This month's newsletter includes information about a December 15, 2021 program, co-sponsored Roosevelt House Institute Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, celebrating the publication of historian Ellen Schrecker's new book The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s.

Lastly, the newsletter reports on recent court and administrative agency decisions applicable to higher education labor relations, a pending bill in South Carolina to end tenure, and the newest member of the National Center's Board of Advisors. It also includes video highlights from our 2021 annual conference, and links 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 in New York City. We are planning for a hybrid conference, which will permit in-person and virtual options for panelists and attendees. The theme of the 2022 conference will be The State of Collective Bargaining and Higher Education.

The 2022 Conference will include panels on contemporary issues in collective bargaining and higher education, along with continental breakfast and lunch on Monday-Wednesday, and a dinner reception on Monday evening. There will be a virtual option for both attendees and panelists. Links for online access to the conference will be sent out closer to the event date. Click here for registration and hotel information and click here for COVID-19 protocols and information for in-person participation. Updates about the conference will be posted on our website and included in future newsletters.

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.

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 Alison Braley-Rattai, Assistant Professor, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University, Ontario, Canada, Michelle Webber, Professor, Department of Sociology, Brock University, Ontario, Canada, Richard Bales, Professor of Law, Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University, and Sara Slinn, Associate Dean (Research and Institutional Relations) & Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Moderator.

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 (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, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator (panel in formation).

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, and Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, American Association of University Professors.

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, Henry Morris, Jr., Arent Fox, Angela Thompson, CWA Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives, and Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator.

We strongly encourage administrators and labor representatives to respond to the National Center's survey.

The survey is aimed at collecting 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 timely responses from individuals with direct knowledge of bargaining unit compositions, sizes, and agreements are essential for ensuring that our database is current and comprehensive. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. Any identifying individual information will be kept confidential and will be used only to follow up if clarification of responses is necessary.

Please complete and submit a survey response to ensure that data relating to your institution or bargaining unit are included.

Follow this link to the Survey: Take the Survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact the National Center's research team at: ncscbint1@hunter.cuny.edu

Western Illinois University v. Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, Illinois Supreme Court, Docket No. 126082

On October 21, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a opinion and order overturning a decision by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) finding that Western Illinois University had engaged in an unfair labor practice by failing to comply with two arbitration awards concerning a grievance pursued by University Professionals of Illinois, Local 4100, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO.

In July 2017, an arbitrator sustained the union's grievance that challenged faculty layoffs at the university under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The arbitrator found the university had failed to properly apply the negotiated factors when it made a layoff decision concerning one professor, and violated the contract by failing to locate equivalent employment for another professor prior to her layoff. In the decision, the arbitrator retained jurisdiction relating to the implementation of the award, a common arbitration practice.

After the union claimed that university had not complied with the award, the arbitrator asserted jurisdiction to determine the union's contention, over the objection of the university. Prior to the scheduled arbitration hearing concerning the university's compliance, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the IELRB under a statutory provision that prohibits a party from "(r)efusing to comply with the provisions of a binding arbitration award."

After the arbitration hearing, the arbitrator issued a supplemental award finding the university had not comply with the initial award. Thereafter, the union amended its unfair labor practice charge to allege that the university had not complied with the supplemental award.

Both before the arbitrator and at IELRB, the university argued that the agency had primary jurisdiction to determine compliance with the initial arbitration award, and that the arbitrator lacked authority to issue a supplemental award on compliance. During the IELRB hearing, the university was unsuccessful in seeking to introduce evidence about its compliance with the initial award.

Ultimately, IELRB ruled that the university had engaged in an unfair labor practice by failing to comply with the initial and supplemental awards. On appeal, however, the Illinois Supreme Court overruled IELRB's conclusions. The appellate court found that the university did not engage in a unfair labor practice concerning the supplemental award. It concluded that under the Illinois statute, IELRB had exclusive non-delegable primary jurisdiction to determine whether a party complied with an arbitration award. In addition, the court overturned IELRB's finding that the university had engaged in an unfair labor practice with respect to the initial award because the university had been denied an opportunity to present evidence concerning its compliance at the administrative hearing.

University of New Mexico, PELRB 307-20

The University of New Mexico filed a notice of appeal on November 19, 2021 in New Mexico state court challenging two interim decisions issued by New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board (NMPERLB) concerning a petition filed by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) seeking to represent a bargaining unit of graduate assistants at the university.

The first NMPERLB decision subject to a challenge by the university was issued on August 21, 2021, which concluded that graduate assistants are employees for purposes of the New Mexico Public Employee Bargaining Act with the right to unionize and engaged in collective bargaining.

The second agency decision being challenged was issued on November 9, 2021 and adopted the October 4, 2021 recommended decision by Hearing Officer Thomas Griego concerning the appropriateness of the proposed unit sought in the representation petition:

All full-time and part-time graduate employees whose primary job is instruction and/or research and who are employed at the Main Campus (Albuquerque), as well as the branch campuses located at Gallup, Taos, Los Alamos, and Valencia, and includes the following positions: a. Graduate Assistant Regular; b. Graduate Assistant Special;

c. Project Assistant; d. Research Assistant; e. Teaching Assistant Regular; f. Teaching Assistant Special; and g.Teaching Associate. In its decision, NMPERLB ordered that a card check "be scheduled without delay."

On November 22, 2021, UE filed a motion to dismiss the university's notice of appeal on the grounds that the appeal is premature because appeals can only be commenced following a final NMPERLB decision.

On November 10, 2021, a bill titled the Cancelling Professor Tenure Act was introduced in the South Carolina legislature. If enacted, the law would provide that:

"A public institution of higher learning in this State may not award tenure to, or enter into an employment contract for a period longer than five years with, a person hired by the institution after December 31, 2022. A tenure system in effect at a public institution of higher learning on December 1, 2022, shall terminate when there are no faculty members covered by the system who remain employed by the institution. An employment contract shall include a provision allowing the institution to dismiss the employee prior to the expiration date of the contract if the institution determines that the employee has violated policies specifically listed as reasons for termination."

In addition, the bill would mandate a minimum number of courses to be taught each semester by full-time or tenured faculty at public institutions and impose a new reporting requirement concerning the number of full-time and part-time faculty and graduate assistants employed and number of courses taught at each institution.

Hamilton College, NLRB Case Nos. 03-RC-286024 and 03-RC-286034

Following its certification in October as the exclusive representative of all Tour Guides and Student Fellows at Hamilton College, United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local One has filed two new petitions with the NLRB seeking to represent a bargaining unit of 16 DMC Student Ambassadors, and a unit of 69 residential advisors at the college.

The National Center Welcomes Peter MacKinnon to its Board of Advisors

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.

In November, Routlege will be publishing a new book titled Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Best Practices for Promoting Collaboration, Equity, and Measurable Outcomes. The book contains contributions from a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and advocates, many of whom have been active in National Center programs and activities. The book provides an overview of the contemporary landscape and practical advice concerning collective bargaining and labor relations in higher education.

Routledge is offering a 20% discount. Use this discount code at checkout: code FLY21.