Goodness it has been busy out there on the webs the last few days!  Here is a sample.

• First up is the tale of Ebon Fisher who reportedly made the organizational mistake of wondering if a full-time contingent faculty member should be earning enough to live on.
• The AAUP had a busy weekend at their conference with various speakers taking up academic staffing questions and then they issued some censures including two for treatment of contingent faculty.
• Piss Poor Prof weighs in with some guidance on determining whether or not you can afford to be an adjunct faculty member.

And don't forget to follow other news about academic staffing in the Updated News section of our Facebook page.

Yikes!  We got so caught up in the release of our new report American Academic, that we fell behind in our posting here.  So let's get caught up with a quick look at what has been happening out there on the nets.

• First off, Historiann, Sherman Dorn, and Professor Zero joined Dr. Crazy in responding to our questions about how they would change higher education if they could, but you already knew that from the updated header above (you did see the updated header, right?).
• In a moment of serendipity, the day The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on our new report, the other featured story was about St. John's University's decisions to convert 20 contingent faculty positions in their writing program into full-time tenure track lines.
• Meanwhile, Marquette University continues to debate how they treat their contingent faculty members.
• Over at Inside Higher Ed, Linda Muzzin from York University in Canada, considers what the recent contingent faculty strike at York teaches us about the treatment of that group of workers and higher education in general.

And of course, there are countless stories about faculty cuts all over the country-most of them contingent faculty cuts.  You can keep up with that news in the Recent News section of our Facebook page.

If anyone thinks that the issues of academic staffing and how contingent faculty are treated isn't part of the ongoing discussion about the future of higher education in this country, well, just go away for a couple of days to attend meetings and come back to what stories have been published in those few days.

• First, check out the story in U.S. News and World Report on the use of contingent faculty featuring FACE Talk's own Lila Harper.
• Of course, being part of the conversation doesn't always mean that working conditions are improving, as contingent faculty in Tennessee attest to in today's Inside Higher Ed.
• And this mode of staffing can lead to other problems as well, like accreditation-assuming colleges report accurate numbers.

And don't forget our brothers and sisters from CUPE 3903 out on the line up at York University.  You can send solidarity messages to them here so they know that they have support from the States.

I took a midweek stroll around the internets looking at approximately 436,973 websites that normally deal with academic labor issues, but are currently obsessing over this little election we have coming up and apparently something is happening with our economy?  Anyhoo, here are a few items of interest on the academic staffing front.

• States are getting ready to tighten their belts and we all know what that means for institutions, faculty positions and class offerings.
• University of Rhode Island Part-time Professors tell The Cigar their story as they work through their first round of contract talks.
• Post-docs north of the border form a union.
• Mr Zobel over at Adjunct Advice considers the inequities of a jury summons for an adjunct faculty member (although the idea that a union would bargain away leave coverage is a bit out of sync with how negotiations work).

Technorati Profile

Here are a few items of interest (and a little fun) from around the all-giving internets over the last couple of days:

• Ezra has a fun post up using an episode from The Office to demonstrate why the Employee Free Choice Act is such an important piece of legislation. Hey?! Have you signed the petition yet?
• Marc has the full schedule up for the annual meeting of the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions (but if you are too busy doing your graduate work to get over to Yale, at least give yourself a break and check out Sisyphus' dissertation recipe).
• Meanwhile BendyGirl took notice of the historic new leadership here at AFT.

Things are a bit slow here at FACE Talk this week, but I wanted to welcome AFL-CIO Now readers, as our brothers and sisters over at the big house of labor gave us a shout out this week.  We also wanted to say thanks to Gregory over at Adjunct Advice who asked us a few questions about AFT and contingent faculty.  It was great to get a chance to answer questions from someone asking them from his perspective.

Here are a few stories we are keeping our eyes on while we get ready to move this blog over the weekend.

• Cal State is keeping a close watch out for, um, Quakers and for the second time has let go an instructor who refused to sign a loyalty oath to state and country.
• McGill TA's overwhelmingly refused an offer from the administration that would have undermined the rights of their bargaining unit.  AFT sent a letter last week in support of the striking TA's to Principal Heather Munroe-Blum.
• Baylor faculty are getting a little bit tired of their lack of voice in hiring decisions.

A quick stroll around "teh internets" this morning finds a few interesting tidbits you should check out.

• Burnt Out Adjunct sees some shaky logic in the idea of someone pulling down six-figures teaching on-line as an adjunct instructor.
• Last week, we talked about a new report on rising college costs, and declining investment in faculty.  Over at the Boston Globe, a letter to the editor raises similar issues and suggests students and parents might want to start asking colleges a few questions.
• Professor Smartass reveals a little known fact about Indiana Jones.
• And in the "I am way late on noting this" category, Professor Zero has been writing interesting posts on the subject of tenure.

Well, that should be enough to get the week started--or did I miss something?

The NEA-AFT Joint Higher Education Conference wrapped-up yesterday.  It was an exhausting 3 day conference, but one that was well worth the time and effort.  Over 750 union activists, including colleagues from Canada, came together to talk about a wide range of issues, but two clear themes emerged.  How do we address the challenges we face with academic staffing including providing better pay and job security for contingent faculty, and how do we promote better faculty diversity.  But seeing as I am still tired from the whole affair, here are a few stories from around the nets on the conference to give you a sense of the discussions.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a really nice overview of the whole conference.

Inside Higher Ed covered two different sessions in their issue today:  one on collective bargaining contracts for full-time, nontenure track faculty and another on an AFT Workload Study on classified staff in higher education.

Diverse reported on a particular workshop that addressed the challenges we face in the area of faculty diversity.

There were also a variety of academic bloggers there, but we will have to wait to see if they have any thoughts on the conference.

Seems like we could use a little check in with what is happening out there around the nets.

• First if you are someone who shells out for a Chronicle subscription (or knows someone who does!), you can check out their story on the work being done in Maryland to gain collective bargaining rights for graduate employees and contingent faculty.
• No subscription necessary however to keep track of the Bousquet vs. Trachtenberg dust-up over at Brainstorm.
• Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a case involving an adjunct faculty member who waded into troubled waters and was fired.  Her case is now being taken up by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.  FIRE's angle is the political one, although our readers might identify more with the ease with which the adjunct faculty member was let go.
• And lastly, I just want to give a shout out (cuz I can!) to Adjunct Professoring where The Adjunct Professor has been writing some great posts about the day-to-day of teaching.