Hey all, I just got this email from the National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingent Faculty:
On April 30th, contingent faculty from all over the country will be teaching their classes outside and holding rallies and press conferences to educate the public and their students about the current working conditions at American universities and colleges. One reason why these faculty members will be holding their classes outside is to draw attention to the fact that most of the people teaching in higher education do not have tenure and have limited academic freedom and job security. By bringing their classes outdoors, contingent faculty will not only make their labor more visible, but they will also gain a stronger sense of shared working conditions.
Another important motivation for this event is the threat that higher ed administrators will use the current economic downturn to justify the letting go of many non-tenured faculty, and once these teachers are released, we will witness a cutting of courses and an expansion of class size coupled with an increase in tuition and fees. In other words, parents and students will be paying more and getting less.
While it is clear that some cost cutting will have to be implemented, we have to question why the loss of funds will be taken out on the most vulnerable faculty members and students. Why can’t universities fire administrators or freeze their salaries? Why can’t the wealthy institutions borrow from their billion dollar endowments to weather the storm?
If faculty, students, and staff come out and make their presence known, they may be able to stop the easy administrative solution of just not rehiring the teachers who work outside of the tenure system. By claiming our status as the new majority in higher education, we can protect the quality of education in American universities and colleges. Please come out and support faculty, students, and higher education on April 30th.
For more info and a flyer, go to: http://thenewfacultymajority.blogspot.com/
We just got word yesterday that Democracies to Come is in press! Woo Hoo!! It’s been a long road for sure. Word has it that we will have copies in about a month. Major props go to the production crew at Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield for moving our book to production so quickly once we finished all the final editing.
If you’re interested, here’s a excerpt from the Lexington page for our book:
Democracies to Come: Rhetorical Action, Neoliberalism, and Communities of Resistance draws upon a variety of contemporary sites and moments (e.g. IMF/World Bank protests, writing emerging from social movements in struggle against neoliberalism, classroom praxis, postcolonial literature, student activism) to explore new relationships—pedagogical, emotional, affective, and social—that can be the basis of political and social organizing. Approaching pedagogy as a space of learning, Democracies to Come argues that pedagogy becomes a cultural force for democracy in its own right, a cultural literacy, which intervenes in a multiplicity of systems, institutions, cultural formations, and constituencies.
I’m just so excited. Now I can move on to finishing my paper for RSA next month in Seattle…and I promised Seth to have a book chapter description to him by the end of the weekend. This is just the little push I needed to jump into writing…er, after planting flowers, going to a birthday party for my friend’s kid, and soaking in this wonderful day.
OK, this is a quick one…a little discursive bit harvested from a facebook site “Kutztown University Needs to Change.” This site was created by a couple of students who decided it was better to organize than just sit around and complain. A noble idea, no? One might even call it active citizenship. As of this post, that facebook group has 1,118 members. Not bad for a week old…ahh, digital activism.
Anyway, a couple of days ago a Kutztown University administrator joined the group and has been responding pretty regularly to the students…mostly in the form of “you need to understand how the university works.” One of his posts from earlier today is my nugget for today:
Just some suggestions. Before you go asking for changes on your main points, you need to make sure that you understand where the University is now, that you are being reasonable and rational in your approach, and that you aren’t asking for wants and desires rather than just needs. Wants and desires are the things you’d like to have if possible, needs are those things that are required out of necessity. For example, I want and desire a new Harley, but I don’t need it to get to work (and my wife won’t let me have one anyway). So, if I base my whole outlook on getting that Harley, I will be disappointed, even though I can still get to work. It is similar with this University. We aren’t Harvard or Yale. We don’t have a gigantic endowment. Our tuition and fees are low compared to Penn Sate and surrounding State public schools. Therefore, sometimes we are only going to be able to give what is needed, not what is wanted or desired.
“We are only going to be able to give what is needed, not what is wanted or desired.” Nice move. Notice the movement in this argument…the movement suggests that the space of needs is narrow. And, I would argue, the administration is best positioned to determine what are needs and what are desires. KU is positioned next to Harvard and Yale to frame “endowments” and to Penn State and “surrounding state public schools” to frame “tuition.” Interesting. One could wonder, justly I think, what can actually be changed? That is, we are both NOT privileged ivy league schools. And, “we” are GENEROUS with our tuition.
I am too tired at the moment to really work this though…but this is another piece to the argument that is being worked out locally. One of the little pieces I am working on right now is called “Shut up and Teach!” Perhaps, the nugget above is a piece of reasonable neoliberal discipline? Echoes of the World Bank at moments. More, so much more to write.
