The following was an e-mail message sent on September 18 by Provost Vinton Thompson to faculty:
I invite you to consider participating in the Fall 2002 "Perfecting the
Craft" Workshop of the Chicago Area Faculty Development Network to be held
at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois on Friday October 25. The
Office of the Provost will cover the $65.00 registration fee for up to 20
participants from Roosevelt, on a first come first served basis. Please call or
e-mail Jessica Whitfield of our office (312-341-3615, jwhitfie@roosevelt.edu)
to reserve our support. You should register for the conference directly. More
information on the workshop may be found at:
http://www.cafdn.net/fall2002.html
Both full-time and adjunct faculty are eligible for this support.
Frank Brooks attended the NEA's annual representative assembly in Dallas from June 30 to July 5 along with about 10,000 other delegates representing not only higher education, but also elementary and secondary teachers and educational support professionals. NEA has 2.7 million members, and this meeting is its highest policy-making body. Any delegate is entitled to speak on any of the matters before the assembly, which include the political agenda of the NEA, its budget, and, this year, elections for executive officers. The Illinois delegation campaigned hard for the election of Reg Weaver, a past president of the IEA, for a three-year term as President of the NEA - and their efforts paid off. The assembly provided a good example of what is meant by the second part of the theme: "Public Education - Democracy's Foundation."
It's difficult to summarize all of what went on over a week whose days typically started with state caucus meetings at 7 am and concluded with meetings in the big hall that lasted until 6 pm or so (much later on the last day). Of specific concern to those in higher education was the adoption of a task force report on distance education, which set some general guidelines for its use at all levels of education and also urged intellectual property protections for those who teach such courses. It also called for revisions of laws to extend "fair use" provisions in copyright law to the online realm.
More generally, the assembly addressed such issues as the (mis)uses of standardized testing, public funding for education, and also urged members to take action in opposition to voucher plans such as those proposed by President Bush (and recently approved by the Supreme Court). Much attention focused on the NEA's response to the recently-passed Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Delegates were urged to learn all they can about the act and to get ready for struggles over the rule-making which will define the details of implementation. There were several excellent and inspiring speakers, including outgoing NEA President Bob Chase, this year's Teacher of the Year, Chauncey Veatch, and former Teacher of the Year Sandra McBrayer.
All in all, it was both tiring and energizing. I'd be glad to share my experiences with any of you, or answer any of your questions - after all, I was your delegate. In addition, I brought back a big stack of papers and reports that can provide additional information on what happened.
Frank Brooks
Secretary, RAFO
Over the summer, we will be planning for a "card drive" in the fall to expand the bargaining unit to include as many adjunct faculty as possible. Be on the lookout for further information and be sure to sign the card authorizing an election to expand the unit. If successful, this will extend contract protections and benefits to many more of the adjuncts at Roosevelt. Our sister union at Columbia College, P-FAC, accomplished this a couple years ago and now has over 700 members in their bargaining unit (and a new contract - congratulations!).
We will need your help in identifying adjuncts in your program, college, or school who may be eligible to sign cards so that we can get those cards to everyone. Please send whatever contact information you may have to RAFO (webmaster@rafo.org), or fill out the contact forms and/or teaching survey on this website (click on the "contact" button above). You may also urge others to fill out those forms. We will also be looking for individuals to volunteer as program representatives in the fall. These volunteers are the eyes and ears of RAFO in the various departments and colleges and will be important in the card drive. If you are interested, contact Melinda Ince, our vice president, at vp@rafo.org.
Several members of RAFO attended the town hall meeting held on May 30, 2002 at Roosevelt University and organized by the AFL-CIO. This meeting featured John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and several workers from Enron and Arthur Anderson addressing the topic "Could Enron Happen to You? Several hundred union activists attended.
from left to right: Frank Brooks, John Sweeney, Beverly Stewart, Frank Rogaczewski
(thanks to Jeri Fleming, our comrade in RU's clerical union, for taking the picture)
An alert member who had just entered the bargaining unit in the spring noticed that his check was not as big as he'd expected. He brought this matter to RAFO and after several consultations with the university, Roosevelt agreed that he should have been placed in a higher salary step based on his previous teaching experience at Roosevelt. In Fall 2002, all those currently in the unit and teaching should examine their contract to make sure that they are in the proper place on the salary schedule. For those new to the unit in Fall 2002, you should be in step 1 of year 2, unless you qualified for the unit by teaching in three out of the last five semesters, in which case you should be in step 2.
The Executive Committee of the National Education Association has just (May 2002) approved a statement on the increasing use of part-time faculty in universities. To read the full statement, click here.
The evaluation task force will be reconvened over the summer or, more likely, in the fall to develop responses to objections raised to the proposal in the April University Senate meetings. There are several adjunct faculty on the task force and RAFO will continue to monitor developments, since this remains an unresolved issue from the contract negotiations. Louise Love has requested input from all interested faculty and RAFO would also appreciate hearing your concerns, criticisms, and suggestions.
Follow the links below for background information on this important issue:
Task Force Proposal - as submitted to the University Senate on March 13
IDEA Center - the group that developed and administers the student evaluations in this proposal.
Long Form - of the student evaluation instrument from IDEA Center
Short Form - of that student evaluation. This is a PDF file, for which you need Acrobat Reader. If you don't have this "plug-in," you may download it for free.
House Bill 1720, which would facilitate organizing by part-time faculty at Illinois public colleges and universities by changing the "assurance" of continued employment to an "expectation" of continued employment, passed both houses of the Illinois legislature on May 8, 2002. Thanks to all of you who contacted state Senators to urge passage of the bill. To get more information on this bill, consult the summary from IEA, or the legislature's summary.
The current executive officers of RAFO were re-elected at the March 9, 2002 general membership meeting to another one-year term.
| President | Beverly Stewart |
| Vice President | Melinda Ince |
| Secretary | Frank Brooks |
| Treasurer | Vilma Chemers |
RAFO has an office in the Auditorium Building downtown. It's located in room 1149 - in the tower with a lovely view of the rooftop. You can get there by taking the Tower elevator on the 8th floor (Congress Ave. side) or coming up the stairs in the center of the building (the RAFO office is directly to the left as you exit the top of those stairs on the 11th floor). Our new phone number (312-341-2394) is the phone in the RAFO office and you can leave messages on the voicemail or check to see if anyone's in the office.
RAFO plans to post notices from Roosevelt University concerning full-time openings on its bulletin boards. These bulletin boards will also host print versions of many of the notices on the web site. Here's where to find them:
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.F.D.R., March 1, 1945