Two undergraduates are working as research assistants this academic year at Hunter College’s National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
Senior Daniel Cronin and sophomore Jenna Salem will be conducting research and writing about unionization and collective bargaining for Hunter’s labor-research center and will be helping with the National Center’s annual conference, which will take place on March 23–25, 2025, at Roosevelt House and the CUNY Graduate Center.
“We are pleased to have these outstanding students working with us,” said Distinguished Lecturer and National Center Executive Director William A. Herbert. “Daniel and Jenna demonstrate the academic rigor and sensitivity to social justice we encourage and expect from Hunter students.”
The National Center functions as a CUNY labor-management research center and as an important bulwark fortifying the academy, the professions, and labor relations on campus. It brings together administrators and labor representatives from around the country to explore trends in collective bargaining and labor relations. The National Center just published the 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions of Higher Education on the scope of higher education unionization involving faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate and undergraduate student employees. The center also holds national and regional conferences and publishes a monthly newsletter.
Cronin, a History, Political Science, and Classical Studies major, is the vice chair of the college Senate and the external affairs commissioner of the Undergraduate Student Government. He has worked with the New York City Council, the CUNY College Completion Innovation Fund, and as a Roosevelt Institute fellow.
Salem is a Political Science major with a focus on Pre-Law and is pursuing certificates in Human Rights and Public Policy. She holds a research fellowship at CUNY’s Climate Justice HUB and an internship at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development.
