The UFE’s leadership in Evergreen’s unprecedented enrollment turnaround has been covered in NEA Today. The NEA (National Education Association) is the largest labor union in the US, and their publication has a wide reach. With Evergreen celebrating the largest undergrad enrollment increase in 40 years this fall, recognition of the UFE’s strategic vision is well deserved!

How One Faculty Union Is Solving the Enrollment Crisis

by Mary Ellen Flannery, November 28

“Faculty Participation in Student Recruitment and Retention” was instituted in a 2021 MOU, and entered the 2023 CBA in enhanced form as Article 30: Faculty Work on Student Recruitment, Retention, and New Student Advising. The contract provides for up to two organizers with up to full time teaching release, plus unlimited faculty who can participate in one-on-one meetings as a governance assignment (along with summer compensation). Please join me in thanking UFE Coordinating Committee member Brad Proctor and Nancy Koppelman, who have done an incredible job as the inaugural organizers.

You can get your Article 30 buttons at our winter social, so stay tuned for upcoming communications!

UPDATE: Inside Higher Ed has picked up this story, with another article on Evergreen’s union-driven recruitment initiative.