Action Alert: Make Your Voice Heard

Follow our "adjunct voice" at the Regional Community College Summit in Indiana at Ivy Tech. Do you have questions you'd like asked? Speak out. Email maria.maisto@newfacultymajority.info your questions, post them here as comments, post them on the New Faculty Majority Facebook page, tweet them to @NewFacMajority

New Faculty Majority ACTION ALERT TO ALL MEMBERS   Adjunct and Contingent Faculty: Speak Out and Speak Up

Dear Colleagues   This Wednesday, March 23, I will attend the U.S. Department of Education Community College Summit in Indianapolis with NFM Board member Tracy Donhardt. As you may know, these regional summits are a follow-up to the White House Community College Summit held last October 5, 2010. That Summit was notable for its exclusion of adjunct faculty. The omission was so glaring it made front page news at the Chronicle of Higher Education. In response, many of you participated in our "Virtual March" to the White House Summit by making your voice heard and submitting ideas and suggestions at the Summit web site. We have noted that the regional summits, one of which took place in Philadelphia on Feb. 29 and one in Houston on March 9, now have a much more transparent invitation process; it is now possible to contact the organizers to express interest in attending. (If you are in the San Diego area, please consider requesting an invitation to attend the April 15 summit, which will focus on supporting veterans and military families. See below for information on how to contact the organizers.) Tracy and I plan to remind the summit participants of the essential role of adjunct and contingent faculty at community colleges and to highlight the need for reform of the contingent hiring model in higher education generally and in community colleges in particular. We would also like to communicate your specific concerns and questions, especially if you live and work in the Midwest and can make an effective connection to the summit theme of "Community College Partnerships with Business and Industry" and/or the topics in the agenda posted below. We will also keep you informed via blog, Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you - and to reporting on our experience at the summit later this week! Send your suggestions and comments to me at maria.maisto@newfacultymajority.info.   Best wishes, Maria Maisto, President  Community College Summit Agenda U.S. Department of Education Community College Summit: Challenges, Solutions, Commitments Ivy Tech Community College - North Meridian Center, Indianapolis, Indiana   March 23, 2011 Theme: Exemplary Practices in Community College Partnerships with Business & Industry 7:30 - 8:45 Registration and Continental Breakfast 9:00 - 9:15 Opening Martha Kanter, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 9:15 - 9:30 Welcome Thomas Snyder, President, Ivy Tech Community College Community College Video with Welcome from Dr. Jill Biden 9:30 - 9:40 Governor Mitch Daniels 9:40 - 9:50 Remarks & Introduction of Keynote Speaker Michael Rice, Student, Ivy Tech Community College 9:50 - 10:10 Keynote Address Terri McClure, Senior Vice President of Legal, Compliance, & Public Affairs, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, United Parcel Service 10:10 Introduction of the Completion Partners Panels 10:10 - 10:55 Foundations & Philanthropy Panel Ron Williams, Vice President, The College Board, Moderator; Tom Dawson, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Holly Zanville, The Lumina Foundation, Bill Moses; Kresge Foundation (invited) 10:55- 11:05 BREAK 11:05 - 11:45 Business & Industry Panel Karen Elzey, Director, Skills for America's Future, The Aspen Institute, Moderator; Kris Emaus, Manager of Training, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a NiSource subsidiary; Robert Klemen, Corporate Training Manager, Northstar Aerospace, Inc ; Tom Volta, Vice President of UPS Air Group Human Resources 11:45 - 12:00 Celeste Carter, Program Director, National Science Foundation Josh Wyner Executive Director, The Aspen College Excellence Program: The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence 12:00 - 1:30 LUNCH:  Panel presentation - Brenda Dann-Messier, Moderator Annette Parker, Executive Director, National Science Foundation Center for Excellence, Advanced Automotive Manufacturing, Bryan Albrecht, President, Gateway Technical College; Marie Trzupek-Lynch, Chicago Career Tech 1:30 - 1:45 BREAK 1:45 - 3:00 pm Breakout Sessions Transitions to and through Postsecondary Education: Developmental Education (Innovation and Student Success): Cecilia Cervantes, President, Hennepin Technical College; Business Partnerships (Graduation and Employment): Susan Muha, Executive Vice President for Workforce & Economic Development, Cuyahoga Community College and Scott Jenkins, Mott Community College, Co- Facilitators College Affordability: Brenda Wensil, Chief Customer Experience Officer, FSA and Community College System, Facilitator Completion Goals: Stan Jones, Director, Complete College America; Kirsten White, Policy Director, Office of Dr. Jill Biden 3:00 - 3:15 BREAK 3:15 - 3:45 Report Out: Challenges, Solutions & Commitments: Frank Chong, Facilitator 3:45 - 4:00 Closing Remarks:  Roberto Rodriguez, Special Assistant to President Obama for Education, White House Domestic Policy Council 4:00 - 6:00 Networking Reception

ICLR: an NGO that fights for labor

Hat tip to NFM Secretary Anne Wiegard for sharing 

this link... something to run with and build on.  so much more encouraging than the collective bargaining link and updates on spreading anti-union, anti-public service sector and especially teachers links I've been - pardon the the verb - collecting. I'll get back to them but for now, couldn't we all use a pick. We can use some heroes. Three cheers for the ICLR... cheer on as you read.

The International Commission for Labor Rights, a New York-based nongovernmental organization that coordinates a pro bono network of labor lawyers and experts throughout the world. It investigates labor rights violations and issues reports and amicus briefs on issues of labor law is protesting Wisconsin's legislation.

Super heroes and crusaders with or without cape indeed. In their own write, they are, "Lawyers Around the World Fighting for Workers' Rights" ~ sure sounds like the Justice League to me.

The International Commission for Labor Rights, ICLR, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is based in New York, and coordinates the pro bono work of a global network of lawyers committed to advancing workers' rights through legal research, advocacy, cross-border collaboration, and the cutting-edge use of international and domestic legal mechanisms. On occasion, ICLR's legal network also responds to urgent appeals for independent reporting on gross labor rights violations.

The network was founded in 2001 at the request of more than 50 national trade unions and global federations, and the coordinating secretariat in New York was set up in 2005. The network aspires to be a resource for trade unions and workers around the world. If you are seeking assistance, please do consult the links and resources on this website before contacting us, to verify whether existing information available here might address your questions and concerns.

Here's the link to an article about their action. Sounds like an organization we want to hear more from... more about them from the Centre for Globalization Research (Canada):  

The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal....The ICLR statement summarizes the development of this law from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, through the International Labor Organization's Conventions on Freedom of Association (that is, the right to form and join unions) and on Collective Bargaining. It cites court cases from the United States and around the world. All embrace freedom of association as a fundamental right and the right to collective bargaining as an essential element of freedom of association.  

Ohio SB-5

Ohio is not the only place with action on these mean streets running between public Ἀγορά and groves of academe, but with both NFM president Maria Maisto and VP Matt Williams in Ohio and involved, we can't help following closely.

Want your state featured? Write me at vanessa.vaile@newfacultymajority.info. Send me something to post, with byline or anonymously. Your choice. Adopt-a-state options also available...

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Cleveland Plain-Dealer blog, 'Ohio's Senate Bill 5 could end collective-bargaining rights for many public college professors' 

Recently posted to Defend Ohio group on Facebook:

It would appear that the leadership of Ohio University has had lobbyists working hard TO SUPPORT SB5-- the Cutler Hall crowd are speaking with our resources about future resources and against our interests

Daily Kos, SB5 protest pics, Ohio Unions shift focus, plan referendum to stop SB-5

Now that the Ohio state Senate has approved S.B. 5 by a  single vote, thanks significantly to Republicans pulling an opponent of the bill off the relevant committee at the last second, unions are shifting their focus to a statewide referendum that would prevent the law from being implemented:

it will be at least 90 days until the law goes into effect. That period will give the opponents of the bill the chance to gather the 231,147 signatures (based on 6% of the vote total in the 2010 gubernatorial race, as state law requires) they'll need to put a repeal referendum on the ballot. They can start the process with just 1,000 signatures. TPM outlines the entire process.

 

There are several common threads between the fights in Ohio and Wisconsin. In both states, newly elected, hard-right Republican Governors are coordinating with each other, and the wider conservative movement, to bust unions for the sake of busting unions. In both states, the response was massive protests from unions and progressive allies. In both states, in the face of unresponsive Republican state legislatures, organizing has now begun for special elections.

Perhaps the most important common thread is how opponents of the union-busting legislation in both states are going all-out, using every legal and organizational means at their disposal to fight back. 

The next union battlefield: the ballot box

Thanks to the eccentricities of Ohio law, passage in the House doesn't mean SB 5 is guaranteed to go into effect. Though they more than likely can't stop it in the legislature, the opposition can potentially block its implementation by promising to take it on at the ballot box. That means the fight over SB 5 could extend for months -- maybe even all the way to November, 2012.

Union leaders and Democrats have already begun shifting their focus to a referendum fight, which would require union supporters to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures in the days following an expected signing of SB 5 by Gov. John Kasich (R).

Once that's done, the law could be placed on hold (meaning it wouldn't go into effect at all) while Ohio waits to see what voters have to say about SB 5. And that's a fight the Democrats say they can win.

The entire process is outlined here in the Ohio State code. More Ohion at Plunderbund, "all politics, all Ohio"

English Department of the Future

The time: some decades hence.
The place: The University of South Jetsonville, a large state university.
The Grand Administrator is speaking to one of his minions about what used to be called the English Department. Although there are four faculty members who still comprise the "English Department," most of the department, and its chair, have been "restructured" and have disappeared in the name of increasing efficiency. Curiously enough, the number of administrators has only increased. We enter in the midst of the conversation.
The Grand Administrator: "What can you tell me about how we're achieving excellence in the English Department?"
Minion: "Well, our single section of English 101 is a success. The accrediting agency is happy that we have moved to weekly Scantron grammar quizzes instead of actual writing, since it's impossible to be accredited without measurable outcomes. There's nothing more measurable than a quiz."

It gets 'better' ~ read the rest at notofgeneralinterest.blogspot.com

From April 2008, so either prescient or just another case of the le plus ça change le plus c'est la même chose. That or, quoting Gen DeGaulle, ça c'est le chit en lit. Inspired by discussion of tenureless university, closer now than it was then. The scenario is equally reminiscent of a certain rural NM branch campus, cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, circa 2003.... and no doubt innumerable others of its ilk

Posted via email from Academentia

around a university

Swerve and take a brief break from Academe's mean streets. The Grove as whiteboard jungle seems out of character until I remember Athena's less than scholarly weakness for hot-blooded warriors. These shady streets are jumping and jiving with teach-ins, demonstrations, protests, March Actions to Defend Public Education, an epidemic of toxic House Bills, Wisconsin shenanigans, Washington union enforcers, inappropriate teaching overloads, collective bargaining fighting for its life, occasional triumphant negotiations, dangerous memes, academic mobbing, scapegoating, and more of the same, seemingly without end.

 

From a conference on "The University We Are For", James Clifford on the Greater Humanities. After shootings in Arizona and at Virginia Tech, how can colleges know when, and in what way, to intervene in a troubled student's life? Live like a grad student forever: Oxford academic Toby Ord recommends living on as little as you can and giving away the rest. The rise of clickers is starting to change how college professors run their classrooms. No talking in class: Campus liberals sacrificed free expression on the altar of political correctness. 

Should computer “languages” qualify as foreign languages for Ph.D.s? It is worthwhile to pause and ask why so many educators are committed to the suspension of religious identity in the classroom. Now you see it, now you don't: Why journals need to rethink retractions. Does Harvard's "affirmative action for the affluent" screw the proles? David Leonhardt revisits the value of elite colleges. An interview with Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman, authors of Why Does College Cost So Much? 

The Useless University: The ancient tradition of pursuing knowledge for its own sake is slowly, quietly making a comeback. A look at how online courses are still lacking that third dimension. The question of what can be taught or what cannot is an intriguing one, especially around a university. A review of Lessons Learned: Reflections of a University President by William G Bowen.

via Omnivore, the Bookforum blog

The expression comes from the akademeia, just outside ancient Athens, where the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning. The sacred space, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, Athena, had formerly been an olive grove, hence the expression "the groves of Academe"... and all the out of date but still longed for associations that go with it.

Posted via email from Academentia