Advocate Online
On the Road
with Valerie Wilk
Springtime in
New York means attending the annual conference of the National
Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and
the Professions at Hunter College, a unique national forum for dialogue
among higher ed union leaders, college and university administrators,
and academics who study higher education labor relations.
Among NEA higher ed leaders participating
this year were National Council for Higher Education President Kathy Sproles
(CA) and NCHE Vice President Stan Jackson (MA), Education Minnesota President
Larry Oveson, California Community College Association President Cathy
Crane-McCoy, and Emerging Leader Academy graduate Mohamed Zefzaf (MTA).
NEA and CTA board member VirginiaAnn Shadwick
moderated the opening session on the political invisibility of public
higher education. Political consultants Hank Sheinkopf and Norman Adler,
University of Alaska Vice President Jim Johnsen, and NEA’s Rachel
Hendrickson talked about how the need for the higher ed enterprise to
be visible to elected decision makers has become particularly urgent in
the face of declining state support, more college-bound students, and
less recognition of higher education as a public good.
Joanne Kinzy, a New Jersey Education Association
member and recent NEA Emerging Leader Academy graduate, spoke on her experiences
at the Academy during a session on “Filling the Leadership Gap.”
Also on hand were graduate student organizers
from around the nation. These young leaders are fighting stiff opposition
and intimidation on their campuses, and honing their skills to help lead
our next generation of faculty unionists. For more on the Center, go to
www.hunter.cuny.edu/ncscbhep/.
— Valerie Wilk coordinates NEA
higher ed activities.
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