Longest serving community college president in the nation!

Well, I was going to go down to Occupy Wall Street, to hand around with the young people and brush up on my drumming and chanting skills—seriously, I approve of drumming and chanting, and I am looking forward to that and will make my way down there Friday—but remembered that today is the day that we will hear, at Westchester Community College, from Dr. Joseph Hankin, our president, who has been on the job since 1971.

Hankin is currently the longest serving community college president in the nation. 

Moving the furniture and making changes

Did you notice changes on the page? This post is mostly just few words about them and other page notions under consideration. First (this is the easy one), I added a column to the layout, three now instead of two, and trimmed a few items. The Newsreel at the top, the Video bar at the bottom of the page are still there, Twitter reader, links, blogroll, subscription and share options are all still there.

Links may move, expanded or widgetized, to a page of their own, as might the Blogroll, which would expand as well. Other new pages under consideration include Chapters, Foundation, (Contingency) Summit, Unemployment Comp and CFHE. I would like a calendar but not enough to create, embed and maintain one. The page limit is 10 and we already have Newsletter and Program4Change (in need of updating). How does a public bulletin board sound?

Major content changes are republishing the "contributors" list, this time at the top left of the page, where, according to studies, the eye alights first, and doing what it takes to get contributor submissions. Board members all, they used to be on the masthead, but were not contributing. No, I didn't fire them ~ just took the list down but will now try another tack: listing them in the most prominent place on the page where readers just might notice and comment. Please do.

One of two new contributors has already posted. Do show your appreciation by visiting his blog. I remain hopeful (the triumph of faith over reason), but will still remind (trust but verify) as needed. This is important. Not only will you get NFM updates and important notices sooner, but the more more varied the voices here, the more interesting and representative the blog will be. That includes member voices too, not just BoD. Guest post proposals and suggestions invited. Email me at vanessa.vaile@newfacultymajority.info

and now a (very) few words about #fundraising

Support New Faculty Majority *and* Fair Trade in Education by shopping at our online stores at Zazzle, Screend and FTE Coffee ~ coffee and travel mugs for freeway flyers to drink it from, bumper stickers, tees with messages (not just for #CEW2011) and more. 

 

Visit our online stores:

FTE Coffee Screened Zazzle

 

CC President is Hardly a Tireless Advocate for Faculty

My title here is in regard to a recent article in a local on-line paper about Dr. Joseph Hankins, President of Westchester Community College, one of my workplaces.  Dr. Hankin is a very nice man, with a terrific sense of humor—let's see how all that works out—who is now being celebrated for his 40-year tenure as chief exec at WCC.  

My strong view is that, whatever his other virtues, he cannot count among them that he's been a tireless advocate for faculty, least of all the adjunct faculty who do most of the teaching at WCC. Indeed, Dr. Hankin has presided, in his decades of leadership at WCC, over a continuous decline in the professional status of the faculty—the core of any college or university. When he arrived, there were roughly as many full-time as part-time faculty teaching at WCC. At this time there are perhaps 15% of the total faculty who enjoy full-time employment status and the professional courtesies and benefits that go along with that fast-disappearing status.

None of this, of course, is any surprise to NFM members and friends: I invite any and all who have suffered from the continuing degradation of the faculty, and especially the exploitation of adjunct/contingent labor, to share in this space or elsewhere their stories. Dr. Hankin is surely not the only community college—or university—president who is being celebrated for his many achievements even while the status of the key contributors—faculty—continues to be undermined.

Some attention to such matters is particularly appropriate as Campus Equity Week (October 24-30) approaches.

Cheers,  Dr. Al (Trevithick)

Westchester Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and Fordham University; New Faculty Majority, and blogger at http://cringingliberalelite.blogspot.com/.

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