Got Letters?

I'm not (living as an adjunct) anymore but colleagues still are. The title comes from Betsy Smith's subject line in a post to the adj-l listserv urging adjuncts to write Martha Kanter, Under Secretary of Education.

Speaking at the Saturday lunch, Martha Kantner, also a former adjunct, assured all present that she reads all of her e-mail personally - and gave her e-mail address. I know of at least one that she has read and answered.  As Raye Robertson at the The Adjunct Voice might say, It's good to have a voice.

if you haven't written yet, go to the Inside Higher Education article about adjunct issues at the 2010 NEA/AFT higher ed conference in San Jose. To get the email address, scroll down to Comments or just text search the page for "Write Martha Kantner."  Then write Martha and, if you will, please share with us. 

Letters can be posted as comments or emailed to me at vanessa.87036@gmail.com to post as separate entries. Please be sure to note if your prefer your name and/or institutional affiliation to remain anonymous. If you prefer the contents of your letter to remain private, that's your choice, but do let us know so your letter can be counted.

This blog is for the letters of anyone willing to share, without or without your names. Nor is it the only place to share. COCAL's Contingent Faculty email list (subscription only) invites subscribers to cc the list. No doubt other adjunct groups, organizations, blogs etc will post letters as well. The more the merrier... the louder, the clearer and the more polyphonic that voice the better.

NFM out and about

Executive committee members, l-r: Ross Borden, Matt Williams, Maria Maisto, Anne Wiegard

March 12-13: Retreat and Strategic Planning meeting, Akron Ohio: Employment Insurance Initiative; budget and fund-raising; membership drive ~ chapters, "Toolit for Members" with provisions and suggestions for members to work on projects and/or in chapters; Chicago meeting planned to coordinate UI initiative; Yvonne Bruce to coordinate her faith-based initiative (Catholic universities' treatment of contingent faculty) with NFM; developing timeline and medium and long range goals for strategic plan, to be develped in time for COCAL 2010, August 13-15, Quebec City, Quebec 

Webpage housekeeping... out of date news items have been "unpublished" and other minor housekeeping. Link to Facebook page added, Twitter link still MIA   

March 27-28, AACU Conference on High-Impact Educational Practices, Philadelphia

June 3-5, How Class Works Conference, Stony Brook, Maria Maisto and Steve Street present in contingent issues in academic labor (maybe we can shake a preview out them to blog here...)

August 13-15, COCAL 2010, Quebec City, Quebec 

Tentatively, immediate (and interconnected) priorities are:

1.     Brochure

2.     Newsletter

3.     Fund-raising

4.     Membership development

(Note: original post edited 9:45pm, Mountain Daylight Time ~ I'd put the newsletter ahead of the brochure but that's probably just the community news blogger and former newsletter editor speaking)

Dew U UCube?

UCubed Catching Hold and Gaining Momentum, by Kiley Hernandez, Feb 25, 2010

"Ur Union of Unemployed" or UCubed, generated record-breaking numbers over the last 24 hours, with membership jumping from almost 480 job activists yesterday to well over 800 today. Ninety-six new cubes were created within the same time period, adding to the 84 cubes already created (six people within the same zip code make one cube). UCubed is now up-and-running in 48 states and the District of Columbia.

The UCubed website, at http://www.unionofunemployed.com, is creating an outlet for the 30 million-plus unemployed, and out-of-work America is beginning to speak loud and clear about the jobs crisis.

Since its launch in January 2010, UCubed’s steady increase in media presence and social networking is building a movement, and people are noticing. “This thing could hit critical mass pretty quick. Fire it up!” said one post on Common Dreams.

UCubed is committed to providing resources to the unemployed and providing a way to build strength in numbers via a unique web-based, grass-roots platform. In addition, UCubed allows members within their area to connect with other individuals who are unemployed and provide service and support for each other while spearheading legislative notices on critical jobs issues.

Learn more by visiting UCubed at http://www.unionofunemployed.com

work sets

yes still at and now even tweeting more place and with pages on Fcbk. i love how nasty that sounds. that's one work set, if i can call something not in the least connected with gainful employment a "work set" ~ but why not? here i get to define "work." life on the other hand defines itself. work often defines life but does not have to unless you let it.

another "work set" involves learning how to use new social media and other applications for online teaching, ESL in particular. yet another personal peculiarosity in that i am not actively employed teaching online or otherwise. volunteer teaching ESL online may count somewhat.

and then there is the massive blogging effort and community networking. the chamber of commerce is no longer part of any work set though pull its tail (and the tails of true believers therein) on occasion could become one.

blogging and community networking even by blog (as in 1 if by email, 2 if by blog) should go into subcategories but not this time. ditto life not part of work sets.

Checking in

I've made my peace ~ after a fashion ~ with the administrator at another (blog) I write for. He's given up on bullying me and may even have clued in ~ finally ~ to my not being that impressed with either his position in the particular world being blogged or having a column in . Best perhaps that he remain unawares that I'm more likely to consider that gig as selling out, something I suspect most prominent figures in this microcosm, with few but notable exceptions, have sold out as well, albeit unawares.

I have admin privileges ~ clever twigging onto my not posting being a sign that concessions better come my way. Apologizing would have gone further. Why I really prefer being my own boss.

To some extent, that takes away the purpose of this particular blog started as backup and asylum. Or I can make it more about life. What I really need is another blog account and pseudonym to let 'er rip. But I hate hiding behind a name mask and not being myself even more than self-censorship.

Yet another blog welcome

Here's another. I dare say the process should prove to be Darwinian: throw them all in the shark tank and make book on which blog survives.

None of my blogs are particularly personal, although I like to think that my personality comes through even if more like barge, insinuate, gate crash, etc than shine" (cliché of choice, as in "shining through" ~ yeah, like The Shining, eh?).

What distinguishes this from others? Tentatively, it is more about work, although to go by Mountainair Arts, that does not it will stay about work ... maybe "life" ~ a broad blanket to cover any topic.

And what inspired this latest spin-off? What is its foundation myth? More myth-hap than myth. I'd been guest blogging elsewhere - an academic labor thus work related blog, as if I did not have enough of my own blogs to write for, and learned that the owner/administrator had deleted a handful of posts without giving me a heads up ~ not giving me a reason, not asking me to edit, delete or remove them myself. Nor any response, let alone an apology, when I brought the matter up. Despite other matters on deck this a.m., I created a new blog (this one) to have some place to stash surviving posts as none fit other blogs. Now I can pause, publish (saved in drafts for now), perhaps delete on the other blog and remove myself as a guest contributor.

Unfortunately, the most interesting (in my not so humble opinion at any rate) posts were the ones to get the axe. They were also, for the most part, ones I had invested research time in preparing. Although not so invested as to retrace research and recreate the posts, I may insert a brief synopsis.

That an academic either did not understand or understood but did not think it mattered that my words belong to me speaks volumes.

New Majority Faculty Day - now on Facebook

Post imported from New Faculty Majority Day blog:

No kidding. This is April 5 not 1. New Faculty Majority Day is now a group on Facebook. Are you on Facebook? If so, go directly to group (via link posted here) or search groups for "New Majority Faculty Day" and join. If not, then join, search & join. Post links, videos, post a comment, start a forum topic. Invite your precariously contingent friends & colleagues to join.

And while you're at it, visit other (Bob's) NMF Day blog, Changing Universities. More NMF Day ideas and links right here

Comments imported from New Faculty Majority Day blog:

3 COMMENTS:

Professor Smartass said...

Post your story of life as an adjunct, part timer, non-tenure track, temporary (or all of the above) faculty here:
http://equalpayforequalwork.blogspot.com/2009/04/whats-it-like-to-be-higher-ed-adjunct.html

APRIL 5, 2009 3:53 PM

Barry R. Bainton, PhD, MBA said...

There is another resource developing for adjuncts who are members of LinkedIn. This is the The Adjunct Network. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1906855&trk=anet_ug_hm

This is a recently established information sharing site. In this time of economic challenge and class discrimination within higher education, it is critical that all adjunct and temporary faculty unite. We fill in the gaps of between institutional capacity (commitment) and student demand (for quality and quantity of classes). There is no price differential between what a student pays for a class and what the status of the teacher is. Equal pay for equal work??? Or discount classes for discounted teacher?? APRIL 23, 2009 10:54 AM

Vanessa said...

LinkedIn's Adjunct Network sounds promising, possibly more professional, less social - if I still were, I would. As promising & affordable as social networking apps are, we can't tell which ones will best suit w/o using them more than just cursorily. Just a hunch, but I rather suspect we'll end up with series of overlapping networks - maybe something on the semantic web. APRIL 30, 2009 3:18 PM