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The bulk of the records in this series were created during the presidency of Samuel Wakshull (May 1975-May 1981) and were either originally or during a previous processing effort divided into two subseries, Subject Files and Administrative Files. For the most part there is no overlap in the subjects covered by the records in these two subseries. While misfiles were frequently discovered and corrected during processing; no systematic effort was made to locate and correct all misfiles. Additional subject files covering some of the years of the Wakshull's administration are located in Series 2 and 3 of Subgroup II, UUP Predecessors and Early UUP Years, and Series 6 of Subgroup IV Office of the Secretary.

Primarily subject files containing incoming and outgoing correspondence, third-party reports, SUNY correspondence and SUNY-produced materials, materials distributed by various higher education organizations, copies of legislation, SUNY budgets, and other materials relating to each topic. The primary correspondent is UUP President Nuala Drescher, and for the files that date back to the prior administration, UUP President Samuel Wakshull and his Director of Staff Evelyn Hartman. Correspondence recipients include chapter leadership; Executive Board members; individual UUP members; the governor of New York State and state legislators; and staff members of NYSUT, particularly its higher education lobbyist, legal counsel, and president, informing them about UUP's position on an issue or seeking NYSUT input regarding a matter.

Correspondence, reports, meeting agendas and minutes, and other distributed materials regarding various UUP committees that the president was a member of, or kept informed of the activities of; correspondence, reports, and materials distributed regarding projects (one-time and continuing) that UUP was involved in (such as the committees of UUP's AFT and NYSUT affiliates that UUP was represented on, conferences that UUP's president attended, and testimony given by UUP's president before various State Senate and Assembly committees); and correspondence, reports, and reference materials on topics in which UUP had a continuing interest (such as the proportion of the annual New York State budget allocated to SUNY, retirement benefits for SUNY employees, proposed legislation affecting SUNY and UUP's lobbying efforts, and the Public Employees Benefit Fund which provided benefits to members of UUP, NYSUT, and PEF [the Public Employees Federation]). There are numerous handwritten notes made by the president on various documents included in this series. Some of those notations, along with notes of his secretary, are purely administrative, i.e., confirming his attendance at a conference or meeting. However, some are more substantive, such as his notes from a particular meeting, his questions or thoughts noted on a report, his handwritten inquires to others involved in a project asking for elaboration on a particular issue or point, notes on meeting agendas regarding the actions taken, and draft correspondence.

The 1982-1985 contract between the state and UUP provided for a study of the promotional opportunities for professional employees of the State University of New York. After the commissioned study was issued by consulting firm Arthur Young in May 1986, steps were taken to implement its recommendations. A Management Advisory Committee on Classification and Compensation (MACCC) was established by the State University and given the responsibility of adopting a structure of professional titles that would provide promotional opportunities for professional employees. UUP participated in a joint labor/management committee of the same name formed to provide input to the larger SUNY MACCC (which was made up of just SUNY representatives). The joint labor/management MACCC acted in an advisory capacity only.

Between December 1987 and May 1996, UUP employed a Safety and Health Specialist who reported to the Vice President for Professionals. The activities of the Safety and Health Specialist included conducting campus visits, reporting potential safety and health problems, and making recommendations on addressing them to UUP chapter leadership; responding to requests from chapter leadership to address specific safety and health concerns on individual campuses; conducting training for campus representatives on safety and health issues; attending health and safety committee meetings on behalf of UUP; attending professional seminars and conferences; and reviewing and interpreting reports dealing with safety and health matters received by UUP and its chapters.

Correspondence arranging meetings of the Executive Board and sending out materials to be considered by the Board such as agendas; proposed resolutions (both for UUP Delegate Assemblies and for NYSUT Representative Assemblies); officer reports and testimony; third- party reports on higher education, the budgets for New York State and SUNY, and other topics of concern. Minutes of past Executive Board meetings were also routinely distributed. This series also contains correspondence enacting decisions by the Board and correspondence acknowledging receipt of materials for consideration by the Board. Some of the correspondence is actually addressed to chapter presidents and/or other leadership groups, but the Executive Board was copied (although in some instances this is not clearly indicated).

Programs for Delegate Assemblies ("DAs") (containing schedules, lists of delegates and committees, membership reports, and agendas); minutes for current DA and immediately preceding DA; reports of officers and standing committee chairpersons, including a treasurer's report usually presented at the Spring DA with budget proposals and financial statements; reports on the implementation of pending business approved by past DAs; correspondence to delegates prior to DAs regarding schedule, agenda, and UUP-wide membership report (used to determine the number of delegates for each chapter); other correspondence relating to DAs including setting up committee meetings and meeting space for political caucuses; resolutions proposed by chapters and committees for consideration at DA; and news articles, third party reports and correspondence, UUP-created reports, and other materials distributed to delegates regarding issues under consideration. Attendance and rooming forms on which chapters reported the names of their delegates and their elected term are also included for some of the DAs prior to 1986.

The records in this series document, to varying degrees, the activities of UUP's standing committees, ad hoc committees, joint labor-management committees, task forces, and working groups. Included for most committees are the administrative correspondence created at UUP's administrative office setting up meetings, obtaining approval from the Governor's Office of Employee Relations for organizational leave time for meeting attendees, and confirming committee appointments. Lists of committee members are also frequently included.

Outgoing correspondence from members of UUP's Administrative Office, including the President, Executive Director (later Director of Staff), Secretary, communications associates, field representatives, benefits specialists, and office manager. Recipients include individual members of UUP, chapter officers, NYSUT representatives, SUNY administrators on individual campuses and statewide, representatives of the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, legislators, editors of New York newspapers, and representatives of various unions and other organizations that UUP had contact with in conducting its business. Incoming correspondence are occasionally attached, more so during the Drescher administration (1981-1987) than during the Wakshull administration (1975-1981), but enclosures referred to in outgoing letters are rarely included. Topics include appointments to committees; questions regarding the reasons for members' resignations; communications regarding chapter-specific issues; inquiries about benefits provided to members, which during the 1970s was primarily life insurance; later correspondence from benefits specialists covering a wider variety of benefit issues; and grievances. For the most part grievance-related correspondence are administrative (i.e., to set up hearings with the State and the grievant, to inform the grievants of the status of their grievance including decisions by UUP not to appeal a grievance, and to inform the State that a grievance decision will or will not be appealed).