Patrick was a shining star among the labor-management relations movement. He was an excellent teacher with a quick smile equally quick wit. He will be missed. Happy travels to my union brother.

W. PATRICK DOLAN
1939 - 2016 Obituary 

1939 - 2016 W. Patrick Dolan, 77, died November 29, 2016, at St. Luke's East Hospital surrounded, loved, and cared for by his immediate family. Patrick was born in Dallas, and raised in Omaha. He attended Holy Cross for grade school, and was a proud graduate of Creighton Prep, Class of '57. He entered the Jesuits and obtained a BA and MA in Philosophy at St. Louis University. After serving in the Wisconsin Province, he was transferred to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he worked for several years before leaving the Jesuit order. At the age of 28, he returned to the U.S. and began work as the Dean of Freshman at Georgetown University. There he met his first wife, Pauline, and they had their first child Elizabeth. After serving as Dean, Patrick was offered placement in the Harvard University School of Education where he received an Ed.D. in organizational development. Patrick founded his consulting firm in Kansas City in 1976. For the next twenty years, the firm did pioneering work in labor/management change in large institutional settings working with both corporate management and unions on both a national and international scale, focusing on the goal of improved work culture to enhance quality and productivity. Clients included Ford and Ford Europe, Goodyear, Republic Steel, John Deere, Boeing, General Dynamics, Cessna, and the FAA. The United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, International Association of Machinists, United Rubber Workers, and the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers were also joint clients in this work. In 1992, Patrick broadened the focus of his work to the restructuring of public education, always working from a joint perspective of union/management cooperation. He worked in the states of Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and Iowa helping to implement collaborative structures at all levels. He worked extensively with local affiliates and the federal level of the National Education Association, working with over 200 school districts on deep reform of both their decision-making structures and the development of professional culture surrounding teaching and learning. Since 2004, Patrick lead a consulting group that supported the grant awards of the GE Foundation in the United States, particularly their College Bound Grants in Math and Science through the Illinois based Consortium for Educational Change (CEC.). Author of two books, the first entitled The Ranking Game dealt with the college admissions process. His second focused on public education, Restructuring Our Schools, A Primer on Systemic Change, is in its fourth printing. An avid outdoorsman, Patrick, developed a love for hunting, an activity he frequently enjoyed with his former neighbor, and friend, Charles Gusewelle, of the Kansas City Star. Their adventures saw them traveling to duck blinds in Normandy, France, and the coast of Senegal where they fished for sailfish out of dugout canoes. Patrick could always be tempted by new consulting work with the promise of fly fishing in the rivers of Wisconsin and Montana, or excellent quail hunting of rural Texas. One of his favorite hunts was of red stag deer in the Araucania region of Argentina on the west face of the Andes Mountains. Patrick was preceded in death by brother, Michael Francis Dolan, and his parents, William P. Dolan, and Mary Geraldine Dolan nee Fitzgerald, all of Omaha, Neb. Patrick is survived by his wife Marian McClellan of Kansas City; his daughters, Elizabeth Dolan of San Salvador, El Salvador, and Kathleen Dolan of Austin, Texas, and son, Ryan Patrick Dolan of Los Angeles; his step- daughter, Dorothy Allen and her fiancee, Travis Cooke of Chapel Hill, NC; his former wife, Pauline Dolan nee Fox of Fairway, and his former wife, Shirley Layne of Montana; his four grandchildren, Alejandro, Carmen Sofia, Isabela, and Juan Diego of San Salvador; his first-cousins, Mary Fitzgerald and Peggy Jones nee Fitzgerald of Kansas City, and Patty Greenwood nee Fitzgerald of Cherokee, Iowa. The wake will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at McGilley's Midtown Chapel, 20 W. Linwood, Kansas City, MO 64111. A Funeral Mass will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at Visitation Parish, 5141 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64112 followed by his burial of his remains at Calvary Cemetery, 6901 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO 64131. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Scholarship fund at Cristo Rey Kansas City High School, 211 West Linwood Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64111. Donations can be made online at http://www.cristoreykc.org, please designate "Scholarships" in honor of W. Patrick Dolan. M

Published in Kansas City Star on Nov. 30, 2016

Nov. 29, 2016 AFT Leaders on Nomination of Tom Price as HHS Secretary

WASHINGTON—In response to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services, leaders of the AFT, the nation’s second-largest union of nurses and healthcare professionals, have issued the following statement:   AFT President Randi Weingarten: “During the campaign, Mr. Trump promised seniors that he was a different type of Republican—that he understood the importance of Medicare and would not touch it. This nomination of Tom Price makes that promise a nullity; it would appear from this and other nominations that raiding public funds for private profit is a more animating principle to the president-elect than Americans' healthcare and well-being. “Tom Price would turn programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, relied on by millions, into vouchers and private accounts, while gutting protections for LGBTQ people, women and the most vulnerable Americans. "And as to Obamacare, despite glitches and setbacks, the nation has made years of hard-won, steady strides toward insuring millions. AFT clinicians on the frontlines of healthcare have seen firsthand how the Affordable Care Act has saved lives. Putting the Department of Health and Human Services under the control of an opponent of not only Obamacare, but also of the Children's Health Insurance Program, Medicare and Medicaid as we know them, threatens to undo that progress and then some—making Americans of every generation more vulnerable, and putting the health of millions at risk.”   National Federation of Nurses President Stephen Rooney: “Rep. Price's nomination tells us more about the Trump administration's plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare—the president-elect’s post-election statement notwithstanding. Personnel are policy. Rep. Price supports policies that would increase healthcare costs for middle-class workers who are not covered by their employers, while insurers and Big Pharma reap higher profits. “Rep. Price's policies will reduce access to healthcare and the quality of care while increasing costs, moving us in the opposite direction of improving the healthcare system. Price has introduced legislation that would limit nurse practitioners' scope of practice. NPs provide much-needed access to high-quality care at an affordable cost.”   Health Professionals and Allied Employees President Ann Twomey: “As the next secretary of health and human services, Rep. Price must put aside partisan politics to protect the healthcare of all Americans. Dismantling the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, and privatizing Medicare, will result in the opposite: It will throw many Americans into economic uncertainty when they are sick and in need of healthcare, while lining the pockets of insurance and pharmaceutical companies. “Healthcare workers on the frontlines will continue to provide care for their patients—but we must be reassured that our hospitals and our patients will not be jeopardized under this administration.”   Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals President Candice Owley: “The president-elect’s announcement to nominate Tom Price is extremely concerning to nurses and healthcare professionals across the country. We’ve witnessed the direct attacks that women’s health service providers have undergone over the years—attacks that Tom Price has helped lead—and know that dismantling these essential services would increase health disparities not only among women, but also among children and families. Coupled with his proposals for block grant funding for Medicaid, privatizing Medicare and curtailing protections for pre-existing conditions protections, the Trump administration’s policies might put the health of working families and the majority of Americans in danger.”

AFT Pledges to Protect Undocumented Students and Educators

After months of promising to deport millions of people if he were elected, Donald Trump is about to become president, and he could begin to carry out those promises as soon as Jan. 20. In classrooms and on campuses across the nation, undocumented immigrants, from preschoolers to college students, are terrified. Immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and visa-contingent educators are also worried that changing immigration policies could jeopardize their safety.

The AFT is corralling resources to help.

During a telephone town hall Nov. 22, AFT President Randi Weingarten assured call participants—teachers and school staff, college faculty, healthcare professionals, public employees and students, some who are themselves undocumented immigrants—that the AFT will "do everything in our power to stop any kind of action against our immigrant families, our Muslim families, our Latino families and especially our undocumented students." Then she turned quickly to specifics and, together with leading immigrant advocates, outlined practical advice as well as actions the union will take to protect immigrant families living in uncertainty.

The AFT will:

·      * Support cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and others as they reaffirm sanctuary status for immigrants and in some cases establish municipal ID programs to protect immigrants with no identification from being detained unnecessarily.

·      * Help members establish and maintain sanctuary status in schools, colleges and  communities.

·      * Provide guidance and resources for teachers, staff and faculty to support and prepare undocumented students and their families for changes in immigration law—including basic "know your rights" advice on how to handle an Immigration and Customs                   Enforcement raid and what to do if family members are detained.

·       * Provide lesson plans to address the social, emotional and mental health needs of all children and promote diversity and inclusion.

·       *Urge the government to reaffirm that children cannot be barred from enrolling in public schools based on their immigration status or their parents'.

·      *  Participate in a national week of mobilization, education and action Jan. 9-14 spearheaded by United We Dream and other immigrant advocates, and in a day of action Jan. 19  organized with the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools.

Resources for educators are already available at the AFT's Share My Lesson  and on the AFT's immigration page.

On the call, Weingarten said the need for action is urgent; AFT educators and students face real threats. Among their fears: the dismantling of the 2012 DACA program, which grants undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria a two-year, renewable work authorization and protection from deportation. More than 740,000 individuals, many of whom are now teachers, nurses, lawyers, adjunct faculty and college students, have benefited from the program and are contributing to their communities—so much so that dismantling DACA would cost $433 billion in gross domestic product over a decade, according to a Center for American Progress estimate.

Other fears include night raids by armed immigration agents, and family separations as some are deported and others left behind. Undocumented and "DACAmented" college students are afraid that after years of striving to become educated, productive Americans, they will be forced back into the shadows or deported to violent places where they have no family or friends and don't speak the language.

DACA students have been at the forefront of immigration advocacy, calling themselves "undocumented and unafraid." But for many, that confidence has been shaken: "The level of despair has gotten to a point that we have received reports of young people who have taken their own lives," reported Cristina Jiménez, executive director of United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country. The group offers a range of services for undocumented youth and families, including a bilingual support hotline: 844-363-1423.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, also had practical advice for the town hall participants, with answers to commonly asked questions: Should undocumented youth apply for DACA now? No. Apply for renewal? Yes. Travel abroad? Only if you return before Jan. 20. A new NILC website has more specific answers, and Hincapié urged participants to share it widely.

"We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst," said U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). She is especially concerned for young people who shared their personal information with the government when they applied for DACA status. Lofgren has asked President Obama to pardon them or purge their information from government records.

Continue Reading at: http://www.aft.org/news/aft-pledges-protect-undocumented-students-and-educators#sthash.NhwOtLgh.dpuf