New college president aims to energize labor

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.gazette.net/stories/012308/burtnew214940_32357.shtml

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008
New college president aims to energize labor
Scheuerman hopes to make unions competitive globally
by Danny Jacobs | Staff Writer

Bill Scheuerman grew up in a working-class community in Staten Island but was planning to become a lawyer after college. He was not sure if law school was for him, however, so he took a year off to work on the railroad. He never went to law school.

‘‘I’m comfortable with working people,” said Scheuerman, 62, the new president of the National Labor College, located off New Hampshire Avenue in the Hillandale neighborhood of Silver Spring.

Scheuerman’s job is to attract working people to the only degree-granting institution in the country for union members as the college adjusts its mission in a global marketplace by emphasizing the importance of developing brains and not the brawn typically associated with unions.

‘‘You don’t need a crystal ball to know the labor movement is hurting, and the National Labor College could be the heart of a new labor movement,” he said.

Scheuerman came to the NLC at the beginning of December to replace Susan J. Schurman, who stepped down June 30 after a decade as president to return to an administrative position at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

FULL story at link.