More than 600 delegates from AFT's higher education unions attended the national convention this summer in Philadelphia. They made their presence known at a divisional meeting, a special breakfast and by speaking articulately to resolutions on the floor.

At a special higher education breakfast during the convention, unionists took the opportunity to pay tribute to their foundation while laying the groundwork for further success. Stepping to the podium, AFT president Sandra Feldman lauded locals and individuals for doing work that is "close to my heart"--organizing to build membership, improving the lot of the most exploited workers--part-timers, and protecting academic freedom.

Feldman awarded the second biennial Norman Swenson Award for Militancy to the United Faculty of Miami-Dade Community College. The award is named after Norman Swenson, an AFT vice president who went to jail several times in order to secure collective bargaining for members of the Cook County College Teachers Union. The award recognized the embattled union at Miami-Dade, which, after winning the right to bargain collectively spent two years struggling to negotiate a contract with a "contemptuous" administration, noted Feldman. UFMDCC officers Pam Singer and Maria Mari accepted the award.

The AFT president also announced the first recipients of the new First Principle Action Grants program. It was created to extend the impact of AFT's First Principles higher education quality campaign, which encourages colleges and universities to keep the focus on their basic teaching and service mission. The grants will support such activities as professional development at Eastern Illinois University, Henry Ford Community College in Michigan, and Moraine Technical College in Wisconsin; efforts to document and improve the lot of part-time faculty in Washington state and in community colleges around Philadelphia; and evaluation of research at Kean College in New Jersey.

President Feldman was the first of many presenters to honor Irwin Polishook as he concluded his last term as an AFT vice president at the convention. AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy spoke of Polishook's 25 years as a pioneering leader both in academe and in labor circles. In his short good-bye speech, Polishook noted that as the son of a butcher, he inherited from his parents a vision that saw the next generation doing better than the one that came before. "Never rest on your accomplishments," he advised his colleagues. "Do better than I have done." His parting gift to William Scheuerman, his successor as leader of the higher education program and policy council, was a hardhat. "There will be times when you'll need this," Polishook advised.

At a meeting of the higher education division, delegates heard in-depth presentations on two important issues. Marty Hittelman of the California Federation of Teachers Community College Council and Susan Levy, president of the Washington Federation of Teachers, were part of a panel on the topic of part-time faculty equity issues. They described the gains their states have made for part-timers by focusing on legislative agendas. Karen Schermerhorn of the Community College of Philadelphia Faculty Federation also shared some of the progress her combined full-time/part-time faculty local has made at the bargaining table. Nora Davenport Lawson, president of the Alabama State University Faculty Alliance and a member of the AFT K-16 task force on teacher quality, reviewed the findings and recommendations of the task force for delegates and answered questions.

Resolutions strike at the heart of campus issues

On the last day of the convention, AFT delegates adopted three higher education resolutions.

The Part-time Faculty Compensation and Benefits resolution calls on the AFT to use all organizing, legislative and public policy means to end the exploitation of part-timers, while at the same time work to restore the corps of full-time faculty. The goal of our union, the resolution says, should be to promote equal pay and benefits for equal work provided by part-timers who have qualifications and experience on a par with full-timers.

Some part-timers make as little as $10,000 a year for teaching a load as large as a full-time faculty member's, noted PSC president Barbara Bowen. PSC member Marsha Newfield added that while some call part-timers "freeway flyers," at CUNY, the 8,000 adjuncts call themselves "subway schleppers."

Delegates adopted a resolution supporting the union's continued close monitoring of distance education expansion. The resolution, Ensuring High Quality in Distance Education for College Credit, outlines guidelines governing how faculty can control and shape distance education, maintain quality and ensure adequate professional development support. It also endorses the union's development of standards for good practice.

With it's newly created, for-profit enterprise called Virtual Temple, the "university is a leader in the exponential growth of distance education," said Art Hochner. The resolution is necessary in order to help faculty deal with the "dot.com revolution."

Delegates also adopted a resolution in support of undergraduates across the country who are organizing against sweatshops. United Students Against Sweatshops calls on members to support the USAS, push for universities to join the Worker Rights Consortium (and shun the corporate-backed Fair Labor Association).

The USAS "is the best pro-labor movement among students in generations," said Jackie Disalvo of the Professional Staff Congress. It is creating a "conveyer belt of activists" who are going on to organize teaching assistants to become teacher and faculty unionists and labor educators.

Peter Thomas, of New York Local 3003, reminded delegates to check the labels of the apparel they purchase and only buy union-made articles.