from the blog archives: #adjunct Links & Commentary from #KeithHoeller

…originally published Sunday, April 20, 2014. This trial post for a series that never materialized has been among the blog's most popular posts, 2,300 visits and climbing. The post was so labor intensive and time consuming to edit that I never got around to another. Shorter posts would have been a better choice too.  Rather than the promised shorter posts, I have not been posting at all. How much shorter can a post get? Although not always clearly indicated, commentary accompanying links is, unless otherwise noted, either Keith's commentary originally posted to the adj-l list and republished here with Keith's permission or quoting him directly from the original article. Should the series resume, I'll make that clearer when I revise the format.

#adjunct Links & Commentary from #KeithHoeller

…Issue #1 blogging materials and words from and on behalf of legendary (but social media averse) adjunct activist, Keith Hoeller. This project is still in Beta, so expect changes. I edited the auto-blogged Diigo bookmarks to tidy up format, added the vintage image of a 1907 classroom, and rearranged the order to lead with the NY Times OpEd, related links and commentary, including a copy of Keith's unpublished letter to the editor, plus a link to the published response letters. 

Lawyers, Guns & Money: This Day in Labor History x 33

Yes, I admit to a weakness for blogs with interesting names, a choice not illogically based on the expectation that they be more interesting to read. So far, it's panning out as expected. Plus, a post about labor history is relevant even if not specifically about academic labor. If we are to be involved in Higher Ed Labor Issues, as appears to be the case, then reading labor history makes mighty sense, no doubt more than reading novels about labor or higher ed, even for the lit majors among us. No shortage of action ~ strikes, rebellions, massacres, murder, uprising, deportation and more...

Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns & Money, writes, 

A year ago today, I published my first installment of This Day in Labor History. 33 posts and 1 award later, here we are. I thought there might be interest in having them in digest form.

we're feisty

NFM and contingent academic labor issues cited in Australian academic blog, Music for Deckchairs. Love the blog title and being called feisty:

Miserably, the concession we make to flexibility is by casualising academic labour, so that we can manage fluctuations in demand with last minute hiring practices that pass on to the most precariously employed our own lack of ability to make plans in this churning market. The harm this is doing to the education profession is rightly the stuff of despair (see for example the excellent short documentary Degrees of Shame, being promoted by the feisty New Faculty Majority as part of Campus Equity Week this week.) ... from Trust Wipeout 

Read the read of the post too. It goes to budget, ed tech, ed biz incursions, governance, Campaign for the Future of Higher Education issues and more... a thoughtful "WhitherU" post that addresses a question, Can someone in universities please start thinking about cultures of trust and what creates them??, posed in yet another blog. 

Other NFM mission relevant points include the lack resources for professional development and increased weight placed on student evaluations

First, in an era of contracting budgets there’s an acute lack of resourcing for teacher development, experimentation or change management, particularly in relation to emerging technologies. Secondly, the rise and rise of student evaluation as a proxy for professional peer review means that we’re constantly beta testing in front of hostile judges. It’s not so much MasterChef as Dancing with the Stars, blindfold and on stilts.  In fact, it’s Wipeout, and about as much fun.

Posted via email from Academentia

The Glorious Future

Can't beat University Diaries on this one so I'll just share, even if it's 2nd hand sharing of shared links (3rd hand by the time tweeted @NewFacMajority and auto-posted to NFM's Facebook page. So be. What matters is the sharing and the reading.

The Glorious Future: "William Deresiewicz, in The Nation, talks about the future of university education where nearly all [proposed university reforms] involve technology to drive efficiency."

Point/Counterpoint: from there UD goes on to include: Update: From Robert Nozick’s obituary in the Harvard Gazette, "Nozick’s teaching followed the same lively, unorthodox, heterogeneous pattern as his writing. With one exception, he never taught the same course twice."

Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change

Lisa Fithian has been working for nonviolent social change since the mid 1970’s. A student, labor and community organizer on a broad range of issues over the years, she writes,

"I am so glad you found this website, Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change. It’s full of information, resources, photos, stories and more from past movements, campaigns and actions. I hope it will be useful to you as an organizer, student, activist, journalist or researcher.

This website is based on the notes I use for training. They reflect lessons from 35 years of organizing. I feel very privileged for all the opportunities I’ve had to learn. Weaving together work within and between the student, environmental, labor, immigrant, anti-war and global justice grassroots movements has made me a very wealthy woman (not financially unfortunately!).

These training notes are now divided up onto tabs corresponding to what I call the “building blocks” for change."

Read more at Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change

This came in today's rss feeds: Evolution or Revolution, from Ray Watkins' Writing in the Wild. 


Wow! Is this how it feels to be "historical"? Beats being lambasted by a cranky dean. Now head on over to Program for Change and join the conversation with those who have already posted comments. You don't have to agree with us either. If you don't, we want to hear about it. You are welcome to post comments under pseudonym if necessary or preferred. Come be historical with us. We're putting the ball in play but can't carry it alone.

In 25 or 50 years, when someone or other, most likely a graduate student, writes a history of U.S. Higher Education in our time, the New Faculty Majority “Program for Change: 2010-2030” will have to play a key role. I don’t think it matters if the particulars of the program are achieved or not; its historical importance is its attempt to imagine a new employment system in U.S. higher education using a model developed largely in California and Canada. I think that it’s broad enough to be useful to almost anyone interested in reforming higher education. It’s our, “What is to be Done.”

OK, maybe it’s only our “Port Huron Statement.” Hopefully, in articulating this vision, the NFM has signaled the nadir of the current system. I think the proposed system makes a lot of sense; it touches on all of the key problems. 

Then head over to Writing in the Wild and tell Ray "thank you" from us (again). Please note changes here too. Just to remind you, I've added a screenshot thumbnail + link to the sidebar, top right. Other changes: a page with Maria's letter about the Program; news feed on the top of the page; improved blogroll. 


Yes, it's been slow here, and, no, the dog didn't eat my keyboard. I've been busy herding poets, but that's over for the season. I'll be blogging here more diligently.