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and rearranged the order to lead with the NY Times OpEd, related links and commentary, including a copy of Keith's unpublished letter to the editor, plus a link to the published response letters. 

Carols for this #Christmas Eve...Mr Magoo's & a #college version

...with thanks to +George Station for the seasonally appropriate and timely reminder about Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol. You'll be back to regular schedules all too soon. I cannot say the same for myself despite (or due to) Janus posts due on multiple blogs. Until then, I and my sundry personae will be out and about on social media and re-blogging elsewhere. The college version Carol from the archives, covers routine topical posting and is as timely now as it was in 2012. If you need more post-season caroling about the state of education, check out Ken Previti's 2014 Christmas Carol post on Reclaim Education, another Education Blogger Network blog. [Ed note: opening paragraph edited/updated 1/2/2015]

...from the archives, Saturday, December 29, 2012: A College Christmas Carol

from the archives, 2009: Judith Gappa & Rich Moser

Vintage movies yesterday, news updates and archives today...all looking back. Meanwhile (back at the ranch), the week looks forward to the International Student Movement (ISM) Week of Global Action and NTEU's online conference from Tasmania on #auscasuals' insecure work. That's getting around some ~ digital globetrotting. Now for some digital time travel:

Thursday, December 10, 2009. "Organizing: the Arts and Sciences," Rich Moser.   Cross posed from New Unionism. 

Organizing, yes, but for what? Richard Moser presents an intriguing summary of the current state of work and unionism in the U.S.. He argues that unions have tended towards an organizational culture which is resistant to change and unaccustomed to democracy. He traces the evolution of this process, mapping it against changes in work and society.  

From the archives: a #poem for the weary #adjunct

 …When in doubt, that is to say, when I am woefully behind on posts and at a loss for which of so many topics (readings, news, issues, campaigns, social media, projects, courses usw) to blog, then it's time to make some breathing space by hitting the archives. So here, reposted from October 20, 2012, is ❝Waifs and Strays❞ by Arthur Rimbaud with this (still appropriate) note:

#PAD/s usually go to plog (short for poetry blog) & @PWPicnic…this one seemed somehow so right for here. Alors, sont-nous aussi les enfants de la rue dans notre malchance d'être ainsi abandonnés?

Waifs and Strays by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Jethro Bithel

From the 2010 archives: Glass ceiling & tiered employment: not just for #adjuncts

…blogged five years ago on this day in 2010. Change where are thou? I just added 'irony' to the tags. Ruccio still rules...

Glass ceiling & tiered employment: not just for adjuncts

via David Ruccio's occasional links & commentary

from the archives: A Modest Proposal for the Reform of Academe

December 15, 2012, re-posted from The Faster Times College section, Modest Proposal is by medievalist, fencer, translator and contingent academic Ken Mondschein (PhD Fordham + studies at BU, SUNY Buffalo, Harvard) who writes...

Most every commentator on academe has mentioned the sorry state of higher education: A decades-long oversupply of Ph.Ds, and cheap adjunct labor for everything from teaching intro writing classes to supervising theses to cleaning the president's office. Despite the fact that tenure-track jobs are rarer than hen's teeth, that venerated institution has come under attack, as well. Critics charge that tenure gives professors license to be unproductive layabouts or maniac wingnuts, but there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it unless said tenure-possessor burns down the administration building or runs naked through freshman orientation. 

But I am not here to kvetch: I am here to offer solutions. It seems to me that all of these symptoms of current malaise of higher education could be solved in one sweeping stroke, were we only to reintroduce dueling to the academy.

Read the rest at precarious faculty: A Modest Proposal for the Reform of Academe. More articles by Ken Mondschein in Faster Times, at Academia.edu and books, including several on fencing

From the #PFR archives: @NLRB Protects #ConcertedActivity

As re-posted from Portside Labor, which "aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it."The National Labor Relations Board webpage describes the rights of employees to act together for their mutual aid and protection, even if they are not in a union.

“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities.” -Sec. 7, NLRA

The page, at www.nlrb.gov/concerted-activity, tells the stories of more than a dozen recent cases involving protected concerted activity, which can be viewed by clicking points on a map. 

On #tenure…from the archives, 2010

Serendipity rules! I'd been looking for this back post from the archives, as much for the carrot image as the content and blogger David F Ruccio's comments on an NY Times Debate about tenure (link below). Today, when I was no longer looking for the post, it popped up among the " You might also like" selections at the end of a post. 

Then I noticed that I hadn't carried Ruccio (also blogging at Real World Economics Review) over to the new blogroll, rebuilt after the contents unraveled during migration to this domain. It's there now.  

The About page describes occasional link & commentary (on economics, culture and society) as consisting of  "occasional links and bits of commentary—some humorous, others more serious, often a combination." Let me add that it is fabulously illustrated with charts, graphs (hey, he is an economist), cartoons, public art, lithographs. prints and paintings. Now follows the post as it appeared July 20, 2010: