State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras and United University Professions (UUP) President Frederick E. Kowal announced on Friday (Nov. 20) an agreement to extend mandatory, free COVID-19 testing for all UUP-represented employees through the end of the spring semester. In September, SUNY reached agreements with UUP, The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), and the Police Benevolent Association of New York State (PBANYS) to conduct routine testing of all union-represented employees.
“Testing every person on our campuses has been critical to monitoring and controlling the presence of the virus—something our colleges have done incredibly well this semester,” said Chancellor Malatras. “I want to thank UUP President Frederick Kowal for extending our testing agreement through the spring semester and for his continued leadership in helping to protect our campuses. It shows that working together can yield important and meaningful results. Making sure we can continue testing of all individuals on campus—be it students, faculty, or staff—is absolutely critical. We must all share in the sacrifice to keep the virus at bay. Thanks to SUNY Upstate Medical, we have a nation-leading, FDA-approved saliva test at our disposal and the capacity to do 200,000 COVID tests per week. With that robust capacity, there is simply no excuse for not regularly testing every faculty and staff member on our campuses. The stakes are simply too high.”
UUP President Kowal said, “On behalf of UUP’s 37,000 members, I want to thank Chancellor Malatras for working with us to extend this important agreement, which has been a successful tool in limiting coronavirus spread on SUNY campuses and keeping our students and our members safe. We understand that mandatory surveillance testing of all members of the SUNY community, including the employees we represent, will help to stem the spread of coronavirus. The agreement also includes important provisions protecting our members’ privacy and limiting how test samples and results. We look forward to working with Chancellor Malatras to continue to ensure the health and wellbeing of our campus communities.”
Effective through June 30, 2021, all UUP employees working in-person on campus will be tested regularly for coronavirus. Testing will continue to be free of cost and conducted during regular work hours. UUP employee testing will be done at the same frequency as student testing.