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Campus Equity Week (CEW) is a flexible campaign, designed so anyone can take part - whether you're an individual on a campus, a local union or association, or a national group. You don't need a lot of organizing experience or resources, just energy and ideas!

How to Begin

For individuals:
Find out if others on your campus are already planning CEW activities. Contact the Regional CEW Contact for your area, and subscribe to the CEWaction listserv by sending a blank email message to:

CEWAction-subscribe@topica.com

and find out who else is planning activities in your area. Get in touch with any established faculty organizations on your campus, encourage them to sign on to the campaign and offer your services. If there is no established organization on your campus, try to contact others like yourself who want to initiate CEW activities. Develop a core group of interested people who are committed to doing something. Talk to colleagues you already know to interest them. Use any departmental or university committees and email lists as a way of reaching out to colleagues who may want to get involved - especially in departments where there is a concentration of contingent academic labor. Write an open letter to colleagues seeking interested faculty.

For organizations:
Set up a committee to plan your organization's activities during the week. Put a call out to your members and the rest of the campus community to solicit volunteers. Reach out to student and employee groups on campus to see if they are interested in getting involved.

Set your goals
Once you have a core group established, you can begin planning. This campaign is as much about building local networks, supporting ongoing organizing efforts, and reaching out to potential sources of support as it is about fighting for fairness for contingent faculty. Spend some time brainstorming your goals before you decide what kinds of activities you want to organize.

Your initial goals can be as simple as a plan to set up an information table on campus during Equity Week, distributing literature that helps inform your academic community about the injustice of current academic employment practices, and their impact on the quality of our academic institutions. You will also want to consider who should be your target in this campaign. There are a range of possibilities, from administrators and your institution's governing board, to local or state legislators, students, the campus community, the broader public and the media. Your tactics may vary depending on whom you want to influence.

Coalition-building
Once you have a small core group (even just two people) and are committed to do something, you might consider approaching other groups on campus, asking for help in your efforts. Experience has shown that students are quick to recognize how the lack of institutional support for you impacts their educational opportunity, and they will join with you to help educate the campus community. Other campus employee groups may be facing similar problems with precarious employment and may want to work with you on a broader campaign about working conditions on your campus. Local labor councils, community social justice coalitions and other groups are also potential sources of support and cooperation. Coalitions can be a great way of pooling resources, gaining support for your issues, and building solidarity between groups on a campus and in a community.

A few ideas

• Set up an information table in a high-traffic area of your campus where students, faculty and staff can find out about the campaign, sign a petition or express their support.
  
• Hold an information picket on your campus, using CEW flyers or material targeted to your situation.
• Circulate a petition, perhaps using or modifying one of the sample Charters or Codes in this packet. Gather signatures asking your institution's board of trustees to adopt a Charter or Code as Board Policy.
• Distribute buttons, stickers or other material as a way to build interest in the campaign.
• Guerilla theatre is a great way to get your message across - develop some skits and perform them (with or without notice) in places where people on your campus tend to congregate.
• Form a group of Wandering Minstrels to serenade your campus with rabble-rousing tunes.
• Hold hearings where decision-makers can hear testimony from contingent faculty, students and others.
• Bring resolutions about your issues forward for debate and consideration by your institution's decision-making bodies.
• Write op-ed pieces for your campus and community newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets. Invite the media to take part in CEW events.
• Conduct a letter-writing campaign to legislators or your governing board members.
• Have a film showing of "Degrees of Shame." (Contact Barbara Wolf at br_wolf@hotmail.com for a copy.)

This is by no means an exhaustive list of activities. It's up to you to figure out what will work best on your campus. As you build interest during the fall your basic plan can grow with the energy of those you attract. Be creative, and above all, have fun!

Get connected
Stay in touch with your regional CEW contact and the CEWAction listserv. You will be participating with thousands of your colleagues across the US and Canada, helping to improve higher education in our community. The listserv will be a great place to test out ideas, connect with other organizers and find out what other groups are planning.