By Brenda Ortega
MEA Voice Editor

There’s a saying going around the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE): “Michigan is in the house.”

That’s because two longtime MEA leaders are transitioning into the top two roles at the national council representing higher education members of NEA.

Alec Thomson from Schoolcraft College in Livonia is the incoming president of NCHE (often pronounced knee-chee) and Marcia Mackey from Central Michigan University will be vice president of the national council beginning Sept. 1.

“It’s a Michigan moment that has grown organically by people participating and encouraging others to step up and get involved over years,” Thomson said. “That’s what we should be as Michigan—we should be a state that has strong union leadership and representatives and policies and programs.”

Thomson is a professor of history and political science who found his career path in a teaching assistantship as a graduate student at Wayne State University. It’s also where he started union activism early as part of the original committee that organized WSU graduate students nearly 30 years ago.

Mackey is a professor of sport management and aquatics who always wanted to be a teacher and has taught at Temple University in addition to holding numerous aquatic posts in various parts of the world. Her union journey began at CMU as a department representative in 1992.

Mackey has been president of MEA’s Michigan Association of Higher Education (MAHE pronounced mah-hee) since 2020, and Thomson is MAHE past president. Both have also been visible and active at the national level via the NEA Higher Education Conference and NCHE for a decade or more.

“It doesn’t matter what hat you wear in higher ed, we’re stronger together,” Mackey said. “You could be considered (support staff) on one campus and considered faculty on another campus. We are all higher ed. We are all one together, and we’re a force to reckon with.”

The pair has a number of priorities they want to pursue as they move into three-year terms at NCHE. Overarching for Thomson is a goal to improve communication in both directions, informing members of what’s happening at NEA and gathering input in return.

“We want to know what people are thinking, what their issues are and how we can advocate for those things,” Thomson said. “And vice versa to say back to them that you are the beneficiary of being part of a large labor union. How do you connect those larger efforts to what you’re doing locally?”

As the lines separating K-12 schools and higher education continue to blur – as dual credit, dual enrollment, and middle college programs continue to spread and evolve – the conversation becomes about K-16 systems, “and we should be a part of that conversation,” he said.

“For me it’s figuring out how best to make a helpful noise within NEA. I want to be putting that into the room every time, which means you have to be willing to show up, to be a participant and a good partner – not just when you see tangible benefits but because it’s good for the organization.”

Student loan debt and the work that NEA members have done to advance the cause of loan forgiveness continues to be an important issue, Thomson said.

“But we’re also fighting on the other side of that one,” he added, “which is to secure and stabilize funding for higher education where we return to understanding it as a societal good and an important societal priority.”

Mackey agreed and specified her interest in addressing loan inequities for students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) who pay higher interest rates and graduate with higher debt even though HBCUs cost less to attend.

She also will continue advocating for Congress to pass a comprehensive reauthorization of the 1965 landmark Higher Education Act, last reauthorized in 2008, to improve college affordability, better diversify college teaching ranks, and open doors of opportunity to more young people.

In addition, Mackey said she will continue her involvement with the NEA gun violence prevention task force, and she sees a need for ongoing dialogue around artificial intelligence in the realm of higher education.

“There’s still so much work to do in many areas, but the AI stuff is just exploding and I think we will be having amazing conversations in reference to it across the board in higher ed – not just with faculty but staff and everybody.”

Asked to recall their progression to national union leadership, both Mackey and Thomson spoke of mentors and friends by name – many now retired or passed on – who encouraged them to apply their interests and talents at the local, regional and state level.

Thomson’s initiation to unionism came as a young and idealistic graduate student on the organizing committee executing a card-signing campaign of his fellows at WSU three decades ago.

“One of the great things I realized in hindsight was a card-signing campaign meant that we basically went out to every place on campus and knocked on people’s doors and visited them in every lab and department,” Thomson said. “I saw every aspect of campus that I never would’ve seen otherwise.”

His world view expanded with every step: at Schoolcraft when he joined committees of the local union before becoming a board member and president for 11 years; as he began attending state-level MAHE meetings and eventually rose to president; and when he first navigated NCHE and NEA to now.

“When you first move out to the state and national level, you start to see your issues are not that unique, and you begin to understand the problems going on in Alpena sound a lot like the issues at Oakland Community College, just like they are at Jackson College,” Thomson said.

“Then you really start to get plugged into the entire union organization, where you can make a connection to what you’re seeing and doing with broader political issues, and you realize you’re part of something bigger.”

As Thomson creates pathways to hear about members’ concerns, he will look for avenues to engage them in political action, he said. But he also will need to figure out “how to meet members where they are,” he added.

The largest growth in NEA members from colleges and universities is in new organizing happening among graduate students, contingent faculty, and tenure-system faculty such as the effort under way at Michigan State University.

“We’re seeing a resurgence of people turning to unions as an outlet to address injustices, just as I did so many years ago organizing graduate students,” he said. “For a time there was a sort of decline era in terms of unions and power, and it feels good to be on the other side by a little bit.”

For Mackey the union became her family when she took on her first role more than 30 years ago, and she discovered her place as a delegate at representative assemblies (RAs) – which govern MEA and NEA – and a committee member organizing around human and civil rights and women’s issues.

“I found my people, and I liked them; they were passionate about social justice and they always stood up for what was right,” she said. “I never looked back, and I’ve loved every minute.”

Thomson and Mackey will travel to Washington, D.C. a few times a year as part of their leadership of NCHE. Their transition into the new roles began after the conclusion of the NEA RA in Philadelphia in July.

The two leaders recognize they are now the old-timers encouraging others to step up and keep going, and Michigan is once again a state that others in the labor movement are looking to for inspiration, Thomson said.

“It’s pretty exciting as a leader to look out and see a strong cohort of people from your state that you’ve been actively working with for years. I think the stage is set for Michigan to lead in a way that’s not unique to this moment—to once again show there is a good path forward, so let’s go.”