The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (National Center) is a national labor-management research center housed in and supported by Hunter College, City University of New York.
Learn More About the National CenterThe National Center is pleased to announce that registration is open for our 53rd annual conference.
The conference will take place on March 22-24, 2026 in New York City.
The theme of the conference will be Uniting for Workplace and Political Democracy.
View the 2026 Conference ScheduleThe National Center is pleased to announce that Wesleyan University President, Michael S. Roth will give the keynote address at the National Center's 53rd Annual Conference in New York City on March 22-24, 2026.
The theme of the keynote will be: Academic Freedom Depends on the Ecosystem of Freedoms.
President Roth became the 16th president of Wesleyan University in 2007, after having served as Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities at Scripps College, Associate Director of the Getty Research Institute, and President of the California College of the Arts. He is one of the leading higher education voices defending the value of colleges and universities and their importance to our democracy.
President Roth is known for his work as an administrator, scholar, and public intellectual. He is the author of numerous books—many bearing on liberal education—and regularly publishes essays, book reviews, and commentaries in national media and scholarly journals. In 2025, he was given the PEN/Benenson Courage Award for standing up against governmental assaults on higher education.
Below is a list of currently confirmed panels and workshops for the 2026 conference.
Alliance for Higher Education with Michael Gavin, President and CEO, Alliance for Higher Education, Paulette Granberry Russell, President, National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, Christopher M. Reber, President, Hudson County Community College, Todd Wolfson, President, AAUP, and Alexandra (Sascha) Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director, Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan, Moderator.
Report on Negotiated Academic Freedom Clauses in Collective Bargaining Agreements with Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Director and Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Anita Levy, Senior Program Officer, AAUP, Erin Ward, PhD Student, Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, and Kathryn Ritchie, M.A. Candidate, School of Education, Hunter College. Commentators: Rana Jaleel, Chair, Committee A, AAUP and Associate Professor, University of California-Davis and Nicholas DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, with moderator Risa L. Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell University ILR.
Postdocs, Sexual Harassment, and Collective Bargaining--Intersections and Issues with Kait Spear, Program Officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Andrea Joseph, Assistant Professor, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, Anna Yoney, Associate Research Scientist, Department of Genetics & Development, Columbia University, and Karen R. Stubaus, Labor Relations Strategist & Special Advisor, University of Michigan, Moderator.
Equity at Work? Gender, Parenthood, and Benefits in Higher Education with Rhiannon M. Maton, Associate Professor, SUNY Cortland, Affiliated Researcher, National Center, Carrie Rohman, Professor, Lafayette College, Editor, SUNY Press (2025), Eve Weinbaum, Professor, UMass Amherst, President, MSP/MTA, Melissa Sortman, Assistant Provost, Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Michigan State University, Elza Rechtman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Mount Sinai, Bargaining Committee, SPOC-UAW, and Shirley Lin, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Moderator.
Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy (Random House, 2025) with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Introduction by James Davis, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY President.
Academic Freedom From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right (Harvard University Press, 2024) with David M. Rabban, Chair and Professor, The University of Texas School of Law, and author, Academic Freedom From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right, Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Commentator, and Frederick P. Schaffer, former General Counsel, CUNY, Commentator and Moderator.
Library Workers as Defenders of Democracy: Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers (Critical Cultural Information Studies series), ALA Editions, 2025 with Emily Drabinski, Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, Queens College, CUNY, Kelly McElroy, Librarian and Associate Professor, Oregon State University, Angelo Moreno, Union Organizer Chicago, Maura Smale, Executive Chief Librarian, CUNY Graduate Center, and Meredith Kahn, Librarian, University of Michigan, Moderator.
Negotiating over Academic Freedom with Bethany Gizzi, President, Monroe Community College Faculty Association, Joseph McConnell, Morgan, Brown & Joy LLP, Timothy S. Taylor, Arbitrator & Mediator, and Kathy Sheffield, CFA Director of Representation and Bargaining, Moderator.
Stress Reduction for Faculty, Administrators, Student Employees, and Staff with facilitators Serena Rice, Project Manager, UMass Lowell, Ellen Shadur, Arbitrator and Mediator, Shadur ADR, LLC, and Lili Palacios-Baldwin, Deputy General Counsel, Tufts University.
Interactive Workshop: Stop the War on Immigrants: Strategies to Support Undocumented and International Students, Faculty, and Staff with Diego N. Sánchez, Director, Policy and Strategy, Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Stacy Hickox, Staff Counsel, National Education Association, Andrea Vásquez, Secretary, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, Cassandra "Cassie" Urbenz, President, Graduate Assistants United and NEA Graduate Committee, University of Florida, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Affiliated Researcher, National Center, Moderator.
Massachusetts DRIVE Initiative: State Funding for Higher Education Research with Quentin Palfrey, Massachusetts Director of Federal Funds and Infrastructure, Office of Governor Maura Healey, Max Page, President, Massachusetts Teachers Association, Viviann Anguiano, Managing Director, Higher Education Policy, Center for American Progress, and Frederick G. Floss, Professor, and Co-Director, Center for Economic Education, Buffalo State University, Moderator.
Litigation Update in Defense of Democracy (CLE) with David D. Cole, Professor in Law and Public Policy, Georgetown Law School and former ACLU National Legal Director, Will Creeley, Legal Director, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Alex Abdo, Litigation Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Rabia Muqaddam, Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives, Office of the New York State Attorney, Moderator.
Litigation Update and Administrative Remedies in Defense of Federal Research Funding (CLE) with Amanda Fuchs Miller, President, Seventh Street Strategies, Rachel Homer, Director of Democracy 2025 & Senior Attorney, Democracy Forward, Adelaide Pagano, Assistant Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, Office of Massachusetts Attorney General, and Jessica Alvarez, General Counsel, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Discrimination Issues on a Unionized Campus with Katherine H. Hansen, Partner, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, Steven J. Porzio, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Shannon Buffum, Senior Associate General Counsel, Cornell University, Courtney Bither, Servicing Representative, UAW Region 9A, and Ana Avendano, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law, Moderator.
Community College Perspectives on AI Policy and Codified Teaching Practice: Faculty and Administrator Views, Liability Implications, and Impacts at the Bargaining Table with Andre’ L. Poplar, Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, Oakland Community College, Cameron Redden, Chief Administrative Officer of the Brunswick University Center, Cuyahoga Community College, Deborah H. Williams, Professor, Johnson County Community College, Former JCCC Faculty Association President and Lead Negotiator, Eric Rader, Higher Ed Policy and Program Council and AI Task Force, AFT, President, Henry Ford Community College AFT, and Martin Balinsky, Professor Tallahassee State College, President, United Faculty of Florida-Tallahassee State College, Moderator.
A Discussion on Bargaining over AI at 4-year Institutions with Thomas H. Riley, Jr., Executive Director of Labor and Special Counsel, University of Illinois System, Meredith Kahn, Librarian, University of Michigan, Jocelyn Krause, Director, Collective Bargaining, Journalism Department, Writers Guild of America East, and Arthur Pearlstein, Arbitrator and Mediator, Moderator.
When Democracy and Equity Collide: Responses to Promote Institutional Learning with Elizabethada Wright, Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth, and Contract Administrator, UEA, Josué Arredondo, adjunct Professor, Southwestern College/San Diego Miramar College, Michael Buchler, Professor, Florida State University and co-chief negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU, Geoffery Johnson, adjunct Professor, San Diego Mesa/Southwestern Colleges and President, AFT National Adjunct Contingent Caucus, John L. Hoffman, President, Bemidji State University, Commentator, and Christina Gallup, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth, Moderator.
Best Practices in Establishing or Opposing Past Practices in Labor Arbitration with Shinika Hunter, Labor Relations Specialist, NYSUT, Kevin Pollitt, NYSUT Regional Director, John Gross, Guercio and Guercio LLP, Christopher Mestecky, Guercio and Guercio LLP, and Katie Rosen, Arbitrator and Mediator, Moderator.
Creative Responses to Persistent Inequities of Contingent Labor in Community Colleges with Christine Mangino, President, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, Jennifer Shanoski, Faculty, Merritt College, Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, Past President, Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges, Colena Sesanker, Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee, Board of Regents for Higher Education, Connecticut State Community Colleges, and Robin G. Isserles, Faculty, BMCC, CUNY, Discussant and Moderator.
Florida-Fighting to Defend Collective Bargaining and Democracy in a Red State with Adam Bellotti, Bredhoff & Kaiser P.L.L.C., Allison Clarke, Service Unit Director, United Faculty of Florida, Alex Ledgerwood, Service Unit Director, United Faculty of Florida, and Adela Ghadimi, Executive Director, United Faculty of Florida, Moderator.
Union Leaders of Color Transforming Higher Education and Centering Democracy with María del Mar Rosa Rodríguez, Professor, Universidad de Puerto Rico, President, Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios (APPU), Charles Toombs, Professor, San Diego State University, Immediate Past President, CFA, Michelle Ramos Pellicia, Professor, California State University, San Marcos, VP, CFA, Tracey Salisbury, Associate Professor, California State University, Bakersfield, Associate VP, South, CFA, and Margarita Berta-Avila, Professor, Sacramento State University, President, CFA, Moderator.
The Crisis of Collegiate Black Male Athlete Identity: Education, Work, and Democracy with Pops Mensah-Bonsu, President of NBA G League Operations, New York Knicks; President of SEED Academy Ghana, Rob Knox, Award-Winning Communications Leader; SI HBCU Legend; NCAA Champion of Diversity Honoree, Rolando Shannon, Doctoral Candidate, Tennessee State University, Interim Assistant Athletic Director of Student Development, and Ajah Hawley-Alexander, Clinical Lecturer, Iona University, Doctoral Candidate, University of Southern Mississippi, Moderator.
Key Labor Issues Involving Nursing with Claire Tuck, Director, Legal Department, New York State Nurses Association, Jonathan Wangel, Senior Assistant Vice President/Deputy Counsel, NYC Health + Hospitals, Sophia Alonso, Assistant Vice President, Labor Relations, Montefiore Medical Center, Amy Lee Pacholk, Critical Care Nurse, SUNY Stony Brook, Executive Board, PEF, and Ann Marie Mauro, Dean and Professor, Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Just Cause: Practical Issues in Pursuing and Defending Disciplinary Allegations with Dana E. Lossia, Levy Ratner, P.C., Nicholas L. Collins, ArentFox Schiff LLP, Chris Meade, Senior Director, Employee and Labor Relations, University of Oregon, and Patrick McDermott, Arbitrator and Professor/Chair, Management and Legal Studies, Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University, Moderator.
Turnover the Other Cheek: Challenges of Collective Bargaining for Graduate Assistants with Cassandra “Cassie” Urbenz, President, Graduate Assistants United and NEA Graduate Committee, University of Florida, Tessa Barber, President, Graduate Assistants United, NEA Graduate Committee, University of South Florida and VP, United Faculty of Florida, GAU Bargaining Council, Michael Eagen, Vice Provost, Academic Human Resources, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Joshua D. Nadreau, Fisher & Phillips LLP, and Rebecca S. Natow, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, Hofstra University, Moderator.
Creating Shop Culture in Higher Ed Unions with Sunshine Alvarez de Silva, M.A. Student, University of Vermont-Graduate Student Union-UAW 2322, Sara V. Speller, PhD Candidate, Harvard University, Graduate Student Union-UAW 5118, Lily Luo, PhD Candidate, University of Connecticut, Graduate Employees Union-UAW 6950, and Matthew M. Bodah, Labor Arbitrator & Mediator and Professor Emeritus, University of Rhode Island, Moderator.
Retrenchment and Layoff Procedures: Negotiating and Arbitrating with Peter A. Jones, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, David Kinsella, PSU-AAUP Vice President for Collective Bargaining and Professor of Political Science, Portland State University, Gary Rhoades, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, and Adrienne Lu, Senior Reporter, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Moderator.
Staff Bargaining Issues in Higher Education with Roberta Elins, Immediate Past President, United College Employees/AFT Local 3457, FIT, SUNY, Ashley C. Pope, General Counsel, Suffolk County Community College, Christine O’Connell, President, Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT Local #1766, Dominick Fanelli, Director, Labor Relations, Staff Human Resources, University of Michigan, and William Conley, Director of Conciliation, New York State Public Employment Relations Board, Moderator.
Annual Legal Update (CLE) with Damien DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, Amy L. Rosenberger, Willig, Williams & Davidson, Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Brian Selchick, Cullen and Dykman LLP, and Ayanna T. Blake, Director Labor Relations, Weill Cornell Medicine, Moderator.
To help celebrate the National Center’s 53rd annual conference, we encourage higher education institutions, unions, law firms, and companies to become a sponsor of our 2026 annual conference. For sponsorship information, refer to our Sponsorship Opportunities document.
Through a conference sponsorship you will demonstrate support for the National Center’s continuing labor-management mission and research agenda.
Another important way to celebrate the National Center’s 53rd annual conference and demonstrate support for our mission and research is for your institution, union, law firm, organization or company to place an advertisement in the conference program. For more information on ad placement, refer to our Ad Order form.
Please email us with any questions at: msavares@hunter.cuny.edu.
The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions is pleased to announce its new Contract Research Site, an annual contribution-based platform.
This unique Site will be valuable to negotiators, union representatives, administrators, law firms, and others involved in or studying higher education collective bargaining.
It includes a search engine to research the terms of hundreds of collective bargaining agreements in higher education. It will also provide filters to permit research by institution, institution type, unit type, bargaining agent, sector, and state.
Access to the Site will require a registration and an annual contribution to the National Center in the amounts set forth below. The contribution will permit a set number of identified individual users to use the Site. A contributor will also be entitled to be listed as a sponsor of our annual conference.
The Site went live on October 1, 2025 for those entities that registered and made the contribution
Keep a step ahead in negotiations and in your research by registering for the Contract Research Site today.
Register and Contribute For User Access at the Contract Research SiteThe National Center is pleased to announce its latest publication: Anti-Discrimination Clauses in Higher Education Collective Bargaining Agreements. The study is based on research that led to the publication in September of our 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Higher Education. The purpose of this study is to assist negotiators, labor representatives, and administrators in developing, amending, and implementing anti-bias contract provisions.
The study includes excerpted anti-discrimination text from 30 collective bargaining agreements negotiated by different nationally-affiliated unions and institutions at all levels of higher education from across the country involving tenured and tenure track faculty, non-tenure track faculty, postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers, and graduate student employees. For each contract, the monograph includes the contract's anti-discrimination clause and the relevant negotiated procedure concerning enforcement when the contract does not permit, limits, or modifies the use of the standard grievance-arbitration procedure to enforce the anti-discrimination clause. In addition, the monograph includes a hyperlink to each contract to permit the contextualization of the excerpted provisions within the terms of the entire agreement.
Download the Report on Anti-Discrimination Clauses
Order a Hard Copy of the Report
Download the Publication Copy
Collective bargaining offers unions and institutions of higher education a mechanism for establishing comprehensive, legally binding anti-discrimination provisions. In contrast to aspirational declarations, negotiated contracts can manifest concrete commitments to equitable practices and equal opportunity. This important new study by the National Center provides valuable insights into this domain. The research highlights exemplary and innovative contractual language addressing discrimination, as well as other collaborative approaches undertaken by unions and administrators to combat discriminatory practices in academic settings. The study's findings are particularly relevant in the current sociopolitical climate, where diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on college campuses face increasing scrutiny and opposition. By codifying anti-discrimination measures within collective bargaining agreements, institutions and unions can establish a robust framework for maintaining equitable practices, even in the face of external pressures.
— Ana Avendaño, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law
Anti-Discrimination Clauses in Higher Education Collective Bargaining Agreements will be an extremely powerful bargaining tool in pursuit of well-tailored examples of anti-discrimination contract provisions relevant to particular workplaces. The contractual anti-discrimination provisions concretely and efficiently presented in this work will carve out joint union-employer commitments to rid workplaces of arbitrary and pernicious discrimination. Picking up where legislatures leave off, these clauses will help unions and institutions build upon state and federal legislative foundations of justice. I cannot recommend this work highly enough.
— Michael C. Duff, Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law and co-director of the Wefel Center for Employment Law
Drawing on the treasure trove of the National Center’s 2024 repository of collective bargaining agreements, this monograph provides tools for both unions and employers in higher education. It is an excellent resource for negotiating provisions aimed at preventing, eliminating, and remedying employment discrimination in colleges and universities. With its many examples of contract provisions, the monograph can be used by negotiators to go above and beyond statutory minimums to create a collective bargaining agreement that advances towards the goal of inclusive, fair, and just institutions of higher education.
— Risa L. Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
The National Center is pleased to announce the publication of the 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Higher Education on the scope of higher education unionization involving faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate and undergraduate student employees. The 2024 Directory includes data and analysis concerning over 900 collective bargaining relationships in higher education through January 1, 2024, and hyperlinks to 813 recent contracts in higher education.
Download the 2024 Directory
Download the Hard Copy of the 2024 Directory
The 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions of Higher Education is an invaluable resource for the field. At the Delphi Project, we have found data to be one of the most important levers for change. Change agents will now have access to data for over 900 collective bargaining relationships and 813 contracts that shed light on ways to improve the working conditions in higher education. The analysis in the 2024 Directory demonstrates the growth of unions by region, institutional type and employee category. The growth of non-tenure track faculty, postdocs, academic researchers, graduate and undergraduate students shows how unionization is becoming a tactic of choice for change.
— Adrianna Kezar, Professor and Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education and the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, University of Southern California
This comprehensive and timely report and update on developments in collective bargaining in higher education provides a treasure trove of data and an inventory of contracts that will serve as invaluable resources to researchers and practitioners working in this sector. Bravo to the army it took to collect, assemble, summarize, and make available all these useful data.
— Thomas A. Kochan, Professor Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management and Institute for Work and Employment Research
The first step towards better labor conditions in academia is knowing the labor conditions of academia. By collecting a broad swath of the collective bargaining agreements that cover academic employees today, the National Center’s 2024 Directory sets us on the right path. The 2024 Directory’s painstakingly gathered yet highly accessible data is an invaluable resource for everyone interested in learning more about employment relationships in academia, from the campus organizer to the scholar of higher education to the parent or legislator.
— Deepa Das Acevedo, JD, PhD, Associate Professor of Law, Emory University