The New York State Public Higher Education Conference Board is expected to name NYSUT president emeritus Thomas Hobart as board co-chair at its next scheduled meeting. No date was set as The Voice went to press.

Hobart will replace Carl McCall, who in October was appointed to the SUNY Board of Trustees. Hobart will serve with Co-chair Roscoe Brown, director of CUNY’s Center for Urban Education Policy.

“Tom Hobart will be a tremendous asset to the conference board,” said UUP Acting President Frederick Floss. “He brings to the table years of education leadership and experience, as well as a keen understanding of the legislative and political process.”

A lifelong advocate of public education, Hobart has championed for state and federal education initiatives. Most recently, he was a commissioner of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind that analyzed and defined the strengths and weaknesses of the controversial federal law.

Throughout his three decades as NYSUT president, Hobart partnered with UUP leaders in their successful campaigns to improve quality and access; fight threats to tenure and academic freedom; and block attempts to privatize SUNY’s teaching hospitals.

Hobart co-founded and co-chaired the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition. He has served as a delegate to the World Conference of Organizations of the Teaching Profession; the International Federation of Free Teacher Unions; and the founding convention of Education International.

In 2003, he became founding chair of the American Labor Study Center and is currently an honorary trustee of the UUP College Scholarship Fund.

UUP is one of 14 conference board member organizations, representing students, faculty and supporters of public higher education.

— Karen L. Mattison