Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Tuesday #Adjunct Notes—#FairEmploymentWeek #NAWD #CCSF @MLASubcon @CFPB



I started a Tuesday Notes draft last night. As the day progressed and expected terrain shifted, I had to leave them behind to start over but saved the draft for a template. Call it optimistic recycling. Late as it is already, this will be an erratic dash against the clock, zigzagging and jumping about.

So as not to forget Fair Employment Week: Precarious campus work in the spotlight again, I'm opening with it and the CAUT graphic. Although an optional annual Campus Equity Week came up at COCAL XI, only the campuses in San Diego and Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College Districts are doing #CEW2014. Colorado Front Range CC has been doing CEW annually too, but I haven't seen any notices this year

The predictability of tabling makes me look forward all the more to National Adjunct Walkout Day as different and innovative. Rumblings that NAWD needs to be "professionally" organized, less grassroots...even rescheduled to fold into CEW2015 make me wince. Say it ain't so.

The big news of the day has to be the #CCSF trial ~ just follow the hashtag on Twitter. Margaret Hanzimanoulis shared SFGate's story of dramatic testimony shaking up City College of San Francisco trial and recommends following @FitzTheReporterRare is the higher ed story that can hold its own with a World Series.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Monday #Adjunct Notes…Happy Birthday #AdjunctJustice

The Daily Notes idea I proposed last Friday, got lost over the weekend. I'm not ready to say that it's not working out and will try again. Maybe it's just not for weekends. There's not really a plan but if there were, "post more often" would be the short version. More content (posts) leads to more visits, develops the blog as a network hub and (hopefully) encourages checking out features (blogrolls, pages, news feed ticker, archives, video bar, widgets for Twitter, Facebook and blog feeds ~ and morw). We really do have a lot of comment even without posts.

Like frosting like on a birthday cupcake, bringing us to ~

...a happy announcement and call for a digital party. Yesterday +Ana Maria Fores Tamayo's Adjunct Justice (on Tumblr) turned one year old (you might not have noticed from just the post title) Celebrate by visiting the blog and following. PS plans are afoot to add a comment feature too because we all know how much Ana enjoys conversations with visitors to the Adjunct Justice Facebook page.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Halloween Special: Sunday at the Movies Double Feature

…with apologies for missing last week and extras to make up. Some Sundays, selections (Matinee or otherwise) are educational; others, entertainment. Our Movies for Precarious Faculty playlist abounds in the former...but not for every weekend and certainly not for Halloween. Even so, entertainment features are selected, not without irony, for subtext and metaphors relevant to our condition.

Tonight, we have vampires and zombies: Nosferatu and The Night of the Living Dead ~ videos below the fold. Don't try to tell me you have not seen both in the academic workplace.

Plus Cthulhu for commuters: H.P. Lovecraft audio collections and more from Open Culture.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

On #PSLF: Public Statement to US #DoE on 30 hour rule


…guest post by Meg Feeley, originally posted to the adj-l listserv, Contingent Academics Mailing List, October 23, 2014

Please consider clicking through to the comments page for the U.S. Department of Education. Tell them you reject their '30 hour' rule for academics as outside the industry norm, and support a 'one class' rule: anyone who teaches one class (and is not employed full-time elsewhere) should be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. You may submit comments anonymously.

Spread the word! You have until Nov 4th to submit comments here (click the "comment now" button):

Here is the public comment I submitted which has not yet been published.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday #adjunct notes—news links comments—whatever

…not in any particular order, not by importance, chronology, category or other ~ just as they flit by or come to mind. The operating idea is to turn out a quick update post. Morning would have been nice but we missed that window. Don't think of it as regular item either unless you see it appearing multiple days in a row. How hard can it be to snag a few from the morning flow to start the day with? Not pick, not select.

More than a hashtag, Marc Bousquet's #mlademocracy is now an organization with a url, a forum and a FAQ…taking memberships, inviting organizations to affiliate and offering badges. As much as the the MLA (and other organizations associated with higher education) might benefit from more democracy, the scope of this one may be limited. #mlatakeover seemed a more forthright tag.

Adjunctiverse reblogged Bryan Alexander's latest, "How to adjunctivize your university." It's on the blogrolls too. ICYMI here it is again. You won't like what it says but should not be surprised by it either. Halloween approaches: call it a #FridayFright4Faculty post ~ for adjunct and tenured alike.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness ~ a reminder about the call to comment on the legislation that controls PSLF, IBR, Direct Student Loans and more.  Federal Register page calling for comments on the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program is a good place to start. November 5 is the deadline for comments and documents ~ find more details and a submit button here

Thursday, October 23, 2014

3 ways to get on the solidarity bus & darker October thoughts

…about the bus part…I've been following, Facebooking and tweeting +Ana Maria Fores Tamayo's campaign supporting immigrant issues and calling the marginalized—social and geographical outliers—to stand together. Her campaign is both online at Adjunct Justice and @AnaMFores and on the ground at protests and all the way to border detention centers. Of the many powerful and moving pictures she has taken documenting protests (sometimes carrying a sign bigger than she is) and trips to the border, I am particularly take the solidarity bus. Maybe because it's public art on wheels or I'm having a 60's flashback, but the solidarity bus sure looks good for my next Precarious Faculty cover image. Besides, Vanessa is butterfly in Greek.

That's one way to get on the solidarity bus. The other two are National Adjunct Walkout Day and Meg Feeley's Adjunct Student Loan Debt / PSLF Fairness Campaign

Thursday, October 16, 2014

A late, short #BlogActionDay post…#BAD14

…down to the wire because I have been too busy working for equity (and against inequity) to blog about it.

Yesterday's post would count if I were on the other side of the International Date Line. Tonight I don't even have time to tell you about what I did today.

…so maybe I will tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Oct16 #BAD2014 Reminder + #PublicEdNation followup…all connected…even to #ccourses

Blog Action Day…less unrelated than might appear at first glances: both are fighting #inequality. Also Blog Action Day shares a blogging connection with the National Public Education Network via the associated Education Bloggers Network. So of course I connect these networks to Connected Courses…both by blogging and as a "daily connect." There's more but isn't this already tangled enough? If you have a blog, register it with Blog Action Day and blog about adjunct inequality. No blog? Then check out blogs on the livestream (it's already October 16 somewhere), comment and share on social media. We're all connected. PS the ed bloggers want to add higher ed to their mix.

…and now more about Blog Action Day before moving onto Public Education Nation follow-up and the video of Diane Ravitch and Jitu Brown's closing conversation about building a movement.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

#ReclaimEducation…#PublicEdNation event, links & videos

Embedded image permalink...from National Public Education Network's #PublicEdNation event, October 11, 2014. For an event recap that also talks about both education blogging and involving higher education in the quest to #ReclaimEducation from corporations and "education privateers," read Russ Walsh's "Hangin' at Public Education Nation" with 200 hundred or so Badass Teachers, bloggers, school administrators, college professors, parents and students. Yes, bloggers are making a difference -- so will connecting more ed bloggers, whether across borders or discipline and category silos. Or as the adjunked professor commands us adjunct and precarious bloggers, blog on!

Public Education Nation videos still MIA: 


Testing and the Common Core: New York Principal of the Year Carol Burris leads a discussion  with educators Takeima Bunche-Smith, Rosa Rivera-McCutchen and Alan Aja.



Support Our Schools, Don’t Close Them: Chicago teacher Xian Barrett moderates a panel featuring education professor Yohuru Williams, Hiram Rivera of the Philadelphia Student Union, and a representative of the Newark Student Union.
...and the not to be missed closing event, Diane Ravitch and Jitu Brown, In Conversation: The event finished off with a conversation between leading community activist Jitu Brown and Diane Ravitch (both pictured above), who talked about building a movement for real improvement in our schools. Until the video is archived, here's a Bill Moyers interview with Diane Ravitch. You can fill in some gaps following the #PublicEdNation tag on Twitter. @CPFA_forum, @AddieJunked, @precariousfac and @VCVaile followed the event from afar, retweeting posts of particular interest to our "ad-junked nation,"

Friday, October 10, 2014

October is National #Bullying Prevention Month


…not the only item on the PF blogging agenda, which includes National Adjunct Walkout Day, Adjunct Chat's PD project, #ccourses ~ among other topics. Since this is Bullying Prevention/Awareness Month, I did not want to delay opening a long planned academic bullying series post. Although most of the months' designated websites emphasize schools, bullying and mobbing ~ as many of us know all too well ~ is very real in academic workplace too.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, in which schools and organizations work together to stop bullying and cyber-bullying through activities, outreach and education. The month not only tries to raise awareness of bullying in schools, but also works to raise awareness of workplace bullying.
So is bullying in online groups and volunteer organizations. Building and maintaining trust is central to both organizing and preventing online bullying. Whether serendipity or morphic resonance, today's #ccourses' webinar is about building trust online and off. That will probably be the next post in the series. Reading Room will feature related links this month, and I hope to get to at least some of the bullying and related posts in drafts

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, CSEA Local 1000 AFSCME, AFL-CIO...and now for a video and more links, with a focus on workplace and academic bullying and mobbing to reinforce group think and as a retaliation tool

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Sunday Matinee: #Walkout…w/an #adjunct nod to #NAWD


OK so this late makes it more like Sunday Night at the Movies (which is classically
"Saturday Night at the Movies" anyway).

An #AdjunctWalkout is in the air (not for the first time since I've been covering this beat), last walkout we blogged was Wisconsin, February 17, 2011.  For the one coming, there is a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a few other links (nearly naked blog and equally sparse Facebook event page) that may or may not be related…more when someone sends it to us; if not, then not.

According to Wikipedia:
hence the film and links (below). The
In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an organization, especially if meant as an expression of protest or disapproval. 
A walkout can be seen as different from a strike in that a walkout can occur spontaneously, and need not necessarily involve all the workers present, whereas a strike is often voted on beforehand by the workers, giving notification both to all of the workers and to the company affected.  

The video Walkout the 2006 HBO movie based on the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts originally embedded in this post is no longer accessible. The student actions of 1968 inspired later protests that used similar tactics.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

From the archives: a #poem for the weary #adjunct

 …When in doubt, that is to say, when I am woefully behind on posts and at a loss for which of so many topics (readings, news, issues, campaigns, social media, projects, courses usw) to blog, then it's time to make some breathing space by hitting the archives. So here, reposted from October 20, 2012, is ❝Waifs and Strays❞ by Arthur Rimbaud with this (still appropriate) note:
#PAD/s usually go to plog (short for poetry blog) & @PWPicnic…this one seemed somehow so right for here. Alors, sont-nous aussi les enfants de la rue dans notre malchance d'être ainsi abandonnés?

Waifs and Strays by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Jethro Bithel

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