2012 NEA Higher Ed Conference
Defining Our Values, Affirming Our Ideas
March 2-4, 2012
Chicago, Illinois
A Preliminary Agenda
Friday
March 2nd
1:00-1:45 p.m.
Workshop 1: “Recruiting and Retaining Latino Faculty Members: The Missing Piece to Latino Student Success”
Presenter: Luis Ponjuan, University of Florida
Even as the number of Latino students in American institutions of higher education continues to climb, the numbers of Latino faculty remain stagnant. They make up a shockingly low percentage of faculty nationwide. In this session, University of Florida assistant professor Luis Ponjuan, winner of NEA's New Scholar Award for his recent Thought & Action article, will explore the obstacles to Latino faculty and the kinds of policy and programming changes that would make a positive difference
Moderator: Theresa Montaño, CSU Northridge
Workshop 2: “What does your local stand for?”
How to craft an effective message for organizing
Workshop 3: “Standards of Quality for Online Learning”
Presenters: Ron Norton Reel, California Community College Association
Barbara Frank, NEA Academy Staff
There are standards for quality of online learning. Come share your ideas and learn what a NEA brain team created based upon good research and good common sense.
1:00 – 1:45 p.m. CYBER SESSION
NEA Online Tools for Bargaining and Advocacy: HECAS and CUDAS
Presenter: Sue Clery, Senior Research Associate, JBL Associates, Inc.
This session will give participants an overview of NEA’s online data analysis systems: the Higher Education Contract Analysis System (HECAS), and the College and University Data Analysis System (CUDAS). Participants will have the opportunity to practice using these tools to explore their own research and bargaining questions.
1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. BREAK
2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. WORKSHOPS
Workshop 1: “An Anti-Union Tide: The 2011 Attacks on Public Employee Bargaining Rights”
Presenter: Gregory M. Saltzman, Albion College
Saltzman presents the findings from his Almanac article describing the strongest attacks on American Labor Law since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, their effect on the bargaining rights of public employees, and the efforts of labor organizations to halt this tide. He focuses on the experiences of Ohio and Wisconsin.
Moderator: Christine Domhoff, Youngstown State University
Workshop 2: No one cares but me!: Member-to-member engagement
Moderator: Deborah Jones, Georgia Assoc of Educators
Workshop 3: Trends in Faculty Salaries and Retirement Benefits
Presenters: John B. Lee, JBL Associates, Inc.
Valerie Martin Conley, Ohio University
This session reviews changes in faculty salaries, and challenges facing benefit plans for both faculty and staff. All faculty are facing difficult times, but the fastest growing segment of the workforce – lecturers and those without rank – face a continued steady decline in their purchasing power. The challenges facing benefit plans include attacks on pensions, health care, and the growth of tiered benefits for new hires.
2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. CYBER SESSION
Organizing with Social Media
Presenter: Kevin Hart, NEA Interactive Media
3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. BREAK
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. OPENING NEA PLENARY
Welcome and Acknowledgments
James Rice, President, National Council for Higher Education (NCHE)
Representatives of IEA Higher Ed
Leading the Profession: A NEA Initiative
Rebecca Pringle, NEA Secretary-Treasurer
Short Remarks
Paula Monroe, NEA Executive Committee
Vice President’s Remarks
Lily Eskelsen, NEA Vice President
Emerging Leaders Academy Graduation
Presenter: Christy Levings, NEA Executive Committee
NEA Excellence in the Academy Awards
The Democracy in Higher Education Award
Jeff Lustig, CSU Sacramento
The Art of Teaching Award
Mary Armstrong, Lafayette College
New Scholar Award
Luis Ponjuan, University of Florida
Presenter: Princess Moss, NEA Executive Committee
Davenport Award Presentation
James Rice, NCHE President
5:30 p.m.. BREAK
Saturday, March 3rd
7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Registration
7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. NEA Resources and Candidate Information Tables
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. NEA Budget Committee Hearing
Rebecca Pringle, NEA Secretary-Treasurer
7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. Legislative Hearing
Robert Gillies, NEA Committee on Legislation
Sally Pestana, NEA Committee on Legislation
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. WORKSHOPS
Workshop 1: “American Faculty and Their Institutions: A Multinational Comparison”
“Faculty Workload and Productivity in Israel: Lessons
for Uncertain Times”
Presenters: Martin Finkelstein, Seton Hall University
Henry Lee Allen, Wheaton College, Illinois
Finkelstein and Allen present their Almanac articles focusing on differing aspects of the place of faculty in the higher education system. Finkelstein follows-up on the 2007-98 Changing Academic Profession survey, and analyzes the differences between American faculty and their colleagues around the world. Allen narrows the focus to examine aspects of workload and productivity issues in Israel.
Moderator: Denise Specht, Education Minnesota
Workshop 2: The Importance of Faculty/Student Relationships in Organizing and Activism
Presenters: Theresa Montano, CSU Northridge
John Belleci, CSU Fullerton
Leaders of the California Faculty Association and NEA Student Program discuss how faculty and students working together amplifies the power and effectiveness of their organizing and activism.
Workshop 3: “Small World: Crafting an Inclusive Classroom (No Matter What You Teach)”
Presenter: Mary A. Armstrong, Lafayette College
“I am going to assume that you feel strongly that students learn best when they are truly visible, respected, and safe, and that you want them to be prepared to thrive in a world that is complexly diverse," writes Lafayette College associate professor Mary Armstrong, in a recent Thought & Action article that won her the annual NEA Art of Teaching award. In this session, Armstrong further explores the approaches and practices that will make your classroom a truly inclusive world.
Moderator: Lisa Ossian, Des Moines Community College
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. CYBER SESSION
Advanced CUCAS and HECAS
Presenter: Sue Clery, Senior Research Associate, JBL Associates, Inc.
This session will give participants the opportunity to practice using each of the NEA institutional and contract research tools by exploring these databases to explore their own reserarch questions or areas of interest more extensively. A trainer will be available to provide one-on-one and/or small group assistance for this hands-on work.
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. WORKSHOPS
Workshop 1: “States and Higher Education: On Their Own in a Stagnant Economy”
Presenter: William Zumeta, University of Washington
Zumeta outlines his Almanac article summarizing the economy’s recent performance and the outlook ahead, tracking the impact on state revenues, budgets and support for higher education. He examines the effect on students, and reflects on the future of public higher education as state and federal governments continue to cut support.
Moderator: Andrew Sako, Erie Community College
Workshop 2: “Bargaining Retrenchment”
Presenters: Kristine Anderson Dougherty, Research Manager, State of Florida
Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona
Mark F. Smith, NEA Senior Policy Analyst – Higher Education
Dougherty, Rhoades, and Smith review their Almanac article examining the emergence of program discontinuance as a threat to both tenure-track and non tenure-track faculty. The article reviews contract provisions on financial exigency, program elimination, layoff and recall. The authors argue that new conditions of academic employment require a re-examination of these protections.
Moderator: Karla Hayashi, University of Hawai’i
Workshop 3: “How Did You Hear That You Might Lose Your Job?”
Presenter: Vicki J. Rosser, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Rosser presents her Almanac article focusing on the communication processes that Education Support Professionals experienced when their universities eliminated or merged their units, or reduced or reassigned the staff. Based on inter¬views with ESPs from public research institutions in a western state, both support/service and clerical/secretarial job classifications, they illustrate the extend to which ESPs are often the most vulnerable employees as colleges and universities impose job reassignments, layoffs, or furloughs.
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. CYBER SESSION Electronic Organizing: Making use of NEA tools to organize, engage, and activate membership12:15 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. BREAK
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. LUNCHEON
2:00 p.m. BREAK
2:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. OFF-SITE Presentation
Labor History Tour of Haymarket Square
Beverly Stewart, Roosevelt University Faculty Association
Gather in Hotel Lobby and coordinate transportation to Haymarket Square to discuss organizing lessons of the 1887 incident and its impact on the labor movement in Chicago.
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. WORKSHOPS
Workshop 1: Contingent Forum
Moderator: Frank Brooks, Roosevelt University
The Forum will discuss recent NEA research on contingency, and its applicability to organizing and protecting teaching conditions.
Workshop 2: “We can make a change: Empowering members to be activists”
Moderator: Colleen Heinz, Colorado Educ. Assoc.
Workshop 3: TBD.
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. CYBER SESSION
Local Organizing Online
Presenters: Ana Jimenez and Scott Collins, Pima Community College Faculty Association
Sunday, March 4th
7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. Resolutions Hearing
Tony Crawford, NEA Resolutions Committee
9:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. CLOSING PLENARY SESSION
Moderator: James Rice, NCHE President
Remarks
Dennis Van Roekel, NEA President
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