Chapter Board

Next Meeting

This website and the online communication tools it places at your NFA chapter's command are the realization of a plan to rebuild a collegial community for faculty. My personal gratitude goes to the NFA-CSN chapter board, who support this vision, and above all to our Membership VP Brenda Talley, whose tireless efforts made first our blog and now this website our new virtual realities. While much work remains to bring online everything our hosting service has to offer, NFA-CSN nonetheless has a modest home on the Internet to call our very own.

This website assumes the informative functions of the original blog and provides the chapter news and professional resources our members and colleagues need. Member services to anticipate in the near future include free "@nfa-org" email accounts and participation in an "everyone"-style listserve where faculty can share ideas and information, support each other, and re-build in a secure, off-campus location the sense of community that has been missed at CSN.

NFA-CSN is providing these online services to unify CSN faculty and strengthen our political power. Still, faculty empowerment depends greatly on you! Whether or not you're a member of NFA, you can make and take every opportunity to state your concerns and work with your colleagues to create the vibrant academic community that best serves our profession, our students and our society. If you are a member, consider becoming a more active member: seize this day, each day, and do with it all you can to uphold the professional standards and improve the employment conditions that matter most to you.

Why is NFA's work our members' responsibility? The answer is simple: NFA is not just the officers you elected to oversee specific organizational functions. If you pay dues, you are NFA, too. When you hear someone question--or, perhaps, wonder yourself--what is NFA doing to support this issue or challenge that one, perhaps a better question to ask is, "What have I been doing?" Should paying dues buy anyone the luxury of standing on the sidelines, especially when NFA could accomplish even more than we already do with just a handful of people doing the heavy lifting? Now, more than ever--now as CSN seeks a new president and as academic and administrative faculty face threats to our employment, our benefits, and our constitutional rights--NFA members need to step forward and be seen and be heard.

Our NFA chapter currently has the largest membership in the state, but names on a member roll need the support of active members on our campuses. It bears repeating that this is the moment to ask yourself, "How can I support my CSN colleagues, my college's mission, and my academic profession?" I will always hope your answer is, "Whatever I am able to do," and look for your renewed dedication to show itself in your attending NFA meetings or serving on NFA working groups or recruiting new NFA members or lobbying legislators for their support of faculty and higher education, just to name a few of the many tasks now lying at our collective feet.

Although I am happy to serve you as chapter president and to work with a talented team of chapter officers and board members, I say to you, we few cannot carry the NFA-CSN mission by ourselves. You, not just your dues, need to be a part of the NFA's solutions to the problems we face together as CSN colleagues. Please, let's work together to make good things happen for ourselves and our CSN.

In your service,

Jennifer S. Nelson, Ph.D.
NFA-CSN President, 2006-08