Bargaining Committee Candidates
The nomination period for the SVA/FAC-UAW Bargaining Committee is closed as of Thursday, June 26, 2025. The following eligible faculty accepted nomination:
Billy Altman - Humanities & Sciences
Alper Besen - BFA Interior Design
John Bezark - BFA Design
Justin Elm - BFA VCS, Art History, Honors
Mike Falk - BFA Fine Arts
Joan Hilty - BFA Comics
Lee-Sean Huang - MFA Interaction Design, MFA Design for Social Innovation
Stephanie Stavropoulos - MFA Design for Social Innovation
Lily Padula - BFA Illustration
Carson Parish - BFA Photography and Video
Merlin Ural Rivera - Humanities & Sciences
Edwin Rivera-Arias - Humanities & Sciences
Hans Tammen - MFA Computer Arts
Because the number of candidates exceeds the total number of positions for the Bargaining Committee, a secret ballot vote will be held electronically from 9AM, July 7, 2025 to 9PM, July 11, 2025 using ElectionBuddy. You can find more information about the format of voting below the candidate statements.
Candidate Statements
Billy Altman, Humanities & Sciences:
At their best, colleges are as much about community as they are about education. And yet, throughout my many years in the H&S Department at SVA, I’ve often felt distanced from the school – not only from my own department, but from the overall school culture. And it’s been a revelation over the last few years to find out that so many of my colleagues feel a similar sense of isolation and anonymity. We hear quite a lot from the administration about what we can be doing to help our students succeed, but little to nothing about what the school can be doing to support us and help us succeed.
It’s become increasingly evident in recent years that SVA’s adjunct salaries and benefits are not on a par with other colleges in the New York area. We know all too well that our pay does not reflect the effort we put in as teachers – not only inside the classroom during instructional hours, but through the countless additional time we devote to curriculum development, lesson plans, assignments, evaluations, tests, grading, guidance, etc.
My background includes being a Teamsters Union member for several years working at New York’s prestigious bookstore, Brentano’s. I was one of the shop stewards there, and helped lead a successful campaign – including a high-profile strike – that resulted in better wages and working conditions for all the store’s employees.
I’ve been involved with the drive to unionize SVA since it began many years ago, and I believe my experience, as both a long-term instructor and a union veteran, will help us achieve our goals.
Alper Besen, BFA Interior Design:
My name is Alper Besen, I teach in the Interior Design Department, and I would be honored to serve on the bargaining committee at the School of Visual Arts. I was born and raised in Istanbul and moved to the U.S. in 2011 with a deep respect for American academia. From afar, it stood for intellectual freedom and fairness. But once I began teaching here, I was shocked to see how academic jobs for adjunct and part-time faculty had been reduced to unstable gig work. We should not have to fight for livable wages, affordable healthcare, and institutional clarity. These are baseline expectations, not privileges.
Alongside my role at SVA, I teach interior design workshops in Istanbul, and different classes at Pratt Institute and RISD. I have first hand experience with different faculty working conditions both in the US and abroad. I spent over a decade as an interior designer in New York, where I navigated complexities and negotiations between clients, owners, contractors, and consultants. I believe these experiences—paired with my deep commitment to academic dignity—will be a valuable asset for our bargaining committee.
I know that effective bargaining requires collaboration, and the ability to listen beyond personal concerns. The strength of our recent union victory shows how powerful we are when we act together. I would be proud to serve my fellow faculty in our path for the dignity, stability, and respect we all deserve.
John Bezark, BFA Design:
[Statement TBA]
Justin Elm, BFA VCS, Art History, Honors:
As a member of the organizing committee for our recent SVAFAC-UAW union election victory, I’m eager to continue organizing by joining the bargaining committee for our first union contract. I see this as a critical opportunity to help shape a strong foundation that reflects the needs, values, and priorities of all SVA faculty. I’m committed to contributing to the development of a fair, transparent, and forward-thinking contract that addresses key issues such as compensation, job security, and unpaid labor.
Being part of this process is not only a responsibility I take seriously as a representative of our unit, but a chance to foster stronger communication and trust between faculty and the administration. I’m committed to listening to my colleagues, advocating effectively, and working collaboratively to reach an agreement that benefits everyone. This is about establishing lasting standards that promote dignity, fairness, and a voice for all of us moving forward.
Mike Falk, BFA Fine Arts:
I started working at the School of Visual Arts 13 years ago, and I have stayed for the supportive community that is built by the employees (and students) of our school. I believe that unions are a positive step in the direction of workplace rights and the betterment of an organization. I would love for SVA to continue to excel, but it seems like there are a handful of issues that need to be addressed to allow for that success.
I believe that the greatest progress we can make at SVA is to improve the lines of communication across the board. My hope is that the bargaining committee meetings are a solid step in that process. I would like to work for an ideal scenario where there is transparency and open communication between students, faculty, staff, and upper administration.
I hold positions as both a faculty member and a full-time staff member, so I have experienced the challenges myself from multiple angles. Consequently, I have also heard a variety of concerns from faculty members over the years, and I am prepared to listen to more so that we can accurately bargain for a contract that will afford resolutions.
Joan Hilty, BFA Comics:
I’m a comics professional with 30+ years experience in the industry. I’ve been a freelance illustrator, syndicated comic strip creator, longtime DC Comics editor, and founder of a boutique book production house. Currently, I’m a creative executive at Paramount Animation. This breadth of experience is what I bring to the professional practice curriculum I’ve been teaching at SVA since 2015.
Before joining SVA, I had the privilege of teaching at Maryland Institute College of Art and CUNY-John Jay. MICA faculty started an ultimately successful union campaign, and John Jay’s faculty is fully unionized. This really opened my eyes as to how faculty unions create a more secure, more fair work environment in a way that also paid huge dividends to campus culture and student well-being. It’s been an honor to serve on the SVA-FAC UAW organizing committee that won our right to form an SVA faculty union.
Since I have a comfortable fulltime creative job, you might expect me to shrug and say I have no stake in unionizing our faculty. But that kind of thinking, and SVA administration’s willingness to take advantage of it, is typical of what’s helped create our low-compensation, high-attrition working environment. I want to keep teaching after I retire from corporate life, and more importantly, I want to make teaching at SVA a viable option for the talented young professionals and graduates to come after me. As a bargaining committee member with deep creative and managerial experience in the narrative arts, this will be what drives me.
Lee-Sean Huang, MFA Interaction Design, MFA Design for Social Innovation:
This ain’t my first rodeo, and I'm itching to get back in the saddle. I'm running for our fledgling union's bargaining committee because I bring a proven track record at the negotiating table, especially when the going gets tough.
I've taught at SVA since 2012, primarily in Design for Social Innovation and also in Interaction Design. I served on The New School's part-time faculty bargaining committee in 2022, where we rode into a groundbreaking contract with serious wins on pay, job security, and working conditions. I spearheaded the charge for bi-weekly pay and paid pre-semester prep work – small changes that greatly impact our pocketbooks. I also kept communications open and the press and public informed during our historic strike.
Since then, I've traded my spurs for a spot on the UAW Local 7902 Executive Board, representing workers at The New School and NYU. This ongoing adventure deepens my understanding of effective union leadership. I’ve got the grit, hustle, and commitment needed to win with my colleagues.
I'd love your vote, but even more, I’m calling for your active engagement to wrangle our very first collective bargaining agreement from the administration. At The New School, we won big because members showed up to open bargaining, spoke up in caucuses, pushed for a better deal, spread the word on social media, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the picket line.
We are a posse. We have each other’s backs. That’s what solidarity looks like. Giddy-up, let’s ride!
Stephanie Stavropoulos, MFA Design for Social Innovation:
My name is Stephanie Stavropoulos, and I teach Games for Impact in the MFA Design for Social Innovation program. I am a game designer and educator with specialization in creating transformative play experiences for non-profit organizations and foundations. I primarily make narrative-focused card, live-action roleplay (LARP), and tabletop roleplay games. I design with emphasis on mindset and behavioral change, centering long term impact on players’ perspectives and decision making pathways.
I want to join the bargaining committee to offer my skills at charting alternative paths towards difficult-to-attain outcomes. As a game designer, I routinely work to identify and understand opponents’ strategies and devise ways to undermine them. I’m relentlessly hopeful and cautiously optimistic. I see obstinance from those in power as opportunity to strategize towards even more advantageous resolutions.
I am committed to leveraging my skills at user research and design to ensure every union member’s voice is listened to and represented in our proposals. I excel at both qualitative and quantitative data collection and synthesis (and really anything involving tracking with and extracting meaning from spreadsheets), and would be honored to transform our needs into strategic bargaining points. I will not rest until we’ve attained the best possible contract for all members of the bargaining unit.
I believe that democracy - and thus, collective bargaining - is not a spectator sport. It is our responsibility to be involved in this fight. Elected or not, I will continue working within the union to ensure the rights of SVA faculty and teaching artists.
Lily Padula, BFA Illustration:
My name is Lily Padula, I'm an adjunct professor and an alumna of the BFA illustration department here at SVA. I'm proud to be teaching in the department that helped set me up for success, and am running to be a part of the bargaining committee to help negotiate better conditions for teachers, workers, and students at SVA. As most of us who teach are also working artists, we know how precarious the field can be and how few protections and safeties are offered to us. Educating the next generation of artists and thinkers is a monumentally important job, yet when so many of us struggle to keep up with the cost of living in new york city, that job becomes difficult. As a member of the bargaining committee, I will work to secure pay increases commensurate with other leading NYC arts institutions, guaranteed pay for all of the work we do outside of the classroom, guaranteed affordable healthcare, and expanded tuition benefits so we can all benefit from the educational environment we help create.
Carson Parish, BFA Photography and Video:
I've had the privilege of teaching for seven years at SVA, and yet for the first five years I only knew a couple of faculty members in neighboring rooms. When I was approached about the possibility of a faculty union here at SVA, my engagement with my colleagues blossomed. I'd never realized that my feelings of isolation were so common, and that many of us felt like we'd been working in a siloed environment. The campaign for SVA FAC shattered all of those walls, and brought me into close contact with dozens of my colleagues, many of whom have become friends. I'm thrilled seeing what we can achieve together in solidarity, and am ready to fight for the best possible conditions for each of us. My father was a former president of a small Ohio teacher's union, and this has been the first opportunity in my career to carry on the legacy of his work. It would truly be a privilege to continue the fight for the values that he believed in, and to apply them to New York City today, when economic realities are closing in on all of us. Now is our moment, and I'm thrilled to help stand up for our core values: equitable wages and robust benefits for us all, full transparency within the institution, and academic freedom in the looming face of authoritarianism.
Merlin Ural Rivera, Humanities & Sciences:
I've been teaching writing and literature in the Humanities & Sciences department for ten years, and I've been involved with the organizing campaign since its inception (a rare New Year's resolution that I managed to keep). I still remember the first cold calls I made, and the discreet emails I sent to colleagues, who were complete strangers to me back then, many of whom I call friends today. I have talked to exhausted instructors who teach seven classes in three different schools in one semester in order to earn an appropriate living, and others whose lives were disrupted after losing classes with very short notice. We were all captives to the magic of teaching but agreed that what we do in the classroom deserves more respect.
I have always believed in collective bargaining as the only way to access rooms where decisions that shape our lives are made. Especially now, when the political and economic terrain is so treacherous and academic freedom is under constant attack, we need to create a powerful platform to protect our rights and distribute resources in a more equitable fashion. Currently our benefits at SVA can be—and are!—revoked on a whim and our wages remain behind other schools. It's time to harness our power and remind our school that we are the intellectual workforce that carries this institution on our backs. I want to continue the fight for a fair contract that will bring transparency and security to our profession and will allow SVA instructors to shape the next generation of artists without sacrificing their own creative practices.
Edwin Rivera-Arias, Humanities & Sciences:
I'm coming up on my thirteenth year with the Humanities & Sciences Department at SVA, and I aim to teach for thirteen more. My whole life has been a laborious process of turning weak cards into a good hand, and I attribute that to my general relentlessness. I've been blessed with livewire energy (caffeine helps), and have learned how to convert fear to my advantage—somewhat like a boxer. And, like a seasoned fighter, I possess a straight-ahead stand-to never-pale attitude when confronted with opposition. I don't throw in the towel, even when surrender might seem the logical choice.
I've been sunk, from skull to toes, into the battle for union from the very first minute, and I want to continue the challenging work of winning the best contract for all of us. In a time of great adversity, when we are feeling the pressures of a dictatorship that is just beginning to recognize the full breadth of its terrifying powers, this is more than ever a social justice issue for me. I feel that profoundly not just as a Latino in a country that has grown increasingly more hostile and dangerous to the people of my culture, but also as a writer, a teacher, a hedgehog laborer endowed with a catholic curiosity, and finally as a citizen, who cares deeply for the country of his birth, and who knows that striving for the best we can mar what is worst about our United States.
Hans Tammen, MFA Computer Arts:
I first became part of a union at the age of 18 because it is good to speak with a unified voice. I witnessed the benefits of being a union member firsthand at my college in Germany, where I was one of our student representatives. With lots of things on the table it would not have made sense to talk about each of these issues only on an individual basis. Being able to bargain collectively gives all of us more power to secure meaningful protections and improvements together.
Voting Instructions
Vote Method:
ElectionBuddy is an electronic platform that guarantees the secrecy of ballots and ensures that no one can vote more than once.
ElectionBuddy will send you an email with a unique link to your online ballot once voting has opened on July 7, 2025. If you cannot locate the email from ElectionBuddy with the ballot, including in your spam, junk, and promotions folders, email us at svafacultyunited.uaw@gmail.com.
How to Vote:
You should receive an email and text reminder from ElectionBuddy with your ballot at 9AM ET on Monday, July 7, 2025 or soon after you sign an authorization card if the vote has already begun. Please check your spam, junk, and promotions folders, and if you cannot locate your ballot, email us at svafacultyunited.uaw@gmail.com.
Voters shall be entitled to vote for no more than nine [9] candidates, the total number of Bargaining Committee positions. The nine [9] candidates who receive the most votes will be elected.
Voter Eligibility:
Eligible voters are eligible SVA faculty who have filled out a SVA/FAC-UAW authorization card.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to svafacultyunited.uaw@gmail.com with any questions or thoughts.