My name is Beverly Stewart. I am a founding member of the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization (RAFO), which formed in 2000. I served as president for six years and in other capacities since.

On a state level, I was elected in 2002 to the higher education council, a body of ten people who represent higher education concerns to the Illinois Education Association (IEA) – which has 130,000 of mostly k-12 teachers. I am now its chair, representing about 6000 higher education members in the IEA. About a third of those members are contingent academics.

I share these details to introduce myself and to provide my reason for embarking on writing a monthly blog for the RAFO web page. In my monthly communications, I plan to tell you about what we are doing as a higher education council and hope to inspire you to consider becoming involved in actions or in planning them.

Plans for the State

On Saturday, June 3, the higher education council decided at its retreat to embark on campaign to educate all IEA members about the economic cost not funding higher education has on Illinois as a state. For example, every dollar not spent on higher education equates to a loss of $2.29 to the state economy. Learn more by reading the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability report: “Illinois’ Significant Disinvestment in Higher Education."

Summer Actions

We are also working with the Fund Our Future Coalition to educate the wider community. We have several actions:

• June 21 Northeastern Illinois University Day of Action – going to Winnetka to Rauner’s house is an included activity (180 employees are slated for layoff at NEIU because of the lack of state funding and no budget)
• June 26, 27, 28, 29 call on legislators to pass a budget that fully funds higher education. (Each day will include a different message.) March for Public Education with an emphasis on higher education, set for Saturday July 22.
• July 29 canvass of friendly voters to share with them about the funding crisis

Summer Training

The Illinois Education Association’s Summer Leadership Academy is hosting a training on building a solid and strategic contract campaign. We invite individuals and local team members to work together on a contract campaign strategy to help win on some sticky contract issues. The workshop starts Thursday July 27 and ends Friday July 28 at noon. Register a team today! Our session is in the bargaining school session.

I will be sending a link to all members that offers an opportunity for involvement in many capacities. Changing our current reality is up to us. Stay tuned!

In Solidarity,

Beverly Stewart
IEA Higher Education Council Chair

Published: 15 June 2017

RAFO is proud to announce the winners of the elections for College Council and Senate for 2017-2018. These RAFO members will represent adjuncts to the rest of the RU community, and will participate and vote for policies that affect our work in our classroom and our treatment in the halls of Roosevelt.

The representatives are:

Senate:

• Heller College of Business - Richard Levy
• College of Education - Ami Hicks
• College of Arts and Sciences - LuAnn Swartzlander

College Council:

• Heller College of Business - Richard Levy and Stephen Fedota
• College of Education - Brad Cawn and Ami Hicks
• College of Arts and Sciences - Diane Field and Jen Wilson

Congratulations to all who ran, and thank you! Your participation makes RAFO stronger and keeps adjuncts in view of everyone at Roosevelt!

Published: 07 June 2017

By B. J. Smothers

The Prison in Twelve Landscapes. Brett Story, dir. Documentary film. 2016.

 Currently, there are more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons, which is more than any other time in history. Forty years ago, the number imprisoned was 300,000. For comparative purposes, more people are imprisoned in the United States than in any other nation. This trend is infinitely interesting. In most Liberal Studies, and often in English 102, courses I’ve taught, at least one student selects the prison-industrial complex for research study, because the research is so extensive and a prime example of systemic oppression. Are the vast majority of incarcerated people poor? Is poverty a chief factor?

Thinkers in diverse fields have grappled with poverty and devised a number of theories. In the twentieth century, sociologist Herbert J. Gans gained notoriety with his theories on the uses of poverty in society. Specifically, he claimed that “ . . . poverty … makes possible the existence or expansion of respectable professions and occupations, for example, penology, criminology, social work, and public health.”* From that statement, one can deduce that not only might one find the poor dominating the prison cells but also the would-be poor providing services for this group. Society benefits from people in poverty in many ways, not only to guard its incarcerated citizens but also to spawn fields of study, e.g., social work and sociology. Of course, that’s one view. Another view is that poverty exists because of people trying to preserve their advantages over the system, or I     would say within the system. An interesting documentary that sheds light on this theorizing is The Prison in Twelve Landscapes.

 The PBS program Independent Lens broadcast The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, on May 8, 10, and 11, 2017. Beyond this television program, the documentary is available on other media outlets. It’s an unusual work because it concentrates on the effects of prison in society rather than on what happens inside of prisons. The film consists of twelve vignettes, illustrating the social impact of the prison industrial in such places as a Kentucky mining town (where people are anxious for prison jobs), Washington Square Park (a story of idle life after prison), and St. Louis County, Missouri (where urban violence threaten participants with a prison future).  

*Gans, Herbert J. “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All.” Social Policy, 2: 20-24, Jul-Aug. 1971.

Published: 31 May 2017

Fellow Adjuncts,

As part of our effort to keep you updated on the Roosevelt restructuring, we can now inform you that there has been a reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences. This reorganization comes as a result of consolidation brought on by, among other factors, the closing of the College of Professional Studies in January and the elimination of some majors.

RAFO recommends that, if you are unsure about who is now in charge in the department you currently teach at, that at a minimum you contact your immediate supervisor to clarify where they are now classified and what changes, if any, it means to who will assign you your classes and answer questions about classroom policies.

Here is the new structure of departments and deans in the College of Arts and Sciences:
 

Unchanged departments/programs 

(chairs and program directors also remain unchanged in these departments)

• Department of Psychology (Cami McBride, chair) 
• Department of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences (Cornelius Watson, chair)
• Department of Communication (Marian Azzaro, chair)
• Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (Eric Berkowitz, chair)
• English Language Program (Susanne McLaughlin, director)
• Professional and Liberal Studies (PLS) program (Amanda Putnam, director)

New departments

Department of Humanities (Gina Buccola, Chair)

• English
• English composition (Dan Cryer, director)
• Creative writing (Christian TeBordo, director)
• History (Margaret Rung, director)
• Women's and Gender Studies (Marjorie Jolles, director)
• Philosophy
• Hispanic Studies
• Languages
• Art

Department of Criminal Justice, Paralegal Studies, Political Science, and Public Administration (LaDonna Long, chair)

• Criminal Justice
• Political Science (David Faris, director)
• MPA (Anna-Marie Schuh, director)
• International Studies (Phil Hultquist, director)
• Paralegal Studies (Carrie Lausen, director)

Department of Actuarial Science, Math, and Economics (Melanie Pivarski, chair)

• Math and Actuarial Science
• Economics (Gary Langer, director)
• Social Justice (June Lapidus, director)

Department of Sociology and Sustainability Studies (Mike Bryson, chair)

• Sustainability Studies
• Sociology (Stephanie Farmer, director)
• MACDA (Pamela Robert, director)

In solidarity,
RAFO

Published: 22 May 2017