For more information, check out the detailed brochure at http://www.rafo.org/downloads/sla2005Brochure.pdf.
We’re back! The IEA Summer Leadership Academy will be held July 27-29, 2005 at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Please join us in Building Effective Locals for the IEA.
As a member of the Association, you are an integral part of the big picture. You share an obligation to strong and effective the quality educational system we have today. You have a responsibility to advocate and build your local.
The IEA provides many opportunities to be a part of public education in Illinois by participating in the critical events of our day. With the IEA, you can assume a leadership position in shaping public education. The SLA offers training to enhance your skills in association leadership, in the classroom, on the job, and in political decision-making circles, among others. Whatever your interests, come to the SLA. Be a part of the proud history and the promising future of public education.
Choose coursework to:
CLEP also offers these classes: BCLS in Spanish (taught by Francisco Montalvo), a new Advanced Certificate in Labor Studies (taught by RAFO’s own membership chair Joe Berry), and several other advanced classes through the National Labor College. CLEP is associated with the University of Illinois.
For more information, contact Joe Berry at joeberry@igc.org
WHEREAS the increasing overuse and abuse of contingent/temporary faculty appointments in higher education has undermined academic freedom, weakened shared governance, and destabilized the work of the faculty, with negative results not just for our current students but for the students now in K-12 who desire and deserve access to quality higher education;
WHEREAS the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) has become a leader in contingent faculty organizing to improve the job security of contingent faculty and strengthen the role of all faculty in higher education;
WHEREAS COCAL is vigorously inter-organizational and has received support from many unions and professional organizations in the United States and Canada;
WHEREAS COCAL has organized major conferences and various activities to mark Campus Equity/Fair Employment Week;
THEREFORE BE RESOLVED THAT
NCHE will encourage NEA to continue to support COCAL and to urge all higher education locals and state organizations to send people to COCAL conferences and to participate in Campus Equity/Fair Employment Week activities,
NCHE will encourage NEA to provide resources for the fall 2005 Campus Equity/Fair Employment Week and the summer 2006 COCAL conference,
NCHE will encourage NEA to continue to publicize contingent faculty issues and their impact on higher education,
NCHE will encourage locals and state organizations within NEA to continue to offer leadership support by participating in COCAL planning and advisory committees.
The IEA is therefore sponsoring a rally at noon on Monday, May 9 at the Columbia College building at 623 S. Wabash. Anne Davis, president of IEA, will be there at noon to speak. IEA is trying to get members and supporters to attend and put pressure on the College to not appeal and allow the votes to be counted. There are a lot of us in the downtown area, so please show up if you can (students are welcome too). For more information, consult the US of CC statement.
Roosevelt University’s English Composition Program invites applications for two two-year, renewable, non-tenure track instructorships. Candidates must have at least an M.A. in English or a related field, an excellent record of teaching in undergraduate composition courses, and readiness to teach regularly at both our downtown Chicago and Schaumburg campuses.
Send letter of application (addressing teaching philosophy), CV, two reference letters (focusing on teaching), and sample syllabi to Priscilla Perkins, Director of Composition, Roosevelt U., 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60605. Applications will be accepted until 5/6/05. Roosevelt University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
The meeting then elected the existing RAFO officers to new two-year terms. Congratulations to
Also elected were LuAnn Swartzlander as our representative to IEA Region 37 and Elizabeth Marino and Joe Fedorko as our delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly in July.
Vilma then asked how we could get more people involved in RAFO. LuAnn suggested setting up a paid training session for potential program representatives (the meeting eventually approved this for the fall). Mike Levy (Senator from University College) suggested that interest is likely low because the contract has been negotiated and there seem to be no big issues such as the merger. He urged adjuncts to get more involved with the university, e.g. by attending graduation. Beverly said that a key would be to provide more information to members, such as the reports now being (more regularly) submitted by adjunct Senators and representatives on the College Councils.
The meeting then opened up to other discussions and Adrienne Allen (adjunct in Business) complained that the recent contract had set up a separate class of adjuncts by allowing only those in Composition and a few other programs to get course load protections (Article 4, Section F). When Beverly and others explained that this was seen as "baby steps" toward broader guarantees, Adrienne suggested that it could have been made more explicit that this was a pilot program by adding an addendum to the contract.
I would like to invite you to join me at the Speaker’s 2005 Bipartisan Summit on State Finances and the Budget. Come learn more about the state’s fiscal condition, get a better understanding of the budget, and discuss ideas on ways to improve state government.
When: Saturday, March 19th, 10am-1pm
Where: Children’s Memorial Hospital, Bigler Auditorium
The purpose of the summit is to bring together business owners, labor officials, service providers, community advocates and local residents to share their thoughts on the impact of state budget cuts and tax and fee increases – both those that have been enacted and those that have been proposed.
If you would like to receive more information on this event, please email me at sara@staterepsara.com.
For the first year ever, Roosevelt University invited RAFO members to participate in the program. We are lending our hand to Interfaith Workers’ Center, an organization developed to help contingent workers in Chicago, located at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 4th Floor, in Chicago. Please join us and the Roosevelt community in making a difference in our world.
Those interested in participating should contact us a prez@rafo.org by March 22.
For more information , contact Diane Davis, our UniServ Director, at (312) 407-0227.
On Saturday, April 9, RAFO will participate in Roosevelt's New Deal Service Day. We have been in contact with the Interfaith Workers' Centers Network, which operates a Day Labor Center on the Northwest side of the city. Although the details of what we will do on that day are still to be worked out (suggestions are welcome), we want to give you lots of advance notice so that you can plan to be involved. Day laborers are of course another kind of "contingent" worker in our country and solidarity between groups such as ours and theirs has been developing through such national groups as NAFFE, the North American Alliance for Fair Employment /www.fairjobs.org). Please RSVP the webmaster if you can work on that day - we want to make our presence felt in support of this just cause.
On January 13, 2005, the executive committee of RAFO sent a letter to RU President Middleton and Provost Reid urging them not to help City Colleges recruit recent Master's grads to replace adjunct faculty who supported the recent strike at City Colleges. Here's the text of that letter:
Dear President Middleton and Provost Reid,
The executive committee of the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization urges you not to help the City Colleges of Chicago retaliate against its most vulnerable faculty members by helping them recruit Roosevelt University graduates or current adjuncts as part-time faculty. As you likely know the City Colleges' request stemmed from labor disputes in which the most recent hires, who were not protected by a union contract, were told by their striking full-time directors to honor the strike and not to cross the picket lines. Caught between the rock of not being rehired by their directors and the hard place of suffering retaliation from the administration, the 120 adjunct faculty members who supported their directors’ requests are now facing retaliation. We view the steering of any Roosevelt graduate [or adjunct] toward the City Colleges as a violation of Roosevelt’s long history with labor and its mission of social justice. We also believe that such steering would place our graduates in the same precarious place as the new hires: They can be fired at a moment’s notice and their salaries are substandard.
Furthermore, we agree with and were pleased with the December 2004 Roosevelt University Senate’s unanimous vote that honored Roosevelt’s history and values by resolving "in view of the fact [that] labor unions were essential in founding Roosevelt University and [that] the Roosevelt University library was named for two prominent union leaders, that the University take great caution before providing replacement workers."
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Beverly L. Stewart, President
LuAnn Swartzlander, Vice President and Grievance Chair
Vilma Chemers, Treasurer
Frank Brooks, Secretary
Joe Berry, Membership Chair
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