What
You Can Do
Campus
Equity Week (CEW/FEW in Canada) 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. Local
groups are already talking about banding together for a joint regional
activity for one day during Campus Equity Week
Visit
www.cewAction.org regularly. We will regularly be adding resources and
updating the site with news and articles relating to contingent academic
labor and higher education.
Support
Campus Equity Week
Organizations
are encouraged to formally support CEW. The list of Coalition
Members includes organizations that have passed resolutions of support
under "Organizational
Endorsements." Those that are helping to fund CEW coordination
are listed as "Sponsoring
Organizations." A Model
Support Resolution is in the Resources
Area of this Campus Equity Week website
Notify
Chris Storer of support at <storer@fhda.edu>.
Checks
should be made out to "Campus Equity Week"
and mailed to:
Suren
Moodliar, Co-coordinator
North American Alliance for Fair Employment
33 Harrison Ave, 3rd flr, Boston, MA 02111
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