One of the foundational principles of labor organizing and collective bargaining is that workers can and should withhold their labor if their job situation or environment is threatening to their health and livelihood or inadequate to their needs—herein resides workers’ ultimate source...
Adjuncts Exhibit Strength as PSC Bargains for New Contract On Thursday, October 21, the CUNY Contingents Unite/Adjunct Project (CCU/AP) completed the first phase of its assault on the PSC Delegate Assembly’s inattention to contingent labor demands. The CCU/AP delivered a petition with...
I want to kick off the first post of this blog by talking about an issue that every graduate student is probably concerned about, the dearth of job openings for tenure-track faculty, and how it’s connected to CUNY’s widespread use of adjuncts and the state’s budget...
When Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed SB1070 (“Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act”) into law on Friday, April 23rd, I felt like many of us had the morning after Obama won the presidential election: I went to sleep in one United States and woke up in a different...
Upcoming Contract Negotiations The current PSC contract expires in October 2010. The Adjunct Project and CCU (Cuny Contingents Unite) are working together to determine what demands should be included on the agenda at the upcoming union contract negotiations. We’re already planning for...
The Marketplace of Ideas by Louis Menand. W. W. Norton and Company (2010).
The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected by Jonathan R. Cole. Public Affairs (2010).In The Marketplace of Ideas, Menand narrows his emphasis to a set of particular issues, but in the process provides a useful overview of American higher education. The book is organized into three essays examining three particular issues in higher education: 1) the history of the general education curriculum, 2) the logic of academic disciplines and the allure of “interdisciplinarity” as a buzzword in academia, and 3) the politics of professors and the academic labor market.