AFT executive vice president Nat LaCour and NEA president Reg Weaver fielded questions about the tough issues facing higher education during a joint AFT-NEA dinner on March 5. Moderators Bill Scheuerman of AFT and Kathy Sproles of NEA engaged the two leaders on topics such as education policy, political action, accountability, state funding crises and the best response to a Cabinet secretary who labels the professionals with whom we work a "terrorist organization." (Answer: regime change!)

Under a Bush administration hostile to higher education, local leaders should work to defend our basic principles and the procedures that protect our members, LaCour and Weaver noted. As one of this nation's greatest success stories, higher education must preserve its major strengths—access, quality and diversity in types of colleges, academic programs and students.  This is made possible in part through the contributions of faculty and staff, they noted, and the union must be vigilant in protecting tenure, academic freedom and shared governance.

LaCour and Weaver also tackled accountability, standardization and federal control over colleges and universities. "We need to hold colleges accountable for providing a special place where free thinking and free speech, imagination and analysis, rule the day," said LaCour. "To guarantee this kind of accountability, we don't need uniform programs or standardized tests.  We need shared governance, academic freedom and a well-supported workforce." Faculty and staff are in the best position to control curriculum, standards, assessment, research and personnel, not a national administration, he added. [Lindsay Albert]

[March 22, 2004]