The workshop sessions at the 2003 AFT Higher Education Issues Conference covered a wide array of topics and issues.  Below is a complete list of the conference workshops and a summary of the topics discussed in each.

Building Activism: Tools for Attracting New Members/Activists
This workshop focused on identifying issues and themes that local unions can use to help activate their membership and build tangible campaigns around.    

Analyzing Institutional Budgets: It’s Not About the Math
In this workshop, presenters showed how budgets can be used to identify the institutional values of management and explained that faculty and staff can be more effective advocates for their own values if fiscal analysis is an integral part of the preparation for collective bargaining.

The Growth of Full-Time/Non-Tenure Track Faculty: Challenges for the Union
This workshop gave an overview of the growth of full-time/non-tenure track faculty over the last decade and the conditions under which they work.  Dawn Saunders, a professor at the University of Vermont, provided an account of the issues faced by full-time/non-tenure track faculty on her campus and the proposed solutions for each. 

Technology and Distance Education: Latest Developments and Trends
This workshop explored the latest trends and developments in distance education that local unions should be working to address.  The workshop looked specifically at two issues--the professional development needs of faculty and staff and the rapid increase in hybrid courses.

Successful Health and Safety Workplace Campaigns
This workshop addressed health and safety issues common to the workplace and summarized several examples of successful health and safety campaigns.  The workshop also provided an outline of the union approach to insuring a safe and healthy workplace and discussed AFT’s "Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools." 

Utilizing the Higher Education Contract Analysis System (HECAS) CD-ROM
This workshop provided a brief primer on strategies for utilizing the Higher Education Contract Analysis System (HECAS), a CD-ROM database with more than 600 contracts and full text retrieval software that lets you search those contracts.

Developing Strong Media Campaigns
In this workshop, Jamie Horwitz, associate director of the AFT Public Affairs department, helped leaders understand how to form ongoing relationships with the media and how to develop concise messages that will get reported. 

Building Leadership & Activism: Lessons from Unions with High Turnover
During this workshop, presenters described how factors such as higher turnover, which are normally seen as the liabilities of locals representing part-time/adjunct faculty and graduate employees, can also become opportunities to develop a continuing organizing culture through stepping up efforts to recruit new members and expanding activism. 

The Power of New Labor Coalitions
This workshop underscored the importance of coalition building efforts and discussed the challenges of organizing and maintaining powerful coalitions.  Presenters gave first-hand accounts of successful coalitions and described the advantages and the difficulties they encountered.

Fighting Privatization in Postsecondary Education: Going Public with Our Campaign
This workshop provided a background on privatization and outsourcing in higher education and encouraged members to take political action in key races, to educate union political action committees on privatization issues, and to expose the concealed drawbacks of privatization in higher education in order to halt the trend.

State Political & Legislative Mobilization
This workshop gave an overview the state fiscal crisis and highlighted possible responses to the situation.  Presenters provided a list of specific tax and revenue solutions supported by the AFT and offered advice for building successful grassroots campaigns and gaining community support. 

Negotiating Benefits in Today’s Funding Environment
In this workshop, presenters outlined the rising costs of healthcare and provided strategies for locals to bargain effectively for benefits in the new environment.  Presenters urged members to take an active stance on healthcare issues to insure the best available coverage for their members.

Strategic Planning for Local Unions
In this workshop, Mark Richard, president of United Faculty of Miami-Dade Community College, outlined the process of strategic planning at the local level, urging local members to follow a three-step process through union self-assessment, strategic planning and strategic campaigning. 

Advancing Part-Time/Adjunct and Full-Time Faculty Interests through Collaboration
During this workshop, leaders from two AFT locals representing both full-time and part-time faculty discussed how part-time faculty members became active parts of the union and subsequently, the union was better able to represent the faculty needs.  The workshop also examined gains in collective bargaining agreements and explored ideas to overcome tensions.

"Accountability," More "Accountability" and Still More "Accountability": Re-asserting Professional Control
Presenters in this workshop described the efforts of accrediting agencies, state governments and the federal government to develop new procedures to "measure" the "accountability" of colleges and universities.  On the part of accrediting agencies, for example, this can mean abandoning traditional quality requirements, such as requiring a particular number of full-time faculty, to requiring "output" measures, such as student test scores.  AFT leaders discussed efforts to resist accountability formulas that are imposed from outside the academy, or are too rigid and mechanistic. [Brooke Boeglin]

[April 29, 2003]