COCAL UPDATES, OCTOBER 28, 2017
A QUOTE TO REMEMBER:
In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt realized the importance of a good minimum wage. In 1933 he claimed "No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."
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COCAL is the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor, a 20 year old network of contingent activists and their organizations that does a conference (now tri-national - USA, CAN (including QBC), and MEX) every other year, usually in August. 2017 will be in San Jose, CA. It also sponsors a listserv, called ADJ-L, and has an International Advisory Committee, a website www.cocalinternational.org and Facebook page <https://www.facebook.com/COCALInternational>, as well as this news aggregator, COCAL UPDATES. See below at bottom for details on joining the listserv and other resources.
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In Memoriam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2789&v=DY8vaXw5K0Y
The sad news of Miranda Merklein's unexpected passing has been circulating since yesterday when her daughter made an announcement on Facebook. I never met Miranda, but had connected with her as an adjunct activist on social media, and imagine that many of you might know her well.
She was living in Boston and her family is in California. They started a Go Fund Me page to help bring her back to CA and cover the costs of her loss. Last night I noticed that they had surpassed the funding they requested, but as with David Wilder's family after his death, I'm certain that the show of love for Miranda will be very meaningful for her family. Please consider donating to their Go Fund Me, or perhaps donate to Precaricorps in her name.
Here is a link to the go fund me page
https://www.gofundme.com/miranda-merklein
-Jennie Shanker
COCAL UPDATES will circulate any further remembrances of Miranda the are submitted or come across the editor’s desk.
See https://issuu.com/sfcc_pubs/docs/sflr2014v2web/19 for one of her essays, My Life as a Wonder Woman
and her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=miranda%20merklein
and another piece she wrote https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/mesilla-78297/
and an interview with her
http://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2014/10/14/stomp/
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CAMPUS EQUITY WEEK 2017,
See recent posts on CEW
From AFT national: Why I’m all in on the Campus Equity Campaign
https://aftvoices.org/why-im-all-in-on-the-campus-equity-campaign-feb67089916b?link_id=15&can_id=587b791e1946e2adaf17ca20e5e3d480&email_referrer=email_247029&email_subject=inside-aft-oct-13
and Preparing for an art-filled Campus Equity Week
https://www.aft.org/news/adjunct-faculty-prepare-artsy-campus-equity-week?link_id=16&can_id=587b791e1946e2adaf17ca20e5e3d480&source=email-inside-aftoct-13&email_referrer=email_247029&email_subject=inside-aft-oct-13
https://academeblog.org/2017/10/11/campus-equity-week-highlights-contingent-faculty-working-conditions/
More on CEW from AAUP VP (and CC part-timer) Caprice Lawless
Dear Joe,
Campus Equity Week is approaching! During this week, which runs from October 25 to 31, AAUP members and other activists hold actions to draw attention to the working conditions of faculty in contingent positions. We seek to make people aware of the reality that faculty in contingent positions, which constitute about three-fourths of the faculty positions in the US, typically work without job security, for low wages, and without access to the professional working conditions that support student learning.
This reality is something I know well. In addition to being an AAUP officer, I’m an adjunct faculty member in the Colorado Community College system, living paycheck to paycheck and facing significant debt. My story mirrors that of many contingent faculty across the country, and here in Colorado we’ll be sharing our stories during Campus Equity Week.
Interested in holding an event on your campus?
Visit the AAUP’s One Faculty, One Resistance page to find CEW resources and ideas for taking action on your campus.
https://onefacultyoneresistance.org/campus-equity-week/?link_id=1&can_id=587b791e1946e2adaf17ca20e5e3d480&source=email-get-ready-for-campus-equity-week&email_referrer=email_247100&email_subject=get-ready-for-campus-equity-week
The page includes an action packet for you to download and share with colleagues, students, and supporters at your campus. In it is a chart showing trends in the academic labor force from 1975 to 2015, when the number of part-time faculty increased rapidly, and an AAUP report entitled Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments that examines the collapsing faculty infrastructure. It also contains posters about faculty working conditions you can post in your classroom or office.
I began teaching as an adjunct believing that this job would lead to full-time work. That didn’t happen. My story is shared by thousands of adjunct faculty across the country, and at times my colleagues are unjustifiably ashamed about our working conditions. They take this personally, as if they’ve failed. I’m always telling them, “You haven’t failed, the system has failed you.” And that’s something we’re working to change.
Let’s bring attention to the story of contingent faculty this Campus Equity Week!
Caprice Lawless
Adjunct faculty member, Front Range Community College
Second Vice President, AAUP
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Fellow Activists,
With only a few weeks left before Campus Equity Week, it's time to plan and publicize your action!
Follow the mAsk4CampusEquity campaign on Twitter @2017CEW and use the hashtags #2017CEW and/or #mask4ce.
Visit the Facebook page "Campus Equity Week 2017" at
https://www.facebook.com/2017CEW/.
If you haven't perused its pages yet, visit the mAsk4CampusEquity campaign's website: campusequity2017.com.
The arts-based site contains a toolkit with downloadable artwork to use on posters and fliers:
https://campusequitytoolkit.wixsite.com/cewtoolkit2017
as well as access to a virtual store at this link:
https://newfacultymajority.myshopify.com/ where you can purchase union made buttons and/or stickers to publicize the mAsk4CampusEquity campaign and Campus Equity Week.
Wear a button. Put a sticker on the back of your cell phone cover so people will see it whenever you pull out your phone. Pop one on your shirt if you don't like pins. If everyone waits until mid October to place an order, we won't have time to restock and get them to you in time for your events.
Spread the word. Here's a article about the campaign recently published on the AFT website:
https://www.aft.org/news/adjuncts-prepare-artsy-campus-equity-week.
Anne Wiegard
UUP, AFT Local 2190
mAsk4CampusEquity Steering Committee
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and this from CSAL (Center for the Study of Academic Labor)
https://csalsite.wordpress.com
and CEW at El Camino College (CA)
https://eccunion.com/news/2017/10/19/part-time-faculty-become-a-priority-during-adjunct-equity-week/
Campus Equity Week for adjunct faculty takes place October 31st
On October 31st, adjunct faculty and supporters from across the country will take part in the annual Campus Equity Week, a time of education and activism that draws attention to the working conditions of faculty working on temporary, low-paid contracts, who now constitute the majority of college instructors.
The CFT Part-Time Faculty Committee has put together a great toolkit with information and materials to help you plan activities in your local union to take part in the nationwide action. Innovative actions, especially interactive ones, can have a profound and lasting impact. Follow #2017CEW on Twitter and Campus Equity Week 2017 on Facebook and tag your events online with #2017CEW and #mask4ce.
- "We have a union. And we have a room full of joyously crying @UChicago grad workers," the union tweetedThursday. Third-year mathematics student Claudio Gonzáles added: "With it, we can stand with our fellow workers against all manners of injustice, and we can pursue university policies of equity and inclusion on terms that we dictate. We can even challenge the idea of who, by socio-economic circumstance, is able to attend graduate school in the first place. Today, we showed that grads at [the university] are prepared to take responsibility in the world that our labor helps to shape."
- University officials could not be reached for comment Thursday. But in an email sent Sunday and published by the Chicago Maroon, Executive Vice Provost David Nirenberg said "the proposed bargaining unit would constitute an unprecedented and consequential introduction of a third party into our community of research and teaching, one that would, if passed, impact our University for years to come.”
BOSTON COLLEGE ADMIN WON'T BACK DOWN: Boston College administrators refused to drop an appeal to the NLRB over a graduate student employee election held last month, after more than 400 students on Thursday delivered a petition that urged them to back down.
"Our position remains that our graduate students are best characterized as students - not employees - and that the collegial relationship that exists between our faculty and students would be irreparably altered through graduate student unionization," university spokesman Jack Dunn said in a statement to Morning Shift. "In addition, as a faith-based institution, we assert that Boston College should be exempt from the jurisdiction of the NLRB in accordance with the 1979 Supreme Court decision NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago."
In the petition, the students accused administrators of seeking to retry the case before the new conservative-majority NLRB - which could result in the board overturning the 2016 Columbia University decision that ruled graduate students could join unions. "We are deeply disappointed that, instead of following those examples and instead of honoring the long and rich history of Catholic social teachings advocating for workers and the right to bargain collectively, your administration has asked Trump NLRB appointees to reverse the very rights of graduate student workers to unionize," the students wrote.
"Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education". by Joe Berry, from Monthly Review Press, 2005. Look at <http://www.reclaimingtheivorytower.org> for full information, individual sales, bulk ordering discounts, or to invite me to speak at an event or email joeberry@igc.org.
To regularly receive this periodic news aggregator, COCAL Updates, Email <joeberry@igc.org> Itisarchivedathttp://precaritydispatches.tumblr.com/COCAL-Updates-Archive
To join international COCAL listserve email <http://adj-l.org/mailman/listinfo/adj-l_adj-l.org> If this presents problems, send an e-mail to vtirelli@aol.com or, send "Subscribe" to <adj-l@adj-l.org>
Join the national membership organization for contingent faculty and their allies, New Faculty Majority (NFM). Support, resources,and strategies for all things related to precarious faculty. <www.Newfacultymajority.info>
See www.cocalinternational.org for reports of COCAL XII Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and plans for COCAL XIII. Reports and full presentations from COCAL XII, August 2016, Edmonton, Alberta, CAN: see https://sites.google.com/site/cocalxii/home. Also COCAL XIII in August, 2018, in San Jose, CA.
Campus Equity Week 2017 (Halloween Week)
https://www.facebook.com/2017CEW/
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Joe Berry
510-527-5889 phone/fax landline
21 San Mateo Road,
Berkeley, CA 94707
cell-510-999-0751
In Vermont-802-380-019
in Viet Nam- +84 016 824 04310
SKYPE: joeberry1948
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