Chicago
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
Susan J. Schurman, Ph.D., has presided over the National Labor College since 1997. This has been a period of unprecedented change and challenge for the labor movement and for the college.
Ten years ago, the college began offering its own Bachelor of Arts program and Union Skills courses. Under President Schurman’s leadership, in 2002 the college began its accreditation review process. In 2004, the college won accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an independent, regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. This is the first time in history—anywhere in the world—that any college founded and sponsored by a labor movement has gained independent accreditation.
President Schurman continued to lead the college through a historic transformation at an accelerated pace. Facilities were refurbished, a new student residence was built and opened and the campus capacity for teaching, learning and conferencing was expanded with the addition of the new 72,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Lane Kirkland Center.
But not all was physical change and expansion. In 2005, President Schurman secured a $1 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation to create a seamless system of partnerships among community colleges, apprenticeship programs and the college that further removed obstacles between workers and higher education. With the creation of the Bachelor’s in Technical/Professional Studies—an online and distance education degree—workers now have the option of completing degrees online and in their own communities, making the completion of a bachelor’s degree more accessible for younger workers just beginning their careers.
During these years of growth, more than 1,000 union members earned their bachelor’s degrees and have gone on to become key activists, staff and leaders critical to the life and struggle of the labor movement.
Throughout her tenure, Dr. Schurman inspired the labor movement to recognize the critical importance of higher education. She has fought to impress upon all of us that in a modern workplace and a global economy a bachelor’s degree is more important than ever before, and she has fought to make access to higher education a seamless pathway for all workers.
The AFL-CIO has supported President Schurman’s vision by investing in the National Labor College: subsidizing tuition to make higher education costs affordable for all working people, transforming the college into the premier place for unions to meet and improving the physical comfort and appearance of the campus so union members can gather and learn in an environment consistent with great institutions of higher learning, while honoring and respecting the labor movement.
For all these reasons and many more unwritten and unsaid, we thank Dr. Susan J. Schurman, the founding president of the National Labor College, for 10 years of meritorious leadership, innovation and commitment to the highest ideals of labor education.