Author: ksuchor

• Latest CCCC News

• NCTE Blog

• CCCC Position Statements

• All NCTE Position Statements

• The James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in the English Language Arts

• Career Opportunities

 

Overview of the Issues

The labor resolutions at the Houston conference built on the Indianapolis Resolution, itself stemming from the landmark Wyoming Resolution passed in 1986. Each of these resolutions addresses concerns about the working conditions and path for career progression for college writing teachers.

Compensation: Though challenges with staffing and creating equitable teaching positions within college writing programs vary, a primary concern has been around compensation of instructors. In particular, contingent and/or part-time instructors in many institutions are paid significantly less than tenure-line instructors. The Committee on the Academic workforce’s portrait of contingency reports: “The median pay per course, standardized to a three-credit course, was $2,700 in fall 2010 and ranged in the aggregate from a low of $2,235 at two-year colleges to a high of $3,400 at four-year doctoral or research universities. While compensation levels varied most consistently by type of institution, part-time faculty respondents report low compensation rates per course across all institutional categories” (Coalition)¹.

Position Stability: Contingent and part-time faculty positions are often held as a ‘buffer’ for enrollment fluctuations, and courses that don’t fill may be cancelled abruptly; new sections can be added; or courses assigned to cover tenure-line or full-time instructor sections that are cancelled because of low enrollment. Last-minute hiring may result in a lack of time to prepare courses, or an unacceptable number of class preparations that make quality instruction difficult.

Resource Access: As a report from the Associated Departments of English demonstrates, less than a third of non-tenure track instructors represented in the survey data could count on travel funding; less than a quarter are guaranteed funds for ongoing professional development, and just 10% could expect to find support for their own research projects.² Other concerns are instructor access to private or shared office space, regular pay increases, and library borrowing privileges.

Autonomy: The professional authority to make independent decisions based on disciplinary expertise may be limited for non-tenure track faculty. Many NTT faculty, including graduate students, are required to teach from a standard template or syllabus, leaving very little room for independent course design and/or implementation. These requirements can lead to intellectual and pedagogical stagnation.

Representation: Access to shared governance or union representation is mixed for non-tenure track and contingent faculty, with some experiencing participation in what the Associate of Governing Boards defines as shared governance, an organizational practice that “align the faculty, board, and administration in common directions for decision-making regarding institutional direction, supported by a system of checks and balances for non-directional decisions.”³  Depending on the structure of the institution, NTT faculty may or may not have representation within a bargaining unit or institutional senate.

¹ Coalition on the Academic Workforce, “A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members.” June 2012.  http://www.academicworkforce.org/CAW_portrait_2012.pdf
² Associated Departments of English. “Rethinking the Master’s Degree in English for a New Century.” Modern Language Association. June 2011. https://www.mla.org/content/download/25406/1164106/2011adhocrpt.pdf. Accessed 31 July 2017.
³ Bahls, Steve. “What Is Shared Governance.” Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. https://www.agb.org/blog/2015/12/22/what-is-shared-governance

The following position description was drafted and finalized in Summer 2017:

Position Description: The CCCC labor liaison is a contact point and resource for questions associated with the labor of composition instruction. The liaison communicates with CCCC members who have questions about labor practices associated with writing instruction, providing guidance on strategies, resources, and activities. The liaison is also charged with developing and maintaining resources that can be useful for members, using the NCTE/CCCC domain as a source for these resources. The liaison should aggregate existing NCTE/CCCC resources, draw together resources from other organizations or sources that might be useful, and to create resources that can help members use these resources to their best advantages.

In addition to providing resources and disseminating information, the liaison will, as able, collect and communicate trends in feedback from CCCC members on labor and writing instruction to CCCC leadership (the officers and Executive Committee), seek to collaborate with other CCCC Standing Groups and caucuses (particularly but not exclusively the Labor Caucus) and constituent task forces and committees of the CCCC.

The labor liaison will also participate in the Action Hub or other public spaces at CCCC, staffing a table or booth for members to communicate with them.  

The liaison(s) will provide a report on their activities to the CCCC Executive Committee twice each year: once for the November meeting and once for the spring meeting. The liaison(
s) will be appointed for a three-year term. New liaisons will be selected by the CCCC officers and ratified by the Executive Committee. The officers and EC will look to the existing liaisons for recommendations and to develop a process for this selection.

In the event of the formation of an interorganizational labor board, the CCCC labor liaison will serve as CCCC representative to the board.

White Papers, Professional Statements, and Reports

Contingent and Adjunct Positions

• Center for Community College Student Engagement (2014). Contingent Commitments: Bringing Part-Time Faculty Into Focus (A special report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement). Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, Program in Higher Education Leadership.
• “A National Survey of Part-time/Adjunct Faculty,” American Academic, American Federation of Teachers, March 2010.
• Tipple, Robert, “Effective Leadership of Online Adjunct Faculty.” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, vol. 14, no. 3, Fall  2011.

Workforce Data

• American Association of University Professors. The Employment Status of Instructional Staff Members in Higher Education, Fall 2011.
• Academic Workforce Data Center: The Academic Workforce Data Center presents Department of Education (DOE) data about the composition of the academic workforce at 4,246 colleges and universities in the United States. Users can look up statistics on part-time, full-time, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track instructors at each institution and compare data from 2009 and 1995.
• Background Facts on Contingent Faculty, American Association of University Professors
• Chapman, Diane. “Contingent and Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty: MOtivations and Incentives to Teach Distance Education Courses.” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, vol. 14, no.3, Fall 2011.
• Desrochers, Donna, and Rita Kirshstein. “Labor Intensive or Labor Expensive? Changing Staffing and Compensation Patterns in Higher Education.” Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research, Feb. 2014.
• Education in the Balance: A Report on the Academic Workforce in English, MLA, 2008.
• Faculty Compensation Survey, American Association of University Professors
• Feal, Rosemary. “Contingent Faculty Members: More Alike than Different?” MLA Newsletter, vol. 42, no. 2, 2010, pp. 5-6.
• Gere, Anne Ruggles. “Initial Report on Survey of CCCC Members.” James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in the English Language Arts. 2009.
• A Portrait of Part-time Faculty Members: A Summary of Findings on Part-Time Faculty Respondents to the Coalition on the Academic Workforce Survey of Contingent Faculty Members and Instructors. The Coalition on the Academic Workforce, June 2012.
• McClelland, Ben W. “Part-Time Faculty in English Composition: A WPA Survey.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, vol. 5, no. 1, 1981 pp. 13–20.
• Summary of Data from Surveys by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, MLA, American Historical Association, and CAW, 1999.
• US Government Accountability Office. Report to Congressional Requesters. “Contingent Workforce: Size, Characteristics, Compensation, and Work Experiences of Adjunct and Other Non-Tenure-Track Faculty.” October 2017.

Preparation Recommendations

• Rethinking the Master’s Degree in English for a New Century, ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the Master’s Degree, June 2011.

Working Conditions Recommendations

• Council on Writing Program Administration. “‘The Portland Resolution:’ Guidelines for Writing Program Administrator Positions.” WPA: Writing Program Administration  16.1/2 (Fall/Winter 1992): 88-94.
• MLA Issue Brief: The Academic Workforce (2009): The MLA Executive Council created this issue brief to inform members of the profession and the general public of the circumstances faced by the academic workforce in the humanities. It provides background information and explains the council’s working assumptions. The brief then lays out an agenda and recommends a course of action to improve working conditions for the academic workforce.
• Professional Employment Practices for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members: Recommendations and Evaluative Questions Committee on Contingent Labor in the Profession, June 2011.
• Statement on Non Tenure Track Faculty Members, Modern Language Association, 2003.
• Statement on Working Conditions for Non-Tenure-Track Writing Faculty, Conference on College Composition and Communication, April 2016.
• One Faculty Principles, American Association of University Professors
• Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments, American Association of University Professors, 2009.
  • Recommendations from Report
• Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession, American Association of University Professors 2003, updated 2014.
• The Employment Status of Instructional Staff Members in Higher Education, Fall 2011.
• Connected Academics, Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers, Modern Language Association, website.

News Stories and Columns

• Adjunct activism in CUNY system, Inside Higher Ed, July 2017
• “A Tenure Track for Teachers?,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2017.
• “Fixing Our Job Market Problem,” column by Kevin Gannon, Chronicle of Higher Education.
• “Faculty Member Critics Lose Jobs at Sierra Nevada,” Inside Higher Ed, July 2017
• “Bad Idea About Writing: Anybody Can Teach It,” column advocating for non-tenure track faculty support, Inside Higher Ed, August 2017
• “Negotiations Required,” NLRB ruling on compensating adjuncts based on credit hours, Inside Higher Ed, 2016
• “A Kinder Campus for Adjuncts?,” Questions for colleges to consider regarding teaching conditions for adjunct faculty, Inside Higher Ed, July 2016
• “The No-Jobs Myth,” advocating for faculty involvement in governance, Inside Higher Ed, June 2016.
• “Contracts Up Close,” focusing on contract provisions for adjuncts that go beyond better pay, Inside Higher Ed, April 2015
• “New Model of Tenure,” argument for new model of tenure by Michael Berube, Inside Higher Ed, March 2015
• “Full time, Off Tenure Track,” reporting on a survey of job satisfaction among adjunct faculty, Inside Higher Ed, September 2015.
• “Supporting Online Adjuncts,” results of a study on online adjunct instructors and program coordination, Inside Higher Ed, November 2015.
• Flaherty, Colleen. “Withering Humanities Jobs: Full-time jobs in English and languages continue to decline, reaching a new low, says preliminary annual jobs report from the Modern Language Association.” Inside Higher Ed 21 November 2017.
• Kelsky, Karen. “How the Tenured Are to the Job Market as White People Are to Racism.” The Professor Is In, 1 Jan. 2014.
• Barlow, Aaron. “To My Tenured Colleagues.” Academe Blog, 14 Oct. 2013.
• Ruth, Jennifer. “When Tenure-Track Faculty Take on the Problem of Adjunctification.” Social Science Spaces, 16 July 2013.
• Patton, Stacey. “New MLA President Pledges to Improve Conditions on the Nontenure Track.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 January 2012.
• Schmidt, Peter. “Faculty Leaders at American U. Seek Old-School Rights for a New Work Force.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 June 2011.
• “When Adjuncts Push for Better Status, Better Pay Follows, Study Suggests.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 Nov. 2009.
• Street, Steve. “Why Don’t We Insist on Equity?,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 Dec. 2010. 
• “Surge in Adjunct Activism is Spurred by Bad Economy and Hungry Unions.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 Dec. 2009.
• June, Audrey Williams. “An Activist Adjunct Shoulders the Weight of a New Advocacy Group.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 Sep. 2009: A1.
• Jaeger, A., and M. K. Eagan. “Effects of Exposure to Part-Time Faculty on Community College Transfer.” Research in Higher Education, vol. 50, no. 2, 2009,  168–88. .
• Jaschik, Scott. “The Adjunctification of English.” Inside Higher Ed, 11 Dec. 2008.
• “Part-Time Faculty Members Try to Organize Nationally.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 Jan. 2001: A12–A13
• Wilson, Robin. “‘Chronicle’ Survey Yields a Rare Look into Adjuncts’ Work Lives.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 Oct. 2009.

Disciplinary Scholarship (Historical, Contemporary) on Labor

• Adler-Kassner, Linda. The Activist WPA: Changing Stories About Writing and Writers. Logan: Utah UP, 2008. .
• Bartholomae, David. “Teaching On and Off the Tenure Track: Highlights from the ADE Survey of Staffing Patterns in English.” Pedagogy, vol. 11, no. 1, 2011, pp. 7-32.
• Connors, Robert. “Overwork/Underpay: Labor and Status of Composition Teachers since 1880,” In Composition in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis and Change, edited by Lynn Z. Bloom, Donald A Daiker, and Edward M White, Southern Illinois UP, 1996, pp. 47-63.
• Corbett, Edward P.J. “Teaching Composition: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going,”
• College Composition and Communication, vol. 38, no. 4, 1987, pp 444-52. 
• Holbrook, Sue Ellen. “Women’s Work: The Feminizing of Composition Studies.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 9, 1991, pp. 201-229.
• Klausman, Jeffrey. “Not Just a Matter of Fairness: Adjunct Faculty and Writing Programs in Two-Year Colleges.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College, vol. 37, no. 4, 2010, pp. 363-71.
• Robertson, Linda R., et al. “The Wyoming Conference Resolution Opposing Unfair Salaries and Working Conditions for Post-Secondary Teachers of Writing.” College English, vol. 49, no. 3, 1987, pp. 274-80.
• Sledd, James. “Disciplinarity and Exploitation: Compositionists as Good Professionals.” Workplace: A Journal of Academic Labor, 4.1 (2001).
• —. “Return to Service.” Composition Studies, 28.2 (Fall 2000): 11-32. Web.
• —. “Why the Wyoming Resolution Had to Be Emasculated: A History and a Quixotism.” Journal of Advanced Composition,11.2 (Fall 1991): 269-281. 
• Soliday, Mary. “Symposium: English 1999, Class Dismissed.” College English. 61.1 (July 1999): 731-741.
• Trimbur, John and Barbara Cambridge. “The Wyoming Conference Resolution: A Beginning.” Writing Program Administration, v. 12, no. 1-2, Fall/Winter 1988, 13-

Labor Focused Scholarship and Critique in Writing Studies

• Bérubé, Michael. “The Blessed of the Earth.” Will Teach for Food: Academic Labor in Crisis, edited by Cary Nelson, U of Minnesota P, 1997, pp. 153-78.
• Bousquet, Marc Tony Scott, and Leo Parascondola, eds. Tenured Bosses, Disposable Teachers: Writing Instruction in the Managed University. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2004.
• Bousquet, Marc. “The Rhetoric of ‘Job Market’ and the Reality of the Academic Labor System.” College English, vol. 44, no..2, 2003: 207–28.
• College Composition and Communication, Special Issue on Political Economies of
  Composition. Vol 68, No. 1, September 2016.
• Cox, Anicca, et al. “The Indianapolis Resolution: Responding to Twenty-First-Century Exigencies/Political Economies of Composition Labor,”  vol. 68, no. 1, Sept. 2016, 2016, pp. 38-67.
• Fulwiler, Megan, and Jennifer Marlow. Con Job: Stories of Adjunct and Contingent Labor. Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State UP, 2014.
• Hansen, Kristine. “Face to Face with Part-Timers: Ethics and the Professionalization of Writing Faculties.” Resituating Writing: Constructing and Administering Writing Programs, edited by Joseph Janangelo and Kristine Hansen, Boynton/Cook, 1995, pp. 23-45.
• Harris, Joseph. “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Class Consciousness in Composition. College Composition and Communication, 52 (2000): 43-68.
• Hassel, Holly, and Joanne Baird Giordano. “Occupy Writing Studies: A Redefinition of College Composition by the Teaching Majority.” College Composition and  Communication on “The Profession.” 65.1 (September 2013): 117-139. Print.
• Kahn, Seth, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek. Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor and Action in English Composition. WAC Clearinghouse, 2017.
• Kezar, Adrianna. “Spanning the Great Divide Between Tenure-Track and Nontenure-
  Track Faculty.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, November–December
  2012.
• Lamos, Steve “Credentialing College Writing Teachers: WPAs and Labor Reform.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, 35.1 (Fall/Winter 2011): 45-72. Print.  
• Lamos, Steve. “Toward Job Security for Teaching-Track Composition Faculty: Recognizing and Rewarding Affective-Labor-in-Space.” College English, 78.4 (March 2016): 362-386.
• McClure, Randall, Dayna V. Goldstein, and Michael A. Pemberton. Labored: The State(ment) and Future of  Work in Composition. Parlor Press, 2017.
• McMahon, Deirdre, and Ann Green. “Gender, Contingent Labor and Writing Studies.” Academe, vol. 94, no. 6, 2008, pp. 16-19.
• Mendenhall, Annie S. “The Composition Specialist as Flexible Expert: Identity and Labor in the History of Composition.” College English, vol. 77, no. 1, 2014, pp. 11-31.
• Miller, Thomas. “Why Don’t our Graduate Programs Do a Better Job of Preparing Students for the Work that We do?” WPA: Writing Program Administration. 24.3 (Spring 2011): 41-58. Print.
• Murphy, Michael. “New Faculty for a New University: Toward a Full-Time Teaching-Intensive Faculty Track in Composition.” College Composition and Communication, 52.1 (Sept. 2000): 14-42.
• Nelson, Cary. “Between Crisis and Opportunity: The Future of the Academic Workforce.” Will Teach for Food: Academic Labor in Crisis, edited by Cary Nelson, U of Minnesota P, 1997, pp. 3-31.
• Penrose, Ann. “Professional Identity in a Contingent-Labor Profession: Expertise, Autonomy, and Community in Composition Teaching.” Writing Program Administration, v. 35, no. 2, Spring 2012, pp. 108-126.
• Ritter, Kelly. “‘Ladies Who Don’t Know Us Correct Our Papers’: Postwar Lay Reader
  Programs and Twenty-First Century Contingent Labor in First-Year Writing.” College
  Composition and Communication, 63.3(2012): 387-419.
• Schell, Eileen. Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers: Gender, Contingent Labor, and Writing Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1998.
• Schell, Eileen and Patricia Lambert Stock. Moving a Mountain: Transforming the Role of Contingent Faculty in Composition Studies and Higher Education. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2001. Print.
• Schell, Eileen. “The Cost of Caring: ‘Feminism” and Contingent Women Workers in Composition Studies.” Feminism and Composition: In Other Words, edited by Susan Jarratt and Lynn Worsham. MLA, 1998, pp. 74-93.
• Tirelli, Vincent. “Adjuncts and More Adjuncts: Labor Segmentation and the Transformation of Higher Education.” Social Text, vol. 51, 1997, pp. 75–91.

Sources on Higher Education, Labor, and Advocacy

• Baldwin, Roger G., and Matthew R. Wawrzynski. “Contingent Faculty as Teachers: What We Know; What We Need to Know.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 55, no. 11, 2011, pp. 1485-509.
• Benjamin, Ernst, and Michael Mauer, eds. Academic Collective Bargaining. New York: MLA, 2006.
• Benjamin, Ernst. “How Over-Reliance On Contingent Appointments Diminishes Faculty Involvement in Student Learning.” Peer Review, vol. 5, no. 1, 2002, p. 4.
• Berry, Joe. Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education, Monthly Review P, 2005.
• Cross, John G., and Edie N. Goldenberg. “Why Hire Non-Tenure-Track Faculty?” Peer Review, vol. 5, no. 1, 2002.
• Eagan, M. Kevin, et al. “Supporting the Academic Majority: Policies and Practices Related to Part-Time Faculty’s Job Satisfaction.” The Journal of Higher Education, vol. 86, no. 3, 2015, pp. 448-80.
• Ehrenberg, Ronald and Liang Zhang. “Do Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?” Cornell Higher Education Research Institute Working Paper #53, 2004.
• Gavaskar, Vandana. “Can the Subaltern Speak? Contingent Faculty and Institutional
  Narratives.” Forum, College Composition and Communication, vol. 64, no. 1, 2012, pp. A1-A3.
• Gilbert, Daniel A. “The Generation of Public Intellectuals: Corporate Universities, Graduate Employees and the Academic Labor Movement.” Labor Studies Journal, vol. 38, no. 32, 2013, pp. 32-46.
• Grigs, Claudine. “Off the Tenure Track: The Tenuous Act of Adjuncting.” Forum: Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty, vol. 12, no. 1, 2008, pp. A3-A5.
• Hammer, Brad. “The ‘Service’ of Contingency: Outsiderness and the Commodification of Teaching.” Forum, College Composition and Communication, vol. 64, no. 1, 2012, pp. A3-A7.
• Hammer, Brad. “From the Editor: The Need for Research in ‘Contingency Studies.’ Forum: Newsletter for Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty, vol 14., no. 1, 2010, pp. A1-A3.
• Jacoby, Daniel. “Effect of Part Time Faculty Employment on Community College Graduation Rates.” The Journal of Higher Education, vol. 77, no. 6, 2006, pp. 1081- 103.
• Maisto, Maria. “Adjuncts, Class, and Fear.” Working-Class Perspectives, 23 Sept. 2013.
• Mattson, Kevin. “How I Became a Worker.” Steal This University: The Rise of the Corporate University and the Academic Labor Movement, edited by Benjamin Johnson et al. Routledge, 2003, pp. 87-96.
• Maynard, Douglas C., and Todd Allen Joseph. “Are All Part-Time Faculty Underemployed? The Influence of Faculty Status Preference on Satisfaction and Commitment.” Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, vol. 55, no. 2, 2008, pp. 139-54.
• Nardo, Anna K. “Our Tangled Web: Research Mandates and Staffing Practices.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 11, no. 1, 2010, pp. 43-50.
• Schell, Eileen.  “Toward a New Labor Movement in Higher Education: Contingent Faculty and Organizing for Change.” Workplace. N.p., 2001 (4.1). Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
• Street, Steve. “Don’t Pit Tenure Against Contingent Faculty Rights.” Academe, vol. 94, no. 3, 2008, pp. 35-37.
• Thedwall, Kate. “Nontenure-Track Faculty: Rising Numbers, Lost Opportunities.” New Directions for Higher Education, vol. 143, 2008, pp. 11–19.
• Torgovnick, Marianna. “How to Handle an Adjunct.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 33, no. 4, 1982, pp. 454-56.
• Wyche-Smith, Susan and Shirley K. Rose. “One Hundred Ways to Make the Wyoming Resolution a Reality: A Guide to Personal and Political Action.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 41, no. 3, October 1990, pp. 318-324.

Guidance and Resources by Topic

Effecting Change and Organizing

• Negotiating Contingency: Devising a Practical Work plan. A webinar presented by Mike Mauer, a labor attorney who serves as senior labor advisor to the AAUP.
• Resisting Increased Contingency
• “Collective Bargaining Toolkit: Taking on the Academic Staffing Crisis,” Associated Federation of Teachers
• Negotiating Policies, American Association of University Professors
• Workforce Advocacy Kit, Modern Language Association
• Everyday Advocacy, National Council of Teachers of English in partnership with Principles in Practice series editor Cathy Fleischer
  • Storytelling as Advocacy
  • Identifying and Framing
  • Taking Action
• Everyday Advocacy: Action Principles and Toolkit
  • Action Principles Toolkit
  • Creating an Action Plan
• One Faculty Campaign. Through the campaign, AAUP staff, leaders, and members are working together to develop tools that faculty can use on their campuses to gain concrete improvements in job security and working conditions for faculty on contingent appointments.
• “Strategy and Campaigns,” Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change.
  • Tools for Planning an Advocacy Campaign
• Donhardt, Tracy and Sarah Layden, “Adjuncts Foster Change: Improving Adjunct Working Conditions by Forming an Associate Faculty Coalition.” Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity, edited by Seth Kath, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek.

Unemployment Insurance and Benefits

• Unemployment Insurance Information. 2016 guidance makes it easier for faculty in contingent appointments to qualify for unemployment compensation over the summer.
• Retirement

Other Working Conditions

• Health and Safety, American Association of University Professors
• Academic Freedom, Provisions, including negotiability and enforcement,  American Association of University Professors
• Working Conditions, American Association of University Professors

Increasing and Supporting Diversity

• Creating a Positive Work Environment for LGBT Faculty: What Higher Education Unions Can Do, Associated Federation of Teachers
• Promoting Gender Diversity in the Faculty: What Higher Education Unions Can Do, Associated Federation of Teachers

Appointments and Reappointments, Including Position Conversation

• Appointments and Reappointments, American Association of University Professors
• Conversion of Appointment Type, American Association of University Professors
• Data and strategies on approaches to conversion of contingent to tenure-line positions with examples from specific institutions, American Association of University Professors
• McBeth, Mark and Tim McCormack, “An Apologia and a Way Forward: In Defense of the Lecturer Line in Writing Programs,” In Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor and Action in English Composition, edited by Seth Kahn, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek, WAC Clearinghouse, 2017.

Representation

• Governance Participation, American Association of University Professors

Organizing and Activism in the Context of Budget Crises

Responding to a financial crisis, information from the American Association of University  Professors, FAQ
 
AAUP Policies and Best Practices in the Context of Budget Crisis

• Legal Considerations
• Understanding Institutional Finances
• Organizing the Faculty Response (questions broken down into subsections below)
  • Engaging the Faculty
  • Government Relations and Lobbying
  • Communicating Through your Chapter and with the Media
  • Using Collective Bargaining

Organizing and Activism Principles and Resources

• Strategy & Campaigns: an overview of elements of strategic organizing, methodologies for reaching goals, and campaign planning tools.
• 20 Principles for Successful Community Organizing: an overview of getting things done and navigating power structures.

Information for Individuals

• FAQ: AAUP on Workplace Issues: beginning a faculty appointment, evaluations and reviews, leaving an institution, academic freedom.
• Family and Medical Leave AAUP Guidebook (member content)
• Faculty Handbooks as Enforceable Contracts: A State Guide, American Association of University Professors
• Non-Academic Careers for Doctoral Students in Language and Literature: Connected Academics, Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers, Modern Language Association, website including:
  • Humanities Careers
  • Advice   
  • Proseminar
  • Resources

Academic journals and book series play a vital role in the creation and circulation of knowledge in our field. To support the next generation of editors and authors, CCCC and TYCA have established the CCCC/TYCA Editorial Fellowship for graduate students (post qualifying exams) and early professionals. The selected individuals will work with either the editor of College Composition and Communication, the editor of Forum (an online, peer-reviewed CCCC journal dedicated to issues related to NTT faculty and published biannually in print), or the editor of Teaching English in the Two-Year College. During their appointment, recipients will gain experience in proposal/manuscript development, working with authors, building editorial boards, and implementing a strategic vision plan.

CCCC and TYCA members who identify as members of underrepresented groups, especially Black, Latinx, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, as well as scholars/teachers from HBCUs, HSIs, and community colleges are encouraged to apply. One fellow will be chosen for each publication/series. CCC, Forum, and TETYC fellowships will each last one year. Fellowships can be extended for up to an additional year if such an arrangement is mutually agreeable to the fellow and respective editor. NOTE: No previous experience is required or assumed.

To apply, each applicant should submit the following:

• A one-page cover letter specifying which fellowship they are applying for (CCC, Forum, or TETYC) and highlighting any experiences relevant to that specific fellowship.
• A one-page statement of editorial philosophy, specifically addressing what the applicant understands to be the most pressing issues facing scholarly publishing at this current moment.
• A one-page curriculum vitae detailing relevant experience.

If appointed, each fellow should expect to gain experience in the following:

• Oversight of one manuscript from initial submission to publication, inclusive of assigning reviewers, providing feedback, and working with authors toward publication.
• Coordinating a set of publications to fulfill editorial mission.
• Developing editorial board policy and decision-making processes.

Application materials should be sent by Monday, September 26, 2022, to Kristen Ritchie, CCCC Liaison.

Fellowships will be announced by November 2022.

Selection Committee: Malea Powell (CCC editor), Trace Daniels-Lerberg (Forum editor), Darin Jensen (TETYC editor), and Jim Sitar (NCTE Journals Managing Editor).

The Conference on College Composition and Communication seeks from its membership applications and nominations for Editor of FORUM: Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty. FORUM is published twice a year (alternately in College Composition and Communication and Teaching English in the Two-Year College). The peer-reviewed publication’s purpose is to publish articles, news, reviews, and other items related to non-tenure-track faculty in college English or composition courses. The editor of FORUM is a member of the CCCC Editors team, which meets face-to-face at the CCCC Annual Convention and, on occasion, virtually throughout the year. This three-year position will begin immediately after selection.

Send a letter of application and CV by July 15, 2024, to NCTE Publications Director Colin Murcray at cmurcray@ncte.org

 

As an organization with both an international membership and a commitment to transnational writing research, the Conference on College Composition and Communication reiterates its commitment to the freedom of all members — and, indeed, all people — to move freely across national and international borders. Movement of individuals is closely tied to movement of ideas and language, movement that enriches the lives of writers and writing regardless of location. CCCC opposes any actions that impede this freedom.

Given the U.S. administration’s recent actions related to international travel and immigration that restrict movement, in keeping with these principles, NCTE will refund CCCC convention and workshop registration fees for international participants should they determine they are unable to attend the CCCC convention. CCCC is also exploring options to honor the work of members who are unable to attend; details will be provided as they unfold.

What features of the CCCC Annual Convention are the most valuable to you?  Why do you attend this Convention?

 

The atmosphere of the convention is far more collegial, rather than competitive, than many other preeminent national conferences. I always find CCCC conventions a productive and enjoyable opportunity to meet my peers at other institutions.

Variety of sessions. Since our travel funds seem to be more and more restricted, it is vital that we can attend conferences where many different angles/approaches are covered.

I love the diversity and scope of panels, and I always find myself wishing I could attend multiple sessions at once.

I always take away something from sessions I attend, so I value that professional development time, but most of all I just like being among my colleagues, interacting with fellow professionals in my discipline and seeing friends.

I really liked the digital pedagogy posters this year. The quality was high and the placement ideal. I visited multiple times when I had 15-20 minutes before the next session.

Networking with people I don’t see elsewhere, seeing the evolution of scholars’ research as I attend several of their presentations in succeeding years

I come mostly for new ideas and for things I can use in my classrooms. I’m most interested in teaching strategies and in innovations in teaching.

I enjoy being able to see and hear recognized figures in the field. I also feel strongly that graduate students and younger professors are well represented; I almost always stumble upon a really interesting presentation from someone in their 20s or early 30s.

I love the workshops — they are such an enriching experience. I always attend one. And I love the SIGs. If I can manage my time for the conference, I attend at least one meeting. Sessions, sessions, sessions, generally. This year, I was otherwise occupied with other meetings and lived within driving distance, so I missed quite a few sessions. But I also really enjoy networking and seeing old friends from grad school and former places of employment.

The featured sessions, the exhibit space, the SIGs, and the large open spaces to meet people, including new people. I also have to say, the open and warm environment, which is hard to quantify but very important.

The chance to meet with so many different people in our field, to renew contacts and make new ones. I always make sure to go to panels as well as social events to make/renew connections.

Everything – I love that people come from far and near to talk about what they’re doing.

   

I like to hear from people in the profession who have done/are doing good work. I value this more than “outside” speakers. I value time between sessions to talk to people.

I care about having face time with the scholars, practitioners, and instructors at our nation’s colleges and universities. I also care about building solidarity with various groups through the committees and caucuses.

Lively, practical, comfortable sessions that recharge my enthusiasm and offer ideas I can ponder or implement…

reconnecting with colleagues, hearing new ideas/research, making my own work available for peer review/discussion

Sessions that are practical and relevant to my teaching responsibilities.
 

Just seeing people who are passionate about the same things I am. 
  

Seeing people I care about and meeting new people to care about. That’s the advantage of it being a large convention. Also, I love rummaging through the program for topics of particular interest to me in a given year–finding people interested in similar concerns is wonderful.

SIG meetings, workshops, searchable online program, the huge size of it which provides a good variety, and the caliber of the presentations, which is very high.

I love that 4C’s has cutting edge scholarship in an atmosphere that is welcoming and collegial – not snarky and cutting. It’s about learning and mentoring for the most part and I cherish that.

CCCC is the most resourceful as well as inspiring conference I attend each year.  
  

Sessions that thoughtfully combine theory and practice to explore issues that directly benefit our students.

Postconvention workshops at CCCC 2017 take place from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and are open to all CCCC registrants.

 

SW.01 “A Bridge across Our Fears:” Teaching Aspiring Teachers and Tutors through Story

As educators tasked with preparing aspiring teachers and tutors for working effectively—and justly—with student writers, we understand the power of stories to shape how teachers and tutors think about who students are, what they need, and why they make the choices they do as they compose. In this half-day workshop, we will lead participants in an exploration of the role progressive and alternative young adult literature might play in teacher/tutor education and will help participants create exercises and assignments designed to help aspiring teachers and tutors develop nuanced and compassionate storytelling practices about and for their students.

SW.02 Hey Teacher, Lead Them Kids in Song: A Workshop on Music and Performance for Compositionists

In its fourth consecutive year at the CCCC Convention, this half-day workshop infuses music and performance powerfully into composition pedagogy and professional development to enhance writing instruction and build community connections. This workshop introduces and explores a variety of performative exercises and embodied rhetorics derived from participants’ own interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and musical intelligences, culminating in a reflective discussion and planning of performative strategies.

SW.03 Cultivating Strategic Action in Teaching against Plagiarism: Using Plagiarism as an Educational Opportunity

Too often, teachers seek to address plagiarism through policing tactics. However, plagiarism can be a learning and writing strategy, a feature of the transition from outsider to insider in the development of a writer. This interactive workshop is intended to help writing instructors develop a repertoire of practical teaching strategies to help students learn how to engage in conversation with previous texts effectively and appropriately.

SW.04 Bridging Expectations: A Workshop on the Alignment of High School English and First-Year Composition

Sponsored by the Oregon Writing and English Advisory Committee

This collegial workshop will center on the intersection, as well as the divergences, of the Common Core State Standards with the OWEAC outcomes. We will refine our understanding of terminology and explore productive curricular design for our revised writing outcomes, which have an increased focus on students’ facility with rhetorical concepts and vocabulary, as well as our expectation that students will  develop metacognitive awareness.

SW.05 Writing Studio Pedagogy: Cultivating Student Voice and Capacity for Change

Writing Studio describes an alternative approach to teaching, supporting, and conducting inquiry into writing alongside student writers in a variety of higher education sites. This year’s half-day workshop focuses on Writing Studio curriculum and pedagogy. Workshop facilitators will provide insight into how to design studio activities for different student populations or courses and will share a wealth of curricular approaches for scaffolding student growth and transfer of learning.

SW.06 Writing and Publishing Op-Eds: Cultivating Public Voices

This interactive workshop is part of what Paula Mathieu calls a “public turn” in composition studies, particularly how teaching writing connects with our lives outside the classroom. Writing op-eds is one way that faculty, students, and other writers can advocate for social change. With a goal of cultivating voices of diversity in mainstream print, online, and mobile newspapers, workshop participants will learn how to write op-eds, publish them, and integrate op-ed writing into writing courses.