#KeithHoeller's #call4letters supporting Mary-Faith Cerasoli & @InsideHigherEd on her protest…

#hungerstrike Day7 May15

Folks:
InsideHigherEd published a piece on Mary-Faith Cerasoli's hunger strike: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/05/15/adjunct-continues-hunger-strike-after-hospital-visit


I am hoping we can get a press release up later today. In the meantime, Mary Faith needs our help. She wants New York Governor Cuomo to meet with her to discuss the plight of adjuncts in New York state.

You can support her hunger strike by writing to Gov. Cuomo's Correspondence aid, Kelly Brady at kelly.brady@exec.ny.gov and/or ian.rosenblum@exec.ny.gov. Ian Rosenblum is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education. Ask Governor Cuomo to meet with her ASAP. Given that she started her hunger strike last Friday, it would help to move fast.

Cordially, Keith Hoeller, Seattle, WA. Editor, Equality for Contingent Faculty

Ed note: thinking twitterblitz, sharing this on Twitter? NFM Press Release recommends #hungryhomelessprof. Do mention @NYGovCuomo so he gets a copy. Throw in a media handle too ~ your choice: @NYTimes, @PBSNewsHour, @SarahKendzior, @TheAtlantic, @Slate, @mtaibbi or another. If you tag @VCVaile, @PrecariousFac or @AnaMFores, we'll RT

This Week @InsideHigherEd Audio premieres today May2

…have a listen & tell us what you think. So would "This Week on This Week" acronymize to TW2? Does anybody else miss or even remember TW3? That Was The Week That Was (video of Dec 1963 highlights)…

Program 1: May 2, 2014: This Week on This Week On our premiere of our new weekly audio newscast, the Teagle Foundation's Judith Shapiro and Ben Wildavsky of SUNY's Rockefeller Institute of Government join Inside Higher Ed's Scott Jaschik and moderator Casey Green to discuss the White House campaign on sexual assaults, the growth of campus Confucious Institutes, Google's decision to stop scanning university email for ads -- and the state of the selfie in higher education. Listen to this new program here. Copyright © 2014 Inside Higher Ed, All rights reserved.

Surfing #HigherEdMedia: IHE's Daily & CHE's #AcademeToday

… on @WH #HigherEd Summit & other important articles, too many #paywall/ed for most #adjuncts…unfortunately Peter Schmidt's article on adjunct organizing is one of them. Since the article is about municipal endorsements, you can probably find articles in local Boston area, and L.A. press. The good news is that Rich Moser's (already featured on Facebook at A new faculty majority and other pages is not. 

IHE makes this easier by publishing their daily newsletter online as well as a weekly and a monthly—subscribe by email or rss. No pay walls -- and here's a White House Summit story (POTUS meets with 100 college presidents—what's wrong with this picture besides everything?) to sub for the one pay-walled at the Chronicle.  

On #ClassWarfare in Academe

…@InsideHigherEd commentary by #PeterDGBrown—SUNY New Paltz UUP Bullhorn editor, Mayday Declaration author.  Veteran academic activist Peter announces, "a commentary I wrote, 'Class Warfare in Academe,' was published today in Inside Higher Ed." Briefly excerpted—read the rest here and Peter's Bullhorn editorials/articles here.

Class warfare in the academy is unlikely to end any time soon. Meanwhile, we urgently need to connect the dots, to stop underfunding and privatizing public higher education. At the same time, we need to put an end to wasteful spending and overly generous perks that top administrators dole out to themselves. Saddling our students with backbreaking tuition loan debt is simply unsustainable. They, their parents, taxpayers and legislators deserve to know where their hard-earned tuition and tax dollars are going. The quality of their education and thus the future of our country depend on providing a living wage, job security and benefits to those actually teaching in our classrooms.

#HigherEd news roundup: IHE, CHE dailies & more

Higher Ed news ~ old style

…when there are a lot of adjunct (or NOTTSPASMS) relevant stories in one day, I blog an entire higher ed newsletter or share one with web address directly on the NewFac FB page. I don't every day though, but you can subscribe to IHE's Daily Updates by email or on rss. The Chronicle's version, Academe Today, is by email subscription only. 

Both cover pretty much same ground but it's useful to check both because they won't necessarily cover the same stories with the same perspective or depth. The fair and balanced way to cover both will be to alternate adapting email forward of one while highlighting stories of interest in the other, So that is what I am doing: selected Academe Today stories followed by the Daily Updates news letter. One leads, the other get more space: flipped the next time.

...at least until I work out something less time consuming that includes other sources. Posts of particular interest are highlighted (but not be the same as what you would pick). I'm on Mountain time: don't look for early editions.

#HigheredNews: post-election musings on what it means for us

…from #Academe Today & @InsideHigherEd's Daily News Updates (in particular, Four More Years, A Status quo Congress & more). From California, Changing Universities' Bob Samuels writes "We Won the Battle, Now the War," and Remaking the University's Chris Newfield delivers a, "Bullet Dodged by Ballot." Snarky and smart Lawyers, Guns & Money offers briefly annotated election reflection links, Victory, include education,. Robert Valiant has launched a website to gather information about who funded campaigns for charters and vouchers and against teachers, unions and public education.

Yes, I'm till pushing academic news aggregation posts even if they don't have the bling or get the clicks of single items. Being informed matters and the day after a presidential election is a for read news day. Besides #nanowrimo and #digiwrimo = #wrimo all month long: I have not fish but other words to fry. Expect rewarmed leftovers, reblogs and otherwise recycled posts. Upside: more posts.

Academe Today Wednesday November 07, 2012 Subscribe to this newsletter  The 2012 Election: What Obama's Win Means for Academe

Media 101 Webinar free to #NFM members

…from Maria Maisto, New Faculty Majority and NFM Foundation are proud to invite NFM members to participate in an interactive one hour webinar, Alert the Press: Media 101 for Contingent Faculty Activists and Allies on Monday, September 24, 2012 at 12 noon EASTERN time (11 am Central/10 am Mountain/9 am Pacific).


Description:

Reading Room: about reading highered + links of my own

Yes indeed, Joe Berry's COCAL Updates, Omnivore and Michael Meranze's "In case you missed it..." (Remaking the University) links are fine and dandy, but I have a feed reader too and links of my own, collected here for a change. This might also explain why I might miss articles in IHE and CHE and run short of time to pore over comments. News Flash! Not everyone in the universe checks them or even the Grey Lady first thing.

So much more is written about higher education, contingent workplace conditions, education and the economy than on just those august pages. Depending on either or even both for all your higher and other education news is just another way to stay trapped in the Ivory Silo©. Think too of the great adjunct writing online that doesn't make it into those pages. Why let commercial, advertising soliciting gatekeepers dictate what you read? Look for the Adjunct Label...

  

More Magical Thinking

You should all really have a look at this Inside HigherEd column: "Castes and Higher Ed" by Gloria Nemerowicz. It is just another in an apparently endless line of “reformist” essays featuring a tenderness of feeling for the poor and the downtrodden, conjoined to a faith in the power of higher education that is rendered ridiculous by some inability or unwillingness to look at the caste system in our colleges and universities. Look:

“Income and wealth inequality in the United States, which has become even more pronounced since 1967, continues to interfere with the national need for an increasingly sophisticated and skilled workforce and citizenry.”

Yikes! Does this author really not know that at least one very sophisticated and skilled workforce—the one doing all the higher ed teaching—is, well, you get the idea.

Furthermore, In regard to the author’s own institution, while the Pine Manor College website claims, no doubt truthfully that "The College employs nearly 200 individuals, including full- and part-time faculty and staff," the US Department of Education reports via IPEDS that PMC has 53 employees whose primary task is instruction, and almost half of these are part-time.

DO have a look and make polite comments in response.