Thursday Miscellany—#rhizo14, CO2 pipeline, mobilizing to end contingency

…so much for hitting the blog in a more timely manner and early enough in the day to remember those morning blogging ideas (not to mention focused enough to develop them. Some of the day went to Rhizo14 (Rhizomatic Learning, after D&G's rhizome applied to learning), which started as a connectivist MOOC. A larger chunk went to local interests, online community media, where I'm following and reporting on local concerns over the construction of a proposed CO2 pipeline ~ in addition to the usual community garden/farmers market notices, Forest Service fire alerts and local festivals, as noted at Mountainair Online and elsewhere

Enter National Mobilization for Equity, started by Peter Brown with “Mayday Declaration on Contingency in Higher Education,” founding text for the Mayday $5K Campaign at SUNY New Paltz. It's been growing since its Mayday origins and picking up endorsers ~ not just academic organizations either. Yesterday was the first teleconference meeting of the steering committee representing the supporting organizations, representing over 7 million members.

❝The National Mobilization for Equity is committed to alleviating the present staffing crisis in higher education: three-quarters of teaching jobs in American colleges are held by underpaid, precarious and poorly-supported contingent faculty. Our long-term goal is to end contingency as the norm. This situation not only adversely affects all faculty members, both contingent and tenure-track, it also negatively impacts our profession, our students and the quality of their education.❞

 As you might have guessed by now, although not an organization, I'm in hip deep with the web page and posts. Catching up there, updating the page, posting about a review of Ivory Tower that calls public funding of higher education (and now blogging about it) filled the rest of the day. So go over and check it out.