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NEA's Higher Ed CD-ROMIn February, NEA unveiled the Association's first higher education CD-ROM, a multi-media tool to help all higher education stakeholders prepare for higher education's exciting but uncertain future. As the introduction to the CD puts it: "The best way to predict the future is to create it!" Using video clips, futuristic scenarios, charts, graphs, cartoons, and volumes of data, the CD tackles many of the toughest questions about higher ed's future: How might technology change higher ed? What might postsecondary institutions of the future look like? What will happen to tenure? Who will preserve quality? "This CD virtually explodes with information and penetrating discussions about higher education in the 21st Century," says NEA President Bob Chase. "It's an invaluable tool for our members. The future is up to us." NEA members can order a free copy of the CD by sending an E-mail request, with name and address, to HigherEd@nea.org or by writing: NEA Office of Higher Education, 1201 16th St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether public university faculty subjected to age discrimination can bring suit under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Last year, one U.S. Court of Appeals held that state agencies, including public colleges and universities, cannot be sued in federal court for violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act because the Eleventh Amendment gives state agencies immunity from such suits. Kimel v. State of Florida Board of Regents, the case that challenges this Court of Appeals ruling, is being funded by NEA and the Florida Teaching Profession-NEA, the NEA state affiliate, on behalf of approximately 35 faculty members at two Florida state universities. "We are pleased that the Supreme Court has granted our request for review," notes NEA General Counsel Robert H. Chanin. "Higher education faculty should be able to look to the federal courts for protection against invidious age discrimination." A poll of NEA members following the 1998 elections finds that 42 percent describe themselves as Democrats, 26 percent Republicans, and 32 percent independents. The poll, conducted for NEA by Feldman and Associates, finds NEA members perceive the Association as increasingly nonpartisan politically. Association members who describe themselves as political independents find the balance between NEA's support for Democrats and Republicans to be "about right." |
