Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 27March12

 in brief, with links

A great quote  "Capitalism teaches the people the moral conceptions of cannibalism are the strong devouring the weak; its theory of the world of men and women is that of a glorified pig-trough where the biggest swine gets the most swill." - James Connolly 1910.

Mundo Precario

Another, this time international, conversation of what to call ourselves. [I personally have come to favor "precarious" even over "contingent"]. Hyperlink Academia blog

Yet another article about overpaid and underworked professors (WaPo) that ignores the contingent majority [written by a former college president who assuredly knows better, since his old institution, New School U, spent big bucks fighting an adjunct unionization campaign] and discussion of his article on IHE

• CHE on bad court decision regarding U of IL Chicago petition for joint (TT/NTT) bargaining unit and open letter from union to administration offering to accept two separate units in same local union.
• Accreditation as a means to aid adjuncts by considering staffing ratios and working conditions as factors in accreditation. CHE

• CCCC (4 Cs, Conference on Community College Composition) to establish fund for adjunct travel costs. Ed note: Also covered in social media.
• Utah Valley University (UT) adjuncts are wage slaves in the Ivory Tower
• Using Adjunct Project data, a chart on adjunct pay in Georgia (low)  

4Profits & Privatization

• NYT 3/24 editorial on for-profits
• Equador government moves against for-profit "garage universities"
• Uganda moving toward private for-profit universities, with PT faculty.
• Transforming the the privatization trend. On Teri Yamada's blog, Restructuring Public Hi Ed

Action

• Mammoth demonstration in Quebec in support of strikes agains university fee hikes
• "Occupy May Day: Not Your Usual General Strike," a very good article on the Occupy call for a "General Strike" on May 1, by the author of the famous book "Strike," Jeremy Brecher. Indy Blog (originally published by ZCommunications, also appearing in Portside and Common Dreams) http://indypendent.org/2012/03/29/occupy-may-day-not-your-usual-general-strike
• Grad employees at U of MN reject unionization in 4th vote since 1990, this time with UAW.
•  CFHE Updates on 2012 Week of Action April 16 and other Campaign for the Future of Higher Ed  updates. 

Miscellaneous

• Article by John Stoehr, editor of the New Haven Advocate and Yale lecturer, on the myth of freedom in the land of the free. Well worth a look.

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