Advocate Online

Reg Weaver is New NEA President

2002 Representative Assembly elects new Association leaders, passes two-year budget, and sets the Association’s course for the future.

Nearly 9,000 NEA Representative Assembly delegates from the ranks of K-12 teachers, higher education faculty and staff, education support professionals, retired educators, and students met in Dallas this summer and elected Reg Weaver, an Illinois middle school science teacher, as NEA’s new president. Weaver has served as NEA vice president for the past six years. Outgoing NEA President Bob Chase stepped down after serving two consecutive three-year terms.

Delegates also chose Arizona high school teacher and NEA secretary-treasurer for the past five years, Dennis Van Roekel, as the Association’s new vice-president and elected Utah elementary teacher Lily Eskelsen to a one-year term as secretary-treasurer.

The Representative Assembly added two higher education members to the NEA Board of Directors: Mike Ryan, president of the Ferris Faculty Association in Michigan, and Tom Green of Broward Community College and the United Faculty of Florida, a joint NEA-AFT affiliate.

Aside from electing the NEA leadership, the Assembly approved NEA’s $540 million two-year budget, and set the Association’s course for the next year in a number of important policy areas. For more on the 2002 NEA Representative Assembly, visit www.nea.org/ra.

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has cleared the National Education Association and closed the file on a frivolous complaint filed by the right-wing Landmark Legal Foundation.

In a letter sent to NEA, the FEC said it would “take no action against NEA.” The complaint incorrectly alleged that NEA used dues dollars to make contributions to candidates for public office.

Coming soon: The NEA Advocate Status of the Profession issue. Watch your mailbox for NEA’s newest service to our higher ed members: a statistical look at the status of the higher education professions.

This issue will report on a number of issues, including the expansion of part-time employment, growth in the ranks of non-teaching professionals, and tenure, as well as provide a listing of faculty salaries at the nation’s public two- and four-year colleges and universities.

Do you know an Education Hero, someone who has helped improve life for people on your campus, or in your community? If so, nominate that person for an NEA Human and Civil Rights Award. Download and print out nomination forms from www.nea.org/ra/03hcrawards. HCR award winners will be honored at NEA’s 37th Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 2, 2003.