Higher Education

Eva Menefee (right), winner of winner of MEA’s Jim Davenport Award, nominated by friend and colleague Marcia Mackey (Left) It seemed fitting that Eva Menefee was texting a student when she was named this year’s winner of MEA’s James A. Davenport Award of Merit, which recognizes a member for significant service to higher education statewide and nationally. An academic advisor…

UTSF joined a National Day of Action to protest the Trump administration’s targeting of higher education, including termination of research programs. After years of organizing and hard-fought legal battles, the Union of Tenure System Faculty (UTSF) won recognition from Michigan State University (MSU) in September — part of a growing movement in higher education. After failed unionization efforts in the…

Clear majority of faculty unite to support historic unionization The Union of Tenure System Faculty (UTSF) won recognition from Michigan State University (MSU) yesterday after years of organizing and hard-fought legal battles. A recognition agreement was signed by both parties following a neutral party verification confirming that a clear majority of eligible faculty submitted authorization cards in support of union…

Dr. Kathryn Dirkin, director of Partnerships and Programming at CMU’s MiCAREER hub. By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Like its name, the MiCAREER Resource Hub offers simplicity on the surface and complexity underneath. For current and prospective educators who want to teach or change roles to fill a vacancy in rural schools, it’s simple: The resource hub promises a personalized…

By Chris Curtis Chris Curtis is an award‑winning professor of psychology and former president of the faculty association at Delta College in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Like most professors, I’ve accumulated small gifts from students over my career: a Sigmund Freud pencil sketch, copies of Psychology for Dummies and The Journal of Irreproducible Results, a collection of Peanuts cartoons…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor (L-R) NEA Secretary-Treasurer Noel Candelaria, NCHE President Alec Thomson, MEA Vice President Brett Smith, NCHE Vice President Marcia Mackey Nearly 30 years from the start of his labor activism as a graduate student organizer, MEA member Alec Thomson returned to his union origins on the campus of Wayne State University on Tuesday to protest…

In addition to positive budget proposals for PreK-12 schools, state budget proposals for community colleges and universities are strong as well for 2024-25. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget plan, that came out the beginning of February, calls for a 2.5% increase in funding for the state’s 15 public universities and 28 community colleges. Both the House and Senate are also recommending…

Amy French and colleagues at Delta College use cardboard cutouts and QR codes to highlight the stories of women who’ve shaped history MEA member Amy French disrupts students’ expectations in the history classes she leads at Delta College in Bay County’s University Center by asking at the outset: “So what am I teaching this semester?” French isn’t joking or trying to…

Pictured at a ceremony honoring the Wageners (left to right): SSA President Kathleen Chantaca‑Kubczak, former MEA Vice President Nancy Strachan, SSA Vice President Deb Rickert, MEA Vice President Brett Smith. Deb Rickert joined the support staff association when she began working at Saginaw Valley State University three decades ago, but she wasn’t active in the union for the first 15…

Jackson College professors Mark Ott (left) and Steve Tuckey say acknowledging AI is a must; we can’t stick our heads in the sand or dismiss it as a passing fancy. By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unlike any technological tool that has come along in the history of higher education, and educators and institutions must immediately…