OntheWilderSide

Dear Colleagues,

This is a political action “call to action” to increase community college state aid in what may be THE BEST YEAR AND OUR BEST CHANCE TO GET THE KIND OF STATE AID WE NEED. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED and, at the end of this email, you will be able to click onto a link that will allow you to provide this help in less than two minutes of your time!!At the NYSUT Higher Ed lobby day last week, legislators across the state seemed very, very positive about our requests for increasing community college state aid BUT they said they not LOTS OF FAXES, LETTERS, CALLS to impress upon the leadership that indeed public higher education was a priority of their constituents.

Starting today (3/8) and through next week, the Faculty Association is urging you and your students to send a fax or email to your state legislators to increase community college state aid for next year. IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE SEND THE FAXES/EMAILS THIS WEEK BECAUSE THE LEGISLATURE WILL BE GOING INTO CONFERENCE COMMITTEES STARTING 3/13!! [That’s when they begin determining how the budget will be divvied up. We need to get to them before they make their final decisions/compromises.]

Below is a step by step explanation of how to use the NYSUT website to fax a prepared message to your legislators. PLEASE NOTE: This year NYSUT has included a STUDENT letter in its prepared letters Students can go to the NYSUT website, just as you can, in order to fax “their” letter. [The community college student letter is entitled, “SUNY Community College Student Letter.” Please do not confuse the student letter with another letter entitled, “Student/Parent Web Letter on SUNY’s Budget,” which is for the state-operated campuses.]

FAXING INSTRUCTIONS:
§ Go to www.NYSUT.org.
§ Under the heading “Legislative Action”, click on “Contact Your Elected Officials.”
§ Under the heading “Fax,” click on “Fax your NY State Legislator.”
§ Type in your zip code.
§ Click in the box adjacent to the web letter entitled, “SUNY Community Colleges Web Letter.”
§ Click on “Fax Letters.”
§ Click in the boxes adjacent to your legislators (both Senate and Assembly).
§ Enter your personal information.
§ Click “Send.”

EASY ENOUGH! LET’S SHOW OUR LEGISLATORS THAT WE ARE CONSTITUENTS TO BE RECKONED WITH!!

Thank you.

In solidarity,
Ellen Schuler Mauk
FA President