Dr. Margaret Ervin accepts APSCUF’s Distinguished Service Award in April. APSCUF photo
Dr. Margaret Ervin likes to empower people.
“It’s sort of who I am,” said the former English professor, writing-center director, chapter president, and a winner of this year’s APSCUF Distinguished Service Award. “Inspiring people to be able to find their own power, that’s my thing. That’s what I live for.”
Ervin started her educator journey as a sixth-grade teacher.
“I enjoyed teaching writing to the middle school students,” Ervin said. “And I enjoyed helping them come up with things to write and expressing themselves and learning how to think using writing.”
From there she earned her graduate degree. After a time as a managing editor for the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research for the American Speech Language Hearing Association, she secured a job at West Chester University.
And she joined APSCUF.
“That was the first thing I did,” Ervin said. “I was always attracted to unions out of a sense of fairness.”
After years of APSCUF membership, Ervin became a member of the negotiations team, and she was elected chapter president in 2021. She would serve in that position for four years.
“One of the reasons that I became a leader (was) I just had the willingness and passion to put in the time and had a lot of heart for the role,” she said.
Current West Chester Chapter President Dr. Chris Stangl shared a story via email about how Ervin stood up to management.
“Margaret was excellent in holding Management to account,” he wrote.
The willingness to do the work is a major part of the job, she said.
“Part of what I wanted to do was to find new leaders in the chapter and bring them along,” Ervin said. “I did bring in a number of women leaders, but I found that there were so many women with fantastic skills who could have been great union leaders.”
Ervin discussed the need for increasing participation in APSCUF.
“I worry about people who are not my colleagues in APSCUF, people who don’t join the union,” she said. “And even for some people who do join but don’t really get involved. I think understanding how strong the union is something people need to be educated on.”
Ervin discussed people who inspired and helped throughout her APSCUF journey. Dr. Jamie Martin, immediate past APSCUF president who passed away on June 5, was a major inspiration, Ervin said.
“I felt so out of my depth when I got onto the (negotiations) team,” Ervin said. “And Jamie just brought me in and explained things to me and was just so friendly and kind, like a big sister would be.”
Ervin also praised the leadership of APSCUF President Dr. Ken Mash and former APSCUF Vice President Dr. Chris Hallen, as well as all of the people who are delegates to the legislative assembly.
“Professors are such a hard-working group of people,” Ervin said. “They just will do anything for their students.
Ervin’s commitment to her students went beyond the classroom.
“I think as a professor I was able to touch students’ lives and give them more confidence in themselves as thinkers and communicators,” she said.
Ervin was also a director at the Writing Center on campus. As director, she expanded the Writing Center to be more universitywide and took it out of the English department.
“When I would see the students who came to the Writing Center to get services, when they would experience a sense of efficacy that they didn’t have before they came in, that was great,” Ervin said. “And then the tutors developed great professional skills. Most of them were master’s students that were hired in their first year, so they would work for two years in the Writing Center, and could leave with this incredible skill set.”
Throughout all three of her major positions within the university, one consistent theme emerged.
“What did I enjoy about being a professor?” Ervin said. “What did I enjoy about being a writing center director? What did I enjoy about being a union leader? It’s empowering people.”
—Ethan Rapp, APSCUF intern