Submitted by RAFO Member Chair Joseph Fedorko

Being an adjunct, one gets to be hyper-aware of the state of the world – in many cases, we can be so hyper-aware that it requires additional jobs just to get by. At the Fall membership meeting, RAFO featured two members who take those realities and turned them into disturbingly delightful pieces of creative writing. Thanks to longtime RU adjunct Frank Rogaczewski for his prose poem about how Economics became a discipline, and to newer RU adjunct Alex Luft for sharing a job application of a man seeking redemption for his choking away a potential moment of glory as a professional grocery bagger. If you missed it, no worries – Frank’s poem will be published in his upcoming-any-minute-now collection Jeepers and Criminy! Are You Following This? A Helpful if Inexact Proletarian/Smart Ars Manifesto, while Alex’s publications and appearances can be found on his web site, alexanderluft.com.

There was also some discussion about higher education in Australia (Alex is pursuing a dual Ph.D. there and UIC), where you get paid a ridiculous hourly salary to grade papers, and questions about the upcoming semester here at RU.

RAFO will be featuring more adjuncts and their works in the Spring membership meeting, along with an important vote on union matters that you WILL want to be a part of. Watch this space …

 

Dear RAFO Members,

To recognize the Transgender Day of Remembrance (today, November 20), RAFO would like to let our transgender members know that we stand with you. You are protected by RAFO and Roosevelt University. The University “does not discriminate or permit discrimination by any member of its community against any individual on the basis of … gender identity [or] gender expression” alongside sexual orientation and other protected classes (“Discrimination and Harassment”). If you feel you have been discriminated against or harassed, please do not hesitate to contact us. RAFO is a safe space and will fight for you.

In addition, RAFO encourages members to support our transgender students. Research shows that transgender students have a 41% attempted suicide rate (Haas, Rodgers, & Herman, 2014).  Here are three simple things you can do to have a more inclusive classroom:

  • Ask for pronouns. Instead of calling attendance on the first day, have students fill out index cards or surveys that ask for preferred names and pronouns. Then, use their names and pronouns.

  • Address harassment. Stop transphobic behavior in your classroom and refer students experiencing harassment to the RU webpage for students who have a discrimination complaint.

  • Refer students to resources. The Howard Brown Health Center provides a list of local resources and guide to Trans and Gender Nonconforming Health that students may not know about.

If you would like to continue educating yourself on making your classroom a safe space, please take advantage of GLSEN’s Safe Space Kit and their resource guides for educators.

 

In Solidarity,

The Executive Committee




Dear RAFO Members,

The Fall dues deductions were not taken out of your checks on November 14. RAFO has been working on the issue with Human Resources, which sent us the following response:

Unexpected delays in obtaining the faculty census have pushed back our schedule this Fall. Instead of the usual November deductions, RAFO fees will be deducted from your December 14 check.

RAFO apologizes for this inconvenience. We do not anticipate delays for the Spring deductions. Again, Dues for the Fall semester will be deducted in the December 14 check.

In solidarity,
The Executive Committee

Roosevelt is hiring for four full-time positions! Find out more about these positions by clicking the links below.

Dear Members,

Please join RAFO leadership and fellow adjuncts for the Fall Membership Meeting, to be held THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, from 3:30 - 5:30 pm in room 1315 of the Wabash Building. Light refreshments will be served.

The meeting will feature readings by adjuncts Alexander Luft (fiction) and Frank Rogaczewski (poetry), and include questions, answers, and announcements important to the membership for the Spring meeting and 2019-2020.

Alex Luft is a Ph.D candidate in creative writing at UIC and in media and cultural studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. His creative work has been published in more than a dozen literary journals, including Midwestern Gothic, Chicago Literati, and the Marathon Literary Review. He serves on the editorial staff at Quarterly West and is currently at work on his debut novel. You can read more at alexanderluft.com. This afternoon, Alex will be reading a story titled "Nights and Weekends," originally published in Pioneertown magazine.

Frank Rogaczewski lives with his wife and comrade Beverly Stewart in beautiful Berwyn with their dear dog Seamus and their lovely literary cats, Gertrude and Virginia. Frank is now responsible for two books of prose poetry, The Fate of Humanity in Verse and the forthcoming Jeepers and Criminy! Are You Following This? A Helpful if Inexact Proletarian/ Smart Ars Poetic Manifesto.

We hope to see you Thursday!

The Executive Committee

  1. Summary of RU Enrollment: Update from October Senate
  2. Good News from the Presidents’ Meeting!
  3. Spots for Writing on the Edge Still Available!
  4. A Summary of the Common Lecture

Subcategories

Contracts

RAFO Members:

As lead negotiator for the 2020-2024 contract, I am pleased to announce that your negotiating team and Roosevelt University have come to an agreement. RAFO is extremely pleased with the final outcome and we believe you will be, too. The University was adamant on 0% for the first year, but as an offset for that 0%, we negotiated a signing bonus of $150 for each bargaining unit member that taught either in Spring 2020 or will teach in the upcoming Fall 2020 semester. That then takes us into the final three years of the contract where adjuncts will receive a 2% increase for each of those years.

As I hope you can see from the above, RAFO worked hard to ensure that you are rewarded for the professionalism and integrity all have shown during these unusual and trying times. We are attaching a copy of the final contract for you to review and eventually ratify. The areas that appear in green are changes that were made to the verbiage in the contract that will support RAFO during the upcoming 4 years.  Appendix A reflects the 2% increase for each step in the final three years.

A link with the time will be sent next week for all to join this a zoom meeting, where we can answer your questions about the contract.

In closing, we hope you will be as excited as we are regarding the new contract.

In solidarity,

Don Wlodarski and the RAFO team:

Jen Wilson, Joseph Fedorko, Amelia Hicks, Stan Traywick, Mike Pinsoff and Dennis Tucker