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On the Roadwith Christine Maitland * Statewide NEA higher ed affiliate presidents from across the nation met for three days in August in San Francisco to discuss common concerns and come up with some common solutions. What were the issues on the minds of these campus leaders? First and foremost, they want to do more to involve their members. They also wanted to talk about recruiting new members and leaders. The current membership is aging and there is a need to recruit a new generation of members and leaders. To do this, it became clear, faculty unions must work harder to remain relevant to the working lives of the recently-hired faculty and staff. Unions in the future, noted Drexel University futurist Art Shostak, will help members obtain and learn to use new technology. Shostak also pointed out that faculty unions can involve larger numbers of members in the daily activity of the union through electronic meetings, E-mail, and Web sites. He urged the Association presidents to take the lead in forming the cyberunion of the future. Workshops also stressed that unions can become more effective-win contract battles, develop better relationships with campus administrators, involve new hires-when they foster a systematic program of one-on-one discussions between colleagues. *Christine Maitland coordinates NEA higher ed activities. |
