In this month's newsletter, we introduce a new member to our Board of Advisors, Hunter College General Counsel Suzanne Pipper, as well as four new members of the National Center's research team. It also announces a March 2, 2022 National Center webinar titled Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-in.

The newsletter reports on the following recent arbitration, administrative agency, and court decisions: 1) an arbitration opinion and award sustaining a grievance challenging medical and dental plan changes implemented by the New School; 2) a California PERB procedural decision concerning an employer's objection to the release of an unredacted e-mail allegedly containing internal bargaining strategy; 3) a New Jersey PERC Hearing Officer's decision recommending dismissal of an unfair labor practice charge challenging the reassignment of faculty instructional duties to non-tenure track lecturers who are not in the faculty bargaining unit; and 4) an Iowa court ruling upholding an Iowa PERB decision denying a petition to include law research assistants in a graduate assistant bargaining unit. It also reports on a recently filed unfair labor practice complaint by a graduate assistant union at the University of Oregon objecting to a new recording requirement for classroom instruction, and provides an update concerning the representation case at Bates College.

Lastly, the newsletter includes a link to the recording of the December 15, 2021 panel discussion at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College concerning historian Ellen Schrecker's new book The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, along with links to recordings from our 2021 annual conference and to articles from the current volume of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy.

The National Center's 49th annual labor-management conference will be taking place on April 11-13, 2022.

Due to uncertainties concerning health and safety, the 2022 annual conference will be virtual-only, rather than the original hybrid format.

The theme of the 2022 conference will be The State of Collective Bargaining and Higher Education. Links for online access to the conference will be sent out closer to the event date.

Click here to register

Below is a list confirmed conference panels and panelists:

Panel: The Future of Higher Education with Arthur Levine, The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future, Ann Kirschner, University Professor, City University of New York, Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director, Pullias Center, and Director, Delphi Project, Discussant, and Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Moderator.

Panel: Reassessing and Reexamining the History of Higher Education with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt, Cristina Viviana Groeger, The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston, Davarian Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities, and Ellen Schrecker, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, and Suzanne Kahn, Managing Director of Research and Policy, Roosevelt Institute, Moderator.

Panel: Contract Negotiations under COVID and Beyond with Margaret E. Winters, former Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wayne State University, Ricardo Villarosa, Wayne State University AAUP-AFT, Dominick Fanelli, Associate Director Labor Relations, University of Michigan, Kirsten Herold, President, Lecturers' Employee Organization, AFT Local 6244, and Homer C. La Rue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Moderator.

Panel: COVID and Higher Education: The Role of Unions and Arbitration Regarding Vaccine Mandates with Richard Bales, Professor of Law, Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University, and Sara Slinn, Associate Dean (Research and Institutional Relations) and Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Moderator. (panel in formation)

Panel: Pandemic Organizing and Bargaining Lessons in Higher Education with Larry Savage, Chair, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University and Lauren Byers, United Faculty of Florida, Unit Service Director, Organizing Specialist, Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, York University, Moderator (panel in formation).

Panel: Lessons Learned: Organizing and Collective Bargaining by Graduate Assistants During the Pandemic with Jacob A. Bennett, MFA, PhD, University of New Hampshire, Ben Serber, Higher Ed Organizer, North Dakota United and Past President, FSU Graduate Assistants United, Amy L. Levant, Assistant Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator.

Panel: Limiting the Use of Student Evaluations in Contracts: Challenges in Vision and Enforcement with Steven Newman, Temple Association of University Professionals President, Temple University, Ian Sakinofsky, Professor of HR Management, Ryerson University, Laura Murphy, Dutchess United Educators, Alexandra Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan, and Timothy S. Taylor, Arbitrator, Scheinman Arbitration and Mediation Services, Moderator.

Panel: Federal Funding, Inequality, and Higher Education: Politics and Policy-Making with Adam Harris, staff writer at the Atlantic, National Fellow at New America, and author, The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right, Rebecca S. Natow, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, Hofstra University and author of the forthcoming Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector, and Sosanya Jones, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Howard University, Moderator.

Panel: Becoming JEDI: Labor-Management Strategy to Challenge Racism on Campus and Stem Community College Enrollment Decline with Courtney Brewer, Professor of Psychology, Executive Vice President, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Christina Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, Suffolk County Community College, board member, ERASE Racism NY, Patty Munsch, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Suffolk County Community College, Jennifer Browne, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Suffolk County Community College, Lauren Liburd, Specialist, SCCC Foundation, Co-Chair Achieving the Dream Committee, and Cynthia Eaton, Professor of English, Secretary, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Moderator.

Panel: Collective Bargaining and Shared Governance: Findings from the 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey with Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, American Association of University Professors, and Michael Loconto, Arbitrator and Mediator, Loconto ADR, Boston, MA, Moderator.

Panel: Achieving Pay Parity for Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges with

Panel: An Update from NLRB and Public Sector Labor Relations Agencies on Higher Education Issues with Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, J. Felix De La Torre, General Counsel, California Public Employment Relations Board, Ellen Maureen Strizak, General Counsel, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board (invited).

Panel: Faculty Unionization and Collective Bargaining in the Philippines: Similarities and Differences with Benjamin Velasco, Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Rene Luis Tadle, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas and Lead Convenor, Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines, Gerardo L. Blanco Associate Professor, Higher Education, Academic Director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Secretary/Treasurer, International Commission for Labor Rights. 

Panel: Higher Education Legal Update with Henry Morris, Jr., Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Monica Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, Angela Thompson, CWA Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives, and Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator.

For over six months, the National Center has been distributing an electronic national survey to collect current information about all collective bargaining units and contracts in higher education involving faculty, administrators, postdoctoral scholars, and student workers.

The data will be used for a new open-source directory of collective bargaining relationships and contracts. We reemphasize the importance of institutions and unions submitting timely responses to ensure that our database is current and comprehensive. Without the data, we will not be able to produce a new directory.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete by a person with knowledge about the bargaining unit. Any identifying individual information will be kept confidential and will be used only to follow up if clarification of responses is necessary.

The National Center's research team will be telephoning and emailing leaders and staff of unions and institutions over the following months to encourage timely survey responses. To avoid such communications, we urge you to respond to the electronic survey today.

The National Center Welcomes Suzanne Piper to its Board of Advisors

The National Center welcomes Hunter College General Counsel Suzanne Piper to its Board of Advisors, replacing Carol Robles-Roman.

Ms. Piper is an experienced legal and operations manager and has led several executive leadership teams. In her role as Hunter College General Counsel, she brings her expertise as a seasoned litigator as well as in management, strategic planning, project management, leadership and professional development. She is a graduate of Yale University, Yale Graduate School, and Columbia Law School.

Ms. Piper has worked in government, not-for-profit organizations, and the private sector. She has significant legal experience in a wide range of subject areas including contracts, employment law, labor relations, internal investigations, complex commercial litigation, real estate, and administrative law. Suzanne started her legal career at the New York City Corporation Counsel, later served as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and as a Director at Merrill Lynch. In 2008 she became the Executive Director at the NYC Environmental Control Board. She was later appointed as the Commissioner and Chief Judge of Office of the Administrative Trials and Hearings by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg where she worked with all city agencies and oversaw the management and reform of the city’s administrative judges and justice system.

The National Center is pleased to introduce four new members of our research team. Each will be conducting research and outreach this semester in support of the National Center's academic collective bargaining survey, as well as assisting with other projects.

On March 2, 2022, the National Center will be hosting a webinar titled Race, History, and Academic Freedom, A Teach-in. The goal of the webinar is to educate those working and studying on campuses throughout the country about the current attacks on the teaching and learning about race in American history. Registration information for the webinar will be distributed in the next few weeks.

The confirmed panelists are:

Nancy Cantor is Chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark and is recognized nationally and internationally for her leadership in emphasizing the role of universities as anchor institutions in their communities, especially by forging diverse, cross-sector collaboratives and leveraging publicly engaged scholarship to advance racial equity and equitable growth.

Emily M.S. Houh is the Gustavus Henry Wald Professor of the Law and Contracts and Co-director of the Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Risa L. Lieberwitz is a Professor of Labor and Employment Law at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). She is also General Counsel of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a member of the National Center's Board of Advisors.

Paul Ortiz is a professor of history and president of the United Faculty of Florida Chapter at the University of Florida. He teaches undergraduate courses and supervises graduate fields in African American history, Latina/o & Latinx history, and comparative ethnic studies.

Calvin Smiley is a Professor of Sociology at Hunter College. His work focuses on issues related to race, inequality, and social justice. As a critical sociologist and criminologist, he has studied mass incarceration and prisoner reentry, particularly for urban inhabitants.

The webinar moderator will be Lázaro Lima, a professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College.

The New School, AAA Case No. 01-21-0004-2969

On January 20, 2022, Arbitrator Robert T. Simmelkjaer issued an opinion and award sustaining a November 11, 2020 grievance filed by ACT-UAW, Local 7902 challenging the New School's implementation of new medical and dental plans, effective January 1, 2021.

Under the parties' collective bargaining agreement, "(e)ligible faculty shall be offered the opportunity to participate in the United Healthcare and Delta Dental DHMO or DPPO plans as of January 1, 2016 or the comparable benefits plans thereafter." (emphasis added)

On January 1, 2021, the New School implemented a 2021 Aetna Medical Plan and a 2021 Dental DHMO. In its grievance, ACT-UAW alleged that the New School violated the contract because the new medical and dental plans were not "comparable benefit plans."

The two primary issues determined by Arbitrator Simmelkjaer was what is the meaning of a "comparable benefit plan" under the contract and whether the new plans implemented by the New School met that definition.

On the definitional question, the arbitrator interpreted the contact to require a new plan to "be similar or comparable to the plan it replaced not just in the name or level of the plan but, more significantly, in its substantive content and benefits." To determine comparability, the arbitrator applied a cost-benefit analysis as to "whether the net result of the employees’ experiences under the new plan are similar to their experiences under the old plan acknowledging at the same time that cost increases in one component or feature of the new plan can be offset by cost reductions or increased benefits in other components of coverage."

The arbitrator found that although the New School has discretion to redesign its health and dental plans, and it has made unilateral changes before without ACT-UAW objections, the 2021 plans were not comparable because "the cost impact and the scope of the changes implemented...effective January 1, 2021, particularly the addition of co-insurance has far exceeded the parties’ expressed intent that costs and benefits provided be comparable to that of the pre-existing plans." The arbitrator cited the new co-insurance requirement under the 2021 health plan for "services such as diagnostic testing, durable equipment, X-ray, MRI, CAT-scans, sonograms, et al" as evidence that the new plan was not a "comparable benefit plan." He found that the co-insurance alone resulted in "thousands of dollars in extra medical expenses" for bargaining unit members.

Pasadena Area Community College District CPERB Case No. LA-CE-6601-E

On January 27, 2022, the California Public Employment Relations Board (CPERB) issued a decision granting an interlocutory appeal filed by the Pasadena Area Community College District. Although the decision is unavailable at this time, CPERB described the decision as overturning an order by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) compelling the college to produce an unredacted version of an e-mail to the Pasadena City College Faculty Association, which the college claims is not subject to disclosure because it includes internal bargaining strategy.

On appeal, CPERB reversed and directed the ALJ on remand to review the relevant records in camera, and then apply the balancing test applicable when a party asserts a qualified negotiations privilege against disclosure.

Board of Trustees of Ocean County College, NJ PERC Docket No. CO-2011-137

On January 14, 2022, a New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission (NJPERC) Hearing Officer issued a report and recommendation to dismiss an unfair labor practice charge against Ocean County College filed by the Faculty Association of Ocean County College.

The unfair labor practice charge alleged that the college engaged in the following unilateral actions: imposed a tenure cap, created a non-tenure track lecturer position, and transferred instructional work from tenured and tenure track faculty in the bargaining unit to the lecturers. Subsequently, the union withdrew the allegation concerning the tenure cap.

The evidence at the administrative hearing established that in September 2010, the college created a new 12-month non-tenure track lecturer position. At that time, the college employed 112 faculty members, 83 of whom were tenured. It is undisputed that the non-tenure track lecturers performed identical instructional duties of faculty bargaining unit members. By 2017, the college employed only 49 faculty members, and 54 non-tenure track lecturers.

In recommending the dismissal of the unfair labor practice charge, the NJPERC Hearing Officer found that the college did not have to negotiate the transfer of faculty bargaining unit work to the lecturers because the college's interest "in realigning educational goals and having administrative tasks adequately performed to meet its articulated needs outweighed the full-time faculty unit's interest in negotiating to control instructional work." The Hearing Officer concluded that the college's reassignment of the instructional duties was not primarily motivated by labor costs but rather was integral to the college's plan to have lecturers perform various administrative tasks not performed by the faculty.

The Hearing Officer also found that the subject was not mandatory because faculty bargaining unit members had not exclusively performed instruction in the past. In the past, adjuncts and administrators have taught courses at the college. Lastly, the Hearing Officer adopted the college's argument that the transfer of bargaining unit work was not mandatory because it was part of the institution's realignment of educational goals.

The report and recommendation is not a final NJPERC determination, and it is reasonable to expect that exceptions will be filed by the faculty union.

President and Trustees of Bates College, NLRB Case No. 01-RC-28438

A mail ballot election is being conducted at Bates College, pursuant to a notice of election issued by NLRB Region 1 on December 27, 2021. The ballots are scheduled to be tallied on January 31, 2022. The election concerns a petition filed by Maine Service Employee Association – SEIU Local 1989, seeking to represent a wall to wall bargaining unit of approximately 630 contingent faculty and non-professional staff. The petition does not seek to include tenured and tenure track faculty in the bargaining unit.

On December 30, 2021, Bates College filed a Request for Review with the NLRB seeking to challenge the December 16, 2021 decision of the NLRB Region 1 Director who found a unit of all full-time and regular part-time professional and non-professional employees was presumptively appropriate and met the traditional community of interest standards to constitute an appropriate unit.

Champion v. Public Employment Relations Board, Iowa District Court, Chickasaw County

Case No. CVCV004127

An Iowa state court issued a decision last month upholding a ruling by the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board (IPERB) denying a representation petition to have the position of law research assistants at the University of Iowa College of Law considered in the certified graduate assistant unit at the University of Iowa represented by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, Local 896 (COGS).

In the mid-1990s, COGS was certified to represent the following unit:

In its decision, the Iowa state court found that the IPERB correctly concluded that the history surrounding the COGS certification, and the subsequent collective bargaining history between COGS and the university, demonstrated that law research assistants who work for faculty were never considered by the parties to be included in the bargaining unit.

University of Oregon, OERB Case No. UP-001-22

On January 10, 2022, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Oregon Employment Relations Board alleging that the University of Oregon violated its duty to bargain when it unilaterally imposed a requirement that classroom instruction be recorded. Among the union's concerns cited in the complaint are privacy, security, intellectual property, academic freedom, and the use of the recordings for disciplinary purposes.

The National Center's virtual May 2021 national conference was a major success. We thank the panelists and moderators who participated in the conference, as well as, all of the attendees.

Below are links to video recordings of conference presentations along with links to panel descriptions, panelists bios, and written materials.

Welcoming Remarks and Announcement with Jennifer J. Raab, Hunter College President, William A. Herbert, National Center Executive Director, DeWayne Sheaffer, President, NEA's National Council for Higher Education, Alexandra Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan, Jeffrey Cross and Gary Rhoades, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy.

The Biden Administration: Higher Education and Labor Initiatives with Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers Rights, Georgetown University Law School and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, Damon A. Silvers, Director of Policy and Special Counsel, AFL-CIO, and Michael Loconto, Founding Principal, Fenway Law, LLC, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios Reading Material

Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Best Practices for the Promotion of Collaboration, Equity and Measurable Outcomes with Daniel J. Julius, Visiting Fellow, Yale University, School of Management and Professor of Management, New Jersey City University, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Professor, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Adrienne E. Eaton, Dean, School of Management and Labor Relations, Distinguished Professor, Labor Studies & Employment Relations Department, Rutgers University, Thomas Kochan, MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and David Lewin, Professor Emeritus, Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson School of Management. This panel was co-sponsored by the LERA Higher Education Industry Council. Panel Description and Panelist Bios

Challenges of the Past Year and Perspectives about the Future with Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Susan Poser, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Illinois Chicago, Mildred Garcia, President, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and Scott Jaschik, Editor, Inside Higher Ed, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Challenges of the Past Year and Perspectives on the Future of Academic Labor with Rebecca Givan, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Jamie Martin, President, APSCUF, Justin Tzuanos, NEA Center for Organizing Fellow, NEA Organizational Specialist and Higher Education Team member, Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, and Gary Rhoades, Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, JCBA Co-editor, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

COVID-19 and Its Impact on Academic Women with Karen R. Stubaus, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rutgers University, Maria Lund Dahlberg, Study Director, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Eve Higginbotham, Dean of Inclusion and Diversity, University of Pennsylvania, Leslie D. Gonzales, Associate Professor in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Learning Unit in the College of Education, Michigan State University and Juli Wade, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at University of Connecticut. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

COVID-19 and Racial Equity in Higher Education with Amalia Dache, Assistant Professor, Higher Education Division, University of Pennsylvania, Jennifer Johnson, Assistant Professor, College of Education and Human Development, Temple University, Henrika McCoy, Associate Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago, and Roseanne Flores, Associate Professor, Psychology, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States with Massimo Faggioli Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University and contributing writer to Commonweal magazine, E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post Syndicated Columnist, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, and Georgetown University Professor, Heidi Schlumpf, Executive Editor, National Catholic Reporter, and Paul Moses, Professor of Journalism, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Moderator. This panel was co-sponsored by the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute and Commonweal Magazine.

Just Universities: Catholic Social Teaching Confronts Corporatized Universities with Gerald J. Beyer, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, Villanova University, Patricia McGuire, President, Trinity Washington University, Discussant, Mary-Antoinette Smith, Professor, English, and Executive Director, National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education (NAWCHE), Seattle University, Lily Ryan, Organizer, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University, and Donna Haverty-Stacke, Professor, History, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator. This panel was co-sponsored by the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute and Commonweal Magazine.

Speaking of Dignity: Non-Unionized Adjunct Faculty Teaching at a Catholic Church-Affiliated University with Jacob Bennett, University of New Hampshire, Maria Maisto, New Faculty Majority, James Coppess, Associate General Counsel, AFL-CIO, and David Marshall, Director, Center for Labor and Employment Law, Dorothy Day Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law, Panelist and Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Social Unionism to Bargaining for the Common Good in Higher Education: Then and Now with Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, Ellen Schrecker, Professor Emerita of American History, Yeshiva University, Andrew Feffer, Professor, History, Union College and author of Bad Faith: Teachers, Liberalism, and the Origins of McCarthyism, Marilyn Sneiderman, Professor and Director, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and Malini Cadambi-Daniel, Director for Higher Education, SEIU, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

How Public Employees Win and Lose the Right to Bargain with Dominic Wells, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Bowling Green State University, author of From Collective Bargaining to Collective Begging: How Public Employees Win and Lose the Right to Bargain (2020), William P. Jones, Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, University of Minnesota, President, Labor and Working-Class History Association, Eleni Schirmer, PhD candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Educational Policy Studies, and William A. Herbert, National Center Executive Director, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Contingency, On-Line Education and Faculty Strikes in the US and the UK with Mariya Ivancheva, Lecturer in Higher Education Studies at the University of Liverpool, Robert Ovetz, Lecturer, Political Science, San Jose State University, David Harvie, Associate Professor of Finance and Political Economy, University of Leicester, and Alyssa Picard, Director, AFT Higher Education, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Higher Education Legal Update with Henry Morris Jr., Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Monica Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC, Angela Thompson, Associate Director, AFT Legal Department, and Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Academic Freedom in Collective Bargaining Agreements and Faculty Handbooks with Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, AAUP, Risa Lieberwitz, General Counsel, AAUP and Professor of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Missy A. Matella, Watkinson Laird Rubenstein, P.C, and Jeffrey Cross, Former Associate VP, Academic Affairs, Eastern Illinois University (Emeritus), Editor, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Shared Governance, Collective Bargaining, and the Future of Online Learning in Light of COVID-19 with Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center, School of Education, Irene Mulvey, President, AAUP, Joseph McConnell, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, and Theodore Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

The Future of Graduate Assistant Unionization with Ken Lang, Director of Organizing, UAW, Peter MacKinnon, SEIU Local 509 President and Chair, Higher Education Council, Kavitha Iyengar, Graduate Assistant Union President, UAW 2865, University of California, Shukura Umi, Executive Vice President, United Campus Workers, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Principles and Practices for Effective Negotiations with Kathy Sheffield, Director of Representation and Bargaining, California Faculty Association, Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, Office of the Provost, York University, Deborah Williams, Johnson County Community College Faculty Association, Judi Burgess, Esq., Director of Labor Relations, Boston University, and Elena Cacavas, Esq., Cacavas ADR, LLC, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios

Preparing and Presenting Grievances in Arbitration with Letitia F. Silas, Executive Director of Systemwide Labor Relations, University of California, E. Kevin Young, Associate Director for System-wide Labor Relations, University of California, Tara Singer-Blumberg Labor Relations Specialist, New York State United Teachers National Center Executive Director William A. Herbert, and Homer C. La Rue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Panelist and Moderator.

The National Center has published the latest volume of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, on the theme Beyond Getting Back to the New/Old “Normal." We thank the Journal's co-editors Jeffrey Cross and Gary Rhoades for their tireless work.

Post-Pandemic Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: An Irresistible Force Meeting and Immovable Object? James Ottavio Castagnera

Online Learning, COVID-19, and the Future of the Academy: Implications for Faculty Governance and Collective Bargaining Anthony Picciano

The Gig Academy: Naming the Problem and Identifying Solutions Daniel T. Scott and Adrianna J. Kezar

Working in Coalition, and Wall-to-Wall: The New Progressive Normal Gary Rhoades

The Journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, online periodical, the purpose of which is to advance research and scholarly thought related to academic collective bargaining and to make relevant and pragmatic peer-reviewed research readily accessible to practitioners and to scholars in the field.

We encourage scholars and practitioners in the fields of collective bargaining, labor relations, and labor history to submit articles for potential publication in future volumes.

The Journal is supported, in part, by a generous contribution from TIAA and is hosted by the institutional repository of Eastern Illinois University.