"Fellow Workers: We are in here for you,
you are out there for us"
IWW
Mary Faith has been out there on the streets of New York fighting for us. Can we be inside our homes and campuses fighting for her?...She has put a face to the plight of impoverished adjuncts throughout this country. Let's not treat Mary-Faith as though she were disposable."
Folks:
We now have two websites to collect funds for homeless adjunct Mary-Faith Cerasoli. Both contain background on Mary-Faith and how she became homeless.
"NCC Adjuncts United" has already had over 240 unique visitors: http://www.
"Mary-Faith is Fighting for Adjunct Rights" has a wealth of information and a donation link too: http://www.gofundme.com/
You can even download prints by donating a small amount.
The Precarious Faculty Blog site also contains information about the Nassau Community College Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA), which has had a $400,000 fine imposed on it for a strike last September. The leaders of this independent union are still facing the possibility of the loss of their jobs from a retaliatory President and Board of Trustees. See http://www.
At great risk to her teaching career, Mary-Faith went to Albany, the New York state capital, to protest the treatment of adjuncts. She demanded that the New York Secretary of Education meet with her. He refused.
At great risk to her health, she began the age old progressive tactic of a hunger strike to call attention to our plights. She demanded that the Governor or one of his aides meet with her. While one of his aides did call her, he refused to meet with her. Not wishing to endanger her health any further in a fruitless quest, she wisely called off her strike and saw a doctor to make sure she was well.
She wrote an op-ed for the Albany Times-Union daily newspaper, "All Faculty Deserve Fair Treatment" http://www.
She has been profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://
The New York Times also did a story on her: "Without Tenure or a Home" http://www.nytimes.com/
Under the current system, adjunct faculty are disposable people. When they don't get a class, when they have a class cancelled, when there are no more classes for them, no one worries about them, and no one takes responsibility. It's just the way it is for those off the tenure track.
If an adjunct should dare apply for unemployment, she will be hassled for sure, and most likely denied. If she speaks up against this unjust two-track system, she will surely be hassled and she may never teach again.
We know all of this in the abstract. Some of us know it from personal experience.
We now have two websites to collect funds for homeless adjunct Mary-Faith Cerasoli. Both contain background on Mary-Faith and how she became homeless.
"NCC Adjuncts United" has already had over 240 unique visitors: http://www.
"Mary-Faith is Fighting for Adjunct Rights" has a wealth of information and a donation link too: http://www.gofundme.com/
You can even download prints by donating a small amount.
The Precarious Faculty Blog site also contains information about the Nassau Community College Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA), which has had a $400,000 fine imposed on it for a strike last September. The leaders of this independent union are still facing the possibility of the loss of their jobs from a retaliatory President and Board of Trustees. See http://www.
At great risk to her teaching career, Mary-Faith went to Albany, the New York state capital, to protest the treatment of adjuncts. She demanded that the New York Secretary of Education meet with her. He refused.
At great risk to her health, she began the age old progressive tactic of a hunger strike to call attention to our plights. She demanded that the Governor or one of his aides meet with her. While one of his aides did call her, he refused to meet with her. Not wishing to endanger her health any further in a fruitless quest, she wisely called off her strike and saw a doctor to make sure she was well.
She wrote an op-ed for the Albany Times-Union daily newspaper, "All Faculty Deserve Fair Treatment" http://www.
She has been profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education: https://
The New York Times also did a story on her: "Without Tenure or a Home" http://www.nytimes.com/
Under the current system, adjunct faculty are disposable people. When they don't get a class, when they have a class cancelled, when there are no more classes for them, no one worries about them, and no one takes responsibility. It's just the way it is for those off the tenure track.
If an adjunct should dare apply for unemployment, she will be hassled for sure, and most likely denied. If she speaks up against this unjust two-track system, she will surely be hassled and she may never teach again.
We know all of this in the abstract. Some of us know it from personal experience.
But thanks to Mary Faith's courageous acts, the public now knows it in the concrete. She has put a face to the plight of impoverished adjuncts throughout this country.
Let's not treat Mary-Faith as though she were disposable.
If 1,000 of us would contribute as little as $10, we could raise $10,000 to give her enough money for a stable living environment for a year. She could then turn to devoting full-time to finding employment.
One of the most iconic cartoons in the history of the labor movement comes from the progressive union The Industrial Workers of the World, nicknamed the Wobblies (see bottom of this letter). It has a picture of a man in jail behind bars, with the caption:
"Fellow Workers: We are in here for you, you are out there for us"
Mary Faith has been out there on the streets of New York fighting for us. Can we be inside our homes and campuses fighting for her?
I urge all of you to go to one of the two websites: http://www.
Please post this email appeal to lists, websites, groups, listservs, forums, personal web pages, blogs, and social media, including Facebook, Twitter and G+, unions or other organizations.
Cordially,
Keith Hoeller
Editor, Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System
Co-founder, Washington Part-Time Faculty Association
Let's not treat Mary-Faith as though she were disposable.
If 1,000 of us would contribute as little as $10, we could raise $10,000 to give her enough money for a stable living environment for a year. She could then turn to devoting full-time to finding employment.
One of the most iconic cartoons in the history of the labor movement comes from the progressive union The Industrial Workers of the World, nicknamed the Wobblies (see bottom of this letter). It has a picture of a man in jail behind bars, with the caption:
"Fellow Workers: We are in here for you, you are out there for us"
Mary Faith has been out there on the streets of New York fighting for us. Can we be inside our homes and campuses fighting for her?
I urge all of you to go to one of the two websites: http://www.
Please post this email appeal to lists, websites, groups, listservs, forums, personal web pages, blogs, and social media, including Facebook, Twitter and G+, unions or other organizations.
Cordially,
Keith Hoeller
Editor, Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System
Co-founder, Washington Part-Time Faculty Association
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