EduAmerica: infographics, Stafford & more

…a topic that includes but is not limited to contingent faculty, debt or even just higher education. We're all connected in many ways, threatened too and need to build more bridges. Recent NEA support for updating DoL language on UI eligibility to clarify "reasonable assurance" at the federal level is just one example. 


Another might be the flip side or ongoing cognitive dissonance between K-12 and higher ed members in education unions. Better communication there should mean more voice for contingent faculty. Issues affecting K-12 affect higher education. Trends taking root in one will move to the other. Then there is the obvious one.... teaching, plus primarily contingent staffed areas like ESL, ABE, GED, tutoring, tech school, etc. that fall between and often through the cracks.

Last week, the education world was abuzz when changes to the federal student loan program went into effect, many with lasting implications for students and graduates grappling with college debt. Learn more about the issue with this series of education-related infographics, which tackle topics from debt, to digital media, to the disastrous effects of playing hooky

A Message from the NEA Contingent Faculty Caucus

by Judy Olson, reposted from the Contingent Academics Mailing List and detailing the process by which the Contingent Faculty Caucus (CFC) brought a concrete action to help contingent faculty across the country gain access to unemployment benefits more easily and that representatives across the entire education spectrum approved by unanimous voice vote. Usually I wish for pictures; this time it would be an audio of the voice vote. Now read the whole thing. It's worth it.  Judy explains,

Thursday was the last day of the National Education Association's Representative Assembly (RA). It was a successful RA for the Contingent Faculty Caucus; we are building power and visibility and have achieved an important victory for contingent faculty.

The NEA is the largest education union in the country, with almost 3 million members, the vast majority in K-12. On one hand, NEA is big and powerful; on the other, higher ed is a tiny minority trying to be heard amid all the noise, and contingent faculty are a weak minority within that minority. Our challenge is that we must constantly educate our K-12 colleagues about our issues; they have no idea what our working conditions are or that we constitute a significant majority of higher ed's teaching workforce.

Conferences Coming & Going: #LeftForum, #4C12, #SXSW, etc

A Rite of Spring Stravinsky would not recognize, conferences are how academics celebrate its coming. No excursions to Ft Lauderdale or other beaches.


March opened with NEA Higher Education Conference and AWP 2012, both in Chicago. Only the former participated in Occupy Chi / National  Day of Action for Education. L.A. followed with ACE 2012 annual meeting for higher ed administrators, university presidents and their ilk. Edu-geeks frolicked at SXSWedu in Austin, regular SXSW continues through March 19.  For the weekend the determined (perhaps demented) conference goer has CCCC in St Louis and Left Forum in NYC.

 

EWU Notes & Updates

EWU's United Adjuncts will demonstrate again by the Michigan Avenue entrance and want to get a big crowd. We'll keep you posted. If you would like to support United Adjuncts by attending this demonstration, please contact ewuadjuncts@gmail.com.     In the meantime, UAFA (United Adjunct Faculty Association) urges all adjuncts with abrogated summer contracts to apply for unemployment compensation as soon as possible.  Bring the letter informing you that the University considered you no longer employed by the University to the unemployment office as proof that you have been laid off. More unemployment information is available on the NFM Unemployment Initiative web page United Adjuncts are organizing with the Illinois NEA. Nevertheless, those concerned adjunct issues nationally have suggested that the AFT Convention now in session issue a statement censuring EWU for its labor practices ~ and discussed at length. Indeed, where is it written in stone that one higher ed union cannot go on public record disapproving of how an institution being organized by another higher ed union? If cross-union support is not S.O.P., it should be. The AAUP issued a statement (although I have not heard of further action such as official AAUP censure).

Conference Voices

Following the briefest of breaks between Apri/May events, summer brings forth yet another conference season. No rest for either wicked or weary. This particular season seems more profession, career and labor than academic discipline and pedagogy oriented ~ but still with workshops, panels, forums and such. Adjunct issues are increasingly represented too, just as they are at the major conferences for academic disciplines.


 Unless very close to home, attending conferences is hard on the adcon's limited budget but probably a necessary expense considering how much they expand networking opportunities for activists and advocates, all the more indispensable when there a campaigns or projects to promote, i.e. building membership in a new organization or the Unemployment Compensation Initiative.


The first "post semester" conference, SUNY Stonybrook's How Class Works, was June 3-5. Maria Maisto hosted an active NFM Q & A session and Steve Street presented. Next, June 9-12, came the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) Conference in Washington, DC. 9-10, with adjunct sessions June 9-10.  I probably have enough details on both Stonybrook and AAUP for separate posts, especially (hint, hint) if I hear from a few more participants. 


It's not just faculty out there on the conference trail: AAUP included sessions on administrative issues and at least one presentation by a longtime trainer of online "facilitators" at for-profit universities. Concurrently with the AAUP Annual Conference, the CCA (Career College Association) held its Annual Convention & Exposition, an adjunct issue free event, June 9-11, in Las Vegas and covered by Inside Higher Ed like any other conference. The Vegas venue is also popular with with K-12 administrators for meetings and workshops as well as with lawyers taking required professional development workshops. 


A very different conference, the U.S. Social Forum will take place June 22-26 at Detroit's Cobo Hall and at various locations throughout Detroit. The dramatic and symbolically charged difference makes a striking counterpoint.

click to view or print larger version

The forum is not an academic or exclusively academic labor conference and promises to be an event where working people from all walks of life can share stories and creative solutions to problems as they plan for social, economic and environmental change. The Union of Part-Time Faculty at Wayne State will host 'Adjuncts United' contingent during U.S. Social Forum's opening march June 22 and the "Voice for the Voiceless" workshop to discuss adjunct organizing efforts June 23. 


Check The Adjunct Voice and at AFT Face Talk. for more coverage, links, and contact details. Likewise, Owen Thomas is also reminding Open a Vein readers to head for Motor City.  NFM board members Jen Bills will be there, others as well, so I'm hoping for follow-up good reports. 


Same time frame, June 22-July 6, the NEA Convention meets in New Orleans. The Representative Assembly (RA) takes place during the final four days of the Annual Meeting. Hinting again, dear readers, if you are attending, please drop me a line. 


Reports on any conferences with ad/con sessions would be most appreciated. I especially welcome state and regional conferences. I'll also be checking in on Twitter for conference updates.