The first set of photos from the conference is now online. In the next couple of weeks, we should have pictures from our professional photographer (and Roosevelt University adjunct) Aaron Gang. If you have photos you'd like to share, send them to the webmaster (electronically, please) along with specific information on the subjects and photographers. Enjoy! Here's a sample:
Included with the registraton packet were summaries of the conditions for adjunct faculty in the countries represented at the conference. They are now here in PDF format:
At our closing plenary on Sunday, August 8, COCAL VI considered and passed several resolutions dealing with Campus Equity Week scheduling, teach-ins and other matters. Follow the link below to find copies of those resolutions and the minutes of that plenary (thanks to Suren Moodliar).
Closing Plenary and Resolutions
Our march on Friday afternoon to higher education institutions in the Loop featured the "report card" posters. Small versions of these were handed out to conference participants, and you may now download a PDF file of the report card (blank, so that you may grade your own employer).
Over 200 people, contingent faculty activists and their allies, assembled August 6-8 at Roosevelt University and Columbia College for the sixth Conference on Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL VI). For the first time, the conference included a significant delegation from Mexico as well as participants from throughout Canada, including Quebec, and all over the United States. Besides the heavier international participation, one of the contrasts between COCAL VI and earlier conferences was the much more extensive focus on strategy. This included a series of three workshops on local, national/international and whole-society vision strategic strategies, as well as plenary panels where national faculty union leaders and leaders of other organizations of contingent workers were asked to put forward their strategic perspectives. Another addition to previous conferences were a series of pre-and-post conference activities that included a mural tour, a Haymarket Labor History tour and a trip to the Second City comedy club.
It should be noted that COCAL VI was only possible because it built upon the achievements of the previous COCALs, back to 1996, in Washington, NYC, Boston, San Jose, and Montreal. It was their efforts that drew together a truly binational movement network that could then engage in the discussion and activities that were COCAL VI.
For many people, the highlight of the first day was the march through downtown Chicago where a "Progressive Report Card" was presented to five of the local institutions that employ large numbers of contingent faculty. With final grades ranging from C+ to F, the Report Cards made clear that while unionization clearly improves the situation, general standards remain low and many faculty are still working in truly intolerable situations. The march dramatized for many visitors how important it is to have a large enough percentage of contingent faculty organized in order to really push up area standards to something resembling what exists in highly organized areas such as California. The march also received press coverage from the major commercial media, both the Chicago Tribune and the local ABC television station.
The conference itself reflected a high level of sophistication in many discussions. One example of that was a pre-conference author’s panel where most of the presenters and the books they were representing were themselves contingent faculty rather than outsider researchers.
In addition to the three strategy workshops there were also three workshops on campus organizing and three on contract bargaining, all of which attracted large attendance. Additional workshops focused on such issues as contingent advocacy in professional associations, the experience of graduate employee unions, discrimination on the job and in the movement, recent job actions, and legislative and political initiatives. Particularly provocative for those who attended was a workshop on teaching for equity: promoting justice for contingent workers in the classroom, where participants discussed the techniques for effectively "coming out of the closet" as a contingent to one’s students, risks involved, and the value of collective support in doing so.
Three social events symbolized how far the movement has come in the past eight years since the first Congress of Adjunct, Part-time, Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Non-tenure Track Faculty in Washington in 1996. One indicator was a reception held after the demonstration at a local club that was sponsored jointly by the often warring Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association, as perhaps their first public jointly-sponsored membership event. The Illinois AFL-CIO also provided financial support for this reception. This sort of joint endorsement of the independent contingent faculty movement would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, especially in Illinois.
The following day, at a reception at Roosevelt, awards were given out in the memory of Dave Wakefield and Jim Prickett, two movement activists from the California Community Colleges who died prematurely. The awards, given to Rodger Scott of San Francisco and Margaret Quan of Contra Costa Community College District honored two recent retirees for their lifelong contributions to the cause of contingent faculty, particularly in the California Community Colleges where organized struggle has been going on since the mid-1970s. These awards represented the first time that COCAL has consciously recognized its own history and begun the process of honoring its own ancestors.
The third social event was also a marker. At the conference dinner, Saturday night, participants heard from Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director of the AFL-CIO, who was pleased to come and speak about the difficulties and promises of organizing generally, to a group that he knew was actively involved in just that back home. He was quite well received as was the AFL-CIO’s workers rights teach-in program that is attempting to build support for the right to organize through teach-ins on college campuses.
Finally, the conference held a closing plenary at which it heard some strategic reports and made plans for future activities, such as the continuing success of Campus Equity Week. This session, though short, represented the first time in the history of the movement that a general discussion of what can and should be done was conducted that included active participation from the United States, both English and French Canada, and Mexico. No one that heard it failed to recognize what a step forward this represented for the movement as a whole. A number of resolutions were considered and passed. After that session, though it was the Sunday of a three day conference, dozens of people stayed to caucus first by national union organization, then by region, to make plans how to implement many of the ideas that had been discussed in plenaries and workshops. An advisory committee of over twenty then met to debrief and evaluate the conference and officially encourage our colleagues in Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest generally to follow through on their tentative initiative to hold COCAL VII there in 2006.
Full conference information, pictures, and a revised program reflecting the actual conference as it transpired are available on the conference web site, www.chicagococal.org and photos at http://www.chicagococal.org/cocal6-photos-index.htm.
Flyers such as the Call for Papers, brochure, etc. are available on the COCAL VI Resources page, available here or by clicking on the Resources button to the left. See also the Chicago COCAL Resources Page, which contains several bibliographies (by Karen Stanley, Joe Berry, and Tom Gradel) as well as Chicago COCAL's links page.
The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor is a floating conference and a network of North American activists working to improve higher education through the collective achievement of job security, livable wages, academic freedom, and time and resources for academic research and professional development for contingent academic laborers. COCAL promotes grassroots contingent faculty organizing through events like Campus Equity Week but is not affiliated with any single labor union. To achieve its aims, COCAL dedicates itself to alerting the broader community about the trends to undermine the tenets of higher education by staging media events, improving legislation governing funding and so-called accountability efforts, and identifying colleagues at institutions and assisting them in forming collective bargaining units and winning strong contracts. Because COCAL’s world view recognizes that the fight for contingent faculty parallels the struggles of other contingent workers, many members also participate in NAFFE (The North American Alliance for Fair Employment), a broader network concerned about the growth of contingent work in general. In addition, many members of COCAL organize around issues such as war, health care, free trade, and human rights. COCAL sees the strength and freedom of faculty as a key to maintaining accessible, quality higher education and, ultimately, free inquiry for a democratic society.
Past COCAL conferences: Montreal, San Jose, Boston, New York, Washington D.C.
This year's event will be hosted by Roosevelt University and Columbia College in Chicago's downtown Loop.
Like past COCAL conferences, Chicago’s gathering will include plenary speakers and workshops addressing issues relevant to contingent faculty in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. including:
Social events will include a reception in a favorite world music club and art gallery and some meals on your own in nearby restaurants.
On Friday afternoon, conference participants will join local activists in a march to a number of nearby campuses to publicly issue progressive "report cards" on working conditions.
To view the draft program schedule, please visit www.chicagococal.org.
Registering ahead is not required for caucus participation. However, because caucuses are a new feature of COCAL, we are interested in assessing the level of interest in order to provide proper room or restaurant accommodations. Note that the listed groups expressed interest in forming a caucus during the last conference. However, other caucuses, such as teaching disciplines, may form if there is interest by even a small number of registrants. Please indicate if you are looking for another caucus group that is not listed.
On Sunday night after the conference, Chicago’s famous Second City improvisational comedy troupe will perform in a private show for conference participants and their guests. Please reserve seats at registration.
For more information on Chicago tourist attractions, see www.metromix.com.
Reservations: 312-583-2225 or groups@hichicago.org.
Call by July 14. After that, rooms subject to availability.
Cash/Visa/Mastercard. Mention "COCAL."
Spanish speakers: ask for Ray. French speakers: ask for Amanda.
Reservations in English or Spanish: 212-575-0006.
Call by July 8. After that, rooms are subject to availability.
Mention "Roosevelt University" and group code "RS0806."
Reservations in English or Spanish: 312-427-8000 x5003.
Call by July 8. After that, rooms are subject to availability.
Speak with Sadi Lugo and mention four digit group code "C-O-C-A."
Because the conference is nearly upon us, please pay online or at the conference. Checks may get delayed in the mail at this late date. If you plan to pay at the conference, you may still fill out the online registration (fill out the check payer form), but please send an email to cocal6@chicagococal.org indicating that you've filled out the online registration and will pay at the conference.
Papers continue to trickle in for the three strategy sessions. As of August 2, there are thirteen papers, two of which are revisions of earlier submissions. To see what there is, click here or on the Papers button to the left.
Last revised on November 22, 2004
by the Webmaster.