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From health care to higher education
PICTURED: Hobart listens as nurse Nancy Barth Miller reports on health care resolutions at the 2002 convention. Carol Braund of UUP looks on.
 NYSUT had always represented many nurses, a role that expanded when nurses in non-school facilities and other health care professionals joined the union. Anne Goldman, R.N., who chairs NYSUT's Health Care Professionals Council, recalled meeting Tom in the early 1980s: "He was wearing one of his plaid suits. How could you miss him?" she joked.
NYSUT has fought for nurses on whistle-blower legislation and a whole range of issues related to pay and patient care, she said. Hobart was "always so approachable, you don't know he's president of a statewide organization."
From its earliest days, NYSUT also had affiliated thousands of higher education members, including United University Professions at SUNY; the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY; private four-year colleges; and community college locals across the state. The union was strengthened by adding employees at a wide range of service and government institutions.
Ellen Schuler Mauk, president of the Faculty Association of Suffolk Community College, recalled: "Several years ago, after a rather difficult and prolonged round of negotiations, Tom joined me and the negotiating team as we explained the details to members. He was as interested in our settlement as we were and his presence at our meeting sent a very clear message to my membership that NYSUT is more than a label, it's an organization that cares about its locals. That's the personal touch that he has brought to the organization."
UUP President William Scheuerman characterized Hobart as "the glue that held NYSUT together."
PSC, led by Barbara Bowen, lauded Hobart as "a steady, guiding influence in the labor movement, a strong advocate of coalition-building, and a major presence in the struggle for human rights."
As the union grew, so did the challenges by politicians who sought to reverse gains made by workers over the previous 50 years. While many unions were barely holding onto members, NYSUT bucked that trend and was actually growing.
Cortese credited the growth to Hobart's vision and "unbounded energy. "The word 'no' is never in his vocabulary. Tom always believed that if he had six things to do during a day, there was no reason why he couldn't do eight," Cortese said. "Tom loved his job, and everyone who served with him had to meet the same high standards. That's why we are so unified."
Tony Bifaro, assistant to the president since 1980, says Hobart's ability to balance the needs of the union's largest locals, such as the 100,000-member United Federation of Teachers in New York City, with the smallest locals, is a key part of his legacy: "He's always able to project the importance of unity, staying together."
North Syracuse's Matousek agreed that among Hobart's strengths is how he balances differing agendas. "Since the day this union was birthed, he has fashioned a vision for this union and has done it by working with a tremendous number of people and causes. He's done it by listening and making the compromises so everybody had enough of their agenda met so that we could move forward together," she said.
Many have remarked at how approachable Hobart is.
In the late 1970s, Lois Burn was a speech therapist in the Mill Neck Manor schools on Long Island, a state-supported private school serving students with hearing, speech and language disabilities. Staffers there were not in a union, but they turned to NYSUT. "We needed to be part of something bigger, but everyone you met at NYSUT treated you like an equal, regardless of the size of your local," she said.
Burn, who became local president, recalled meeting Hobart at a conference in the early 1980s. "With everything else going on, he took the time to meet with me and another new president from the Lexington School for the Deaf and listen to our concerns. We were just a tiny little group, but he made us know how important we were to the larger union."
Now a speech therapist and member of the Jericho Teachers Association, Burn said she still gets that feeling when she attends NYSUT conferences.
As NYSUT grew, so did its clout. It took a lead role in the commissioner's 1988 Task Force on the Teaching Profession, which recommended raising standards for teacher preparation. This followed by a year the formation of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a result of NYSUT's early advocacy for national teacher certification.
"All of this was done amidst a huge amount of anti-labor sentiment," said Benker, a member of NYSUT's Board of Directors, who said he was "most proud" of the union's response to the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, which shocked the nation by charging "a rising tide of mediocrity" was threatening public education.With Hobart and Cortese taking the lead, NYSUT "didn't run and hide. We addressed the criticisms. We expanded our Research and Educational Services Division because the union was integral to raising standards."
Hobart had enthusiastically endorsed Cortese's 1979 launch of the Effective Teaching Program, which would evolve into the Education and Learning Trust, a broadly expanded resource for members seeking professional development and graduate credits. Under Hobart's watch, the union developed a nationally renowned Legal Division and a Member Benefits Department offering extensive services for NYSUT members and their families.
A significant area of growth has been in services for retirees, whose participation in NYSUT has strengthened under Hobart's administration.
PICTURED: As membership has grown, so has the need for office space. Hobart initiated a major construction project that resulted in a 2002 state-of-the-art office complex. The building, constructed by union labor, came in on time and under budget. It professionally and efficiently addresses the needs of members, leaders and NYSUT employees.
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