Please join RAFO President Jen Wilson and other members of the Executive Committee in an open chat session discuss the change in working conditions since the beginning of the shelter-at-home orders.
We have minor updates to our MOU progress and the responses to the President Ali address from last week.
Each Thursday afternoon from 4-6 pm Central Time we gather via Zoom and share our best practices and greatest challenges to teaching online and managing the changes in modality from in person classrooms to Blackboard and video conferencing. All members are welcome to join and share their thoughts.
Sam Rowe, English Department. 
This past November, a Professional Development Mini-Grant from RAFO allowed me to give a paper at the Historical Poetics Now symposium in Austin, Texas. The symposium is a biennial meeting of literary scholars working on 18th- and 19th-century anglophone poetry. Participants share a desire to place the study of poetry in deep historical context, understanding poetic genres, verse forms, and ways of talking about poetry as evolving and changing meaning in response to their circumstances. The field was born out of a frustration with idealizing ways of talking about poetry and poetic address, and a drive to study the meaning that poetry actually makes in its particular social contexts. Scholars presented work on topics like indigenous poetry of the American Midwest, nineteenth-century Bengali epic, the feminist history of the sonnet sequence, and data-oriented approaches to the analysis of verse culture.
Read more: Rowe Likens English Radical Poet to Today's Adjuncts.
RAFO is here to listen, share and help all of our adjunct faculty as Roosevelt University transitions into a full online modality.
Last Thursday, several members joined the conversation about adjusting to full online teaching and discussed ideas for using Zoom and other video technology, hours in the virtual "classroom" and the needs of their students.
Please join the conversation from 4 to 530 on Thursday.
Join RAFO President Jen and other members for a Zoom meeting at 4 pm Central Time on April 9th.
Randy Miller, President of CCCLOC, has compiled a list of Federal and State sources of aid for educators in Region 67 of the Illinois Education Association.
1. The Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed March 25. The Illinois Education Association about how this Act relates to higher education, education funding, and student loans.
2. Chicago Residential Rent Relief: Provides $1000 for up to 2000 Chicagoans in need of rent relief on April 1. Enter the lottery with a deadline of April 1st.
3. Federal Student Loan Interest Waiver: The Department of Education is offering 60 days of student loan interest relief for those who apply for waivers.
Hello RAFO Members,
The RAFO Executive Committee wants to address your questions about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, particularly how it affects non-permanent faculty members.
Much is still up in the air, of course, but we are prepared to share what information we have and learn what concerns you most about the current situation, so that we can advocate for you more effectively.
Please view the video below from RAFO President Jen Wilson and join her in a zoom meeting every Thursday at 4 pm. central time US and Canada.
Contact Jen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions or concerns.
Your RAFO Executive Committee
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
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