Stories

103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College

Tula Connell — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:44:29 -0700

Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is an registrar in Maryland. They're all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: The National Labor College.

With a 46-acre campus just outside Washington, D.C., the nation's only labor college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and grants bachelor's and master's degrees. The college evolved from the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, created in 1969, and now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.

On Saturday, 101 students will receive B.A. degrees and two others will be awarded M.A. degrees, as the Labor College graduates its 11th class in a ceremony on the Silver Spring, Md., campus. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will give the commencement address.

The Labor College's mix of on-campus course work and life credit enables full-time workers to complete their higher education and, in many cases, fulfill lifelong dreams: Schaffer, Merkel and Almazan are the first in their families to receive bachelor's degrees.

Almazan, an organizer with the Machinists union, says he enrolled to reach an education goal he set for himself years ago.

My motivation wasn't really because of my career. It was more about just making my parents proud and setting a good example for my kids, my children. That's why I enrolled and pursued it.

Almazan sometimes rose at 4:30 a.m. to work on his assignments before his workday began and, at times, skipped family events to ensure his coursework was completed on time. His parents, migrant farm workers who now have retirement security because of their union pensions, will join him at the graduation ceremonies, as will his six children, one of whom will graduate from the University of Florida within months of her father.

The Labor College enables adults working full-time with families and other commitments to break the barriers they face in pursuing higher education. Merkel, a member of the Office and Professional Employees union, oversees apprentice training programs at the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters union in Maryland. When the union partnered with the Labor College for training programs, Merkel, 48, became inspired to pursue her degree as well. Her curiosity about why more union members don't take advantage of the Labor College's resources sparked her final research paper on the importance of college degrees for union apprentice instructors. In interviewing union members and compiling the data from the results of the 1,800 surveys she sent out, Merkel found that time and money were two important factors holding adults back from pursuing their degrees. But there was another factor: fear. Says Merkel:

It's a sort of a fear of failure. Growing up, I don't know about them...but we didn't grow up with money. My best friend went off to college and I went to work and cried my eyes out because I couldn't go. It just wasn't an option for me. It was a class thing.

Talking with union members about the Labor College, Merkel says she will hear:

"Oh, Cathy, I can't do that. You've got to get one of those smarter, younger guys to do it."

They've been taught all their lives that they're blue-collar workers and that's what they do. They fear academics. It can be intimidating. If I say I'm a welder, if I say I'm a plumber, how seriously does the academic world take me?

And that's what sets the Labor College apart. Says Merkel:

From the minute I walked on the campus, I thought it was a perfect fit for any worker.

A member of the United Steelworkers (USW), Honeycutt is the union's Safety Department coordinator at the Conoco Phillips plant in Ferndale, Wash., and tailored her final research project at the Labor College to address workplace safety and health issues. She created a database from the past 20 years of the refinery's morbidity and mortality reports and shared the information with other union members on the USW's Conoco Phillips Council, which includes workers from plants nationwide. Her research turned up an unexpectedly high number of lower back injuries, which she now seeks to address.

Honeycutt, mother of three college-aged children, says her double major in Safety and Health and Union Leadership and Administration was

so interlinked to everything I do. It taught me how to research stuff, locale stuff, report writing, that of course is way beneficial here, because what I do is write reports.

She credits members of the Fire Fighters with giving her the inspiration for creating a database from job safety reports, a cross-pollination of ideas that occurred because of the time she spent with other union members at the Labor College.

I think the strength of NLC is because you have that diverse group of unions. It was such an eye-opener to me to see how other people do things. I know so many different people from so many different unions.

Schaffer, whose grandfather was part of the famous 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia, spends evenings teaching sheet metal apprentices at the Sheet Metal Workers International Training Institute after working full-time as a sheet metal worker at Aerofab in Dayton, Ohio. He says the structure of the college is "very helpful for somebody that's been out of school for a long time" and getting the opportunity to attend was "an unbelievable dream."

Like Honeycutt, Shaffer says the opportunity to meet union members from around the country at the Labor College campus was a key part of his experience, including the 25 members of Sheet Metal Worker unions nationwide--the most from any union in this graduating class--who will join Honeycutt in graduating this weekend.

Meeting all the different union people--that was great. There were lots of sheet metal workers in the program. We'd sit at night and talk about how they do things in their local that's totally different from Huntington [West Virginia].

Now Schaffer, who has worked 22 years in the industry, hopes his B.A. in Labor Education will help advance his career as trainer. His achievement already has thrilled his family, especially his mother, who passed away in April. Schaffer, who is heart-broken his mother will not see him graduate, consoles himself with the knowledge that she read his final research paper, which described the Blair Mountain battle her father took part in.

She was so proud to have a child who was getting ready to graduate.

Another benefit: Schaffer says his degree also makes it easier to encourage his daughter, Lori, to finish college and his high school son, Matthew, to attend.

Merkel isn't alone in encouraging union co-workers to enroll. Says Almazan, who already has recruited two new students:

I'm trying to promote and encourage other members of our union that are seeking a degree to go there, that is geared toward our kind of lifestyle that will assist you in attaining a degree.

The Labor College enables working adults to obtain higher education many thought was long out of reach. It provides students with valuable skills they can take back to their workplaces and their unions. It also opens up for them the bigger picture of the U.S. union movement--it's short-term goals, long-term accomplishments and network of activism.

Honeycutt says the Labor College

gave me a broader sense of union policies and priorities, just introduced you to the bigger picture which never think about--you've got your own little world. It gives you deeper appreciation for why we matter. We really do a lot of good. We really do matter.

Adds Merkel:

The Labor College shows you what a sisterhood and brotherhood means.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College

Tula Connell — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:35:21 -0700

Almazan, an organizer with the Machinists union, says he enrolled to reach an education goal he set for himself years ago.

My motivation wasn't really because of my career. It was more about just making my parents proud and setting a good example for my kids, my children. That's why I enrolled and pursued it.

It's a sort of a fear of failure. Growing up, I don't know about them...but we didn't grow up with money. My best friend went off to college and I went to work and cried my eyes out because I couldn't go. It just wasn't an option for me. It was a class thing.

Talking with union members about the Labor College, Merkel says she will hear:

"Oh, Cathy, I can't do that. You've got to get one of those smarter, younger guys to do it."

They've been taught all their lives that they're blue-collar workers and that's what they do. They fear academics. It can be intimidating. If I say I'm a welder, if I say I'm a plumber, how seriously does the academic world take me?

And that's what sets the Labor College apart. Says Merkel:

From the minute I walked on the campus, I thought it was a perfect fit for any worker.

Honeycutt, mother of three college-aged children, says her double major in Safety and Health and Union Leadership and Administration was

so interlinked to everything I do. It taught me how to research stuff, locale stuff, report writing, that of course is way beneficial here, because what I do is write reports.

I think the strength of NLC is because you have that diverse group of unions. It was such an eye-opener to me to see how other people do things. I know so many different people from so many different unions.

Meeting all the different union people--that was great. There were lots of sheet metal workers in the program. We'd sit at night and talk about how they do things in their local that's totally different from Huntington [West Virginia].

She was so proud to have a child who was getting ready to graduate.

Another benefit: Schaffer says his degree also makes it easier to encourage his daughter, Lori, to finish college and his high school son, Matthew, to attend.

Merkel isn't alone in encouraging union co-workers to enroll. Says Almazan, who already has recruited two new students:

I'm trying to promote and encourage other members of our union that are seeking a degree to go there, that is geared toward our kind of lifestyle that will assist you in attaining a degree.

Honeycutt says the Labor College

gave me a broader sense of union policies and priorities, just introduced you to the bigger picture which never think about--you've got your own little world. It gives you deeper appreciation for why we matter. We really do a lot of good. We really do matter.

Adds Merkel:

The Labor College shows you what a sisterhood and brotherhood means.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

Texas Public Education is a Joke!

Loujean Stauffer — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0700

In 1999, when my youngest child was in the 7th grade here in our small rural township school, I was mortified to discover he had no idea how to multiply or any form of higher math.

When I asked his school how this was possible, as he had made honor row all year long, it was then I learned even more disturbing news. He was only reading in a 4th grade level as well!

Any reasonable parent I demanded an answer to that! What I was told made me ill!

It seems since my son was in special education and had ADHD he was not expected to master anything so he was never encouraged to even try!

I don't know who I was more mad at, the school or my ignorance.

I had been fooled into believing my son was an honor student and on target with his studies. If I had been informed differently there was nothing I would not have done to help him. But since I hadn't been kept appraised of the situation I did the only thing that seemed logical, and for my son, it turned out to be the perfect solution.

I took him out of public education and home schooled him.

After 30 minutes of one on one instruction in multiplication, he just took off. 5 yrs later when he graduated from "Our Family High School" he had taught ME trig and had a better vocabulary then most College graduates.

His former teachers where astonished when I told them they wanted to know what I did to help him? They still refuse to believe that I didn't give him hours of 1 on 1 attention, as they insisted they were unable to do because of class size, time and budget etc... I heard all the excuses.

The truth is, besides the 30 minutes of time I took to explain the times tables to him all I did was present the material to him and HE taught himself! What does that say about where our schools are today?

Our children deserve more...

Margaret Deavers-Dupree — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Our children in Florida deserve a better and more individualized education than what they are getting because each child is different. This is especially so with our children with disabilities, because even when they test a child and they know they need help, they don't. With my son, his test scores were low and he was in special classes up North since Pre-K, but he did not receive special classes when we came down to Florida. They tested him and said that his test scores were low but not low enough, so they couldn't do more than speak about it. They have kept him in all special classes right know because I have been the squeeky wheel, but how about all the other kids and parents? We shouldn't have to go through what I went through to get our kids what they need and deserve.

First Generation

Maribel Cachu — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0800

I am the first student on both sides of my parents family to attend a four year university. Everyday I am told how proud everyone is of me. The fact that financial aid might be getting cut even more means this accomplished I have worked so hard for may not be there for me to finish. My family is considered middle class, but even so, it is difficult for them to keep up with the cost and payments on everything. I have a younger sister following in my footsteps and I do not want her to feel like she will not be able to continue her dreams due to tuition raising. I ask that on behalf of all students who have dreams, that financial aid not be cut. Education is the way to the United States future and without it we will surely fail.

A College Education Should Be Available to Everyone

C.J. Meakes — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0800

I have been deeply disturbed by the direction this country is turning in regards to funding for education. Since you asked about college funding in your email of 1/13/05 I will stick to that, but needless to say, there is just as much that could be said about what is wrong with K-12 school funding as well.

Here is my personal story with attending college; this is coming from someone who has been through UC Los Angeles as an undergraduate and UC Berkeley as a graduate student, but started out as a child on welfare living in sliding rent apartments. I grew up the only child of a single mother - one who battled depression, disability, poverty and my dad to get child support. We lived in tons of different apartments and houses, never "on the right side of the tracks." I guess the one location that can sum it up was the house that was across the street from a methamphetamine lab where 4 children lived. My mom, unlike at least some of the poor people around me, knew how to control her money and be responsible with it and never wasted it. But there was never enough, and more than a few times we were the recipients of food baskets from churches, gleaners, etc. She always said I could do whatever I wanted and told me I should go to college.

When I graduated high school and applied to college, I was awarded a $2500 scholarship to UC Davis. But the tuition was more than that, and I would have to pay for my living expenses on top of that. We talked to the financial aid office at UCD at the time, and they didn’t seem to help much. They gave us a budget plan that estimated it would like cost around $12,000 per year for me to attend, more than my mom even made each year.

So I went to a community college. Despite all of that earlier stuff I got lucky. My Grandfather (the only one in our family with any money, and actually not very much I later realized) had agreed to give me $2500 per year while I was successfully completing my bachelor’s degree. Tuition at the community college was low, and I actually got it waived through the Pell Grant system. The Pell Grant also gave me $3000 per year. I also worked about 20 hours per week. With those three sources of money, I was able to make it through the three years at the community college level. Since my experience tuition at community colleges has doubled, and the Bush administration has cut Pell Grants, even to the poorest of students.

Then I applied to the UC System. I was scared. Tuition was more than $3000 per year. Rent around all the good UC campuses is exorbitant. I knew I was going to have to take out loans. I got a measly $500 scholarship to UCLA for my first year there (I had a 3.95 GPA from the community college). My rent was $800 per month (~80% of what my mom made at the time, so she couldn’t help). I was able to get Cal Grants, but they made it very clear I would only be eligible two years. The Cal Grants covered my tuition, and gave me enough left over for my text books and about ½ month worth of rent. I couldn’t find a job through the work grants on campus because most of them were during class hours, and working off campus was unfeasible due to time constraints, which were magnified by the Cal Grant constraints – I HAD to finish my intensive major (engineering) in two years, because my main source of funding would be cut off after that. I took out loans each year I was there, and the summer session which I had to attend in order to finish within the Cal Grants constraints. They made us go to loan workshops where they scare you with stories of people graduating with all these loans and not being able to pay them off – of having to pay them off like their entire working career, not being able to buy a house, etc. I didn’t need to be scared by these people – I was already scared stiff – I was borrowing HUGE sums of money in my world, amounts rivaling my moms entire yearly income. But I had come SO far, I was determined to see it through, and if I had to take out loans then I had to. Other students around me were driving Lexus SUVs their parents had bought them. Again, I got lucky. My second year at UCLA I was ‘IN’ at the Alumni Association, which had given me the $500 scholarship my first year. My second year I got two scholarships through them – one for $3000 and one for $4000, plus the Cal Grant still paid my tuition. So I didn’t have to take out such a large amount in loans the second year. And now Cal Grants have been cut and tuition raised even more. And rents in these places never go up, and dorms are no cheaper.

I went to work for a couple of years, and then decided I wanted to go back to graduate school. Again I got lucky. My department at UC Berkeley paid my graduate tuition, and gave me a stipend (I had graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA). The tuition when I applied in January 2003 was around $5000 per year, but was around $6200 by the time I enrolled in August. My degree was technically done in one year; if I had stayed the extra year I wanted to my tuition would have been ~$7500 for the next year. Since the department was paying for several students like me out of its own coffers, with the tuition raises they could help fewer and fewer students each year. Plus, their stipends were based on Academics, not financial need.

But one thing that saddened me just as much as the tuition raises and grant cuts was that pretty much ALL of the graduate students around me were from rich backgrounds. At UC Berkeley in my graduate classes, the kids talked about trips Colorado for skiing, trips to Europe and Asia, South America and even Antarctica. I met a lot of nice, smart people. But they were mostly rich and white (there were no Latinos, one was black – a rich person from Haiti). Back at UCLA I had gone to a scholarship appreciation dinner at UCLA, and I was sitting with Alumni Association staff and donors. One of the staffers told me that UCLA had only admitted ~25 non-athlete black males that year. That school has about 10,000 new students each year.

That is the thing that just stings me from the inside looking back: not one other person from my old neighborhoods has gone to college, and if you went onto a UC campus and did a survey I would guarantee you would find a much bigger percentage of rich kids than actually exist in society in general. Especially in graduate school, but even definitely at the undergraduate level.

I have heard that 1 out of 2 kids from families that make over like $100,000 (?) per year go to college, but only 1 out of 17 kids from families that make under like $15,000 - $20,000 (?) go to college. And I would believe it. The obstacles to going to college are massive when you come from a family that makes so little. There may be no knowledge of what you can do with a college education, there are likely no role models, and parents may be scared to send children off to something they’ve never experienced. And when tuition is a quarter to a half of what your family lives off of, and the financial aid offices are rude and unhelpful and won’t guarantee or even give you hope for anything (5 out of 5 college financial aid offices I have dealt with are like this), and all the news is that tuition is raising, grants are being cut, and rent is $1000 near the college, then going to college seems, and for many IS, impossible. I made it, but I know I was lucky at every step of the way, given things that many students are not ($2,500 per year from my grandfather, the Pell Grant, Cal Grant, major academic based Scholarships at two UCs, etc). Plus, since I went through school tuition has risen, and Pell and Cal Grants have gone down, all while campus enrollment rates were slowed. Even the student loan system I used the Bush administration is now talking about scaling back on.

I don’t know if I have conveyed it, but my main message, from first hand experience, is that a good college education is not dispersed evenly in this country. Many factors, especially the all important dollar, keep poor people from attending college, even if they are more able and qualified than the rich person who goes in their place.

Every Child Left Behind

Sandra Goggin — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:56:15 -0800

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a retired school teacher specializing in early childhood education. I was a part of a wonderful preschool program in the Detroit Pubic Schools sponsored by the State of Michigan with help from the Government, during the previous administration. The previous Republican Governor made it a point to do everything he could to dismantle the public school system in Detroit as well as other inner city school systems. Charter Schools and Vouchers, (which should be illegal) have taken over 35,000 children out of the system. This president has put in mandates with No Child Left Behind that are inappropriate for 4 and 5 years olds, underfunded the program and demanded tests that are not developmentally sound. Of course an old family friend McGraw Hill is being handsomely rewarded by publishing an absolutely terrible reading course called Open Court which is not developmentally appropriate for 4 year olds. They have disregarded all of the research, studies, and progress made in the past. This year, the preschools were told that they would have no supplies. The reason is because so much money has been diverted to Charter Schools that the public schools are now going through a wholesale closing with hundreds of teachers being laid off, several hundred schools closing, and children being moved around. Charter schools do not necessarily have to accept a child and usually leave the public school with those children in all grades who need the most help. Naturally they will fail without necessary things they need to learn and class sizes skyrocketing because of the consolidation of schools. Hundreds of schools are closed in Detroit. The State cannot pay for these schools and the Federal Government won't either. This to me is a direct result of this president wanting Charter Schools to take over the school system. Every time a school closes, a charter school buys it. Their test scores are not as good as public schools, and they get the money for each child. If a child returns to the public school system, the money does not go back to the schools. The Charter School keeps the money. He has privatized the custodians, allowing only one custodian for five schools. The other day, some schools had to be dismissed because there was not a custodian available to run the furnaces on a cold snowy day. The preschool has been changed from a wonderful program that was succeeding into a scripted program with no supplies or equipment, and one that does not teach critical thinking, takes away time from other subjects and the children are bored, crying, and hate this program. Parents who have had children in the old program notice the difference in the classroom when they enroll younger children. What is happening in Detroit is a travesty. It has been deliberately planned so that the federal government will not have to pay for inner city children. With federal cuts, the state cannot make up the difference. None of these things make national news. How can we as a nation stand by and allow these things to happen? It will only get worse as more school systems are forced to buy into No Child Left Behind. If they don't, funds are cut off.....what pittance is given to them. THIS IS WRONG. Charter schools are a big part of the reason a whole school system is being dismantled. I am appalled and angry even though I am retired. Parents, please question the legality of Charter Schools or this could be happening to your school system in the future. I remain an advocate for children...all children. What is happening in the inner city is unforgivable.

Bush's Budget Cuts

Tony Cochran — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0800

I live with my grandparents who maintain a minimum standard of living; needless to say, we have little in terms of money. Cuts in grants and aid to colleges affects me deeply; I am an undergraduate and Rogue Community College. My major is in Social Work because I am saddened by the suffering poverty causes. I am deeply concerned about the direction President Bush is taking our nation. He seems to be reversing all the major welfare progressions of the 1960s and 1970s. His massive cuts in social programs are affecting millions of working class Americans -- my family included.