**PRESS RELEASE**
For Immediate Release:
Saturday, June 25, 2005Contact:
Matt Losak, 301-431-5453ROGER RAMJUG ELECTED PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL LABOR COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Silver Spring, Md.-The National Labor College (NLC) Alumni Association has elected long-time union activist Roger Ramjug as its President, the college announced today. Ramjug, a native of Trinidad, West Indies, lives in Newburgh, New York. He is the Director of Facilities Administration with the Marlboro Central School District, and a member of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, local 38. Ramjug will serve a three-year term as NLC Alumni President.
“In Roger we have a solid leader who will take the organization to a new level,” said John Sweeney, Chairman of the NLC Board of Trustees and President of the AFL-CIO. “I congratulation Roger and the NLC Alumni Association who have my fullest support.”
Ramjug is a 2001 graduate of the NLC earning his B.A. in Labor Education. He later went on to earn a Master of Public Administration through the NLC’s partnership with the University Baltimore. Ramjug intends to continue his studies toward his doctorate.
“Roger is a talented union leader and I very much look forward to working with him and the newly elected officials of the NLC Alumni Association whose work to encourage support for the college and its mission to educate union members is critical now more than ever,” said Susan J. Schurman, president of the NLC.
In addition to Ramjug, the NLC Alumni Association elected George Bliss, a 2003 graduate and a member of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, local 5, as Vice President; Carla Insinga Minser, Class of 1999, who received her Master of Public Administration also through the NLC’s University of Baltimore partnership in 2001 and is a staff representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, council 13, as Secretary; and, Gary Lucy who serves as the Vice President of the International Union of Operating Engineers, local 547 and a 2000 NLC graduate as Alumni Association Treasurer. The NLC Alumni Association, just four years old, has approximately 1,200 members who have received their degrees from the NLC, and upwards of 200,000 associate members who have taken courses and trainings at the college.
Graduates of the NLC, which predominantly serves the membership of the federated unions of the AFL-CIO, receive Bachelor of Arts degrees in Labor Studies, Labor Education, Labor History, Political Economy and Labor, Union Leadership and Administration or Labor Safety and Health. The NLC also offers a Bachelors in Technical/Professional Studies (BTPS) for union members with extensive vocational backgrounds, but who need general education courses to complete their degree.
Through its unique programming, the college is able to enroll students who juggle full-time jobs and families with limited time away from work and home. The NLC Bachelor’s program combines online learning with an intensive six day “degree week” during which students attend classes day and evening. The BTPS degree program enables students to study almost completely online, combining service learning and local internships. Through partnerships with area universities including American University and the University of Baltimore, NLC graduates are able to earn a Master of Arts, a Master of Public Administration or a Master of Science.
Established as a training center by AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills, the NLC is now the nation’s only accredited higher education institution devoted exclusively to educating union leaders, members, activists and staff. The NLC became a degree granting college in 1997. The college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an independent, regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
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