About COCAL
COCAL is a coalition of higher education activists from the North American continent. We are united in working to improve working conditions at colleges and universities for contingent faculty, including adjunct, part-time, and non-tenure track instructors, and graduate teaching assistants.
COCAL holds biennial conferences with presentations on organizing faculty, gaining equitable working conditions, legislative solutions, and the effects of globalization on higher education.
COCAL draws contingent educators from all geographic regions of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., and also from all levels of higher education--adult education, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, four-year universities with and without grad schools, public and private non-profit and for-profit institutions--from all disciplines taught in higher education, from all unions that represent us on campuses, and from the those who have not yet unionized. We gather because of what we have in common.
COCAL conferences are great fun! Ironically, coming together to talk about a massive problem that directly oppresses us all results in an atmosphere full of hope, solidarity, personal affection, and tremendous learning. People who come always go home more committed to the struggle and better equipped to engage in it and organize others. COCAListas make valuable relationships with organizers across several countries, as well as lifelong friendships. COCAL is a very special conference. You will be inspired and return home with a heart full of hope and love.
COCAL holds biennial conferences with presentations on organizing faculty, gaining equitable working conditions, legislative solutions, and the effects of globalization on higher education.
COCAL draws contingent educators from all geographic regions of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., and also from all levels of higher education--adult education, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, four-year universities with and without grad schools, public and private non-profit and for-profit institutions--from all disciplines taught in higher education, from all unions that represent us on campuses, and from the those who have not yet unionized. We gather because of what we have in common.
COCAL conferences are great fun! Ironically, coming together to talk about a massive problem that directly oppresses us all results in an atmosphere full of hope, solidarity, personal affection, and tremendous learning. People who come always go home more committed to the struggle and better equipped to engage in it and organize others. COCAListas make valuable relationships with organizers across several countries, as well as lifelong friendships. COCAL is a very special conference. You will be inspired and return home with a heart full of hope and love.
COCAL International Advisory Committee
History of COCAL
,In December 1996, the first National Congress of Adjunct, Part-time, Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Non-Tenure Track Faculty Conference was held in Washington, D.C. This conference ran concurrent with the Modern Language Association (MLA) conference in D.C. that year, at which the Graduate Student Caucus held a panel (moderated by Eric Marshall) on "Making the MLA More Proactive" in part-time faculty issues. Both the MLA panel and the National Congress conference were well-attended and very successful, attracting people from all over the country.
Vinny Tirelli revived his ADJ-L listserve, which continued the discussions that developed during the Washington conference. In April 1998, Vinny Tirelli, Eric Marshall, and others organized the 2nd Annual National Congress conference at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The e-journal, Workplace, was officially launched at the opening session. Cary Nelson & Stanley Aronowitz were keynote speakers.
The group renamed itself "The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL)," and a steering committee was formed. It was decided that the 3rd Annual conference would be held the following year in Boston in April 1999. This conference was hosted by activists from the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) Part-time Faculty Committee of the Faculty-Staff Union (FSU), an affiliate of the National Education Association.
Building on earlier success from 1986, and with state budget surpluses emerging out of the recession of the early seventies, the Part-time Faculty Committee spurred FSU to vigorous support of part-time faculty issues. They achieved major gains in June 1998, including the reclassification of PT faculty teaching two sections as salaried half-time employees with full medical, dental, and retirement benefits and a floor of $4000.00/course. These successes inspired other faculty in the Boston area, where there are 58 separate institutions of higher education. However, since most of these colleges had no union, part-time faculty from other colleges began to join with those at UMB, making the April 1999 conference a base for the Boston Project. Led by Gary Zabel and other part-time faculty activists, the Boston Project worked closely with established organizations such as the American Association of University Professors, local affiliates of the National Education Association, the United Auto Workers Union, and a variety of contingent labor support groups.
Faculty leaders of the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), linking with their east coast colleagues through internet listservs and email, met for their Annual Plenary in June 2000 and decided that CPFA successes from building a statewide coalition would be furthered by expanded outreach. The meeting resolved to join the North American Alliance for Fair Employment (NAAFFE), and to host COCAL IV, the first West Coast National Conference on Contingent Academic Labor, in January 2001.
Vinny Tirelli revived his ADJ-L listserve, which continued the discussions that developed during the Washington conference. In April 1998, Vinny Tirelli, Eric Marshall, and others organized the 2nd Annual National Congress conference at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The e-journal, Workplace, was officially launched at the opening session. Cary Nelson & Stanley Aronowitz were keynote speakers.
The group renamed itself "The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL)," and a steering committee was formed. It was decided that the 3rd Annual conference would be held the following year in Boston in April 1999. This conference was hosted by activists from the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) Part-time Faculty Committee of the Faculty-Staff Union (FSU), an affiliate of the National Education Association.
Building on earlier success from 1986, and with state budget surpluses emerging out of the recession of the early seventies, the Part-time Faculty Committee spurred FSU to vigorous support of part-time faculty issues. They achieved major gains in June 1998, including the reclassification of PT faculty teaching two sections as salaried half-time employees with full medical, dental, and retirement benefits and a floor of $4000.00/course. These successes inspired other faculty in the Boston area, where there are 58 separate institutions of higher education. However, since most of these colleges had no union, part-time faculty from other colleges began to join with those at UMB, making the April 1999 conference a base for the Boston Project. Led by Gary Zabel and other part-time faculty activists, the Boston Project worked closely with established organizations such as the American Association of University Professors, local affiliates of the National Education Association, the United Auto Workers Union, and a variety of contingent labor support groups.
Faculty leaders of the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), linking with their east coast colleagues through internet listservs and email, met for their Annual Plenary in June 2000 and decided that CPFA successes from building a statewide coalition would be furthered by expanded outreach. The meeting resolved to join the North American Alliance for Fair Employment (NAAFFE), and to host COCAL IV, the first West Coast National Conference on Contingent Academic Labor, in January 2001.
