Virtual Meet & Greet: CPFA, NTT Faculty of the California #CommunityCollege system

... because getting to know one another ~ individuals, groups, networks ~ is part of building an NTT academic labor network and connecting existing networks for contingent academic labor. The fragmentation that has isolated us can become our strength as nodes on distributed networks, interconnected, sharing information and learning from one another, with no single organization, central hub, network or even ring to rule them all. 

I'm starting with CPFA because I grabbed the information when working a recent post. The overflowing feed reader, social media and correspondence make for a sizable if incomplete scratch list, which should be the next post. Feel free to add to it ~ tell us about community online or off in your corner of the adjunctiverse. Suggest new ways to meetup or new twists on old ways. 

California Part-time Faculty Association

Serving over 46,000 Non-tenure Track Faculty in California Community Colleges.

Going to #CCCC? Call for networking

#adjunct/#contingentfaculty, put your networks to work!  Seth Kahn posted in Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Faculty Seth Kahn For anybody who's a current CCCC member and will be in St. Louis on Saturday morning--the CCCC Labor Caucus has submitted a resolution calling on CCCC to establish a Contingent Faculty Travel Fund (see resolution text). I have a hunch we're going to need to muster as many votes as we can. So PLEASE, if you're in town and a CCCC member, attend the Business Meeting and VOTE.  And please, even if you're not a member, canvass members to attend and vote (because that's how networks roll...)

Understanding Society: Civil society in a globalizing world

This post on Understanding Society, a sociology blog caught my eye ~ no mean feat as many feeds as I have in my reader. However, this blog always gets an extra look because the articles are interesting, relevant and imminently readable. A hard to beat combination, too rare in much academic writing.

This post on civil society is especially relevant because of recent initiatives, adjuncts taking matters into their own hands: NFM's new health insurance initiative; Anna Spiro's one woman (now two) "A is for Adjunct" awareness campaign; 'Junct Rebellion's Adjunct Emergency Fund; 2012 summit on contingency ~ and because it landed in my reader while I was working on a piece about adjuncts taking the initiative to connect with other adjuncts and adjunct/contingent faculty groups, start self-help initiative.

Now I think the topic needs to be developed into a series. The adjunct condition is part of globalization and the global precariat. I'm sure there are other adjuncts. individuals and groups, out there working on initiatives, and I want to hear from you

"An important component of western political theory since Locke and Rousseau is the notion of civil society—the idea of a society in which members have a variety of cross-cutting activities and associations, and where the state is not the sole source of social power. On this conception, a civil society is one that is characterized by multiple associations, free activities and choices by individuals, and a framework of law that assures rights and liberties for all citizens. It is a society with multiple forms of power and influence, minimizing the potential for exploitation and domination by powerful elites or the state. And it is a society in which citizens have developed a sense of mutual respect and consideration for each other. The fact of civil association serves to enhance the strength of collective identities among citizens, by building new loyalties and affiliations."

Understanding Society: Civil society in a globalizing world

Going Grassroots with Social Media

Recently written on adj-l (Contingent Faculty List):

Hey, I'd like to use Twitter and Facebook to get more support and awareness. What links should I pass around? Let's go Egyptian! It's gotta be grassroots or it won't work.

I've been thinking about blogging a series on just this and intend to recycle my reply by x-posting to one or more of my blogs. The listero's (Spanish for list member) question certainly adds to my motivation, so send questions, suggest topics, etc ~ the more focused and specific the better. 

How to get started?
Homework - reading articles,visiting sites, etc - helps but not unless you spend time in the media, getting familiar with it, actually using it.

What links?
If that were part of a thesis statement, I'd hand it back with your head on a platter: "too vague and general, be more specific." See above.

For starters though, post resource links, links to major adjunct related sites or ones covering adjunct issues, organizations, adjunct blogs, especially ones that represent adjunct groups and/or post regularly on adjunct and related issues (unions, academic labor, temp/precariat labor, higher education, etc).

Going Grassroots:

To build build and expand a online adjunct network, we must support, share, forward, follow, repost and recommend each other ~ even in the absence of reciprocity. That's what "grassroots" is about: not posting just to a closed list of several hundred ~ or even thousands. According to writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of internet technologies Clay Shirky in his book of the same and Joyce inspired title, social media organizing is "Here comes Everybody. Also, see Shirky's presentation on how social media are changing the way we organize. Another, obviously Shirky inspired, SlideShare presentation, "There goes everybody," addresses social media and civic engagement. 

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.  

Blogkeeping (literally): one of our blogs is missing

"One of our ____ is missing!" is such a movies of the week title, isn't it? But yes, one of "our" adjunct blogs is missing. MIA.  It is not "our" (pertaining to NFM) or even mine in the sense of my being the owner/ publisher/ writer. I wouldn't mind misplacing one of those, but they all have their addresses tattooed on their foreheads and know where they live. So, you may ask, if it's not yours, what's the story and what does it have to do with adjuncts, contingents, ad/cons or whatever we are calling ourselves or have been exhorted to call ourselves this week?

Easy... adjuncts write blogs. All manner of blogs, of such variety that the term "adjunct blog" is misleading. It's not a subject category like a "mom blog" (although adjuncts who are moms write those) or a "foodie blog." No doubt there are also ones written by adjuncts.  I hope to add examples to my adjunct blogroll. 

Do you remember my call for adjunct blogs? 

A few months or so back, I started bookmarking them with the tag "adjunct-blog" and combed my bookmarks for blogs tagged both "adjunct" and "blog." Many but not all so tagged would be adjunct blogs. Some of the best blog coverage of adjunct issues is by tenured faculty, former adjuncts more likely associate than full. I shouldn't need to remind you what safeguards tenure and academic freedom are for a cheeky blogger.  

Otherwise, however, blogging is an ideal medium for adjuncts: the price is right and it can be done anonymously.

Organizing: the Arts and Sciences, Rich Moser

 Cross posted from New Unionism, which is about unions setting agendas, rather than just reacting to them. This network unites supporters of four key principles: organizing, workplace democracy, internationalism and creativity.  FAQ»  Join»   

 

Organizing: the Arts and Sciences

Organizing, yes, but for what? Richard Moser presents an intriguing summary of the current state of work and unionism in the U.S.. He argues that unions have tended towards an organizational culture which is resistant to change and unaccustomed to democracy. He traces the evolution of this process, mapping it against changes in work and society. Unions must develop a culture of organizing if they are to renew their influence and reconnect with their members. He then presents some recommendations on organizing, exploring the contradictory but creative tensions that animate union activity. These are the challenges faced by those who want to put the movement back into labor.

Excerpt:

Organizing and the Fate of the US Labor Movement

It’s all about organizing and that’s good news.  Good news because it’s in our hands.  Good news because if we attend to the core mission of organizing we can become the authors of a new labor history—and it is a far, far better thing to be the author of your own world than a critic of the existing one. There are good reasons to believe that we can develop the capacity for renewal if we tap sources now nearly forgotten or largely unknown: the traditions of organizing and the transformative potential organizing still holds for the labor movement. Opportunity knocks, but, even the best of opportunities must be taken.

Organizing should be our top priority.  Why?  It is our most achievable major goal and fundamental to labor’s entire mission.

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