Dear OURMedia colleagues,

Management at the University of San Francisco has banned the President of the part time (adjunct) faculty Union from presenting at or attending the 2019 OURMedia 12 conference in Brussels.  The President, an adjunct faculty member in the USF Media Studies department, was paying travel and conference fees with his own funds, without university support, representing the part time faculty union. 

I’m that adjunct: John Higgins, a long time OURMedia member and President of the USF Part Time Faculty Association, (PTFA) the trade union representing part time faculty at USF.  The Union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice against USF Management with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board for this and other violations of U.S. Labor Laws and the Union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), including retaliation for Union activity.  (available at: the USFPTFA.org website: "NLRB")

I/Higgins was scheduled at OURMedia12 to discuss “Checking Your Privilege: Challenging Tenured Faculty’s Hegemony Over the Majority Part-Timers in the Campus ‘Gig’ Economy” (available at MediaProf.org "OM2019" ).

In ordering Higgins to withdraw from the conference, USF Management stated:

"We find your unapproved plan to present on this topic at a conference [MANAGEMENT GAG RULE ON THE REASON FOR THE BAN] . . . to be disruptive of the University and lacking in collegiality as defined in CBA 10.10.1.”

‘…you must send an email to the Brussels conference in writing that you will not be in attendance and presenting at the conference. In doing so, you must not refer to [MANAGEMENT GAG RULE ON THE REASON FOR THE BAN]. . .   you must also forward to us by email, your email notification to the conference. You must not attend the conference, whether in person or remotely.”

“…you must timely and fully comply with each of these instructions, without exception or condition. If you do not, you will in violation of your functions and responsibilities as a part-time faculty member and we will promptly consider what serious discipline should follow.”

 (The legal document the Union has filed with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board is public and provides USF Management's rationale for imposing the ban on participation  [available at: the USFPTFA.org website: "NLRB"])

The presentation, “Checking Your Privilege,” includes a discussion and analysis of actions by tenured and full time faculty in USF Media Studies to silence the oppositional voices of marginalized part time faculty Union representatives in the department.

While the oppression of part time faculty and other contingent faculty by tenured and full time faculty is all too commonplace at institutions around the world, the actions seem particularly problematic given the ostensibly critical perspective of the USF Media Studies department.

Most egregious is the refusal by the chair and full time faculty to even discuss with department Union reps Media Studies’ violations of the part time faculty Union’s contract, and department actions to strip adjuncts of the right to attend department meetings. A Resolution for USF Media Studies to Reinstate Participation Rights of Part Time Faculty was passed by the PTFA and shared on the OURMedia listserv in July.  (available: USFPTFA.org "Resolution").  The Resolution did not achieve the desired effect: reinstating the rights of part time faculty in the department of Media Studies or even opening a discussion between the Union and full time faculty. 

USF full time faculty regularly align with USF Management against the interests of contingent faculty.  Management has refused to exercise managerial oversight and reinstate the right of part time faculty to attend all department meetings in Media Studies.

Now USF Management has banned the PTFA President from presenting the Union’s perspective on the repression of the part time faculty majority by the full time minority, framed within critical frameworks of hegemony, resistance, and discourse in “Checking Your Privilege” (available at MediaProf.org "OM2019" ).

The USF Part Time Faculty Association asks for your support:

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION  telling Management at the University of San Francisco to

• STOP CENSORING part time faculty; 
• STOP DISCRIMINATING against part time faculty, and
• STOP RETALIATION for Union activity at the department, college, and university levels.

and/or Write a Letter:
        Send a message directly to USF Provost Donald Heller: [log in to unmask]
        with a copy to [log in to unmask]

Print out this flyer re: the petition and distribute it at the OURMedia12 conference.

Thank you for your support - and for circulating this message. 

Best wishes for a successful OURMedia conference,
John Higgins
President, USF PTFA, AFT Local 6590
[log in to unmask]

"Academics may cast themselves as hardened opponents of dominant norms and constituted power, but their rituals of entitlement and fiendish loyalty to established networks of caste and privilege undermine that critical pose."