Registration for the three-day conference is $150. The one-day rate is $50. However, we don't want to turn anyone away for lack of funding. If you would like to attend the conference for free, or just feel moved to lend a helping hand, be a COCAL Volunteer!
Tasks include helping at the registration table, guiding people along the march route during our action, making sure speakers have water and the correct A/V equipment, etc.
To volunteer, email cocal6@sbcglobal.net or call LuAnn Swartzlander at 847-657-9060.
Unionism, like democracy, is not a spectator sport – make your voice heard by casting your ballot on whether or not to ratify the contract.
For more information on the contract (brief and comprehensive surveys, and the contract itself), check out our website at http://www.rafo.org/contractinfo-0408.htm.
As you know from updates since October, RAFO has been working very hard at improving the current contract. Our major concerns have been job security and salary. Although the salary improvements are modest at the beginning of the contract, there is considerable improvement by the end. Over the four years of the contract, increases within each step range from 17% to nearly 20%. Many adjuncts will of course move to higher steps over that time, and the step increases are also substantial. Adjuncts with a terminal degree (e.g. Ph.D.) in the field in which they teach will get a $50 per credit hour premium. There are also increases in meeting pay (from $35 to $40) and in the class cancellation fee (from $225 to $250). Finally, all those in the unit now will receive full credit for all semesters taught since Fall 1997. This will allow some of the newest unit members, as well as those whose teaching history isn’t constant, to advance more quickly up the steps.
Job security has been addressed in several significant ways, with limited guarantees of course load and "bumping rights" for senior adjuncts, as well as improvements in remediation and evaluation. The university must now also notify any adjunct whom they intend not to rehire. Adjuncts will receive notice of and have the opportunity to respond to student complaints.
We hope that you find this contract a real improvement over our ground-breaking first contract. If you are a RAFO member, we urge you to vote for ratification.
Deb Colky, a former adjunct in the Evelyn T. Stone University College, has informed RAFO of a Visiting Faculty position in the Graduate Program in Training and Development. For more information, see the job posting on RU's website at http://www2.roosevelt.edu/rujobs/jobdescription.asp?thejob=220
Featuring work by: Cookie Crumbles, Gloria Klein, Chris Knight, Jared Logan, Timothy Rey, Mike Rogers, Michael Rashid, Michael Van Kerckhove and others
Directed by: Floyd A. May
Produced by: Robert Klein Engler
E-mail newtownwriters@aol.com for more information
Theme: Setting expectations and managing the workload when teaching online
Tuesday, June 8 Downtown (4-5 location TBA)
Thursday, June 17 Schaumburg (4-5 location TBA)
Theme: Encouraging small group and full class discussions with real world problems and
open-ended questions
Wednesday, July 14 Schaumburg (4-5 location TBA)
Thursday, July 15 Downtown (4-5 location TBA)
Theme: Giving written feedback on student assignments: different strategies and techniques
Tuesday, August 3 Downtown (4-5 location TBA)
Wednesday, August 11 Schaumburg (4-5 location TBA)
Faculty workshops typically start with a theme and end up addressing whatever ideas, issues, or
problems faculty want to discuss. All faculty are welcome and encouraged to attend. We will probably
go out for a cool summer drink after the workshops end.
Please RSVP to dsorsa@roosevelt.edu
Room locations will be emailed to faculty as meeting confirmation and
reminders.
Congratulations to our newest brothers and sisters in the IEA!
The election results for the runoff election between the Triton College Adjunct Faculty Association, IEA/NEA and Cook County College Teachers Union (Local 1600, IFT/AFT) are in. In voting on April 26 and 27, 89 voted for TCAFA-IEA/NEA and 68 voted for CCCTU-IFT. Fifteen ballots were challenged. Since the challenged ballots could not change the outcome of the election, they will not be counted.
Congratulations to our newest colleagues in the growing part-time faculty movement in the Chicago area. Both credit and non-credit part-time faculty at Triton College now have union representation with IEA/NEA!
Roosevelt University and The Chicago Center for Working Class Studies present "The Quiet Sickness: A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America," a collection of Earl Dotter's photographs, which will be displayed April 22 through May 28, 2004, in Roosevelt University's Gage Gallery, 18 N. Michigan, Chicago. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
Earl Dotter has documented the working lives of Americans for the past 30 years. Beginning in the Appalachian coal fields and continuing through a range of industries, including textile, auto, and health care, Dotter has chronicled through his photographs the accomplishments, pride and skills of workers. He has also powerfully depicted dangerous workplace conditions, in hopes that the dangers will be eliminated by employers and insurance providers.
The exhibit is co-sponsored by Chicago Access Living; Chicago Federation of Labor; AFL-CIO; Illinois AFL-CIO; Illinois Federation of Teachers; Roosevelt University's Mansfield Institute for Social Justice; the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881; the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546; and the University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100, FT.
Voting closes this Friday, April 30 for elections of adjunct faculty to the University Senate and to College Councils in each of the Colleges. Adjuncts are entitled to one seat from each college in the Senate (other than from CCPA) and also one seat on each College’s council. This year, there is a bumper crop of candidates, especially in Arts and Sciences. Several of RAFO’s active program representatives are running, including LuAnn Swartzlander, William Lannin, and Myron (Mike) Levy. If you haven’t already voted , please do so soon – a high turnout is another indication of the commitment of adjunct faculty to Roosevelt University.
The ballot is online at www.roosevelt.edu/adjunct/elections.htm. Once you go there, you’ll have to enter your ID number to switch to the secure server. The ballot is easy to understand and fill out (no butterflies!)
For the latter, the RAFO executive committee has recruited LuAnn Swartzlander (program rep in English, member of the bargaining team, and active on the university’s self-accreditation committee) as our choice. However, you may also write in a candidate.
Closer to home/work, Roosevelt is now taking nominations for adjuncts to run for election to the University Senate and the College Councils. Adjuncts are entitled to one seat for each college (excluding CCPA) on the University Senate (and one of those people will serve on the Senate’s Executive Committee). We are also entitled to a seat on each College’s council (again excluding CCPA). These are important opportunities to participate in university governance and give adjuncts an additional voice here. RAFO expects those elected to attend the monthly meetings and to report back in person or in writing to the executive committee. You may nominate yourself or someone else online at www.roosevelt.edu/provost/rafo.htm.
The negotiating committee has developed some specific proposals for the new contract, but we don’t know everything about how the contract affects adjuncts at Roosevelt. If you have ANY ideas, suggestions, criticisms about the current contract, contact Frank Brooks (webmaster@rafo.org). This is your contract and your union and what we negotiate will likely affect your experiences at Roosevelt for the next several years. One easy way to let us know is to take the survey.
Although there will only be a few people from RAFO at the bargaining table, there will need to be a lot of volunteers behind the scenes to make this work. Please consider whether you can help out in any of the ways listed below. Contact Brooks (webmaster@rafo.org) if you can.
On Saturday, April 17, IEA will hold a "Higher Education Conference” in Rosemont. An Illinois
version of the NEA’s recent Higher Ed Conference in Seattle, this is entitled "Unionism in
Higher Education: Successes, Challenges, and Trends." There is a modest ($10) registration
fee and RAFO will cover that for any of its members who’d like to attend. Contact Beverly
Stewart (prez@rafo.org) if you’d like to go.
The flyer is online at
www.rafo.org/downloads/HigherEd-Conference.pdf.
We are very close to agreement on a more detailed remediation process and hope to have more members eligible for that. There has also been a lot of discussion recently about course assignments and re-assignments. RAFO is seeking to enhance the role of seniority in the assignment process and also to get more timely and detailed information to and from the university on course preferences. A new direction (for us, at least – it already happens at Columbia College and Oakton) is re-assignment, or "bumping." This is still being discussed, but we are seeking to protect the workload of senior adjuncts who may lose classes because of low enrollment or bumping by full-time faculty. Also related to job security are new provisions dealing with student complaints and requiring notification of non-rehire. One major issue still under discussion is how to deal with evaluation of adjuncts, i.e. the role played by student evaluations (the IDEA survey), the development of a portfolio policy, and peer review and/or mentoring.
Of course, most of you are also interested in monetary issues. Those will be coming up very soon, as we come closer to "fixing" some of the problems with and gaps in the existing contract.
By the way, we have passed along similar such information on academic jobs (preferably full- or part-time in the Chicago area) when we’ve gotten it. If you have any news, send it to RAFO and we’ll get it out.
The January/February 2004 issue of Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors, has several articles on adjunct faculty. Follow the link below for their "contents" page and look for the articles by Bradley, Hess, and Schmid. Or, you might try the links page for Chicago COCAL, where there are specific citations as well as lots of other links (many more than RAFO's page).
January 24 is opening night of an exhibit "Solidarity Forever! Graphics of the International Solidarity Movement" at the offices of In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago 60647.
This historical exhibit features posters from the last 30 years covering diverse urban and rural struggles by groups that range from farm workers and miners to janitors and teachers. The show also highlights celebrations of International May Day and features posters by Chicago artists.
The opening is from 7-10 PM. It's free, features hors d'ouvres, wine and beer, and will include remarks by State Senator Barack Obama and several union leaders.
Illinois Education Association president Anne Davis has recently sent an e-mail out to IEA activists and local officers regarding the Governor’s education reform proposals in his recent State of the State address. Many of you have probably heard about these, but it’s less likely you’ve heard the perspective of IEA. More information can be found on the IEA’s website (www.ieanea.org), but for the time being, here’s the news release from IEA:
January 15, 2004 - Springfield, IL - Education proposals offered today by Governor Rod Blagojevich received high marks from Illinois school employees.
In his State of the State address, Gov. Blagojevich proposed the Illinois State Board Of Education (ISBE) be reorganized as a cabinet agency controlled by the governor. In addition, he endorsed an autonomous teacher certification board and called for the creation of a statewide insurance pool to ease the insurance crisis facing retired and current education employees.
"For too long the State Board of Education has been accountable to no one, leading to periods of chaos and confusion, so we applaud the governor's leadership," said Illinois Education Association (IEA) president Anne Davis.
Davis also hailed Gov. Blagojevich's proposal that responsibilities for teacher certification be transferred from ISBE to an autonomous board comprised of teachers. The proposal is a longtime goal of IEA.
"An autonomous certification board would increase accountability by empowering teachers to be responsible for their profession, helping to ensure schools truly have a highly qualified teacher in each classroom," she said.
Davis said she also was pleased by the proposed formation of a statewide insurance pool from the governor which would be designed to lower insurance costs for current and former education employees whose paychecks and pensions are being eroded by skyrocketing insurance costs.
"These employees are at the mercy of school districts that might not be doing a competent job of offering good coverage at the lowest possible cost," Davis said.
"The governor's remarks today will help ensure that finding a comprehensive solution to this crisis will be a major agenda item during the spring legislative session," she added.
The Illinois Education Association represents approximately 120,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher education professionals statewide.
After months of effort, RAFO was able to collect authorization cards from over 50% of those eligible to be in a broader definition of the bargaining unit (basically, adjuncts will now be in the unit in their second semester of teaching). The cards were counted on December 4 by a "neutral," who certified that we got signatures from 148 of 278 eligible. This will be the bargaining unit for which we will be negotiating the next contract.
RAFO and Roosevelt University, in conjunction with P-FAC, Columbia College and the Chicago Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor will be hosting the Sixth continental meeting of the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor. The last meeting, held in Montreal, brought together several hundred adjunct activists from Canada, the United States and Mexico. This meeting, to be held the first weekend of August 2004 (August 6-8), should draw at least as many because of our central location and the increasing mobilization of adjunct faculty. RAFO members are strongly encouraged to attend and we will likely be calling on you to volunteer your time to help out. Organizers for this event include our own Joe Berry (chair of Chicago COCAL).
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