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.
The 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.
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 next year's conference. Additional sessions will be announced over the next few weeks.
Education 4 All with Michael Gavin, President, Delta College, Paulette Granberry Russell, J.D., President, National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, Stephanie J. Fujii, President, Arapahoe 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 in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, and Kathryn Ritchie, M.A. Candidate in Adolescent Social Studies Education, Hunter College. Commentators will be Rana Jaleel, Associate Professor, University of California-Davis and Nicholas DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, with moderator Risa L. Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University.
Equity at Work? Gender, Parenthood, and Benefits in Higher Education with Rhiannon M. Maton, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Foundations and Social Advocacy, State University of New York, Cortland, Affiliated Researcher, National Center, Carrie Rohman, Ph.D., Professor of English, Lafayette College, Editor, SUNY Press (2025) “Broken Record: Gendered Abuse in Academia”, Eve Weinbaum, Ph.D., President, Massachusetts Society of Professors and Professor of Sociology & Labor Studies, UMass Amherst, Professor of Sociology, UMass Amherst, Melissa Sortman, Assistant Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Michigan State University, and Shirley Lin, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Moderator.
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 at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Commentator, and Frederick P. Schaffer, former General Counsel, CUNY, Moderator. (Panel in formation).
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, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, CUNY, Kelly McElroy, Librarian and Associate Professor, Oregon State University (OSU), Angelo Moreno, Organizer, AFSCME Council 31, 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 and Kathy Sheffield, CFA Director of Representation and Bargaining, Moderator. (Workshop in formation).
Stress Reduction for Faculty, Administrators, Student Employees, and Staff with facilitators Serena Rice, M.S., Project Manager, UMass Lowell and Courtney Hill, LCSW, CSWM Social Services Specialist, NYSUT. (Workshop in formation).
Ensuring Equitable AI Transitions in Higher Education Workplaces and Beyond with Joy Ming, Postdoc, Cornell ILR, Dibyendu Mishra, PhD Student, Cornell Information Science, Ayham Boucher, Head of AI Innovations, Cornell Information Technologies, and Ariel Avgar, Professor, Cornell ILR.
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, J.D., Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, Oakland Community College, Cameron Redden, Ed.D., Executive Director, Presidential Initiatives & Strategic Management, Cuyahoga Community College, Deborah H. Williams, J.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Johnson County Community College, Former JCCC Faculty Association President and Lead Negotiator, Eric Rader, AFT’s Higher Ed's Policy and Program Council and AI Task Force, President, AFT Local, Henry Ford Community College, and Martin Balinsky, Ph.D., Professor Tallahassee State College, President, United Faculty of Florida-Tallahassee State College, Moderator.
Litigation Update and Administrative Remedies in Defense of Federal Research Funding (CLE) with Amanda Fuchs Miller, Seventh Street Strategies, Rachel Homer, Democracy Forward, and Jessica Alvarez, Interim General Counsel, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator. (Panel in formation).
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 English Professor, Southwestern College and San Diego Miramar College, Michael Buchler, Professor of Music Theory, Florida State University and co-chief negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU, Geoffery Johnson, adjunct English and Humanities Professor, San Diego Mesa and 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 Pollit, NYSUT Regional Director, John Gross, Ingerman Smith LLP, Christopher Mestecky, Guercio and Guercio LLP, and Katie Rosen, Arbitrator and Mediator, Moderator.
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 of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at Syracuse University, and Karen R. Stubaus, Vice President of Academic Affairs Emerita at Rutgers University and Affiliated Researcher at the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. (Panel in formation).
Union Leaders of Color Transforming Higher Education and Centering Democracy with María del Mar Rosa Rodríguez, Professor Hispanic Studies, Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Cayey, President, Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios (APPU), Charles Toombs, Professor of Africana Studies, San Diego State University, Immediate Past President, California Faculty Association, Michelle Ramos Pellicia, Professor of World Languages and Hispanic Literature, California State University, San Marcos, Vice President, California Faculty Association, Tracey Salisbury, Associate Professor, Chair, Ethnic Studies, California State University, Bakersfield, Associate Vice President, South, California Faculty Association, and Margarita Berta-Avila, Professor of Education, Sacramento State University, President, California Faculty Association, Moderator.
Opportunities for Collaboration to Protect International and Immigrant Students with César Moreno Pérez, Senior Associate Director, Human Rights & Community Relations Department, AFT, Diego N. Sánchez, Esq. Director of Policy and Strategy, Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Danielle Dirocco, Higher Education Organizational Specialist, National Education Association, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Affiliated Researcher, National Center for Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, Moderator.
Turnover the Other Cheek: Challenges of Collective Bargaining for Graduate Assistant Populations with Cassandra Urbenz, UF GAU President and NEA Graduate Committee, University of Florida, Tessa Barber, USF GAU President, NEA Graduate Committee, University of South Florida and United Faculty of Florida, VP of GAU Bargaining Council, Michael Eagen, Associate Provost, Academic Personnel, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ayanna Thomas, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University, and Rebecca S. Natow, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy, Director, EdD Program in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and MSEd Program in Higher Education Leadership & Policy Studies, Hofstra University, Moderator.
Creative Responses to Persistent Inequities of Contingent Labor in Community Colleges with Jennifer Shanoski, Faculty, Merritt College, Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, Past President, Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges, Colena Sesanker, Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, Connecticut State Community Colleges, Christine Mangino, President, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, and Robin G. Isserles, Faculty, BMCC, CUNY, Discussant and Moderator.
The Crisis of Collegiate Black Male Identity: Education, Work, and Democracy with Ajah Hawley-Alexander: Clinical Lecturer, Iona University, Doctoral Candidate, University of Southern Mississippi, Rolando Shannon: Doctoral Candidate at Tennessee State University, Interim Assistant Athletic Director of Student Development, and Nicole Arrighi, NCAA Faculty Representative, Tennessee State University. (Panel in formation).
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 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