Board Committee Meetings
The Public Session
President Newman’s Remarks
Good evening President Williams and Members of the Board.
I am Lynn Bergin, Secretary of the NCCFT Executive Committee.
Richard Newman, Acting President of the NCCFT, has a commitment that was arranged before becoming the Acting President which prevents him from being here this evening.
Richard has asked me to read this message on his behalf.
I have said this before, under other circumstances, but I will say it again since it is perhaps the most important lens through which I view my role as president. Fall 2021 marks my 32nd year as a member of both the full-time faculty here at Nassau Community College and the Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers. It’s sometimes hard for me to imagine how young I was when I started: 27 years old. Or, to put that another way, both the college and the union have been personal, professional, intellectual, and creative homes in which I grew up. This place, in other words—the work we do; the difference we make in each other’s lives and the lives of our students; the fact that this work is enabled fairly and justly by a strong and comprehensive collective bargaining agreement—all of that matters to me in ways that are not so different from the health, success, and happiness of my family.
I represent a union of 470 or so members, many if not most of whom have been at the college maybe not as long I have, but long enough to feel the same. We bring an unmatched depth of experience and expertise to the many challenges NCC is facing, and we are eager to do our part in making sure the college faces those challenges successfully. Cooperation and collaboration are the watchwords here, as are transparency and radical candor. We will not always agree, but disagreement, when it is allowed to be fruitful and productive, is also an opportunity to find solutions neither side had thought of before. Those are the kinds of creative and innovative solutions we need moving forward and I look forward to doing my part to help us find them.
Thank you.