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 …