UUP President Fred Kowal for a three-year term as part of a Statewide election that also saw two Statewide Officers and eight Statewide Executive Board Members elected.

Secretary-Treasurer Jeri O'Bryan-Losee, who ran unopposed, was re-elected to her second three-year term.

Albany Chapter Member Patrick Romain was elected as UUP Membership Development Officer.

Kowal (Pictured Above/UUP File Photo), a Political Science Professor, Cobleskill Chapter Member and a nationally-known Labor Activist, ran unopposed.

He was first elected President in 2013.

His re-election comes at an important crossroads for UUP, as the Union fully emerges from the devastating Coronavirus Pandemic, awaits completion of a State Budget and is also negotiating a new contract with New York State.

Kowal is widely credited with steering UUP through one of the worst crises in State University of New York’s (SUNY) history, when the Coronavirus Pandemic shut down SUNY in March 2020.  UUP Members started to work remotely on very short notice and SUNY Hospitals -especially SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University - went into emergency response mode.

Kowal referenced the challenges UUP faces this Spring in his address at the Delegate Assembly - UUP’s Statewide policy making gathering – that was in Albany (April 21st and 22nd).

As he often does, he tied those challenges to the larger historic struggle the Labor Movement has waged for Working People in the United States for the last 150 years.

“When we fight for a contract that includes demands that would bring a living wage to our contingent colleagues, that is part of the fight for just salaries for everyone, everywhere,” Kowal said. “When we fight to expand our health benefits, that is part of the fight for health care for everyone, everywhere.  These are historic and necessary fights for social justice that are crucial to the common future of Labor everywhere.”

O’Bryan-Losee, a Morrisville Chapter member, was first elected in 2017.  She developed - and leads - UUP’s Student Debt Clinics, which help Members qualify for the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.  So far, UUP Members have had a total of nearly $8 million in student debt forgiven through PSLF after attending UUP’s Student Debt Clinics.

Romain, a long-time Albany Chapter Activist and a Statewide Executive Board Member, narrowly beat Stony Brook Chapter President Andrew Solar-Greco for the three-year term. Romain replaces MDO Tom Hoey, who did not run for re-election.

The Executive Board elections saw four incumbents re-elected and four new Members seated.

Re-elected were Pamela Malone (Empire State College), Darlene Mayers (Farmingdale), Bekkie Bryan (Cortland) and Samuel Marquez (Downstate).

Newly elected Members were: Bret Benjamin (Albany), UUP's Chief Negotiator; Mindy Heath (Upstate Medical University); Redetha Abrahams-Nichols (Downstate); and Susan Orr (Brockport).

To Directly Access This Labor News Report, Go To: Delegates reelect Kowal as UUP president (uupinfo.org)