At a paint and sip fundraiser in the Bronx on March 27, UFT Pride Committee members Daphnee Belloni, a special education teacher at PS 78 in the Bronx (left), and Tamika Tolliver, a UFT Teacher Center coach at the same school, show off their art work. The event helped raise money for the committee’s Daniel Dromm Scholarship.
UFT members have an opportunity to connect with like-minded colleagues on a deeper level thanks to a unionwide invigoration of UFT professional committees and a new enrollment process that makes it much easier to get involved.
The 28 committees organize around professional or personal interests or ethnic or religious affiliations. They include academic committees such as the English Language Arts Council/UFT or the UFT Multilingual Learners Educators Committee, heritage committees such as the UFT Asian American Heritage Committee or the UFT African Heritage Committee, and other interest groups, including the UFT Women’s Rights Committee and the UFT Runners Committee.
The committees plan celebrations, professional development, outings, projects and other activities throughout the year.
Now, via the UFT Member Hub, it’s easier than ever to enroll in the committees of your choice. You can simply select the committees that interest you on the Member Hub enrollment page, hit submit and receive email invitations to those committees’ future meetings and events.
The list is a little longer this year, too, with five newly formed committees: Muslim Educators, Climate and Environmental Justice, Physical Education, Divine Nine and Caribbean heritage.
The UFT Muslim Educators Committee held its inaugural event, an Iftar dinner to break fast during Ramadan, on March 15. Muslim and non-Muslim members gathered to “eat, pray and bring a little light to the UFT,” said committee co-Chair Aqeel Williams. “We want to dispel rumors and help people see how beautiful and peaceful the religion is,” he said. The dinner, Williams added, was “just the beginning” for “the little committee that could.”
Also hitting the ground running is the Climate and Environmental Justice Committee. In the research and planning stage, the founding members have discussed projects like installing solar panels on school roofs and campaigning for green public housing.
Performers from the UFT Players perform a scene from “The Interview,” an original play by UFT retiree Rita Trimmer, during an evening of short plays on March 22.
“We’re bridging the environmental movement with education and the labor movement,” said committee co-Chair Ryan Bruckenthal, “because this issue impacts our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions, for example, when smoke from forest fires makes its way into our schools.” His co-chair, Margaret Joyce, added that the most exciting reason to join the committee is “what it hasn’t done yet.” Professional committees are “what you make of them,” she said, and asked, “What do you want to happen?”
Among the more established committees is the UFT Players. Founded in the 1980s to perform an original play called “Chalk Talk,” the UFT Players has continued to produce original works, evenings of short plays, poetry readings and story slams for about four decades, including virtually during the pandemic. The Players are planning an evening of short plays in June that will be a tribute to founding committee member Milton Polsky, who died in 2021, said co-Chair Lolly Yacker.
Members of the UFT Muslim Educators Committee gather for the committee’s first Iftar dinner, during which members broke their Ramadan fast together.
The Association of Teachers of Social Studies/UFT was founded in 1977 by George Altomare, a UFT founder who died in 2023. “He envisioned a collaboration of UFT members from around the social studies community,” said co-Chair Ollie Fields Thacker. Since then, the association has held professional development conferences, taken members on tours of cultural sites and advocated for schools to prioritize social studies at all levels. “It’s so important to foster strong citizenship and the understanding of how you can participate in your global and local community,” said Thacker.
The UFT committees also ensure strong UFT representation at some of the biggest parades in New York City. The UFT Pride Committee always shows up in full force at the Pride March in June; members of the Pride Committee and the UFT Irish American Heritage Committee turned out on March 17 for the city’s inclusive St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Staten Island; and the new UFT Caribbean Committee can’t wait to join the UFT contingent at the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn on Sept. 2.
“There’s more to the union than just increasing our pay,” said UFT Pride Committee co-Chair Rashad Brown, who helped spearhead the reboot of the professional committees. “We also want you to find people who share your passion.”