Education International - Staying united

…@eduint updates…stories on #CFHE & global counterparts #united4ed

Right Leaders of Wrong & other ed-revs

…as told in tweets by @Jessifer (Hybrid Pedagogy) on Storify. Jesse Stommel (IRL) writes...

A short conversation on Twitter about the oncoming revolution in Higher Education. 

It started innocently enough with a few sentences I threw out to the Twitterverse in the weekly hours on a Thursday. Had been thinking about friends and colleagues that are brilliant teachers and wondering why they keep getting pushed out of academia. And why some of them have come to the conclusion that academia is not hospitable to them. It's a weird contradiction -- that in many institutions of higher learning, the folks most passionate about teaching and learning often get overlooked or even aggressively pushed out. 

Read the rest at Right Leaders of Wrong (with tweets) by Jessifer on Storify. Want more, related?

Outing the eponymous Professor ‘Staff’

The long awaited NFM Foundation report from CFHE Center /think tank is out and fab. I really wanted to write “simply mahvelous” but fabulous is what Gary calls it, so I’ll go with ‘fab” and the awesome alliteration of “fab Foundation” report as assembled, organized, written and edited by Gary Rhoades and our own fab five. Steve Street (to whom the report is dedicated), Maria Maisto, Esther Merves, Judy Olson and Anne Wiegard. Introducing the release, Gary Rhoades writes,

Attached (linked actually, see below) is the second report of the think tank, the Center for theFuture of Higher Education, courtesy of the FABULOUS work of the NewFaculty Majority Foundation. 

"Who is Professor ‘Staff’ and how does this person teach so many classes" offers not only data about "just in time" employment and insufficient access to instructional resources for contingent faculty, it also provides a tool for redressing SOME of those problems at limited cost, though we emphasize in closing the report that there is a structural deficit in higher education that must be resolved to ensure affordable, quality higher education. 

The key points in brief [but no surprise to any contingent faculty] are as follow:

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.

What is equity for adjuncts? Will it ever become a reality?

New Faculty Majority Treasurer & (founding) board member William Lipkin asks, explaining, 

I am currently 'celebrating' my 50th years of adjuncting. Why would I subject myself to such exploitation for such a long period of time? Well for the first 35 years I had a 'real' job in the private sector, not teaching, which allowed me to raise 2 sons and give me and my wife a good lifestyle. During that period I taught a couple of courses a semester at night or on Saturday and had very little interest in pay, benefits, support, governance, etc.?

Once I realized my real passion was in teaching I left my other job and became a professional adjunct, or as we call ourselves in New Jersey - 'Roads Scholars' - traveling the state between schools in order to earn a living.

Then came the wake up call!

More #FutureofHigherEd & yet another #mooc

The future of higher education & other imponderables

as posted by George Siemens at elearnspace, June 16, 2012. I was going to ramble today or be more purposeful, issuing reminders and otherwise exhorting one and sundry (July 1 Stafford deadline, petitions, UNL's EDAD adjunct survey on evals, Duquesne, TAMUSA, etc). I may still do one or both, but this caught my eye and looked like something I could turn around much easier than the baggy monster sitting in drafts. I'm still deferring final posts for #change11 (digital identities, it's a wrap so what's the takeaway).

---

via OLDaily, hence the introduction by Stephen Downes, who writes...

George Siemens introduces the next open online course (aka MOOC though some people don't like the term) that we are participating in (by 'we' I mean George and myself, Dave Cormier and Bonnie Stewart, the Gates Foundation, EDUCAUSE, Desire2Learn, UBC, SOLAR, CETI, and a spare kitchen sink we found by the roadside). It will be short and intense, quite unlike our previous effort. 

Reading Room: Reclaiming the University Links, Friday June 8

…Michael Meranze rounds up #highered news, emphasis on California but relevant for all. Visit, read and bookmark or add Reclaiming the University, edited and with articles by Chris Newfield (author of Unmaking the University) and Michael Meranze, to your rss reader. In particular, take a look at Chris' June 6 piece, "Quality Public Higher Ed: From Udacity to Theory Y" (worth a post of its own). See also Bob Samuel's Changing Universities and Chris' "overflow" archives. It's a challenge keeping such similar blog names separate. Nor are these the only ones, a blog sub-genre for all practical purposes (and surely the topic for another post...).


Last week, an over ambitious link lollapalooza feast assembled passed its "sell by" date before even reaching the drafts folder. Also in the pipes: a less time sensitive university themed Omnivore collection. 

#NFM a strong voice for #ContingentFaculty @ 3rd #CFHE Gathering

Despite possible impressions to the contrary, the New Faculty Majority was well represented, highly visible and a strong voice to make adjunct and contingent issues a priority at the Third National Gathering (left) of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education (CFHE), hosted by the Michigan Conference AAUP in Ypsilanti, Michigan May 18-20. 

Gary Rhoades including New Faculty Majority Foundation board membership in his Saturday morning introduction signaled our presence, further highlighted by a highly visible NFM presence that included active participation and presentations: President Maria Maisto, VP Matt Williams (right), Treasurer Bill Lipkin, Board Member Alan Trevithick, Esther S. Merves, the Foundation’s Director of Research and Special Programs, and member Daniel Maxey. Additionally, members of NFM’s Board of Advisors, Elizabeth Hoffman,  Associate Vice President,  Lecturers, California Faculty Association, and Richard Moser, of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, were also heard in support of a strong and continuing focus on contingency.  

Reading Room: Omnivore on #highered systems

...the whole collection as is. Some but not all sources are journals and media from the Mundo Bizarro of highered. Others are main steam media and studies from outside the profession. All are informed. Consider this homework, prep reading for bigger picture, context for whatever the #CFHE gathering yields and is willing to share and seeing other perspectives, perhaps even ourselves, our profession, as others see it.

Eli Meyerhoff (Minnesota), Elizabeth Johnson (Wisconsin), and Bruce Braun (Minnesota): Time and the University. Robert Rhoads (UCLA): The U.S. Research University as a Global Model: Some Fundamental Problems to Consider. Study abroad? Why American students head north. What country has the best higher education system? 

College Affordability? For whom?

A little story: one that occurs to me as I wait high above a rather nice golf course, Eagle Crest, waiting for the start of a weekend powwow of those who have signed on with the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education. It regards, my little story, college affordability.

One evening, as I crossed the Triboro Bridge into Queens, to teach my single community college class there, I realized something. I had to take a loan to get to my job. This is because my E-Z pass, though it may have thought it was sucking the $6.50 out of our checking account (what does E-Z Pass care?) it was actually getting it from the overdraft protection that bankrolls our household's continued between-semester-contract operations. 

And that money, of course, we would have to pay back, with interest. The repayment would start when the first one or two of the three colleges I teach at got around to sending me a check. Sometimes they take a couple of weeks, sometimes a month. So I was taking a loan to teach  college. 

 What do you think? Cost-effective? Sustainable? Fair?

Brother, can youse paradigm?

Multiple puns, smart commentary, great graphics, artwork, cartoons, public art... why have I been skimming past occasional links & commentary and not re-posting more? It's a treat I owe to myself if no one else. Plus, David Ruccio's posts and graphics have always been popular and well shared. Consider them back on the regular menu, if not here then at the blogueria...


Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, first published 50 years ago, is one of the few classics I tell students in pretty much all my classes they have to read before they leave college, whether or not it’s assigned in one of their courses. It contains important lessons, especially for economics, of radical paradigm shifts and the fundamental incommensurability among different theories and approaches.

David Weinberger retells one of the great stories about Kuhn that you can read at  Brother, can youse paradigm? along with the story behind the pun titling the post.

The Power of Two: Leveraging Academic Senates and Faculty Unions

... strategizing unofficially for #CFHE, Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, post by Teri Yamada, Professor of Asian Studies, originally appearing at Restructuring Public Hi Ed

The challenge for government, universities, and unions is to recognize that while the environment is changing and the pressures are intense, adaptations must be made in ways that ensure that short-term fixes do not compromise sound public policies, such as the right to form associations and collectively bargain. Nor can short-term fixes be allowed to compromise fundamental public priorities, including access to an affordable, high-quality college education, and prudent, long-term financial planning by the government (1).

(image above) Student arrests during protest against tuition increases, Nov. 17, 2011, CSU Board of Trustees meeting. Photograph by Stefan Agregado
....

Keeping up with California, #futureof HE

... in many senses of the word and, over the years, in different ways, from the California Master Plan to its meltdown. Michael Meranze's Links for April 18, 2012 from Reclaiming the University,  (even if does seem sometimes like a link farm around here)

Chris Newfield has a new piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education: "How Unequal State Support Diminishes Degree Attainment" 

 

CSU faculty, librarians, and counselors begin voting on rolling strike

UC Davis Police Chief Spicuzza retires effective Thursday.

UC admitted over 40% more out of state and international students in next year's entering class. 

CSU may eliminate cash grants that help support up to half of its grad students. 

David Crane's students think that the state should make UC go private. 

Is UC Berkeley going to have to cover millions of dollars of losses on the new football stadium? 

Berkeley joins with venture capitalists, University of Michigan, and ivy league institution in new online start-up.

#SpeakOut4HigherEd #WeekofAction

CFHE press release: Organizations of Faculty & Staff on America’s Campuses Speak Out for the Future of Higher Education in our Country

 

Organizations supporting the national Campaign for the Future of Higher Education will host public events on college campuses during the week of April 16. The news media is invited. Please see listings below for a wide range of events from a protest march in Minnesota to a strike vote in California, a petition drive in New York and forums in many states.

CFHE  injects the faculty voice into the national discussion over our country’s higher education policies—a discussion that has been dominated by executives and consultants, with far too little participation by the people who are in the classrooms with the millions of students whose success will determine the future of America.

Double COCAL Updates? NOW #CFHE #action4highered

What happened here? A hiccup somewhere in cyberspace.  When the usual Updates post by email,  already delayed too by yesterday's breaking news, did not post, I re-posted directly to blogger. 

Catch current Updates here. Take this opportunity to read the ones you missed. I'll take it to remind you (yes, again) about CFHE's Week of Action (the higher ed kind). No doubt, you've noticed that Joe's Updates mention the action regularly.




We want to hear what you and your area groups are doing to share with readers and on social media. If you think (or hear), "But what I do that will make a difference?" ~ just remember that many actions all over the country, online and in daily life add up to more than a big parade with press conference and marching bands. Sharing them increases the effect: the whole is greater than the parts. For our part, we'll be posting CFHE materials, writing about our involvement in Think Tank research, tagging posts and appropriate links #action4highered or another. I am still auditioning #hashtag candidate. Please send yours over for a reading.

Follow COCAL International on Facebook.  Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry.   Updates are also archived at chicagococal.org

Joe Berry's COCAL Updates 10April12

Follow COCAL International on Facebook.  Email joeberry@igc.org, to subscribe to regular updates in brief and links by email. More about Joe Berry.   Updates are also archived at chicagococal.org

Updates in brief and links

Global Labor

Current issue of World Wide Work, Matt Witt's compilation of good labor related literature, music, film etc. Published by the American Labor Center, an independent nonprofit founded in 1979. Subscribe to receive copies by email.




For anyone who has ever taught a subcontracted class, see new global union principles on temp agencies: Global Union Principles on Temporary Work

Campaign for the Future of Higher Ed

Reading Room: The college years

Take a reading break while waiting for final report and wrap on #CFHEs 2nd  National Gathering this past weekend at UMass. Preliminary reports for Friday and Saturday are available on Restructuring Public Hi Ed. Have you checked out the NFM Foundation page for information on our 2012 Summit? Results and analysis of our back to school hiring experience survey will appear there soon. Not to left out, the New Faculty Majority page is poised for a relaunch. 

.... A review of The University and The People: Envisioning American Higher Education in an Era of Populist Protest by Scott M. Gelber .... Oberlin English professor Anne Trubek quizzes Victor E. Ferrall Jr., author of Liberal Arts on the Brink, about the glum future of the American liberal arts college .... Barbarians vs. Centurions: Culture wars over the literary canon have always been with us — we should make those conflicts part of the conversation in the classroom .... 

Sources of illumination: Characterised by creativity and attuned to the needs of their age, the first European universities have important lessons for higher education today .... Why we need for-profit colleges: Profits and education shouldn’t have to be such an ugly combination. Accountability is all the rage in today’s education reform industry and at the university level, but do we really want professors to be productive? Ann Blair on her book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age.

Read the rest of The college years on the Book Forum