From Joseph Ramsey, University of Massachusetts Boston
The Contingency Task Force is the place in HELU that draws people for whom the issue of contingency is central, where they can report, discuss, debate, and strategize. Of all the activist formations in HELU, the CTF may be the least formal, although it is also productive and efficient. A subcommittee of HELU’s Outreach Committee, the CTF works to think through the question of contingency as the overarching condition of US higher ed, a condition affecting ALL of us, though impacting some more immediately and acutely than others. We work to raise consciousness of the way contingency is eroding our collective working conditions – and to build alliances – while also centering the voices, needs, and struggles of those most affected by the present system. The CTF welcomes people who are not represented by a union or who belong to unions that have not yet joined HELU. This makes for lively discussions of history, union democracy, comparisons between institutions and across state lines, personal experiences and transformative ideas, allowing the CTF to serve a kind of outreach and organizing function while planning ways to highlight hot issues as they come up.
In addition to the 2-part discussion of the new labor history book from U of Illinois press, Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education, the CTF will host a public zoom event about the struggle against contingency and cutbacks at community colleges – coast to coast! – to take place in March. Contact jgramsey@gmail.com for more details.