When this administration locked us out, we learned that they believed they could run a university without faculty. We won the lockout battle and showed them it wasn’t true. But the war continued and continues. As management shrinks the campus, cutting courses and credits without consultation with us, we see them attempting to run a… Continue reading LIUFF candidate statement
Category: Lockout
No platform campaign
I am pasting below an email exchange with Ann Larson from earlier today. I replied to Ann, and included my union colleagues and those who have invited me to speak on these experiences. I am aware she will be waging a public campaign on social media against me and my work. I have her blocked… Continue reading No platform campaign
Libraries in the Context of Capitalism talk
I was so pleased to get to attend METRO’s conference on Libraries in the Context of Capitalism. Highlights for me were Roxanne Shirazi‘s investigation into “value” and what exactly librarians are reproducing when we reproduce the academy through our work. Dan Greene‘s talk on librarians and patrons at the Washington D.C. public library was fascinating… Continue reading Libraries in the Context of Capitalism talk
What I said in the membership meeting today
I want to begin by saying thank you to the union bargaining team for their steadfast work on behalf of the membership in an extraordinarily difficult environment. I hold Kim Cline and the board of trustees solely responsible for the production of the contract we are facing today, one that attacks the most vulnerable members… Continue reading What I said in the membership meeting today
Voting yes
My life has been about union work since we were locked out at the start of the academic year. I am not on the bargaining team and I am not the president, but I am the secretary, and I am an academic worker at LIU Brooklyn, and the future of the university and the union… Continue reading Voting yes
More things I want to remember about today
The exhaustion, my goodness. Everything hurts and I was always tired. But I want to remember The wariness as I come into contact again with the people who weren’t locked out. Their wariness with me. Their experiences were different. Some of them are angry at me, at the union, at all this brouhaha. Mom calling… Continue reading More things I want to remember about today
Things I want to remember about today, part II
Today my brain is not on fire but it is sunk about halfway into mud. What kind of long haul are we in for? I was able to synthesize a cover letter for a job application so that I can truthfully respond to the questions on my unemployment claim next week. But I don’t want… Continue reading Things I want to remember about today, part II
This is a job for a library instruction coordinator
When LIU Brooklyn locked out its faculty, they sent us out onto the sidewalk with all of the skills we use every day to make teaching and learning great in the heart of the Blackbird Nation. As we use these skills to organize effectively against them, it is clear that they have made a critical… Continue reading This is a job for a library instruction coordinator
Things I want to remember from today
My brain has fallen out of my skull out onto the sidewalk, so there’s no synthesis happening anywhere around here right now. I can say with all honesty that I am spending pretty much all of my waking hours organizing to get our jobs back. But I don’t want to forget: Talking to Klaudia on the… Continue reading Things I want to remember from today
Lockout Self Care
I just got back from my four mile run, the first four miles in a 38 mile week. We’re just nine weeks out from the New York City Marathon. I have been training for fifteen weeks so far. My dad drove out from Boise to watch me run this race in 2015. Six weeks later, he… Continue reading Lockout Self Care