New Faculty Majority eNewsletter, April 7, 2011
Table of Contents (use Control + F to navigate)
- Presidents Message, (Connecting to) The News of the World
- New Jersey County College Adjuncts Federate, By Bill Lipkin
- Meet the NFM Board: Anne Wiegard (NFM Secretary)
- Me and UC: Fighting "reasonable assurance" One adjunct's story
- A Word from NFM's Treasurer By Bill Lipkin
- A Documentary in the Making: Con Job
- Teach-on: Teach-in By Vanessa Vaile
- Announcements
| (Connecting to) The News of the World
by Maria Maisto, NFM President
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First, I am pleased to report that The Marguerite Casey Foundation in Seattle, Washington has awarded $25,000 to our nascent 501c(3) organization, New Faculty Majority Foundation, to support its ability to provide programming complementary to that of NFM. The NFM Foundation's goal for the next year is to 1) build capacity in ways that include employing staff, seeding further fundraising efforts and expanding its base of stakeholders; 2) begin identifying and gathering essential data currently missing from research on adjunct and contingent faculty; and 3) sponsor a summit meeting in Washington, DC, tentatively titled "Confronting Contingency."
Dear Colleagues:
Incredible, inspiring movements in support of justice and democracy have swept our country and others over the last couple of months. At the same time, unimaginable tragedy has befallen the residents of Japan, and regularly occurs both locally and globally every day. I sometimes find it difficult to keep perspective in the face of events that are so large in scope and significance. The project in which we are engaged - to establish fair and ethical working conditions for all higher education faculty in the US - can seem trivial when compared to the life-or-death situations of people in our communities and around the world. Indeed, when we take our message beyond our campuses, we often find that people respond to us in exactly this way. Expecting support from members of our communities, we are hurt when we hear instead, "You should be glad you have a job rather than complaining about your pay."
This is exactly what happened when NFM VP Matt Williams and I publishedan op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Feb. 27: we laid out what we thought was a crystal clear explanation of the reasons contingent faculty working conditions need reform, and still received comments that betrayed deep misunderstanding of the reality and value of higher education.
Of course, we also know that we reached many new audiences - we were gratified to hear from many of them, and are inspired to continue our campaign to spread our message into the community. However, in doing so, we need to take the misunderstanding seriously and respond to the rebuffs exactly as we would to students in our classrooms and colleagues on our campuses: by being understanding and open, but also by challenging everyone to think more deeply and critically.
As educators, we have a responsibility to help our students and communities to understand the ways in which seemingly trivial and insignificant choices and events have ripple effects that affect neighbors near and far, for good and ill. The historic events in Wisconsin, for example, have reminded the country that no matter our experience or opinion of the labor movement, it was instrumental in securing most of the basic, humane workplace conditions that the fortunate among us currently take for granted. Current debates over training versus education desperately need our voices; we need to bolster the position of those who understand the critical role of the education we provide.
Likewise, struggles for democracy and human rights, wherever they take place, remind us how important it is to educate by example.
This underlines"Confronting Contingency," to be held January 28, 2012, will convene contingent faculty, tenure-stream faculty, students, parents, college and university administrators, faculty union leaders, accreditors, state and federal policymakers, philanthropists, business leaders, and other stakeholders in higher education to focus exclusively on the problem of hiring higher education faculty on a contingent basis. The summit meeting will 1) educate the public about the effects of adjunct and contingent faculty working conditions on the quality of higher education and the teaching profession; 2) examine practical, ethical solutions and solicit a broad-based commitment to reform; and 3) provide adjunct and contingent faculty with the opportunity to engage in self-advocacy on an unprecedented national scale. We expect this event to be the first in a series that will keep higher education focused not only on the problem of contingency but, more importantly, on the need to commit to and implement real change.
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Further information on the summit will soon be available at the NFM Foundation's website: nfmfoundation.org. Please save the date and plan on attending either virtually or in person - we intend to ensure that contingent faculty participation reflects our service in and importance to higher education.
| Second, NFM proper, which is a 501(c)6 organization, is launching the first of several fundraising efforts designed to support activities and projects like the Unemployment Compensation Initiative, chapter building and support, and communications. We are selling organic, fair trade coffee, which we have called (nudge, nudge)"Fair Trade in Education (FTE) Coffee" and will be opening online stores to sell NFM t-shirts, mugs, bags, bumper stickers, and more. Please see the announcement in this issue and consider supporting NFM with materials that will also spread the word about our efforts.
Finally, and most importantly, you can help by writing your own letters and op-eds, sponsoring teach-ins, and attending as many public events as you can to educate your community about the need for faculty employment reform in higher education.
As we work to support ourselves as an organization - applying for grants, fundraising, establishing our presence regionally and nationally - the national and international news of the last couple of months, both positive and negative, has energized us. The scale of change is breathtaking. Across the world, men and women who are proud to represent themselves are defying the status quo, and throughout the world people are putting self-interest aside to help and show solidarity with their neighbors. We don't believe it is too dramatic to say that the world we inhabit is a reflection of the one beyond our campuses:the choice is between a still more reckless form of the present, where only a few individuals profit and the rest are left to survive any way they can, and an honest, fair-minded, and sustainable future. We look forward to working with and for you in the coming year.
Best wishes,
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New Jersey County College Adjuncts Federate
By Bill Lipkin,
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In the Fall of 2002, after many years of suffering as an adjunct at Union County College, I made a giant leap and contacted the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to see if it would be possible to unionize. Two years earlier I had reached out to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), who represented the full time faculty at the College, and they were not interested. The reception I received from AFT was completely different. They responded and offered all kinds of help to get us organized. I later found out that AFT was in the midst of organizing County Colleges in New Jersey and therefore welcomed my inquiries.
During the next year of organizing I worked very hard with AFT Staff Reps, and an occasional adjunct who would take the time to help, to create our local. I was determined to get the union up and running and by the Spring of 2003 we were chartered and began to operate under AFT.
The only other strong independent adjunct County College local was Camden County College, which had been organized a few years earlier. Their president was Elaine Bobrove. Elaine and I developed a strong working relationship due to our determination to better the working conditions and pay for adjuncts. AFT National offered to help us toward that goal, and promised to support us, if we would agree to form a Federation of County College Locals under one umbrella. AFT saw this as an easier way to organize at other County Colleges and to be assured that monthly per caps would be paid and that there was a centralized adjunct local in the state. In order for this to happen the five, already established adjunct locals would have to turn over their treasury to the Federation and agree to all deductions from payrolls being submitted directly to the Federation. The locals would then have to request money from the Federation for any expenses they had, such as meeting expenses, organizing expenses, stipends, postage etc. This was totally unacceptable to Elaine and me and threatened the autonomy of the locals. Therefore we scrapped the idea for the time being.
In the meantime AFT did start organizing at two other County Colleges. Over the next few years I studied adjunct locals in other states and looked into some federated locals in other professions. I finally came up with a plan that I thought could work and would ensure local autonomy. The plan would make each old local a chapter of the larger, federated local after we all gave up our charters and voted to join the federated local. Rather than turn over our treasuries, each chapter would pay a per cap each month to the Federated local in addition to AFT state and national per caps. That would create a small working treasury for the new, big local to work on issues involving all chapters. Each local put the change and the merger to a membership vote and it eventually passed in all seven locals. The new Local was chartered as Local 2222, United Adjunct Faculty of New Jersey, and I was elected as Secretary-Treasurer. The Local started operating by September 2009.
Since its inception, we have added two more County College adjunct chapters to the local and currently have a membership of just over 3100. We are on the ground at two other county colleges and hope to have them both on board by the end of 2011. We are the third largest local in the AFT NJ State Federation, only behind Rutgers and Newark Teachers Union. I have served as president of the State Federation for the past 31 months and will be stepping down from that position by June in order to concentrate on Local 2222 and its further growth. We have members of our Local on all working committees in the State Federation and three of our members are State Federation Vice Presidents. We have been participating in the legislative actions against Governor Chris Christie and work very closely with the other 27,000 AFT members in the State Federation. The creation of Local 2222 has given us a voice and more strength in the state and has given us stronger exposure. In fact shortly after our creation we worked with our State Lobbyist to save pensions for then current adjuncts and to allow new adjuncts to participate in a state 401K plan with state contributions included.
My vision for the future of Local 2222 is very optimistic. Most of the chapters have increased their membership this past academic year due to the conditions of the economy and the need for more adjuncts. My goal is to make us the second largest local in the State Federation, and, eventually, the largest.
Bill Lipkin
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| Meet the NFM Board |
Meet Anne Wiegard
My route to leadership within NFM has been a long and winding road.
As the daughter of a Naval officer, I moved from place to place annually until I was about eleven years old, from the arid plains of Turkey to the seacoast of northern Florida and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. My undergradu66; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
During the years when I worked in North County San Diego, colleagues at Mira Costa Community College started talking about organizing, and I eagerly joined the committee as it got off the ground. Within a matter of months, we were able to get an overwhelming majority of the adjuncts to vote to become a collective bargaining unit within AFT. The administration helped our cause by refusing to implement a health insurance benefits package that the State had offered to fund, claiming that the paperwork would be too hard to handle. At the same time, one of our veteran colleagues became a "poster boy" for this issue when he had to have emergency gall bladder surgery that bankrupted him and he lost his home. From this organizing experience, I learned that great change is possible even when only a very small number of people are willing to work hard in common cause. Overcoming fear is always the first step. padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Once I learned enough to fully understand the political arena determining the terms and conditions of ad/con employment in SUNY, I immediately stepped up to join other activists on behalf of part- and full-time contingent colleagues. Seeking to improve the status quo, I have served in local and statewide union roles, most notably as a member of the current UUP Negotiations Team. I am grateful to my union for sending me to COCAL both in 2008 and 2010, but this does not mean I have been uncritical of internal rhetoric and behavior that demonstrate regressive attitudes about the treatment of ad/cons.
I am a firm believer in Joe Berry's "inside/outside" strategy: what I learn and do in each different organization enriches my perception of, and productivity within, the others. I have played a part in local and state political conversations that offer openings to advocate for higher education funding and equity for contingent faculty. I am honored to serve NFM members as its Secretary to the Board of Directors.
As more and more ad/cons join advocacy organizations like NFM, our progress will accelerate exponentially. One step will lead to another and another. One step at a time, we can make a difference, and one person at a time, we can ask others to join us, as my colleague did several years ago, inviting me to step forward. Not everyone is able to make time for such work, but those of us who are able, must, for as long as we can. Will you take your next step now? Let's do all we can to be the change we seek.
Anne Wiegard
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| Me and UC |
Below is this newsletter's installment of "Me and UC," a place for you, our members, to share your stories, if not your blues, about your process of filing for Unemployment Compensation.
Whether or not you've been successful, the particulars of your situation in your particular state are invaluable to NFM members and adcons across the country who are or might soon be in similar situations, pursuing similar processes in filings of their own. As most of us already know from serving institutions without really being considered a part of those institutions, one of the benefits we often have to do without for a long time is the knowledge that we're not alone.
These stories are meant to convince you otherwise: far from having "nothing left to lose," as Janis sang it, we have everything to gain and many ways of gaining it.
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Fighting "reasonable assurance" One adjunct's story
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This article is based on the experience of an adjunct who teaches at two community colleges in her home state as well as online courses for a national university.
Suzanne (not her real name) was denied unemployment insurance benefits by three schools for the time she was out of work last summer. One of the colleges (let's call it community college #1) had previously provided the "letter of reasonable assurance" for future employment required by Michigan law before a college can deny UI benefits between terms. It was immediately apparent that to fight this adverse ruling two issues had to be addressed: 1) whether the letter actually did provide reasonable assurance of future employment, and 2) whether the denial of benefits upheld on appeal for one position would apply to the other colleges.
When Suzanne's appeal was scheduled she sought help from her adjunct faculty union at community college #1. She was told that the organization could not help her, but she might receive assistance from Joe Berry, a nationally renowned advocate for adcon rights and co-author of the book "Access to Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Contingent Faculty." Joe provided her with important information, especially about the legal term "reasonable assurance," but told Suzanne to contact NFM since the assistance of local experts who are knowledgeable about state laws and legal proceedings is essential in fighting denial of UI benefits.
When Suzanne contacted NFM President Maria Maisto, Maria and several NFM Board members provided initial guidance. The NFM advisors thought it was important to establish, if possible, any contradiction between the language in the reasonable assurance letter and public documents released by community college #1. In addition, Suzanne was advised to check that the reasonable assurance letter was sent to her within time limits established by law. They also urged her to continue to apply for UI benefits between periods so she could receive benefits retroactively in the event that a college didn't follow through on assigning the courses promised in the letter of reasonable assurance.
The NFM group also examined public documents on the website of community college #2 and the national university and concluded that these institutions could not rationally claim that Suzanne had reasonable assurance of being rehired after a summer break. NFM members provided additional advice, including how to argue an appeal (in a nutshell: keep it simple, bring in no new issues or tangential information and especially do not use the hearing to vent your anger at the situation).
The next step was to try to get a local expert to help with her appeal. The NFM team thought it would be useful to approach for the second time a leader of the adjunct union at community college #1. Suzanne was able to obtain a one-time consultation with an advocate provided by the Michigan Unemployment Agency, but had to argue the appeal by herself since advocates are not allowed at school denial hearings.
It was difficult for Suzanne to convey her message at the hearing because the judge asked for yes and no answers without allowing for additional statements, explanations, or questions. At times Suzanne tried to more fully explain her yes/no answers, but this information was not well received. Nevertheless, the representative of community college #1 was forced to admit that a class could be cancelled if only two students registered even if a letter of reasonable assurance had been sent on time. However, the judge did not appear to connect the possibility of canceling a class with the lack of reasonable assurance of future employment.
The judge denied UI benefits for all schools based on community college #1's reasonable assurance letter. Suzanne would like to proceed further with the hearings to promote better working conditions for contingent faculty, though she now has to weigh the personal cost. NFM would like to take up her battle.
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| A Word from NFM's Treasurer
By Bill Lipkin
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Dear NFM member,
Early in 2009, a group of activists began to form the first nationally
incorporated nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to advocating for adjunct and contingent equity. In the two years since then, NFM has launched a series of ambitious projects:
We have thus far been able to do this on a veritable shoestring budget and without any paid staff, but that can't continue if we are to grow. We have been reluctant to require dues, though we may move to that model if necessary. All of our projects cost money, and we're now running on empty. In order to be a strong and effective voice for the million contingent faculty members around the country, we can no longer just rely on a handful of volunteers. If you like what we've done so far and approve of the direction we're going, YOU can help us get there more quickly!
This year we passed the 1,000 mark in our membership numbers. However, we have been hovering at barely the $1,000 mark in our operating funds. If every member were to give $10 or more, we would be able to do such things as
I urge you to act today to help keep NFM's projects going and to help us develop new ones that will help to end the exploitation. Please send the minimum suggested contribution of $15 -- or whatever you can spare -- today to NFM by clicking on the Donate button on our website (www.newfacultymajority.info) or sending a check to:
New Faculty Majority
1700 West Market Street, # 159
Akron, OH 12345
Thank you for helping to strengthen our national voice for adjuncts and contingent faculty.
William Lipkin
Treasurer
New Faculty Majority
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A Documentary in the Making
Like new NFM Board member Debra Leigh Scott,
who is working on a film called "'Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed in
America," writing instructors Megan Fulwiler and Jennifer Marlow are
working on a documentary highlighting contingency, particularly within
the fields of English and Composition.
Called "Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Faculty," it focuses on the more than 80 percent of first-year writing now taught by adjunct and contingent instructors. The documentary provides a means of listening to the voices too often silenced or dismissed in educational policies and practices. Featuring interviews with ad-con writing teachers from around the nation, administrators in higher education, and labor leaders in the field, the film attempts to describe, expose, and interrogate the issue of contingent labor from a range of perspectives. At the 2010 COCAL conference in Quebec City, Fulwiler and Marlow interviewed Matt Williams, Anne Wiegard, Steve Street, and Ross Borden (all of NFM). More interviews are scheduled for the upcoming Conference on College Composition and Communication in Atlanta in April, 2011, where the filmmakers will also show a trailer of the film. (If any NFM readers are composition teachers who will be at the CCCCs in Atlanta, the viewing is FSIG.21 April 8, 6:30-7:30 in International Ballroom A.)
In addition to interviews, the team is also working with the online data collected by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) supported Contingent Faculty Questionnaire. The goal is to produce a film that traces the history and manifestations of--as well as potential solutions to-issues of contingency in higher education.
If you have have questions or suggestions, please email Megan Fulwiler atfulwilem@strose.edu
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Teach-on: Teach-in
By Vanessa Vaile
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March 2011 was a month of action, in part planned by Defend Public Education and other groups as a coordinated series of actions supporting public education continuing and expanding on those of October 7, 2010 and March 4, 2010. This round, Wisconsin upped the ante. March actions, spreading into April and beyond, moved from previously planned to reactions supporting a broader cause. The massive attack on collective bargaining, public services workers, and public services was not limited to public education. Proposed legislation called for cutting public services drastically and, as part of budgetary package, dismantling or severely restricting collective bargaining.
In March we watched the actions on TV, followed it live online, web streamed and tweeted, and participated when and where possible. Protest manifested in petitions, rallies, marches, demonstrations, and teach-ins, with one California campus holding a "ramen-in."
Although teach-ins are not the exclusive province of adjuncts, GTAs and other faculty, educators are naturally drawn to forms that teach. More teach-ins than usual have occurred and are being planned. They won't get the TV coverage of other, more colorful protest forms. Unless juiced 60s style, a picture with an accompanying article in the local student paper is the most any teach-in can expect. Recent teach-ins usually address budget cuts affecting higher education, faculty pay and employment, and adjunct issues. An incomplete March Teach-In list, primarily but not exclusively focused on budget cut and higher ed funding, includes: Wisconsin; Ohio; New York (New Paltz); Massachusetts (Boston); California (multiple locations); Missouri (Kansas City); and Indiana (IUPUI).
So what do we know about Teach-ins other than that their purpose is to educate students (if class time) or public about issues?Who is not familiar, if only by passing reference, with the Berkeley and Michigan 60s anti-war teach-ins 60s. What are some other examples? Who puts them on? Do we put on, hold, or host a teach in? Can we throw one? Are teach-ins just for educators? Where can they be held? What other issues do they address? Where did they come from? What if my adjunct group wants to hold one to educate colleagues, students, the public about adjunct issues? How do we do it? Are there guidelines or instructions for putting on a teach-in?
Teach-ins, somewhat comparable to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually address and explain more about a current issue. On the surface, this sounds like a seminar session, conference panel or workshop except teach-ins are more flexible and do not necessarily restrict discussion to a set time limits (unless held as part of a class) or defined topics. The intent is to be practical, participatory, and ultimately, action oriented. Although teach-ins often include guest experts, audience participation in the form of discussion, questions, proposals, even going off topic is welcome and even hoped for. Moderators and experts are sources of information and catalysts, not the main attraction. You might even call teach-ins early instances of "student centered" classes.
Looking up "Teach ins" to refresh my memory and pinpoint their origin confirmed personal memories of their mid-60s emergence and popularity as a campus war protest form. The first major teach-in, May 1965 at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus, drew 3,500 students, began with a discussion of the Vietnam war draft, and ended with the logistics of a takeover of the University. The largest, also anti-war and in May 1965, was held at UC Berkeley on a large outdoor playing field and lasted 36 hours. From 10-30,000 people turned out, depending on who was counting - let's split the difference at 20,000. The State Department, declining an invitation to send someone, was represented on stage by an empty chair, presumably not counted. This is an interesting but potentially unnerving and a cautionary tale for any administrator asked to permit a teach-in on campus. It is also not a complete picture.
Since then, teach-ins have been held on various topics, often moving indoors and in classrooms during regularly scheduled class sessions. Too many groups to list here use teach-ins as education and organizing tools. Some are organized by the same institutions they have been used against. Teach-ins are an integral part of the Amnesty International organizers' tool-kit. Both large and small scale ones are popular with environmental educators. Supplementing community teach-ins on the environment, a 2007 webcast, "2010 Imperative: A Global Emergency Teach-in," reached a quarter million people from 47 different countries. A Jesuit group, The Ignatian Solidarity Net, has been operating an ongoing teach-in project since 1989.
Closer to home, teach-ins have been an integral part of Campus Equity Week since its inception. Indirectly, they are part of our own organizational history. On New Faculty Majority Day 2009, organized by Bob Samuels, non-tenure track University of California faculty taught classes outside, held rallies, and wore red in observance of the first-ever New Faculty Majority Day, two years ago this coming April. In support of the occasion, Steve Street started the blog that we inherited.
Locating a more complete history of the teach-in and its precise point of emergence proves yet elusive. My best guess: the teach-in was a natural evolutionary by-product and branch of the 50s sit-in adapted by students active in the Civil Rights Movement. Those roots extend deeper, sharing kinship with the imperative of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance: "occupy space" but peacefully. Thoreau, Shelley, Sophocles, and Exodus (1: 15-19) are claimed as antecedents. Emphasizing the student protest and civil disobedience heritage might not be the best way to get permission to throw one on your own campus.
Want to host a teach-in but not sure how? You're in luck: we offer two excellent resources to help you get started:
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Announcements
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Insurance Update
As reported in the last newsletter, NFM has identified and approved the carrier we will work with and received final quotes and summaries for medical insurance. We are working on obtaining dental and life insurance as well. We are now creating a portal on NFM's website from which members can link to the carrier's site to enroll. Please watch for special editions of this newsletter in the coming weeks for specific information. If you have any questions, please contact Tracy Donhardt at tracy.donhardt@newfacultymajority.info.
Post Your Comments on the New Faculty Majority Blog and Facebook: The NFM blog and Facebook page, developed and managed by Vanessa Vaile, support the NFM mission and promote an open exchange of ideas and information about higher education and professional issues, especially concerning adjunct and contingent faculty. Your comments are welcome.
Got regional news you'd like to share?
Is there a local adjunct rally going on in your area? An education forum? An anniversary of your group's organizing efforts? Send us your calendar events or other regional news and we'll run them in the next newsletter (events generally must be two months out as the newsletter is published every other month, although we can acknowledge past events in celebration). News and events can be sent to Tracy Donhardt, at tracy.donhardt@newfacultymajority.info.
Call for stories
NFM wants to run stories from our members. For our next newsletter, we are seeking stories that illustrate the implications of working within the two-tiered higher education system. In other words, stories that show what it means to work as an adjunct or contingent faculty member within a system that treats the tenure-track model as the norm. Send your stories to tracy.donhardt@newfacultymajority.info.
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