United University Professions is on the alert for word of reductions in faculty and staff at the State University of New York, following the announced loss of 111 employees at the SUNY New Paltz campus.

Most of the cutbacks are hitting faculty in the nursing and graduate education programs, said Glenn McNitt, UUP chapter president at New Paltz. The college plans to phase out a nursing program with bachelor's and master's degrees in three years, after the 148 students now in those programs graduate. Graduate education programs slated to close include chemistry, math, earth science, Spanish and French.

The New Paltz administration is apparently acting out of a concern that the campus will have a $4 million deficit in its upcoming operating budget and won't have enough in its reserve funds to cover the shortfall. UUP's calculations place that potential shortfall at closer to $2 million, McNitt said, not an impossible amount to make up through other funding sources.

"It's not impossible to imagine that we could leverage a couple of million dollars out of the state right now," said McNitt, who is also a member of the UUP executive board. UUP represents 35,000 academic faculty and professionals at SUNY.

UUP President Phil Smith agreed that such pre-emptive layoffs are a serious overreaction on the part of the New Paltz administration, especially considering that SUNY has statewide reserves of $75 million to draw upon for just these sorts of shortfalls.

"At a time when the State University needs all the strength it can get from its dedicated faculty, New Paltz is going to make it even more difficult for teachers and health care professionals in its region to continue their education," Smith said. "The New Paltz administration should reverse this ill-advised decision, which comes deep in a recession, when affordable public education is often the way that people either find a job, or keep the job that they already have."

UUP has asked its chapter leaders statewide to report any similar actions on other campuses.

Already, the New Paltz cutbacks are being felt in schools and hospitals in the region, as people scramble to find replacement programs, McNitt said.