National Center's 47th Annual Conference: A Major Virtual Success

Click here for the conference program and agenda that was held on October 19-20, 2020.

Video excerpts from the conference are below:

Welcoming Remarks by Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab.

Keynote Address by Steven Greenhouse, the former New York Times labor and workplace correspondent and author of the book Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor (2019).

Plenary: The Student Debt Crisis: History, Consequences, and Post-Pandemic Solutions with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Associate Professor, Loyola University Chicago, Caitlin Zaloom, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, Jennifer Mishory, Senior Fellow and Senior Policy Advisor, Century Foundation, and Suzanne Kahn, Director, Education, Jobs, and Worker Power and the Great Democracy Initiative at the Roosevelt Institute.

Growth in Union Density Among Academic Labor, 2013-2019 with Jacob Apkarian, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Behavioral Sciences, York College, CUNY and National Center Affiliated Researcher, Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY and National Center Affiliated Researcher, and William A. Herbert, Distinguished Lecturer and National Center Executive Director, Moderator and Presenter. Discussants: Gary Rhoades, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, JCBA Co-editor and Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director of the Pullias Center.

Conference Greetings by Christina R. Cutlip, Senior Managing Director, Institutional Relationships, TIAA. 

Negotiating for Part-Time Faculty Equity with Will Silvio, President, Berklee College of Music Faculty Union, Jay Kennedy, Berklee College of Music Vice President for Academic Affairs/Vice Provost, Darryl Wood, NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist, Dia M.Carleton, Chief Human Resources Officer, SUNY Oneonta, and Beth Margolis, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP, Moderator.

Labor as Contingent as Free Speech? An Analysis of Recent Adjunct Faculty First Amendment Cases with Nora Devlin, Doctoral Candidate, Rutgers Graduate School of Education, Stacy Hawkins, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School, Commentator, Martin Malin, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Commentator, and Christopher Simeone, AAUP, Moderator.

Contingent Faculty, Job Security, and Academic Freedom with Carl Levine, Levy Ratner P.C., Keila Tennant, Associate General Counsel and VP for Labor Relations, The New School, Sonam Singh, former Unit Chair, BCF-UAW Local 2110, and Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, Office of the Provost, York University, Moderator.

Collective Bargaining from All Sides: Unionism, the Faculty Senate, Contingent Faculty, and Academic Administration with Naomi R. Williams, Assistant Professor, Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University, Nelson Ouellet, Associate Professor, Université de Moncton, David Hamilton Golland, Professor, History, Governors State University, Jon E. Bekken, Professor, Communications, Albright College, and Theodore H. Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University, Moderator.

Higher Education Funding After the Pandemic with Fred Floss, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics and Finance, SUNY Buffalo State University and Fiscal Policy Institute, Senior Fellow, Thomas Anderson, Executive Director, Union of Part-Time Faculty, AFT Local 477, AFL-CIO, Thomas L. Harnisch, Vice President for Government Relations, and Sophia Laderman, Senior Policy Analyst, State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO).

Race and Labor In Historical and Contemporary Contexts with Bill Fletcher, Jr. author and activist, former president of TransAfrica Forum, and Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. Discussants: Derryn Moten, Alabama State University, co-president of the Alabama State University Faculty-Staff Alliance and a vice president of the Alabama AFL-CIO and Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Executive Vice Chancellor and Associate Professor, Sociology, Office of the Chancellor, Rutgers University—Newark. DeWayne Sheafter, National Council for Higher Education, National Education Association, Moderator.

Black Lives Matter on Campus and Beyond with Calvin Smiley, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Hunter College, CUNY, Paul Ortiz, University of Florida Chapter President, United Faculty of Florida NEA-AFT, Terri Givens, CEO and Founder, Center for Higher Education Leadership, Elijah Armstrong, Organizational Specialist in Human and Civil Rights, National Education Association, and Alethea Taylor, Doctoral Lecturer/Internship Site Developer, Hunter College - School of Education, Department of Educational Foundations and Counseling, Participant and Moderator.

Title IX Regulations: Bargaining Issues for Unions and Institutions with Rana Jaleel, Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, University of California, Davis, Lance Houston, University EEO, Inc., Debra Osofsky, Negotiator, Educator and Contract Specialist, and Judi Burgess, Director of Labor Relations, Boston University, Moderator.

Affirmative Action in Higher Education, Post-Pandemic with Cara McClellan, Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Risa Lieberwitz, General Counsel, AAUP and Professor of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Victor Goode, Associate Professor, CUNY Law School, and Lili Palacios-Baldwin, Deputy General Counsel for Labor, Employment & Litigation, Tufts University, Moderator.

The Equal Rights Amendment and Higher Education with Julie Suk, Dean for Master’s Programs and Professor, Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, Elizabeth Schneider, Rose L. Hoffer Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Jessica Neuwirth, Distinguished Lecturer and Rita E. Hauser Director, Human Rights Program, Roosevelt House, Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, CUNY, and Wendi Lazar, Partner, Outten & Golden, Moderator.

The Old Wolf, Again: Latinx Faculty Negotiations, Recruitment, Retention, and Racism in the Academy with Theresa Montaño, California State University, Northridge, Chicana/o Studies, California Faculty Association, José Luis Morín, Chairperson, Department of Latin American and Latinx Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, José Cintrón, Professor, College of Education, CSU Sacramento, California Faculty Association, and Michael Ortiz, Sul Ross University.

LGBTQ Labor Issues in Higher Education After Bostock v. Clayton County with Barbara J. Diamond, Diamond Law, Portland, Oregon, Mellissa Sortman, Director of Academic Human Resources, Michigan State University, Elizabeth S. Hough, Counsel to the President, United University Professions, and Elizabethe C. Payne, Founder and Director, Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI) and faculty at CUNY, Moderator.

Mass Incarceration and Higher Education with Patrick Mitchell, Board Member, Community College Association, CTA, NEA, Michelle Jones, Doctoral Student, New York University, Vivian Nixon, Columbia University Teaching Fellow, and Bidhan Chandra Roy, College of Arts and Letters, California State University, Los Angeles, Participant and Moderator.

Reasonable Accommodations for Faculty and Teaching Assistants with Jamie Daniel, Former National Field Service Representative, AAUP, Laura Yvonne Bulk, President, CUPE Local 2278 (Canadian Union of Public Employees), PhD Candidate, Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Barbara Aloni, Disability & Productivity Consultant, The Standard Insurance Company, John Rose, Dean for Diversity, Hunter College, CUNY, and Alexandra (Sascha) Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director, Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan, Moderator.

Retirement Plan Trends in the COVID-19 Pandemic with Patricia McConnell, Levy, Ratner, PC, Gary Herzlich, Senior Director, Associate General Counsel, TIAA, Susan E. Bernstein, Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP, and Christina Cutlip, Senior Managing Director, Institutional Relationships, TIAA, Moderator.

Health and Safety Issues and COVID-19 with Deborah Berkowitz, Worker Safety and Health Program Director, National Employment Law Project, Amy Bahruth, Assistant Director for Health and Safety, AFT, Jeffrey Hescock, Executive Director Environmental Health and Safety, UMass Amherst, and Thomas H. Riley, Jr. Executive Director of Labor and Employee Relations and Special Counsel for the University of Illinois System, Moderator.

Unemployment Insurance Policies and Practices: Adjunct Faculty, COVID-19, and Beyond with Michele Evermore, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, National Employment Law Project, George Wentworth, Of Counsel, National Employment Law Project, Arnab Datta, Senior Legislative Counsel, Employ America, and Francisco Diez, Worker Justice Policy Advocate, Center for Popular Democracy, Participant and Moderator.

LERA Higher Education Industry Council Panel: The Changing Place of Labor Studies in Higher Education with Marissa Brookes, University of California, Riverside, Tobias Schulze-Cleven, Rutgers University, Cedric de Leon, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Ruth Milkman, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, Moderator.

We thank TIAA for sponsoring the conference.

As well we thank AFT, SEIU, and The Standard Insurance Company for providing additional financial support.