From Chris Broniak, membership chair

I came across two items that at first glance might not appear to have much connection with each other.  But they dovetail on one idea:  how do we make sure we don’t lose sight of human values?  

The first item was an article from Chip Cutter, managing editor at LinkedIn, entitled “The Fading American Dream?  Maybe Companies Deserve More Of The Blame.”  It’s not only adjuncts that feel anxious about their financial situations; for the vast majority of Americans, it’s become increasingly difficult to feel confident about their economic futures.

The article is an edited e-mail conversation between Cutter and business journalist Rick Wartzman, author of "The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America."  In it Wartzman recounts the shift in U.S. corporations’ relations with its employees since the end of World War II.  In the conversation, Wartzman notes that

“… there is growing recognition [among many companies] that [the shift from stakeholder to shareholder value] has led to short-termism that's had bad effects on workers and others and companies not investing in their workers with higher compensation, giving labor a bigger share of a very large profit pie.  Corporate profits have been near record highs in recent years.  Workers just aren't sharing in the gains as they once did.”

The second item was a very short YouTube video named “What If Technology Were Designed For Human Values?”, from Time Well Spent, “a movement to stop technology platforms from hijacking our minds, and to start putting our best interests first.”  Just as many businesses have put shareholder value ahead of stakeholder value, most (if not all) technology has made efficiency its highest value, putting the interests of advertisers ahead of all others’ interests.

In both cases, other human values – kindness, friendship, generosity, compassion – are being pushed aside.  In both cases, those whose interests are being served are counting on both the marketplace and technology to keep the rest of us blissfully unaware of our humanity slowly being stripped away from us.

Don’t just “go with the flow.”  Decide what you want the world to be.  Choose consciously.

Published: 17 September 2017

Fellow Adjuncts,

Welcome back to Roosevelt and the 2017-2018 school year.

Roosevelt’s restructuring continues apace, and there is no more visible symbol of the change than the fact that the adjunct office in the Chicago campus is now located in room 254. This is the office for all adjuncts, from those who have taught in the Auditorium Theatre building to those that taught exclusively at the Gage Building. All classes are now in the Auditorium building or the Wabash tower – and all adjuncts are now going to be in 254.

So is RAFO.

Our office has been relocated to room 254A – at the east end of 254. This gives RAFO an opportunity to hear from more of you as directly as we can, and for all of us to work together in ways that can help each other through the changes at Roosevelt. At the same time, it allows us to both show the RU community why adjuncts are such an integral part of the school and for us to demand that respect to adjuncts is both deserved and earned by all of us.

Our membership meeting is September 7 from 1-6 p.m. in AUD 825, and we are asking all adjuncts who are full members of the RAFO bargaining unit to cast ballots on the tentative contract agreement which RAFO reached with the administration this past July. We are also asking that ALL adjuncts become full voting members of RAFO so that you can participate in union decision-making (such as contract ratification) and help build new leadership and directions for the union, all while monitoring the university as the work to stabilize and eventually grow RU continues.

Roosevelt promotes a mission of social justice. RAFO truly works to make that mission real for all adjuncts, and for RU and in academia writ large. Higher education continues to be under stress in this country, and schools like Roosevelt serve as important entries for the students it works to graduate. Adjuncts are just as essential, and RAFO is here to make sure that we continue to be recognized.

So when you come to the adjunct office, knock on our door and say hi. We need to hear from you as the school year begins and throughout the year.

Welcome back.

In solidarity,

The Executive Committee
Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization
Illinois Education Association/National Education Association

Published: 28 August 2017

We have a Union Contract.

RAFO and the 2017/2018 Contract Team completed the contract negotiations on behalf of the RAFO Executive Committee and all of the Unit Bargaining Members. Here is a list of the most crucial advancements in our working conditions.

• Article 1 - Expanded the time it takes for a Union Member to fall out of the unit to three full years. This means that if an adjunct faculty member does not teach for one or two years straight, they can still return to RU at the same pay rate when they last taught a course.
• Article 2 - RAFO will be able to have two Senators from each college represent the adjunct faculty. We have increased our representation by 50% over the last two contracts giving the union a bigger voice within the university.
• Article 3 - RAFO increased the amount of funding for Professional Development by 9%. The Executive Committee will approve additional grant opportunities and reimburse representation on the various union committees.
• Article 4 - RAFO moved forward the deadline for Fall course assignments by 30 days. The new deadline for Fall course assignment notification is now May 31 instead of June 30.
• Article 4 - RAFO eliminated the condition that adjunct faculty members teach within the previous two terms to receive a six hour course load.
• Article 4 - Adjunct faculty members may take a one year leave every five years without any impact to their standing in the university or on the pay scale.
• Article 7 - RAFO increased the Mandatory Duties rate to $49 per hour. Also, we added that the university make every effort to provide mandatory duties, such as a department meeting, by video conference mode.
• Article 7 - Tuition Remission has increased up to 50% for all adjunct faculty, their spouses or partners, and their children.
• Article 7 - The class cancellation fee for Step 3 and 4 adjuncts increased from 20% to 22%.
• RAFO and Roosevelt University agreed on a “me too” clause to determine any pay raises for the duration of the 2017-2020 contract. If any faculty receives a raise in any amount, then RAFO members will receive a raise in the same percentage amount. This will augment the salary scale and become a permanent increase within the contract.

Published: 09 August 2017

I attended the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly in Boston from June 29-July 6 as RAFO’s elected delegate. I enjoy attending the NEA RA because it allows me to become involved in the NEA’s national platform and make my voice heard. If you would like information on everything that happened and was discussed in the floor at the NEA RA, you can check out the 2017 NEA RA website here: https://ra.nea.org/. You’ll find the menu called “Business Items” of significance.

When I attend the RA, I participate in a few of the caucuses—the Women’s Caucus, the LGBT Caucus, and the National Council for Higher Education caucus. Specifically, today, I’d like to talk about the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) and ask you to consider getting involved. I’m not asking you to become involved in NCHE out of the goodness of your heart—I’m asking because I’m alarmed and worried about the future of federal and state funding for Roosevelt University and our students.

At the RA this year, NCHE voted to support motions urging the NEA to move against federal or state funding for private colleges and universities. As Roosevelt is a private university and both the university and our students suffered because of the MAP Grant fiasco, it’s important that we fight to allow our students to continue to use federal or state funding at our school. Oscar Valdez, our Region 67 Vice Chair and member of US of CC (at Columbia College Chicago—also a private college), approached the maker of the items to help him revise the language, so it would protect NEA members like us, who work at private colleges and universities. The maker declined Oscar's offer. We agree that students need protection from predatory colleges or universities; however, the language in the motions did not make a distinction--a private, non-profit, accredited university like Roosevelt is not the same thing as a for-profit school like ITT Technical Institute. 

The items in question were Policy Statement C-2 (defeated) and NBI 106 (amended & passed). I spoke on the RA floor about these items for several reasons:

• The language in the items was vague. What funds are in question? Is the motion writer referring to federal student loans, federal grants, scholarships, tuition remission offered by public employers? Students shouldn’t be prevented from getting federal assistance because they chose a private college or university.
• The writers, in their original text, were equating private colleges and universities with charter schools. This was done to evoke emotion in K-12 NEA members because charter schools are often a topic for debate. Higher education funding is much different from K-12 funding.
• The speakers on the floor cherry picked specific examples of online universities with questionable business practices to bolster their arguments. Many private colleges and universities, like Roosevelt, do not have business practices like the examples they used. Many of Roosevelt’s courses are taught by adjunct faculty who are union members, not “graders.”
• Not all higher education institutions are the same. NBI 106 (as amended) has asked the NEA to “identify states that use state funds to subsidize tuition or otherwise underwrite private colleges and universities for courses and/or degree programs that substantially duplicate offerings by that state’s public colleges and universities.” Students choose the colleges or universities they attend based on the school’s reputation and fit for the student’s life and career goals. In additions, some students choose schools because they want to work with a specific professor at that school.
• Finally, NEA has members (like RAFO and US of CC) who work at private colleges and universities. This will hurt our enrollment and impact our jobs.

After speaking on the floor against Policy Statement C-2 and NBI 106, many K-12 RA attendees approached me to thank me for speaking because they don’t understand the ways that higher education operates differently than K-12. Based on the original language in the motions, I feel that the writer of the motions does not understand the differences in funding, either. So, in Roosevelt’s interest and that of our students, here is what I ask you to do: get involved. You can start by joining the National Council for Higher Education. As NEA members at a private university, we need to make our voices heard. You can also join the Illinois Education Association’s Higher Education Council or follow them on Facebook.

Published: 03 August 2017