Proactive, forward-thinking, progressive--these were the buzzwords of this year’s AFT Higher Education Issues Conference held April 11-13 in Atlanta, Georgia.  In his opening remarks, AFT vice president William Scheuerman, president of United University Professions/SUNY pointed to the disturbing trends hammering away at higher education that require "a new sense of focus" for union activism.

The conference theme, "Strategic Planning: What Kind of Academy? What Kind of Union?" gave the 300 participants a forum to discuss establishing priorities and developing realistic goals for the union.   

"The current trends in higher education are just the tip of the iceberg," Scheuerman told the conference attendees.  "If we don’t take a proactive approach now, then all of these problems will take over."

The yearlong strategic planning process got under way at a special meeting of the AFT Higher Education division's Program and Policy Council where PPC members discussed the major trends in higher education and outlined a list of preliminary priorities. 

The sessions of the conference were organized around those priorities--expanding AFT organizing; securing greater state and local funding for higher education; strengthening the academic personnel structure and shared decision-making; strengthening the ability of AFT affiliates to bargain effectively; and protecting faculty and professional control of teaching and research.  An open forum for recommendations and comments was facilitated by Sandra Schroeder, president of the Washington Federation of Teachers, on the last day of the conference. 

A key theme emerging from all sessions was the importance of coalition building.  Attendees championed the formation of coalitions among the different campus constituencies--faculty, staff and students--as well as among unions.  Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, presented several examples of successful coalitions among unions during a workshop entitled "The Power of New Labor Coalitions," and Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild-CWA, discussed the necessity of coalition building amidst the current anti-labor climate. 

Scheuerman reiterated the union’s need to strengthen coalition building efforts to advance the strategic planning agenda.  "If the AFT is stronger, then the AFL-CIO is stronger," he said.  "If the AFL-CIO is stronger, then the labor movement is stronger.  And if we work together to make that happen, then we are all better off." [Brooke Boeglin]

[April 29, 2003]