Anyone who, in the past five years, has attended a conference on the future of higher education already knows that higher education has no future. Or at least, higher ed as we've known it is near its expiration date. So declared futurist Peter Drucker in 1994, and his quote is often repeated during speeches and in PowerPoint presentations.

Yet, as Mary Burgan, president of the American Association of University Professors, pointed out at an April meeting in New York City, people still travel from coast to coast to acquire information the old-fashioned way. "This room is packed," she noted at an opening session of the 29th annual National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions conference. The theme this year was "The Academy in the New Economy: Transitions and Change."

The impact that public colleges and universities (where most academic labor unions are based) can have on local and state economies is broad, noted keynote speakers Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City University of New York and Robert King, chancellor of the State University of New York. They cited several trends that are affecting their universities' work: demographics and immigration rates, the rapid increase in the number of women in the professional work force, longer life and work spans, the international education demands of a global economy, the interdisciplinary evolution of learning and the ever-increasing demands of keeping up with technology.

At a session on "Mergers and Acquisitions: New Configurations in the Academy," the audience heard of the pitfalls associated with three questionable takeovers--in the University of Alaska system, the Minnesota community college system and between medical facilities at Stanford and the University of California at San Francisco. The case-study presentations revealed a lack of consultation with faculty and staff as a major flaw in all three mergers. Another factor that undermines success is the lack of a clear vision for what the merger is supposed to accomplish--beyond the hoped-for cost savings that do not occur.

Other sessions explored topics of great concern to faculty and unions. One dealt with alternatives to tenure. Robert O'Neill, noted First Amendment scholar and former president of the University of Virginia, observed that only tenure can protect academic freedom.

Yet tenured positions are on the decline, as became clear in another session, "Who will be the academic employee of the future?" Jack Schuster, from Claremont Graduate University, reported that his analysis of the latest faculty data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty: 99 (see page 2 for a related story) shows a startling increase in the number of new hires not on the tenure track. In 1969, Schuster noted, non-tenure-track appointments were almost unknown at 1.5 percent of the total. In 1997, they accounted for 52.6 percent of all appointments. The factors driving this, he said, are four. Two explanations are administrators' need to contain costs and to have "flexibility." Two other forces are faculty retirements and the change in attitude among accrediting agencies, which no longer are setting and enforcing staffing standards.

The April 2-3 conference was held at Baruch College; the proceedings will be released later this year.

It took a 10-day strike for full-time faculty at Long Island University's C.W. Post campus to get the settlement they needed, which came in the early morning hours on March 8. Later that day, the 318-member unit, represented by the C.W. Post Collegial Federation/NYSUT/AFT, voted almost unanimously to ratify. The contract will run retroactively from Sept. 1, 2000, to Aug. 31, 2003.

The issues that led to the strike were salary and workload, says union vice president Richard Auletta. The union has been trying to lift a cap on the number of professors who could carry nine credits or three courses per semester. In its last contract, the union had language that would have lifted the cap by 2002. In these negotiations, management balked at that promise. On salary, the union won 5 percent increases in the first two years and a split in the last year, with a 3 percent increase in the first six months and a 4 percent increase in the last six months. The split, says Auletta, "lets us start off the next round of negotiations ahead."

The university agreed to remove the cap on workload, and the union agreed to a screening process to determine who would be approved to take a three-hour research/nine-hour teaching load.

Although the weather is balmy now, few will forget the hardship of walking picket lines during one of the worst winters New England has offered up in years, says Auletta. More than 140 faculty intermittently braved high winds and several feet of snow dumped during a three-day storm. It was the union's fifth strike in 25 years, Auletta points out, and one that brought more gains than just the contract.

"If a strike lasts more than a few days," he says, "it either gets tighter because of collegiality or it dissipates. This year, it was a binding process.

"In the course of routine work, we don't meet other faculty outside our buildings. But this time, we were shoulder to shoulder with a pool that included 30 of our very youngest faculty members," Auletta adds. "They have not only energized themselves, but also energized us. This is what unionism is all about."

Although teachers are in the frontlines of the battle for education reform, they are often the last to be consulted and believe that their judgment is ignored, according to a new survey by Public Agenda. Just Waiting To Be Asked? A Fresh Look at Attitudes on Public Engagement, reveals that 70 percent of teachers (more than any other group) feel "out of the loop" in their school districts' decision-making process. Seventy percent of teachers believe that when district leaders seek their input, it's more often to win their support for "what the district leadership wants to accomplish" than to "gain a better understanding of the issues and concerns of teachers."

The survey, which was co-sponsored by the AFT and other groups, polled superintendents, school board members, teachers and the general public on attitudes on community involvement in education. In its poll of teacher views, Public Agenda found teachers to be less optimistic than other groups about school board politics, district initiatives and district policies. Teachers feel "buffeted by forces beyond their control, and decisions are taken without their input," the survey found. "In short, they see themselves as the perennial soldiers given their marching orders. This state of affairs is more than ironic...since teachers may well be the most important--and neglected--constituency when it comes to education reform."

"Policymakers must include teachers in all planning and discussions about our schools. Teachers have the knowledge, skills and insights to know what works," AFT president Sandra Feldman said in a statement following the survey's release. "Through their daily personal contact with students, teachers know what's going on in schools. When district leaders listen and work with teachers, we see positive reforms."

The report warns that districts may suffer an important consequence when teachers are overlooked in the education reform process. For more than a decade, Public Agenda has chronicled a "recurring, commonplace grievance among teachers--that their districts will take up a reform only to drop it as the winds of change sweep their district and replace it with another," notes the report. Teachers view many changes simply as temporary, "reform du jour" measures, believing they can ignore them or "wait it out."

"School leaders need to pay attention when teachers feel alienated and ignored," says Public Agenda president Deborah Wadsworth. "A lot of reforms--especially standards reforms--need teachers to carry them out in the classroom. What's more, because teachers talk to parents all the time, they either strengthen support for the school's mission or undermine it."

A complete copy of Just Waiting To Be Asked? is available for $10, plus $2 shipping, from Public Agenda, 6 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016. A summary of the findings, data charts and related information are posted online at www.publicagenda.org.