Earlier this spring, at a gathering of NEA higher education activists from around the country, higher ed faculty and staff expressed a wide variety of concerns about the escalating attacks on our rights. The discussion covered everything from the ongoing campaigns against tenure rights to the continuing abuse of part-time faculty.

Problems like these are national in scope. But our ability to respond to these attacks, as higher education faculty and staff, is limited---because we are split into two different organizations. NEA's unification with the AFT would end this wasteful division and create an entirely new organization that would double our size and bolster our clout.

This July, delegates to the annual NEA Representative Assembly will vote on Principles of Unity that evolved from long years of deliberations between NEA and AFT negotiators. I served on the 10-person NEA negotiating team, and I'm proud of the work our team accomplished.

The Principles of Unity are even more inclusive and democratic than the current governance documents of either NEA or the AFT. These Principles expand representation rights and help make sure that the voice of every NEA member is heard on decision-making bodies.

But don't take my word for it. Check out the Principles yourself at the NEA unity Web site. Learn more about what the Principles actually say and what, united, we can achieve.

The Board of Directors of the Michigan Association of Higher Education has voted unanimously to oppose the proposed merger between the NEA and the AFT.

We did so because we believe the distribution of power within the new organization will be inequitable. Neap's top leaders will share power equally with AFT leaders, even though more than two-thirds of the new organization's members will come from NEA.

While constituency groups, such as higher education faculty and staff, are guaranteed representation on the new organization's leadership council, we will lose the right to select our own national leaders because the higher education constituency advisory board will be appointed by the new organization's executive board. There's no guarantee higher education would be represented on this proposed new board.

In addition, the new organizational structure guarantees representation to large locals but provides precious little direct representation to smaller locals. Weighted voting would permit a small number of national leaders, representing the interests of large locals and states, to determine the fate of all of our members. We may also be sacrificing such cherished NEA traditions as the secret ballot and term limits for our officers.

While a United Organization may promise benefits and greater power, we can reach these goals as separate organizations that strive to work closely together on the national level.

* Ernest Therrien is a professor of management at Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts.

*Dan Yakes, president of the Michigan Association of Higher Education, teaches at Muskegon Community College.