Friday, December 18, 2015
On the Police Officer who aimed his weapon at media and protestors – the saga continues
Ferguson Revelations and Sequiturs...
More on the officer who activists refer to as "Officer Go Fuck Yourself"
More on the officer who activists refer to as "Officer Go Fuck Yourself"
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Monday, December 7, 2015
Letter on the current status of negotiations between WUSTL and the Adjunct Professors' Union
Note from
BG (Bret Gustafson). The following is an
update I received on the status of negotiations between Washington University
and the new adjunct union (formed by SEIU).
I share it with the interest of making the process more transparent, in
the interests of improving the working situation of adjuncts, the quality of
instruction, and the quality of life for everyone on campus.
I reserve assessment – both of the administration and of the union
– until later. In other words, the fact
that I am sharing this is neither an indictment of the administration (yet),
nor a critique or embrace of the union’s position, strategy, and achievements (yet).
I received this letter via email on December 2, 2015 and am sharing it with permission.
I received this letter via email on December 2, 2015 and am sharing it with permission.
Dear Colleagues,
You are receiving this message because you signed the petition
to Chancellor Mark Wrighton and Provost Holden Thorp requesting that they
become as involved as their schedules permit in the negotiations between
Washington University in St. Louis and the adjunct faculty bargaining
committee. If you do not wish to receive updates about our bargaining, please
say so in a reply to this message and we will remove you from the list.
We delivered the petition that you signed to the Chancellor’s
and Provost’s offices today, and Student Life may run a copy of the
letter this week. We would like to thank you again for your support for this
important issue.
We’re writing because our bargaining has reached a critical
juncture and we could use help from our allies. For the past eight weeks,
during five full days of bargaining, we have been negotiating for appointments
longer than one (1) semester for adjunct faculty who have been teaching stable
course loads for many years. Our priorities are representative of the national
conversation around adjunct working conditions, in that surveys of our
bargaining unit provided us with a mandate to prioritize this issue of stable
appointments above all else, save higher compensation.
We initially proposed a multi-tiered system of course
appointment, where longer terms of service with a stable pattern of teaching
resulted in longer appointments of the same course load, beginning at one year
and topping out at three years. The University responded with a proposal that
essentially codifies the status quo. In the University’s proposal, an adjunct
faculty member who taught exactly the same courses every semester for seven
years can expect a “good faith” commitment to re-appointment on a
per-semester basis, where “good faith” is limited by an itemized list of
nine exceptions. Taken together, these exceptions essentially give
administration the right to unilaterally deny the re-appointment for any reason
that it sees fit.
Since we are in a negotiation process, our bargaining
committee’s assumption was that the final agreement would fall somewhere
between these two proposals. In the past eight weeks, we have submitted three
separate proposals for a path to longer appointments, all of which incorporated
language from University counter-proposals, with our final proposal seeking
yearlong appointments for faculty who show consistent patterns of instruction
over three or more years. The University has responded to our counterproposals
by offering back their original appointment language verbatim, with only minor
addendums surrounding the issue of teaching evaluation, which does not touch
the substantive issues.
In the past five sessions, we have asked for reasons that longer
appointments are problematic, to which we have received no response beyond the
fact that the University is uninterested, and that they see no tangible benefit
to student learning. In our meeting yesterday, we offered several reasons for
how contingent appointments harm student learning, including: 1) we are often
asked by students to write recommendation letters or participate in
extra-curricular mentorship programs but are in the awkward position of being
unsure whether we will be faculty at the time in question, 2) when we are
offered courses a few weeks in advance, our ability to prep courses and order
texts is severely hindered, and 3) a lack of timely appointments forces us to
cast our nets as broadly as possible for course assignments, which can result
in over-commitment the next semester, drastically reducing our availability for
instruction outside the classroom. The University provided no rebuttal to these
points while continuing to insist that they saw no need for longer appointments
because it works now---they see no problem with the current system.
It became clear to us at this meeting that the University is
refusing to negotiate anything other than superficialities over the issue of
semester-long appointments, and that they are uninterested in having a dialogue
about how to dovetail our interests. So far, we have tried to achieve a fair
contract by using the bargaining table alone, but it appears that we can no
longer rely solely on negotiations.
This is why we could use any help you might be able to offer. We
have already partnered with the Student-Worker Alliance on a series of direct
actions to promote the cause among the student body.
Here are some of the activities for which we are looking for
additional support:
1. Wear stickers on December 9th and 10th
supporting the Adjunct campaign
2. Attend a candlelight vigil
around 4:45pm on December 9th at the
Arch in Brookings/Quad
If you have any additional ideas about how we can raise
awareness among our tenure-track colleagues, we would greatly appreciate
hearing them. If you would be willing and able to discuss these issues with
more of your tenure-track co-workers, particularly members of any
faculty-governance organizations or faculty who also hold college or
university-level administrative positions, we feel this could be productive.
Once again, we very much appreciate the support you have offered
by signing the petition, and thank you for your help on this important issue
facing higher education.
Yours in solidarity,
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Sign petition to support fair cost of living adjustment for retired teachers
No raise in almost ten years for retirees? How would you feel?
Demand a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the Saint Louis City Education Retirees.
ASK YOUR FRIENDS & RELATIVES TO SIGN!
(THEY MUST BE REGISTERED VOTERS) This is a CALL TO ACTION!
MRTA is initiating and promoting a petition campaign in Saint Louis City and Saint Louis County asking for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the Saint Louis City Education Retirees.
The Saint Louis City retirees have not received a COLA since 2006 and have lost 25% of their buying power. It is getting difficult for them to make ends meet. This is an issue of respect for their years of public service and of fairness as most education retirees in Missouri have an automatic COLA written in Missouri Statutes.
Our goal is 5,000 signatures or more by December 1, 2015. Our purpose is to compel our elected officials of the General Assembly to use their influence or to introduce legislation to remedy this injustice.
We also want to compel the Saint Louis State Appointed School Board, and the Board of Trustees of the PSRS of Saint Louis City to remedy this injustice. Signatures are best. Supporters may sign the petition online: http://missouriretiredteachers.org/st-louis-city-education-retirees-petition-for-respect-and-fairness/
THE WORLD IS RUN BY THOSE WHO SHOW UP!!! It is up to you. MRTA's strength comes from membership. Thank you for being a member. IF NOT, join MRTA today by clicking HERE.
Demand a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the Saint Louis City Education Retirees.
ASK YOUR FRIENDS & RELATIVES TO SIGN!
(THEY MUST BE REGISTERED VOTERS) This is a CALL TO ACTION!
MRTA is initiating and promoting a petition campaign in Saint Louis City and Saint Louis County asking for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the Saint Louis City Education Retirees.
The Saint Louis City retirees have not received a COLA since 2006 and have lost 25% of their buying power. It is getting difficult for them to make ends meet. This is an issue of respect for their years of public service and of fairness as most education retirees in Missouri have an automatic COLA written in Missouri Statutes.
Our goal is 5,000 signatures or more by December 1, 2015. Our purpose is to compel our elected officials of the General Assembly to use their influence or to introduce legislation to remedy this injustice.
We also want to compel the Saint Louis State Appointed School Board, and the Board of Trustees of the PSRS of Saint Louis City to remedy this injustice. Signatures are best. Supporters may sign the petition online: http://missouriretiredteachers.org/st-louis-city-education-retirees-petition-for-respect-and-fairness/
THE WORLD IS RUN BY THOSE WHO SHOW UP!!! It is up to you. MRTA's strength comes from membership. Thank you for being a member. IF NOT, join MRTA today by clicking HERE.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Must See Movie: "This Changes Everything" Fri Nov 13 6:30 PM U City Library
Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond.
Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.
As part of New Economy Week, join MORE in watching "This Changes Everything" at the UCity Public Library. A short discussion will follow to both recognize St. Louis as a frontline community in our current climate and economic crisises and introduce the PowerBehindThePolice.comframework as an approach to local collective action.
Free admission. Refreshments provided.
For more information about the week visit
NewEconomyWeek.org.
Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.
As part of New Economy Week, join MORE in watching "This Changes Everything" at the UCity Public Library. A short discussion will follow to both recognize St. Louis as a frontline community in our current climate and economic crisises and introduce the PowerBehindThePolice.comframework as an approach to local collective action.
Free admission. Refreshments provided.
For more information about the week visit
NewEconomyWeek.org.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Corporate CEOs give selves pat on the back for disenfranchising people of St. Louis
I think accreditation has always been a political
instrument that reflects only in a very oblique way the quality of what might
be happening in SLPS. Accreditation was taken away for a political
reason (to appoint the SAB). Provisional accreditation was returned for a
political reason (to stop the flood of transfer demands and lawsuits that would
have followed Turner v. Clayton). The possibility of accreditation
returning is equally political (to justify the dismantling of democratic
process and the corporate and mayor-led takeover of the district to promote
charters, real estate development deals and other private interests).
We can never really know what accreditation means until
there is much more transparency in these processes of evaluation and
decision-making. And, since the takeover was meant as much to shut out
the public as anything else, we cannot expect much transparency going forward.
Here's a new note, coming from Susan Turk, regarding the editorial written by Civic Progress and the Regional Business Chamber, St. Louis' two leading capitalist self-interest groups (whose kids definitely do not attend SLPS):
St. Louis Schools Watch
Civic Progress’s Ambition
By Susan Turk
November 2, 2015—St. Louis--The following letter to the editor appeared in the Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015 Post-Dispatch.
SLPS making progress thanks to superintendent, Special Administrative Board
"We were pleased to read the St. Louis Public Schools' announcement that they have earned enough points to qualify for full accreditation. The progress SLPS has made shows that when a community comes together, we make progress that matters. And, having strong schools is a critical part of our region’s capacity to attract companies that invest in St. Louis.We applaud Superintendent Kelvin Adams, the Special Administrative Board and the entire SLPS team for their achievement. Superintendent Adams has proven what he has been quietly saying since he joined the SLPS in 2008 — that positive change is possible if adults stay focused on the needs of students. His team, working with parents, students, teachers and a wide range of other stakeholders, has addressed the district's most difficult challenges using a data-driven model to develop plans and track progress.Without the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education creating the Special Administrative Board, this accomplishment would not have been possible. Stability, commitment and leadership by Rick Sullivan, Richard Gaines and Melanie Adams are valuable beyond measure. Appointed in 2007, these leaders are unwavering in their determination to improve outcomes for all SLPS students. The region owes them a debt of gratitude for helping the district qualify for full accreditation for the first time in 15 years. DESE needs to support this effort by leaving the SAB in place.As Superintendent Adams always says, full accreditation is not the goal — it's a milestone in a much longer journey. The work of Adams, his team and the SAB is a model for transforming a failing urban district into one that embodies best practices for high student achievement."
George Paz • St. Louis CountyCEO, Express Scripts
Anthony R. Tersigni • ClaytonCEO, Ascension
Its authors are Civic Progress President George Paz and Regional Business Council Chairman Anthony Tersigni. Their gauntlet has been cast down. We now know what their plans for future governance of the SLPS. No democracy. We know the mayor’s plan. Limited democracy.
What is your plan?
Please write letters to the editor of the Post and let them know. Letters can be submitted to letters@post-dispatch.com.
And please sign the petition to return the elected board of education to power at http://wordpress.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=febf37d8c53a262d3cca40d04&id=7a7325e7fb&e=3fe73d6d79
Thanks,
Susan Turk
------------------------------------------------
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Are We Winning? | Jacobin: Testing and the Corporate Education Agenda
Are We Winning? | Jacobin
The Obama administration’s new rhetoric on testing shows the tide may be turning against corporate education reformers.
The Obama administration’s new rhetoric on testing shows the tide may be turning against corporate education reformers.
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