Shufro, Joel A., 1943-

Joel Shufro, director of the New York State Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), was an instructor at the Empire State College of the State University of New York, Center for Labor Studies (Labor College) from 1971 through 1977. He was an officer of the faculty union, which had first organized as the Senate Professional Association and had then merged in 1973 with the United University Professions, Inc. Shufro also served on the Academic Personnel Committee of the college. The mission of Empire State College, established in 1971, has been to educate nontraditional students (especially older and ethnic workers) using alternative, individualized programs of study. Instructors served as both teachers and as "mentors" and were often recruited from nonacademic settings. The Labor College is located at the Metropolitan Learning Center in Manhattan and has provided degree programs for members of Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and for municipal employees. In 1975 a number of Labor College faculty members' contracts were not renewed. Many were union activists, and a confrontation leading to grievance proceedings followed between the UUP representing the fired faculty and the administration of Empire State College. The New York Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decided in favor of the college in 1977 and Shufro, with other faculty members left the college.