BYOP: Part-time Faculty Working Conditions

This is neither the 1st time I've recommended xtranormal, a neat DIY text-to-video app, nor the 1st amateur-auteur xtranormal video blogged here. Back in May, I posted an extranormal video about a student-asking-teacher-for-extension exchange along with an exhortation to consider the application as a tool for advocacy.

The clip below is, however, the 1st by a New Faculty Majority member, VP Matt William's debut as video auteur. En garde, Cahiers du Cinéma! 

Nice to know at least one someone isn't clueless. Thanks, Matt. Now, the rest of you, board members (even if the effort is neither juried nor cv-able), other NFM members, any adjunct with a message to get out: get to it. Make a video. Send me your embed codes. Upload them to YouTube too. Let's flood the internet with clever, to the point videos. Free too. A price even an adjunct can afford.

AAUP Action Alert: Keep Our Educators Working

I can't say for sure just how much this particular campaign addresses adjunct and contingent faculty issues. Read the AAUP and decide for yourself. If you think it is lacking, write the AAUP and let them know. Some time back there was word in adcon circles about a letter writing campaign asking for equity language in the higher funding bill. Haven't heard any lately, but would it hurt to ask? 

Needless to say, if you prefer emailing to telephoning, you can adapt the phone script in the Government Relations section - or write your own script for phone or email. Put an ad/con spin on your appeal.

As the economic crisis continues to threaten all of our nation's institutions, the AAUP is the ONLY national faculty organization pushing to restore funding for higher education faculty and staff in the upcoming federal supplemental appropriations bill. As Congress prepares to vote, we ask that you join other advocates of higher education in contacting your Representative and encouraging him or her to stop this round of massive layoffs in higher education, to stop the increase in class sizes, to stop the reductions in course offerings, and to vote to preserve quality higher education in our nation. In an open letter to Congress, AAUP general secretary Gary Rhoades details how a failure to invest in postsecondary educators could close the doors of opportunity on our students, would compromise our potential as a nation, and could sabotage the combined efforts of community, industry, and the government to recover from this economic downturn. Visit the Government Relations section of the AAUP Web site to learn more about how you can stand up for postsecondary faculty and staff.

The AAUP Online is an electronic newsletter of the American Association of University Professors.  Learn more about the AAUP. Visit us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Contact us at govtrelations@aaup.org.

Then if you're still in advocacy mode and have all those addresses handy, write and put in a word for extending unemployment and revising federal codes to safeguard adjunct and contingent faculty unemployment rights

CMU adjuncts need your help

Raye Robertson at The Adjunct Voice reports that contract bargaining at Central Michigan is not going well, and the administration doesn't even want to give all adjuncts employed by the school a vote in their own contract elections! Please call, email and send post cards (see below) to:


Dr. George E. Ross
President, Central Michigan University
Warriner Hall 106
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859


Phone: 989-774-3131.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/Ross_letter (email Ross from here)


Here's the message: Graduate assistants deserve good health care and raises, and the union security all other CMU unions have. Also, democracy requires that ALL adjuncts be allowed to vote in the union election. 

Already sent Ross a letter? Send him another one. He didn't pay enough attention to the first one.