Unions and students join together to advocate for better public policy
EDISON… The Higher Education Leadership Council is an alliance of stakeholders working to advance opportunities for affordable, high-quality higher education at institutions committed to academic integrity and respect for workers, according to Donna M. Chiera, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey (AFTNJ), the largest higher education union in the state.
The new coalition has identified legislation for the upcoming session that will help students including bills mandating flexibility for pregnant graduate students, extending earned sick leave to workers and bolstering manufacturing and trade education, according to lobbyist Pete Guzzo. There is also an important bill to determine a higher education funding formula. For future sessions, the group has identified bills that make college more affordable, empower campus stakeholders on governing boards, and protect jobs from outsourcing.
“We believe that students, faculty and staff have the knowledge, ideas and solutions to improve New Jersey higher education and should be included in policy decisions in Trenton, in Washington, and on every campus,” said Chiera.
Rutgers professor Dan O’Connor from New Jersey’s State Conference of the American Association of University Professors (NJAAUP) said, “In addition to promoting affordability, we believe our schools need the guarantee of academic freedom to promote rich dialogue and achievement in our classrooms, in scholarship and in conducting research.”
Rutgers faculty, health professionals who previously worked at UMDNJ and administrative staff are represented in AFT locals at the university and joined the coalition. “We formed this group to articulate sound public policy from a stakeholder perspective,” said Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT. “Our members are on the campuses, in classrooms and labs, and providing healthcare and other critical services in our communities.”
New Jersey United Students (NJUS) is a statewide student association working to build student power. “We believe that education’s empowerment of the mind is a human right,” said vice president Hanna Rothenberg, a Ramapo College student. “To make it so, NJUS needs legislators to provide the appropriate funding and resources for students of all identities and income levels.”
The Council of New Jersey State College Locals represents faculty and professional staff at the five state universities and four state colleges. College Council president Tim Haresign said, “New Jersey’s higher education system needs to be guided by ethical policies, with accountability and transparency so that precious resources are invested wisely. While it is easy to be critical of individual instances of waste, fraud and abuse from college management, we believe solutions exist in coordination—not competition—among schools and more statewide programs such as purchasing, cross-enrollment for students and sharing adjunct faculty to create full time positions.”
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The Higher Education Leadership Council is an alliance of students, faculty and staff working to advance opportunities for affordable, high-quality higher education at institutions committed to academic integrity and respect for workers. We represent approximately 31,000 faculty and staff at the following institutions:
American Federation of Teachers New Jersey (AFTNJ)
|
AFTNJ |
Middlesex County College | Raritan Valley Community College |
| Mercer County Community College | United Council of Academics at NJIT | |
| AFT Rutgers | ||
| Rutgers AAUP-AFT | Union of Rutgers Administrators | |
| Rutgers AAUP-AFT Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter | ||
| Council of New Jersey State College Locals-AFT | ||
| The College of New Jersey | Stockton University | |
| Kean University | Rowan University, Cooper Medical School | |
| Montclair State University | Thomas Edison State College | |
| NJ City University/A. Harry Moore School | William Paterson University | |
| Ramapo College of New Jersey | ||
| United Adjunct Faculty of New Jersey-AFT | ||
| Bergen Community College | Mercer County Community College | |
| Camden County College | Middlesex County College | |
| County College of Morris | Passaic County Community College | |
| Essex County College | Sussex County | |
| Hudson County Community College | Union County College | |
Health Professionals and Allied Employees-AFT
|
HPAE |
University Correctional HealthCare Medical Health at Rutgers Nurses | University Hospital/Rutgers/Rowan Nurses |
| University Hospital/Rutgers/Rowan Professional Staff |
New Jersey American Association of University Professors (NJAAUP)
|
NJAAUP |
Bloomfield College | Rider University |
| Centenary College | Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences | |
| Drew University | Rutgers AAUP-AFT | |
| Georgian Court University | Saint Peters University | |
| Monmouth University | Seton Hall | |
| New Jersey Institute of Technology | Union County College | |
| Princeton Theological Seminar |
NJ American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (NJ AFL-CIO)
New Jersey United Students
Download Above list of HELC institutions