Obamacare, hours, strange math & unintended consequences

…as Bill Lipkin reflects on them, writing,

 

I would never have dreamed that the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obama care) would cause a hardship on adjuncts and other contingent faculty. This is supposed to help those who cannot afford health care get some basic coverage. But the 'unintended consequences' of this Act can be very detrimental to us. Yes, adjuncts stand to suffer from this Act. Why? Because when it goes into effect in January, 2014 it carries with it a stipulation that if an employer does not supply health care to employees working 30 hours or more a week they have to pay a penalty.

Guest Post: Alan Trevithick responds to faculty trends

A shortened and tamer version of this appears, retitled, in this month’s Anthropology News (AN), which is a monthly publication of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Although the NFM web address, the article still gets NFM in front of the AAA, an important academic professional organization representing anthropology, a major discipline.

Canary, Eagle, Phoenix: How to Respond to Faculty’s Fall

A mournful trend: the steady replacement of full-time tenure or tenure track faculty - call them  “traditionals" - with part-time and/or limited contract instructors, “adjuncts” or “contingents.” Call them adcons.  First most evident at community colleges, this trend is now everywhere. For instance, see Nichols and Nichols' Money over Mind, Inside Higher Education, about Vassar College. 

All disciplines are blighted, as Marshall Sahlins noted in a 2008 AN issue, that in the country at large, “70 percent of all faculty are adjuncts,” and this “academic demi-monde” has been “noticeable enough” more recently even at University of Chicago.

First the canaries die. Then the eagles start keeling over.  

BYOP: CAW Survey video on ExtraNormal

Today opens the 2nd (and last) month for taking the CAW Survey. Don't let it stall midway through. If you haven't already, take it now. 20,000 have, but there are millions of us. Millions minus 20,000 slackers and procrastinators. Don't be one. Do you need a ribbon, a badge or a gold star?



Video heads up courtesy of AFTFACE. Please share ~ re-blog, forward, backlink, bookmark, review, vote for it on BuzzFlash, like and share on Facebook, and so on. Do you need a tutorial? That can be arranged.

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.  

NewFacMajority tweet cloud

In case you didn't know, we tweet too @NewFacMajority. Follow and retweet please ~ spread the word... I'll get around to adding a twitter widget, but I want to the notion introduce to Steve gently and in stages.

Also recommended: @AFTFACE, @DebraLeighScott,@timeshighered (UK), @SEIU500CAL (Coalition for Academic Labor)

Below: our 1st Tweet Cloud (there will be more). Comments welcome ~ there or here.

NewFacMajority cloud