Friday, January 30, 2015

Another Article on National Adjunct Walkout Day (more of a multi-faceted debate this time)

Here's another article for you to read if you want (meaning, on your own, based on your own time, patience, and curiosity) that brings up more complicated positions on the idea of a National Adjunct Walkout Day:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/27/national-adjunct-walkout-day-approaches-attracting-both-enthusiasm-and-questions.

For instance, this article brings up the question that our classmate, Nuria, asked: If this is a protest that's intended to be visible, who is really going to see it?

Here's how the article's author, Colleen Flaherty, describes this specific position, using someone else's voice (a "They Say" move):
Keith Hoeller, an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Green River Community College in Washington and founder of the Washington Part-Time Faculty Association, which is not a union, said he supported walkout day in theory, but said it suffered from a lack of leadership from an activist group with a strong agenda -- including plans for what happens after walkout day. 
“We want symbols, but we don’t want air symbols,” he said. “If people walk out, is it going to be a blip? Is it going to be an empty gesture? I’m hoping that lots of people walk out, but even if we do, what do we do after that?” 
Hoeller -- who has in the past criticized general faculty unions for not doing more to push adjunct faculty interests -- said part of the problem lies with unions. He asked why they aren’t doing more to help adjuncts participate in walkout day, such as setting up funds for fines. He also noted that K-12 teachers seem to strike with some frequency, sometimes with union support, and don’t appear to suffer fines.

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