2015 in Review: Beyond the Ivory Silo™

 …in links and lists, leaning to education, social justice and technology but not exclusively so. If you have a 2015 list or year in review post to add, post your (non-spam) link plus brief description in comments.  

This post is not about adjunct issues per se. Consider it context -- and a harbinger of posts beyond the Ivory Silo™. Mainstream media, although present, does not dominate. A 2016 trends and intentions post will follow, on this blog... or another

 Reasons to Celebrate: Key Progressive Gains in 2015 | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

 Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Public Education 2015: The Year in Review

 2015 Year in Review: Grassroots Resistance Points the Way Forward | Portside

 2015: A Year in Review | The Baffler

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.

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

#highered news as contemporary intellectual history—Meranze's Latest

…re-posted from Remaking the University. Back when Michael Meranze (history, UCLA) blogged a weekly links post, I often reblogged it. He still blogs regularly, but Latest Links is now a feature on the sidebar with no rss feed. Links encompass the education spectrum but from a California perspective, welcome and sometimes short in national higher ed coverage. 

PS Don't miss his latest, "The New Brutalism in Higher Ed" (9/4/14), building on LRB editor Marina Warners' Diary column in London Review of Books. Read both. Meranze, master of the killer close, brings the "new brutalism" of UK higher ed back to our own shores:

Warner began her account by describing the visit of a friend from California who noticed that the library (from the 1960s) had been built in the style of the "new brutalism" (Think of most old UC or CSU buildings). But as Warner herself notes, "new brutalism in academia was taking on another meaning."  Although it has happened with ruthless ideological will in England, it is not an alien story to the US.  Indeed, what has happened over the last few years under David Cameron is really just a fast-forward version of what has been going on in the US more slowly and in less centralized fashion. We are in the midst of our own new brutalism.  Although not as centrally directed we have been witnessing it for years: the recent intrusions by governing boards at the Universities of Illinois, Kansas, and Virginia; the shuttering of small language departments; the dramatic rise in tuition at public universities; increasing student/faculty ratios; ever growing reliance on adjuncts; cuts in Federal support for scholarly research; and our own, albeit less developed, auditing system.  In England, the transition occurred with such speed as to catch most people off-guard (despite the efforts of individuals like Stefan Collini, Andrew McGettigan, or the Campaign for the Public University).  But we have no excuse.This is the time to master the details to be able to oppose the systems being put into place on campuses across the country. [emphasis added]

Michael Meranze's Latest Links

❝@TimesHigherEd Newsletter—UK & global #highered news views reviews

…another weekly HE newsletter. It could be early but I don't see anything here on COCAL XI, which has already been covered in Australia by CASA,which suggests (to me at least) that #auscasuals & allies may be more truly global minded than THE.  More at random than on any schedule, I try to blog a variety of education newsletters ~ a rotating sampler. Education International (EI-IE, @eduint) is another. Several University Affairs/Affaires universitaires bloggers are already on the PF blogrolls ~ more about UA/AU (just subscribed to the email newsletter too). Recommendations invited... 

As for domestic mainstream #highered media, it's already covered. Most readers already follow IHE and CHE, multiple share story links all over social media. When I remember, IHE's weekly newsletter and podcast go either straight to Precarious Faculty-Facebook or there via Precarity Dispatches. CHE's Academe is email, no link for easy online blogging and sharing, although sometimes I will. 

Times Higher Ed FEATURED CONTENT

catching up w/#adjunct corner of the #HigherEd galaxy

…news sources and conferences division.

News, there's a lot of it. Even filtered by topic ~ higher education, academic freedom, adjuncts, contingent faculty, academic labor, faculty unions, organizing, there is still a lot. Sources include higher ed media, mainstream medias, news feeds, blogs, social media and aggregators. If you are social media averse or just "Facebook suspicious" and follow by email notice or rss feed, then you may miss the posts from the precarious faculty network's news blogs syndicated to Facebook and Twitter.

An occasional post here about recent posts on those should take care of that. Precarity Dispatches and COCAL Updates are usually the most active, Both feature news link collections, but not exclusively. PD's are themed (academic freedom, adjunct organizing, higher ed, etc) and more curated. CU is a somewhat tidied up web version of Joe's email Updates ~ primarily contingent academic labor and regular updates on the City College of San Francisco v. accreditors. Lately, re-purposed and renamed, (Uniting for) Equity in Diversity has been more active, thanks to Sean Kennedy's series of posts recounting ongoing conflict between CUNY adjuncts and PSC-CUNY, spilling over into COCAL XI. Adjunct stories abound, with no shortage of narratives or websites/blogs publishing them. With no need to add yet another, Precarity Tales appears intermittently, usually when a story doesn't fit anywhere else, and is still finding itself.

About covering conferences: 

More #highereedmedia musings + #AcademeToday @Chronicle…minus paywalled links, #admin jobs etc

…@InsideHigherEd's newsletters come w/links for easy FB sharing…unless it slips through the memory hole, I post weekly and monthly newsletter not daily. Academe Today does not so it's blog, share from another FBer or nothing. That's not fair to IHE (bitching about the paywall not withstanding).

I've been accused of bad 'tude about about mainstream higher ed media. That depends on perspective. I want more speaking for ourselves, in our own voices and on our own platforms — but no throwing out any babies with media bathwater. Nor do I see any point in multiple daily posts of articles already posted on multiple groups and widely RT's. Plus, both show up regularly on Precarious Dispatches aggregation posts, CHE perhaps more frequently (suggesting a lingering print bias even on Google News).

So here's Monday's AcademeToday, adjunct proofed, as it were. Sure wish IHE did weekly and monthly reviews though..

NM #HorrorStories from @NorthernNNMC & more from the #adjunct news cycle

Ceramic by Latka Studio: NNMC, Española 13' diameter. 6” thick

…the #NNMC story in drafts that I should have stayed awake to send out two days ago is, by now, somewhat superseded by a more recent article in yesterday's Albuquerque Journal. Instead, see below for a list of NM news links to stories about the NNMC mess.

How recyclable the earlier draft commenting on  a Santa Fe Mexican article remains to be seen. Neither paper generally spends much non-booster time on higher education, so coverage now is both a plus and a sure sign just how bad things are. If this were a higher profile part of the country, higher ed media would be all over the story like white on rice. Presumably the state AFT Chapter would be paying more attention to their local than NM AFT, which does not even have an NM higher education page. Let's hope everybody — in-state and out — wakes up and starts paying attention. I'm making a project out of helping that happen.

Elsewhere, a mercifully brief, partial recap of the "adjunct news cycle" followed by NNMC links…

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.

#PrecariousFaculty Network Links (weekly)

…labor history (1998 Syracuse U strike, pictured: Ben Shahn mural at SU), strikes, adjunct unions, organizing, censorship, social media, academic freedom, adjunct blog posts, Labor Notes Conference, unpaid academic labor, retirement, higher inequalities, two-tier system, adjunct response to NYT Op-Ed

#PrecariousFaculty Network Links (weekly)

…from Union Book, ZCommunications, the New Left Project, ETFO Voice, Association of Governing Boards, MRSC, CounterPunch, Facebook, NYU, Google Docs, Iinternational Student Movement, Jacobin Magazine, Haymarket Books,

•   Precarious Work - UnionBook ~ "Precarious Work Affects Us All" is a global union campaign to stop the rise in precarious employment and regain power and justice for working people. On this campaign page you will find links to campaign materials, background information and details on what trade unions around the world are doing to mobilise against precarious work. Globalisation is not just about how things are made, bought and sold. It's also about people. Transnational companies want cheap and flexible workers. So they have shifted from secure to insecure employment - making all jobs more "precarious". from International Metal Workers, Union Book. Tags: workplace, precarity, precarious workers, globalization, PFR, video

• An Interview With Staughton Lynd About the Labor Movement in ZCommunications »

2013 ending/2014 beginnings…

Share your picks for top 2013 #adjunct /contingent faculty news items, articles, victories, trends, best new blogs, media features or services. Some are obvious; others less so. Let's look at as many contenders as possible. What are your contenders for the Big Ideas that could change the adjunctiverse in 2014? Who knows? We might just retrieve, bring to light and share that important story or big idea otherwise missed. Throw in a handful of predictions and sprinkle with wishes for 2014.

PS... don't overlook early 2013 or smaller, less publicized but still significant events and accomplishments either...

I ask because it's that Janus time of the year again: beginnings and transitions, a time to look back and review the high points of the year ending; make predictions about the one coming on. Although not usually on the media menu, 'emergent' is an appropriate category too for projects and actions with a foot in each year. The best, most promising 2013 items are also emergent -- the worst and most threatening too.

in the air…#CEW2013, #NCC strike, other precariat actions

…are they precursors of change or another round of promises? Will momentum continue to build, moving toward a tipping point, a major swerve? I'm still working on another change post, building off the last. The concept no sooner gels than something pops up to change it. Change is like that. This is not about change but not quite not about change. Starting as a gap fill post, it has come to feel more like watching for the wave.

With a month and a half to go, a new Campus Equity Week page launched. What did Mission Control used to say? We have lift-off. Later than advised but well ahead of the 2009 and 2011 late starts.

From its inception, CEW was as a genuine grassroots effort. Yet without the focus of a dedicated home base and a point person designated to round up, report, announce and share resources, it was not thriving as it had earlier. Not that anyone wanted to see it go, but there was no concerted effort for a large scale push. Pockets of activities persisted on scattered campuses.

new pages… #adjunctstories & more

…We've opened two new Tumblr pages, New Faculty Majority News & Links and Adjunct Stories, for quick posts that aren't quite full fledged blog posts. News, as its name indicates, is just for news links, reasonably relevant stories - ACA, precariat, part time worker actions, organizing academic labor, higher ed news. The links will also be easier to find later. There is also a "submit" option to encourage visitors to contribute. They aren't the only new adjunct media nodes in the larger, ever expanding adjunctiverse

Good Morning #Adjunct/iverse

… & other #highered denizens of the internet, whoever & wherever you are! Trolls, stay under your bridges. Everyone else: have some news with your morning coffee. Do not feed the trolls. it only encourages them. 

leading stories this morning : offshore tax shelters revealed in leaked docs, CA hiker found, one still lost; jobless claims at four month high; new Carnival cruise ship incident; and a goat walks into a bar in Butte, Montana.

BUT this is today's ABSOLUTE top story in the Adjunct/iverse: go Jack! Olympic College nailed by Education Dept. Accuses Accreditor of Neglecting Adjunct's Complaint - Chronicle of Higher Education (behind pay wall so mug someone for zir password)

CO Governor signs Contingent Faculty legislation

Just in from Don Eron, news too good & too important not to share immediately with as many #adjuncts/#contingent faculty as possible. Pass it on ...dance on tables...

Don writes, 

Colorado HB 12-1144, the Contingent Faculty Bill, was signed into law this afternoon.

The photograph was taken after our post-signing wind-down strategy session. On my right is long-time contingent activist Suzanne Hudson, my partner in all things; on my left is Representative Randy Fischer of Ft. Collins, who wrote the legislation; on Representative Fischer's left is Sue Doe. In my left breast pocket, undetected by the camera, is the Governor's pen, one of several  used in signing this historic legislation. 

More information and pictures, including of the signing on the Colorado AAUP website

We did it

Posted via email from Academentia

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 23Mar12

Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry.   

Updates in brief and links

ADJUNCTIVERSE

Adjunct problem is every professor's problem, on More or Less Bunk 

Idaho adjunct with bipolar disorder fired after gun incident 

A "nosey" philosophical contribution by our fellow precarious faculty (and author) Alex Kudera, on his blog

Adjunct Nation,  about "one of the fastest-growing job titles in America ... ‘adjunct professor’ (an ill-paid, overworked species of academic).” IHE

Article about College of William and Mary adjuncts 

ORGANIZING

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 7Mar12

Yes, these are a week late. There's another set of updates from Joe waiting in the email box for formatting, link embedding and perhaps an image or so to perk it up. I'm experimenting with layout and organization too. Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry, Updates, COCAL, publications, links.

 

Joe Berry at COCAL VI

Updates in brief and links

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 3Mar12

Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry, COCAL, publications, links.  

Note: Please participate in the March 1-8 week of action called nationally by Occupy. For details see Occupy Edu on Tumblr and Occupy Education CA. Check your local area for more details.

 

Updates in Brief and Links

1. Workers, supported by their union, United Electrical Workers (UE),  re-occupy former Republic Windows and Doors plant (now Serious Materials) in Chicago [video]   to stop closure and save jobs. [Could contingent faculty consider occupation as a tactic?] Press release, "Workers Strike a Deal to Try and Save Jobs." Contact:  Leah Fried, UE Organizer  773-550-3022 , leahfried@gmail.com

2. New study from UC Berkeley shows for-profits taking up slack for public institutions cutbacks, with quality falling as a result, "the Brazilian effect" (Inside HigherEd)

3. Yet another Chicago building occupation, this one of a school slated for closure. (Labor Notes)

4. March 1 Action in Chicago at East-West and Columbia and Pfac update on situation at Columbia College Chicago here, from Pfac Executive Committee.

5. Upcoming at Left Forum, March 16-18,  in NYC: 

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates, 23Feb12

Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry, COCAL, publications, links. 

COCAL Updates in brief and links Capeheart v. NEIU: continuing free-speech/ academic freedom struggle at Northeastern IL U  ~ see below

1. Santorum defends for-profits, Inside HigherEd
2. Victory for union as U of Michigan Trustees oppose bill to forbid grad research assistants from unionizing, over the objections of senior administrators, Inside HigherEd 
3. Economic numbers to die for [we are far from alone in suffering in this economy]
4. For-profit higher ed and the Occupy movement and a new crack down on the for-profits  
5. Pasadena City College students protest class cuts and adjunct layoffs  
6. In case you have not heard, Occupy national congress set for July in Philly and more about it in WaPo. [Contingent faculty should be there!]
7. Learning from Finland by Diane Ravitch  (and I wonder what their higher ed looks like too)
8. Sue Doe of NFM testifies to Colorado state legislature about us.  
9. Tenured professor fired at Indiana U, South Bend More on Columbia College union, PFAC, NLRB charges against Columbia Collge administration

Updates in full