Invisible Faculty

They are the "invisible faculty," the ones who do a substantial part of the college teaching in America, but are the lowest-paid and least-respected. Some of them teach as a sidelight, working odd jobs, or shuttling from college to college as freeway faculty. Others work full-time, teaching the same classes as tenured colleagues who get paid far more. All of them can be dismissed for any reason, never knowing from one year to the next if they'll still be teaching.

They are called "non-tenure-track" faculty, or NTTs. Few of their students realize that the academy is internally divided into two classes. The tenured and tenure-track have the bigger salaries and the nicer offices and the job security. The NTTs fill in the other classrooms for half the pay, or less.

After years of neglect, NTTs are starting to stand up and make themselves noticed. ISU NTTs have created the ISU Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Association-IEA/NEA to help NTTs protect their rights. [Full Story]

U of I's GEO Emerges Victorious After 13-Hour Sit-In

Urbana Indymedia (urbana.indymedia.org)

After 13 hours of occupying the Swanlund Administration Building in civil disobedience, the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) emerged victorious on March 13.

Following over three weeks of planning, around 60 members and community supporters of the GEO met early Wednesday morning, proceeding to the Swanlund Administration Building on UIUC campus following the "go ahead" signal from two scouts. By 7:45am, nearly 40 members and allies of the GEO had gained control of the two entrances of Swanlund Administration Building, the administrative center of UIUC, preventing over 100 employees of Swanlund from entering and working within the building. Their demand: the Board of Trustees and the UI Administration negotiate an out-of-court settlement that respects the express wishes of graduate employees for union representation; the agreement must be made as a public promise and written down in a signed, official letter. Not coincidentally, the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois system had been scheduled at the Illini Union, just one block away at the Illini Union. [Full Story]

Accountability and Vouchers:

Bush's Contemptuous Plans for Our Public Schools

On January 23, President George W. Bush delivered his education bill to Capitol Hill, entitled "No Child Left Behind." Congress recently passed the act in a bipartisan effort, which Bush has now signed into law. It entails students from grades 3-8 being tested annually in mathematics and reading. The schools that have good scores on the test will be rewarded, while the ones that do poorly or do not show adequate progress within three years will be left to rot.

Bush plans to give vouchers to students at these poor schools so they have the choice to attend another school--particularly private schools. He has said that this is aimed at aiding the African-American and Latino students in our inner-city schools that are not doing well.

This plan may sound wonderful since it holds schools accountable for the student's progress and offers minority students a choice of schools to which they want to attend. However, it is really just another cracked-up conservative idea to promote their values, leaving behind schools that desperately need funding, and inhibiting the education of students in inner-city schools so that their situation is more hopeless than before. [Full Story]

The New Terrorism:

How the Bush Administration Limits Civil Liberties and Freedom

Over the last few months the Bush administration has declared war on the Constitution and on the Bill of Rights, usurping more power from the legislative and judicial branches in its never ending "War on Terrorism."

The administration, accompanied by complacent and corrupt Senators and Representatives (not to mention a sycophantic, unquestioning corporate media) has passed resolutions that significantly threaten the average American's ability to meaningfully protest policies espoused by the federal and state governments.

Bush signed into law the Patriot Act, which allocates federal agencies overarching surveillance and investigatory powers to wage a war on those elements of society (specifically grassroots organizations) that may stand in his way. Provisions of Bush's executive orders include proposals that would lower the law enforcement standard of probable cause for search and seizure to a much lower standard of reasonable suspicion. [Full Story]

Wonderful World of Sweatshops

It is easy to meet students at Illinois State University who have worked at Walt Disney World and are proud of it. It appears effortless for other students to accept the message the Walt Disney World College Program Alumni Association promotes: "Disney doesn't use sweatshop labor." The arguments used to defend Disney are simple: "Disney don't own any factories and our merchandise producers have strong codes of conduct." Revealing the truth about Disney's sweatshops is another story. There is no guarantee that Disney merchandise, from toys to clothes, are made using sweat-free labor. [Full Story]