Actionline NEA
Supporting NEA Local Affiliates

NEA's higher education competitive membership grants aim at developing better ways for locals to serve Association members.

A dozen NEA higher education local affiliates have been awarded competitive membership grants of up to $10,000 to aid in their efforts to maintain and increase Association membership.

In the light of changing demographics and working and learning conditions on college and university campuses, NEA is investing in local affiliate programs that can help increase Association visibility, enhance professional development, and encourage new methods of membership recruitment.

Local affiliates can apply through NEA's regional offices for next year's grants. To find out more, E-mail: HigherEd@NEA.org.

As the Advocate goes to press, a delegation of NEA higher education leaders and staff is making its way to an international conference on the globalization of higher education.

The Education International, the NEA-backed global confederation of educator unions, is sponsoring this "Higher Education Stakes and Challenges" conference. The conference sessions will be grappling with the tough issues that confront higher education worldwide: a mushrooming demand for a more educated workforce, an increasing corporate role in higher education, and the impact of cyber-learning on the quality of education.

Delegates to the conference, hailing from unions representing more than 24 million members, will also discuss how to ensure academic freedom and protect the intellectual property rights of higher ed faculty and staff.

You can still register for the 2001 NEA Higher Education Conference, March 2-4 in San Diego. The conference, "The Higher Education Enterprise: Partners, Profits, and Politics," will explore the business of higher education-and highlight trends that hold promise and danger.

Visit the conference Web site at www.nea.org/he or E-mail HigherEd@nea.org for registration information and materials.

Higher education will experience uneven growth in enrollment over the next decade, with some states experiencing high growth rates and others having excess college spaces, according to Enrollment Projections, the most recent NEA Higher Education Research Center Update.

Enrollment growth is expected to run 1.4 percent annually, bringing total student enrollment to 17.5 million by 2010. The Update projects a need for 11,600 new faculty.

For a copy of Enrollment Projections, visit, www.nea.org/he or E-mail HigherEd@nea.org.