04/06/2013
I am Wes Kennison. I am running for President of UUP. I ask for your support. Together we will educate those who would privatize, corporatize, downsize, virtualize, and homogenize the great learning communities of SUNY. We will fortify our political outreach and unveil new political machinery, appropriate for the new fight in changing times.
In two decades of constancy to the cause of our members, I have served on two Negotiation Teams, the Statewide Executive Board, and as co-chair of the Part-time (now Contingent Employment) Concerns Committee. I have personally walked the difficult and patient pathway from part-time employment to full-time contingency. I know every rock in the road.
We live in tough times, but we will not surrender to discouragement. We will be refreshed by the pure joy of remembering that our cause is just. We will convince those who might oppose us of a simple reality: it is easier to say yes now than to say no because UUP will keep up the pressure for as long as it takes.
Our sisters and brothers at Brooklyn, our contingent members, our departments threatened by deactivation must know that we have their backs. Politicians seeking budget cutting photo-ops must not forget promises made to our retirees. We must drive the discussion on shared services, teacher education, on-line instruction, and the hospitals.
Throughout many years of experience in executive responsibility, I have valued policy and procedure. I love the art of team building. I started at the age of 17 serving on a Board of Directors and over the years I have prepared and/or approved 102 executive budgets. As Geneseo’s Town Supervisor, I produced our first comprehensive Personnel Policy Manual. We negotiated three labor contracts with our unions that were settled quickly and fairly.
I teach Dante. He tells us in Inferno VI that political gossip and petty factionalism are actually a kind of gluttony. Any organization can be tempted into eating that stuff like junk food. While I am your president, we will enjoy a healthy menu of mutual respect, high purpose, and untiring advocacy for our members.
UUP needs to strengthen its political voice with new strategies. We will work with the Chapters, the Outreach Committee and the Executive Board to implement a plan to establish new alliances with our local governments with the goal of putting SUNY onto their legislative priority lists. I have the contacts and speak the language of local government. We are good at telling people what we want. We need to get better at telling people who we are, especially with regard to the complex list of benefits we bring to the quality of life in every legislative district.
My dad went to Buffalo, my sister to Brockport, my sister-in-law to Oneonta. My mom, my brother, my wife, her sister, my two children, my niece, and I all have degrees from Geneseo where my nephew is now a freshman. I have skin in the game in this battle to protect SUNY. Let’s get to work.
