“The challenge was to value the workers’ experiences in customizing credit courses. Students prefer applied learning and also learn best when new knowledge is related to what they already know from experience. Ninety-five percent of our students work full time, yet our retention rate and grade-point averages are higher than the norm.” —Ruth Needleman Founder and coordinator of IU Northwest’s Swingshift College

Swingshift College’s founder Ruth Needleman, professor of labor studies at IUN, who has a background in Latin American studies, looked to models such as Brazilian workers’ schools and the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee to create a center for experience-based, problem-solving, confidence- and community-building collective learning.

“The challenge was to value the workers’ experiences in customizing credit courses,” said Needleman. “Students prefer applied learning and also learn best when new knowledge is related to what they already know from experience. Ninety-five percent of our students work full time, yet our retention rate and grade-point averages are higher than the norm.”

To accommodate the schedules of shift workers in the Gary region, Swingshift College offers each three-hour course twice a day at on- and off-campus locations. Classes are videotaped to allow students who work double shifts, or 12-hour shifts, an opportunity to work toward a certificate or associate degree in either labor studies or general studies. Students also can complete many basic requirements for other fields of study and toward the bachelor’s degree in labor studies or general studies.

The program offers innovative opportunities for students to travel and earn credit. Last year, for example, 14 students traveled to northern Ontario to study labor issues with Canadian workers. The Canadian Labour Congress holds a winter school for about 200 rank-and-file members with the Canadian Auto Workers Education Centre in Port Elgin. Earlier this month, eight students attended the school. In addition to taking one class for the entire week, they kept journals and interviewed Canadian workers.

For most students in the program, there is generous financial assistance, thanks to a negotiation in 1989 between the United Steelworkers with all basic steel corporations for education funding. “They established the Institute for Career Development that oversees the funds, which are divided into two kinds: tuition assistance and customized. Swingshift College is a customized program and is funded directly,” according to Needleman. “When a steelworker takes a class, we bill the Joint Committee at each mill/local union for registration, fees and books. Unless the student has used up all allocated funds, the program covers all expenses.”

The Swingshift College Advisory Board includes a coordinator from each mill/local (somebody hired by the company and the union) as well as student representatives from the different locals and unions involved in the program. IUN faculty and administration also participate on the board. “It is an ideal arrangement, because every mill and union rep on the board has ownership for the program they are paying for,” said Needleman.

Swingshift College conference