Texas @MoveOn…@AFLCIO…@AnaMFores vs @ALEC + a few petitions more

…so what is ALEC doing in Texas? Annual meeting...even they have them too, so it stands to reason that Texas MoveOn takes aim at ALEC, Texas AFL-CIO takes on ALEC too, as well every labor and activist/progressive group in the state...but not without Adjunct Justice.

...and petitions (because...)

❝@AnaMFores' People's #Petition: #AdjunctJustice demands Better Pay for #Adjunct Faculty

…how it all started…When I first began my petition, Vanessa Vaile was the first to pick up on it and post it. I can't find that link offhand, but I do have one of her first few emails that began our friendship and collaboration, dating back to April 2012. It seems only yesterday, but a lot has happened since then, in our movement, and in our lives. I think I will save that for another blog, though...

I remember when I began my petition for Adjunct Justice, demanding better pay for adjuncts; it was a day of desperation, as my college had given me an ultimatum: either teach Writing Composition classes with 35 students each or do not teach these particular classes at all. It was my choice. 

I gave them an unequivocal no. 

I would be remiss in my duties as an effective educator were I to teach students under such untenable circumstances. How can we teach that many students at the same time, and have them learn anything of value? 

That semester I taught only two classes, thus beginning my quiet revolution against what I saw not only as the exploitation of adjunct faculty but also the diminution of student learning. 

These past two years I have persisted, so the petition has gone forward little by little. We now have over 8300 signatures. I have met online friends and colleagues, groups of grassroots activists who have helped me nurture it and bring it forward. I have become friends with higher ed academics all across the United States: adjunct, tenured, and untenured alike.  

from the newsletter beat, featuring @DemChron

…on Central American Immigrants, Indonesian Presidents, Federal Employment and more in this week's Democracy Chronicles newsletter. As blogger, social media content curator/editor and Precarity Faculty Network coordinator, I subscribe to many weekly and daily email newsletters in addition to following social media and blog feeds. I don't -- can't -- blog all the newsletters but do try share as many as possible on social media and introduce you to selected newsletters by blogging samples. 

Editor/publisher since 2011, New School University graduate Adrian Tawfik, writes an editorial column, regularly publishes articles about adjunct issues and actively welcomes new contributors. Democracy Chronicles, is the product of a network of democracy activists  Contact DemChron to join them.

❝@DomesticWorkers: #takeaction to protect kids & families at the #border

Many petitions, especially for the #childrefugees at the border, land in my mailboxes. Lately, I'm making an effort to sign more of them than usual. And the ones for the children? I sign all of them. 

Plus I've been following, supporting and sharing +Ana Maria Fores Tamayo's unrelenting efforts on their behalf. This morning I broached the idea of collecting these petitions on a single to facilitate signing to the adj-l list. Cooperation does make a difference. 

If no one steps up, then I'll do it on my own. Here's a start with today's petition from the National Domestic Workers Alliance:

In/scribing the #adjunct as scribe…@AnaMFores writes

… My good friend and colleague Vanessa Vaile, of @PrecariousFac fame and/or notoriety (depending on what you think about the Facebook impasse still going on), has asked me for quite some time to write up something about the image I have consistently employed since I started my petition for Adjunct Justice two years ago now, which I continue to use on my site, as well as in anything I formally write. But one thing has led to another, and I have never gotten around to it.

The other day, however, I was perturbed by an article I read at Chronicle Vitae, "Sharecroppers. Migrant Workers. Adjuncts?" by David Perry. I thought the author might have been referring to my page, Adjunct Justice, when he wrote about the slaves of Egypt. Although he cited another piece, he left me thinking that I should clarify my use of metaphor and image, and that I should please my friend while I was going about it — hence my explanation for my use of the scribes in Egypt.

The image I employ in Adjunct Justice are scribes, the best paid of Egypt's society. Yet as a modern society, many of us do not know this. Many of us do not appreciate this fact now — the knowledge these scribes had — though we do appreciate what is left behind from their learning, and their teaching.

#ForProfit HE Abuses

…by @USinjustice) HT @AnaMFores at #AdjunctJustice, replying to Dahn Shaulis on the adj-l listserv: "I thought of you when this "loan spigot" article came out in the NYTimes today: I will add these sources to the others on Adjunct Justice ~ thanks"

Is the goverment fleecing higher ed students for their selfish gain? They are largest lender, providing 73%. But look who profits: certainly not adjuncts! Quoting the NYT,

"At 149 institutes in 39 states (and online), ITT offers nursing, criminal justice, business, information technology and other programs to 61,000 students. Based in Carmel, Ind., the company generated $800 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2013, down 18 percent from the year-earlier period."  

Jan 19, 2014, at 8:44 AM, Dahn Shaulis <dahnshaulis@gmail.com> wrote: