on the #precariousfaculty network & around the #adjunct/iverse

I just finished watching Ivory Tower online but should watch it again when I am not multi-tasking. It's definitely on the recommended list. Yesterday, when CNN aired the documentary, my viewing plan was watching skimpy clips and reading reviews. I don't often wish for cable or TV: don't miss the latter; never had the former so can't really miss it. This morning David Millroy's post to the CPFA list about watching Ivory Tower sent me looking for longer clips. Lo and behold...seek and ye shall find. Sometimes.

As for the rest of today (besides not taking all afternoon finishing and posting this), a PD "in the the News" on #HigherEd set up yesterday to have at the ready, awaits my attention. "News," being what it is, dates sitting in draft and will need updating ...the longer it waits, the more updating. 

Briefly noted and recommended, plus links to recent posts in the network

#adjunct & student actions & other happenings here there & everywhere

International Student Movement Global Week of Action, Nov 17-22

…local, national, and global ~ on the ground, through cyberspace ~ everywhere, continual and connected. You can't miss the common themes weaving through them…   #1world1struggle

Recently...

• End of October: Fair Employment Week in Canada and CEW 2014 in San Diego and Colorado
• November 3: Day of Action to STOP the Corporatization of Education with campaigns in Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. that spread across nation and the internet.
• November 11: @TakeBackNEIU demonstration at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) against cancelled classes and a university land grabbing development scheme

Coming soon to a computer monitor or street near you...

❝@MLASubcon 2015 Vancouver BC…#adjunct/GS friendly MLA alternative/supplement

Please consider organizing a panel, or submitting an idea for a paper, collaborative research project, strategy session, or other contribution to the subconference ~ CFP online here and here.

2013 MLA Subconference Closing session, Chicago

There may be some funding for participants! (and if you can contribute 5 or 10 $$, that would really help someone attend who might not make it there without some travel funding!  Thanks to all.

The organizers of the MLA Subconference are committed to using a large portion of our funds to provide partial travel grants to participants and attendees who need the support. We have decided to make this an ongoing and expanding goal each year, and are currently working out the logistics.

More information on the MLA Subconference website, to be continually updated

links & tweeps for #COCALXI opening sessions

I'm still working on the Twitter list for following online…in the meantime check out the few I have below and on Facebook. Following #COCALXI on twitter is still the best way to keep up. 

Plenary panelists like +Sylvain Marois may be too busy to tweet. So far, the most active tweeps are +Krista Eliot, +Lee Kottner, @AFTHigherEd and @SylviaJMarques. @AAUP and Margot Young for @cupepse have joined the conversation. Chronicle Vitae columnist +Sydni Dunn is less active but will no doubt be posting articles. Either tweets from Interest Group sessions are thinner or missing identifying tags.

Back channel tweets and email are harder to track, but we welcome those too ~ anon if preferred. DM @VCVaile or @precariousfac or email vanessa.87036@gmail.com. A few disconcerting accounts of rumor mongering are emerging too but on hold awaiting confirmation.

Bill Lipkin reports on the AFT HigherEd Conference in Baltimore

The weekend of April 11, 2014 saw one of the best AFT Higher Ed Conferences I have ever been to. The theme was 'Reclaiming the Promise of Higher Education' and there was a strong focus on contingent and adjunct faculty issues and solutions.

President Randi Weingarten opened the Conference with one of her rousing speeches. I had to compliment her after the speech for the concentration she put on contingent and adjunct faculty and our situation in the United States. She even took the time to explain the differences between adjunct and contingent positions and the various problems connected with each.

CFHE Conference January, 2014…

The CFHE Conference in Manhattan, hosted by PSC CUNY, was fantastic and a great success. The PSC staff went out of their way to accommodate the over 100 attendees, and Mike Fabricant ran the tightest, yet most informative and collaborative, conference possible. I am sure I speak for all attendees when I offer a resounding THANK YOU!

The conference began Friday evening with a unique dinner featuring tastes from all over the world and a comprehensive discussion of the accreditation battle at City College of San Francisco. It is amazing how corrupt an accreditation board can be.

Saturday morning began with a panel discussion on 'Effective Higher Ed Campaigns'.

UALE Conference 2014 Registration

…Jan31 deadline for #UALE2014 conference early rates is just around the corner HT #UALE list. Email us at  ualeconference@gmail.com & follow UALE on Facebook…then join us in L.A.! 

Be an early bird! 

Register now for the UALE 2014 Annual Conference

Organizing for Power: A New Labor Movement for the New Working Class
Los Angeles, California
March 26-29, 2014

How to Attack & Destroy #HigherEd Labor Evil: The Secret revealed

…introducing #NewFac BoD member Alan Trevithick via his account of the incredible @SEIU500CAL #academiclabor Forum. Howzzat for multitasking?

Read this post, commit it to memory, and destroy, OK? Top secret!

Cadmo kills his dragon:
we will kill ours too

A trio of strong speakers, in remarks moderated by New Faculty Majority President Maria Maisto, opened up with powerful views about education. Speakers railed against the current intolerable conditions of the majority faculty, preached on the need for alliances between adcons and other communities—both more and less exploited—and robustly defended higher ed's true character as a public right and a public good--the only context in which the rights and working conditions of adjunct and contingent faculty will be genuinely addressed. 

It was wonderful.

@SEIU500CAL #AcademicLabor Forum, Panel I

…see complete conference schedule here. 

Caste and Classes – linking our struggle for the rights of contingent faculty to the larger struggle to maintain a middle class, ensure access to quality education for all, and save the dignity of work for everyone from professors to janitors.

• Gary Rhoades, Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education College of Education University of Arizona
• Pablo Eisenberg, Senior Fellow, Georgetown Public Policy Institute
• Wayne Langley, Director, Higher Education Division, SEIU Local 615

People are starting to arrive to the #academiclabor conference! It's going to be an exciting day!
— Ethan Miller (@Habohead59) December 1, 2012

#NewFac at Public Sociology Conference, GeorgeMasonU

…as submitted by #NFMFoundation Research Director, Esther Merves

Pictured: NFM Foundation board member Gary Rhoades (keynote speaker at the conference), NFM Foundation President Anne Wiegard, NFM President Maria Maisto, and NFM Foundation Research Director Esther Merves at the George Mason Public Sociology Conference, Oct 20, 2012, Fairfax, VA. 

The President of the Public Sociology Grad Student Association, and NFM Foundation intern Marisa Allison, did an amazing job on pulling together a national grad student conference.

Special COCAL Update: Mexico City COCAL X

Joe Berry reminds us, 

NOTICE: Tenth Conference on Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL X), August 9-12, 2012

Early discounted registration ends June 1, 2012. Please see COCAL International for all details (dates, agenda, housing, registration and costs) for the upcoming COCAL X conference. 

The call for papers (presentations) is now out and proposals are due May 15. Submission details are at  http://www.cocalinternational.org/papers.html

This is the major biennial conference of the the COCAL network, encompassing US, Canada (and Quebec) and Mexico and being held in Mexico for the first time, in Mexico City on the beautiful campus of the Universidad National Autonomia de Mexico (UNAM), the largest university in the Western hemisphere and site of some of the most famous struggles [notably the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. Stele dedicated massacred students, above] in the history of higher education worldwide. 

#Junct at #LeftForum

The continuing adventures of intrepid filmmakers, Chris the Nomad and Debra the Homeless Adjunct, as they traverse the wilds of campuses, conferences and other treacherous corners of the uncharted adjunctiverse...

Storified by · Vanessa, Mon, Mar 19 2012 01:24:16

Video will be posted sometime this week: #LeftForum #OccupyColleges #Junct http://t.co/3yRk7rld

— Chris · Mon, Mar 19 2012 00:12:42

My friend Scott shot some footage of the  OccupyColleges panel at the @LeftForum yesterday. Currently rendering it out. Post will follow.

— Chris · Mon, Mar 19 2012 00:08:05

Liberal Scholars and Activists Take On the Corporatization of Academe - The Chronicle of Higher Education

In the shadow of marches and small pockets of Occupy Wall Street activities that have continued despite the protestors' eviction from Zuc...

2255 FILMS: It’s good to be a panelist

This year's panel went much better than last's. I should have known it was going to be a good day between the impeccable weather...

2255 FILMS: It’s good to be a panelist http://t.co/Onw2QqBI #LeftForum

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 23:17:48

But back to the beginning...

Left Forum

A unique phenomenon in the U.S. and the world, Left Forum convenes the largest annual conference of a broad spectrum of left and progress...

Last Call: @LeftForum #OccupyColleges: Rescuing #HigherEd from Corporatized Uni. Mar17, 12PM Room E323. http://t.co/uLqq1V1V #Junct

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 10:23:47

Waiting on my partner in crime @DebraLeighScott to review the 30 minutes I have of #junct. Need to trim down to 10 for the #LeftForum

— Chris · Mon, Mar 12 2012 23:57:42

Here at @LeftForum 30 minutes until our panel #OccupyColleges room E323 at noon. #Junct #2255Films

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 11:23:09

This is us looking official @LeftForum http://t.co/as5kYIII

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 11:59:27

Lockerz

Occupy Colleges: Rescuing Higher Education from the Corporatized University | Left Forum

The panel will investigate some of the many ways we are pushing back against the corporate colonization of academic culture. Fighting to ...

Panel @LeftForum http://t.co/Q2JwESlX

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 12:06:12

Audience @LeftForum #Junct #OccupyColleges http://t.co/K5rktbR8

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 12:06:58

First up Brianne. Student from temple university http://t.co/VOWov6qR

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 12:09:13

edudebtorsunion.org

Click to Listen - Student Debt, A Necessary Evil The sun was shining all day as folks came out to Occupy Wall Street NYC to discuss and d...

Got a packed house! #LeftForum #OccupyColleges http://t.co/xt38NOOq

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 12:22:55

Brianne talking about the point of solidarity amongst the students #LeftForum #OccupyColleges #Junct

— Chris · Sat, Mar 17 2012 12:21:28

There's more! Read the rest at #Junct at #LeftForum on Storify

NFM members on #LeftForum Panels

There may be other NFM members presenting in addition to Debra Leigh Scott and Joe Berry. If so, please let me know. Looking for panels to follow? A number of the Education track panels should be interest. The Left Forum page also has search for tracking down topics and speakers. For those not in attendance, I'll be following as best I can on twitter, hoping for both good turn out reporting back and presentations being available post-conference. 

 

Occupy Colleges: Rescuing Higher Education from the Corporatized University. Featuring: Debra Leigh Scott, Chris LaBree, Nathan Kleinman, Kyle McCarthy. Session 2, E323, Sat 12:00pm - 01:50pm

The panel will investigate some of the many ways we are pushing back against the corporate colonization of academic culture. Fighting to raise awareness of the issues through documentaries and art-making will be discussed by the writers and filmmakers on the panel. Working to return professional stature, governance and economic justice to the migrant adjunct faculty within traditional academic institutions will be discussed by members of NFM. Creating new models of higher education - like the free university movement, open sourceware opportunities and peer-to-peer educating - will be examined for its benefits and game-changing possibilities. 

About panelists: Debra Leigh Scott and Chris LaBree Co-Producer of 'Junct: The Trashing of Higher Ed. in America, will talk about the 'Junct project, our goals and intentions in the making of the film. Nathan Kleinman, The Free University of Philadelphia Working Group, and candidate for U.S. Congress, in Pennsylvania's 13th District. Kyle McCarthy, Producer of Default: The Student Loan Documentary.

For-Profit Universities: The Corporatization of Higher Ed. Featuring: Susan O'Malley, Joe Berry, Richard Ohmann. Session 4, E321, Sat 05:00pm - 06:40pm

For-profit universities have been in the news a lot recently, chiefly for sleazy and sometimes illegal practices. Since they now enroll more than 10% of college students in the U.S., since their rapid growth parallels the commercialization of traditional universities, and since their competition is hastening that process, they should be understood as one thread in the fabric of gonzo capitalism, not a marginal aberration. 

The Spring 2012 issue of Radical Teacher is about the commercializing of higher education. Susan O'Malley and Richard Ohmann edited the issue and Joe Berry, who has taught at a for-profit and is involved in organizing for-profit faculty, wrote for the issue. Confirmed speakers will be Joe Berry, Richard Ohmann with Susan O'Malley chairing the panel.

Peter Fettner recommends two panels hosted by Dissent Magazine on debt serfdom (Friday night, Schimmel, Opening Plenary) and organizing precarious labor (Session 2, E307, Sat 12:00pm - 01:50pm; co-hosted by Verso Books). 

  

Work in the 21st century has been described as unstable, decentralized, precarious. How can workers organize under conditions of "flexible" employment, or gain leverage against an ever-changing boss? What will organizing look like in the face of massive shifts in risk to the backs of workers? All kinds of workers face these conditions, from home care workers, whose recent victories in New York State have challenged the impossibility of rallying those particularly vulnerable to hidden exploitation, to the "knowledge workers" who make up the Freelancers Union. These panelists will discuss the changing face of organizing in the face of the changing nature of work.

Conferences Coming & Going: #LeftForum, #4C12, #SXSW, etc

A Rite of Spring Stravinsky would not recognize, conferences are how academics celebrate its coming. No excursions to Ft Lauderdale or other beaches.


March opened with NEA Higher Education Conference and AWP 2012, both in Chicago. Only the former participated in Occupy Chi / National  Day of Action for Education. L.A. followed with ACE 2012 annual meeting for higher ed administrators, university presidents and their ilk. Edu-geeks frolicked at SXSWedu in Austin, regular SXSW continues through March 19.  For the weekend the determined (perhaps demented) conference goer has CCCC in St Louis and Left Forum in NYC.

 

COCAL Update: Special Labor Notes Conference Announcement

LaborNotesConference.docx Download this file

The 2012 Labor Notes Conference, Solidarity for the 99% is May 4-6, 2012,  Chicago, Illinois. Joe Berry urges us to use the occasion for a contingent faculty meeting and to support local contingent faculty actions such as those at EWU. Conference Workshops and meetings begin 1 p.m. Friday, May 4, and end at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 6. More information online at Conference page and in attached document. Call Labor Notes at 313-842-6262 • conference@labornotes.org. Register online at: www.labornotes.org/conference. 

Email joeberry@igc.org to subscribe to COCAL Updates

 

Joe Berry writes,

Contingent faculty activists, friends and allies,

Please see the attached announcement for the biennial (that's once every 2 years) conference put on by Labor Notes. This year, for the first time it will be in Chicago (instead of Detroit) which is a major center of contingent faculty activity, as everyone on these lists knows already. I have been invited to organize a session on Friday, the first day of the conference, for contingent activists to get together. We can have as much time as we want and they will give us a special day rate, though I hope many folks, especially from Chicago and the Midwest, come to the whole conference. Some details are below and more will be forthcoming. Mark your calendars. thre is always a gathering of all campus workers, which is also useful for us.

In the Middle: The Best MLA is the One I Didn't Attend: Tweeting the Conference

JJ Cohen writes,

Because I'm on fellowship leave, and because I'm committed to an extraordinary amount of travel in the semester ahead, I didn't attend the MLA conference in Seattle.

I followed the event at a distance through friends on FB and the occasional text message or phone chat. I know a few people who are on the job market, and a delegation of GW English faculty were conducting interviews for our Romanticist position. And maybe that says it: the MLA convention is easy shorthand for the US academic hiring process in literature, since in hotel rooms at that conference most of the interviewing is undertaken.

This year, though, I also experienced the unfolding of the meeting via Twitter.

In the Middle: The Best MLA is the One I Didn't Attend: Tweeting the Conference

Same here and we're not alone. Lee Skallerup tweeted and Storified MLA12 and  AHA2012 without attending either. Brian Croxall tweeted both but attending just MLA12. Haystackers in Seattle and Chicago kept the back channels busy. Later, John A Casey Jr, who presented at AHA, posted thoughts on the current conference system, its frustrations, high costs and possible changes:

Yet another way that non-elite faculty are prevented from full participation in the discipline they help sustain.

Among the many changes that I hope will take place as the discipline of English is forced to evolve or disappear is a reexamination of the annual convention model....changes are all desperately needed.  Maybe regional conferences affiliated with national ones could pick up the slack.  Or perhaps a lot of the work needed could be done online.

In any event, if we want all the members of the profession to have a say in its future, we need something better than the traditional annual convention.  The premium for attendance is too steep.

'tis the season ~ of annual meetings

How to "attend" them (sort of) on the cheap? One answer is social media, especially Twitter. Although both get blogged and covered by "academic media," e.g. Chronicle and Inside HigherEd, Twitter does it better.  Plus you can follow simultaneous sessions as well as both Seattle and Chicago, impossible IRL ~ even if we could afford it.

Strategies:

• Search hashtags: #mla12 and #aha2012
• Narrow focus by adding session hashtags
• Use a social media search tool such as Topsy 
• Set a Google alert
• Identify a blogger or active tweeter who is covering the meeting, especially sessions you are most interested in. Brian Croxall is always a good bet. "Active" would be an understatement.

Storified by Lee Skallerup:

• The Fight for Public Higher Education #s167 #mla12 
• Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis #aha2012

Of course, CHE and IHE accounts and post mortems will still be pored over and commented, but they are no longer the whole story for those not in attendance. Add the reflections of academic bloggers. Real time coverage fleshes it out.

Forget about the "cachet" of "being there ... only matters if you let it. Not being left out of the conversation, invisible and silenced when so many communication tools are at hand counts for more.

Consider too the cachet of being greener...

CFP: How Class Works, NEW deadline Dec19

Because of final exam schedules at Stony Brook we will not be able to review proposals for the How Class Works - 2012 conference until Monday December 19, so we are extending the deadline for conference proposals for one week to afford all the extra time.  The deadline for proposals is now December 19, 2011.  See guidelines below. 

The Center for Study of Working Class Life now has a Facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Center-for-Study-of-Working-Class-Life/265261583520258

HOW CLASS WORKS - 2012
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook June 7-9, 2012

December Conference on Human and Labor Rights, D.C.]

Statue of Antonio de Montesinos in Santo Domingo

On December 2-4, 2011, a coalition of universities and other institutions is hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. to assess what has been achieved in 500 years of human rights advocacy.  The conference is scheduled to include Sunday, 4 December, the conventionally identified date in 1511 when Antonio de Montesinos, O.P. delivered a sermon in Santo Domingo calling for reform of Spanish policy toward the indigenous.  

That sermon launched a Spanish debate about protecting the indigenous from enslavement. This advocacy in-turn contributed to the movement toward human rights universality. While concerned with the history, the conference will have as its focus current institutional and legal approaches to refine and enhance protections of labor rights and other human rights.


Please submit paper or panel proposals by OCTOBER 17, 2011

Upcoming Conferences on #Highered Issues

Some upcoming events posted on the Academe blog, with the request that you email at academeblog@aaup.org if you have events to recommend. Please share them with us too. We're trying to develop a national event calendar and plan to add a calendar feature to the newsletter. Post questions and event recommendations in comments. The following list does not include contingent faculty issue panels or sessions at professional and discipline specific association meetings. We welcome adding those to our list too.

• “The Higher Education Crisis in Texas: An AAUP Advocacy Workshop,” October 29, 2011, Austin, Texas.
  
• The Second National Gathering of The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, Friday, November 4th, 5:00 p.m. to Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 12:00 p.m., University of Massachusetts, Boston.
• AAUP Shared Governance Conference and Workshops, November 11–13, 2011, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC.
  
• SEIU L500 Coalition of Academic Labor Conference 2011, 3rd annual conference on part-time faculty unions, Saturday November 19th, 2011, 9am to 1pm, Washington, DC. Contact Anne McLeer <McLeerA@seiu500.org>
  
• National Summit on January 28: “Reclaiming Academic Democracy: Facing the Consequences of Contingent Employment in Higher Education”—sponsored by the New Faculty Majority Foundation
  
• 39th Annual National Conference A Joint Labor/Management Meeting Academic Collective Bargaining Under Siege: Implications for a Public Good, April 1, 2, 3, 2012, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, NYC
  
• “How Class Works” Conference, June 7-9, 2012, Stony Brook, NY, SUNY
  
• AAUP Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education, June 13 –17, 2012, Mayflower Renaissance, Washington, DC.
  

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