Robert Compton, Oneonta Chapter President

Lunch!  Beef and Sadza at the University of Zimbabwe, Senior Faculty Commons, June 2021.

To all comrades, thank you for supporting our Reform Now! ticket and electing me as your president.  We will be welcoming a different administration on campus with a new President, who is yet to be named.  Many outstanding issues will need to be raised and we hope to do this collaboratively and with precision.  Soon we will also begin the arduous process of negotiating a successor contract with GOER and member intake will commence.

Over the years, I have been Interim President, Vice President for Academics, Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Negotiator, and Secretary with UUP Oneonta.  I came to SUNY Oneonta in 2001 from Western Kentucky University specifically because we are unionized.  UUP gives its members a voice and an opportunity to shape our conditions of work.

I am Professor of Africana and Latinx Studies (ALS) and Political Science since 2014 having served a couple terms as chair.  My research and teaching focuses on political economy of development with a regional emphasis on Southern Africa and East Asia.  I also conduct research on comparative regionalism and nationalism.  In 2008, I was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Zimbabwe and over the years and currently conduct consultancy work funded by the US Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe and Uganda.  Publications include a single-authored book and edited books, two coedited books, and five single authored articles along with numerous book chapters and review essays.  In 2019, I was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Service.

I look forward to your support as I endeavor to move your careers in a positive and meaningful direction.  Please reach out to me and don’t be a stranger!