Scheuerman is new head of National Labor College 

AFT vice president William Scheuerman has been named as the new president of the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. Scheuerman stepped down from his post as president of the United University Professions/AFT on Nov. 30 to take his new position at the National Labor College on Dec. 3.

As president of UUP, the union that represents the faculty and academic staff of the State University of New York, Scheuerman oversaw the operations of the nation's largest higher education union. During his 14 years as president, UUP's ranks grew from 21,000 in the mid-1990s to nearly 34,000 in 2007.

"Bill Scheuerman has been instrumental to the continued growth and success of our union, and AFT members across the nation have benefited tremendously from his leadership," says AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "We look forward to his accomplishments at the National Labor College and are pleased that he will remain a part of our union family."

"I want to make it the West Point of the labor movement," says Scheuerman.

In addition to serving on the AFT's executive council, Scheuerman until recently chaired the AFT Higher Education program and policy council. AFT Washington president Sandra Schroeder is now the PPC chair. In New York, he was a member of the executive board of the AFT state affiliate, the New York State United Teachers, and chaired that union's higher education committee. He was a professor of political science at SUNY-Oswego before taking leave for his union work.

Scheuerman takes over as president of the National Labor College at a critical juncture in its history and in the history of the labor movement. Over the past several years, the National Labor College has embarked on a campus- and program-wide renovation and expansion. The college refurbished and upgraded its housing facilities and built new facilities, including the state-of-the-art Lane Kirkland Center.

Stay tuned to the next issue of AFT On Campus, which will feature a Q&A with Scheuerman about his plans for the college.

Labor's College
The National Labor College is the only accredited college in the world exclusively dedicated to educating union members, leaders, activists and staff. Ofiginally founded by the AFL-CIO in 1969 as the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, the center became the National Labor College in 1997, offering upper-level degree completion programs for union members seeking to finish their college education.