Meeting with AAUP Today

This regards the meeting today between the Cleveland State Adjuncts Organizing Committee and  AAUP today.

I think it was a bit touch and go there at the beginning regarding what we ought to be called.  You don't realize just how right some of those crazy french philosophers are until you realize there's no word for you.  Are you part timers?  No, we work full time.  Are we full timers?  No, same reason.  We're adjuncts.  Yes, but some of us are listed as adjuncts, others are instructors, others are lecturers, and still others are departmental lecturers.  We settled on adjuncts.

That being decided, it went swimmingly.  The faculty are aware of everything we're saying especially as to the threat of adjunctification of the university and its effect on education.  They are aware that general education and core classes are being taught increasingly by overworked adjunct faculty, that their new hires are being circumvented by adjunct hiring, that the disparity between pay rates is irrational, and that nothing is going to get solved so long as the university has an exploitable working class.

Basically, they get it.  I gave them buttons.  They put them on.

So, let's say we had a big day today, because we did.  That's my impression of it at any rate. Roger, Russ, and Jim were all there with me so they may have their own impressions of the meeting, but I'm pretty sure they are probably closely aligned with mine.  For my own part, I would say that, today, we scored a win.

We are putting together some ideas for them to help us with.  Obviously, things like letter writing would be helpful, both for media outlets, for memorandum to the faculty on campus, and to higher up officials.  There's also the faculty senate, which they would obviously have access to if we wanted to move some ideas through that.  They know about the April 15th rally on campus and seemed pretty interested in that as well.

I don't know what else to say.  Confidence is high.

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