UUP has been ahead of its time in striving to balance the needs of its part-time members with the need to increase its ranks of full-time and tenure-track faculty.
That was the consensus among UUP members who attended the AFT Higher Education national conference in Portland, Oregon, March 29-April 1. The conference theme was “Solidarity in Action: How AFT Can Shape the Future of Higher Education,” and both the workshops and the talks by national higher education activists resounded with the need to protect the academy from an onslaught of attacks by conservative ideologues.
“The ideologues think teaching is a version of preaching – and they want us to preach their ideology,” said UUP President William Scheuerman, who also serves as chair of the AFT Higher Education Program and Policy Council. His remarks came as he led a forum of PPC members who fielded questions from the nearly 400 higher education unionists attending the conference. Scheuerman also later delivered the remarks at the opening plenary.
During the opening plenary, Scheuerman summarized the scope of the conference – and the goals of AFT’s new Faculty and College Excellence (FACE) campaign – by telling enthusiastic listeners “Our aim is nothing less than to achieve full equity in pay and benefits for non-tenured and part-time faculty, while strengthening the ranks of our full-time and tenured faculty.”
UUP members attending the conference said the program highlighted UUP’s role as national leader in meeting the aims outlined by Scheuerman.
“UUP stands out in several areas, including the gains we’ve achieved for our members who work part time,” said UUP Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss. “And with our activism in defending academic freedom, we’ve been able to establish ourselves as a national presence among higher ed unions. The name ‘UUP’ is known not just to our AFT sisters and brothers, but to other organizations and unions around the country.”
UUP’s name became even better known during the conference, as Scheuerman and a handful of other AFT leaders participated in an early morning “radio tour,” conducting phone interviews with radio stations around the country, to explain the FACE campaign. Scheuerman and his AFT colleagues reported that the interviews were a great way to get out the message that public universities and colleges need public support in confronting budget cutbacks and attacks by conservative factions.
UUPers who led workshops included: UUP Vice President for Professionals John Marino, who moderated a discussion on outsourcing and job security for professional staff; Ora James Bouey, Stony Brook HSC, who moderated a talk on access to college for first-generation, low-income students; and Patricia Bentley of SUNY Plattsburgh, who led “Overcoming Gender and Family Bias on Campus.”
Scheuerman introduced the keynote speaker, Ted Kirsch, president of AFT Pennsylvania, who delivered an impassioned message on the need to attract and keep new members.
“Our members must understand the importance of politics,” Kirsch said. “We have to be involved. And it’s not going to happen unless you ask. Get our members involved in our issues, and we will be successful.”
Labor attorney Donna Euben gave the talk during the conference luncheon. Euben, who is counsel to the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, touched on the recurring theme of the conference as she review-ed the attacks against higher education from conservative movements inside and outside of government.
Workshops in the conference focused on strengthening the position of the union on campus and fending off budget cutbacks, attrition, outsourcing and threats to pensions. Among the topics: an analysis of the Spellings Commission on Higher Education; developing activism among contingent faculty; and building coalitions to protect the free exchange of ideas on campus.
The closing plenary also reflected that long-range view, with a discussion and forum about AFT’s draft statement on academic freedom. The discussion was timely, as participants in a workshop on federal higher education legislation had earlier learned that the Academic Bill of Rights — a thinly-veiled attempt to limit academic freedom through mandatory “balance” in classroom lectures — remains a threat at the federal level, at least in the Senate.
— Darryl McGrath