Dr. Jill Biden, left, the First Lady, is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College; like many of our members, she continues to teach remotely during the pandemic. Dr. Miguel Cardona, right, is President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Education. Having public school educators in these high-profile roles gives academic unionists cause for optimism in 2021.

We have so much to look forward to in 2021.

How can that be possible after the year we have been through? I looked back to my February 2020 article in The WORD, and there was not a single mention of Covid. In that article, we celebrated the membership and the Board of Trustees voting to pass our contract proposal. We had been looking forward to the spring 2020 semester—until everything came to a halt.

I do not need to to recap what ensued. Today, nearly one year after the mid-March shutdown, with more than 27.6 million infections in the U.S. and more than 484,000 deaths, we are in a far different place than we were in last February.

Despite the stress and tragedy we’ve experienced in the last year, our union is strong. It’s strong because of you, our members. While our work may seem isolating, our membership has been tuned in to all of the issues we have brought forward over the last year.

In May 2020, we had to defend our contract to the Suffolk County Legislature. We had to do this virtually.

In summer 2020, we had to defend our untenured members and prevent them from being laid off or furloughed. When we brought this to the membership, you answered. More than 300 members showed up to each of our general membership meetings. We had to make that fight virtually.

Through last summer our members in the Center for Innovative Pedagogy and in Instructional Technology Services worked diligently to get as many colleagues as prepared as possible for our first fully remote semester—and they did it all virtually. Both our classroom and non-classroom put in untold hours of labor getting ready so our students could have the best possible experience in fall 2020. They did that extra work virtually.

Toward the end of last summer, we faced an enrollment crisis. Our counselors, educational technology unit (ETU) specialists, and professional assistants worked extraordinarily hard to get students enrolled which helped to close the enrollment gap. This was done both in person and virtually.

In December 2020, we were presented with two strong, academically focused presidential candidates who want to further the college’s mission of educating students. We learned about and weighed in on our choice for the next leader of our institution virtually.

Again, in January 2021, facing another enrollment crisis, our non-classroom members rose to the challenge to meet potential students, in person, during a time of increasing Covid infections in Suffolk County and two variants of the virus suddenly present in the U.S.

We've been through a lot, no doubt. But we remain stubbornly optimistic about the state of our union in 2021.

Currently, we are on the brink of having more opportunities for members to be vaccinated in our local communities. Some have had success navigating the NYS scheduling system. This has become a contest of trial and error as we all are experiencing this frustration. The college has started advocating for certain groups who are working on campus to receive the vaccine. We are continuing to advocate for all of our members working on campus to be added to the list the college is creating. For now, there is a low supply of vaccines and demand is high. There is great anticipation that more vaccines will become available over the next few months, including additional vaccines from other pharmaceutical companies. Kevin McCoy, our health and safety committee chair, has created a clearinghouse of vaccination locations to help you.

The second round of stimulus money from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act 2021 provides students and the college with a little more than $25.5 million in relief. There is hope a third stimulus can help both the county and the state as well.

Also, Dr. Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States is a community college professor and the nominee for Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardona, is a former K-12 educator. This is the first time we have seen educators serving in these roles. Our state and national unions, NYSUT and AFT respectively, find this to be an opportunity to advance educational policy that contributes to student success and opportunity. Check out the New Deal for Higher Education website linked in Kim Ng Southard's adjunct update. Co-sponsored by AFT and AAUP, this campaign brings together unions across the nation to push for progressive change in higher education.

The state of our union is strong but we continue to face many mounting challenges—some of which we’ve never faced before. When these challenges first arose a year ago, our members answered the call; they were active and engaged. As we continue to address these challenges this year, we look forward to more work with our membership. We need to continue finding common points of interest and looking out for all members rather than let outside forces try to divide and conquer us.

The state of our union is strong because all of you, all of us, are strong. When we act together, virtually or in person, it’s the strength of our solidarity that makes us successful.