Hiring? / Offering Services?: Education Quality Organizers Needed at WCC and Rider

HELP WANTED: PT Students to distribute notices and information, coordinate social network outreach, knock on dorm doors, staff information tables and organize advocacy and educational events around issues of Westminster Princeton location and around the issues of administration plans to undermine quality of education through efforts to undermine the AAUP contract.

SERVICES OFFERED:  Students at Westminster and Rider campuses offering services to patrons including Alumni and faculty.   Services offered include distribution notices and information, coordination of social network outreach, outreach to students in dorms and the cafeteria, staffing of information tables and organizing advocacy and educational events around issues of Westminster Princeton location and around the issues of administration plans to undermine quality of education through efforts to undermine the AAUP contract.

If you are a student interested in organizing around the issues of Westminster and / or the issues of quality of education and the AAUP contract across both campuses, please indicate in this event.  If you are an alumnus or faculty willing to contribute or as a member of AAUP – interested in pursuing AAUP funded stipends for student organizers, please also indicate as much in this event.  All should be encouraged to share this article.  

https://www.facebook.com/events/657674911082392/

I am not sure that anything will come out of this but it would be improper for me not to share and promote this idea because I believe it is something that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL in improving the ability of students and faculty and alumni to protect the future of Westminster Choir College and Rider University.

One of the biggest challenges to building student unity especially on campuses like Westminster, Princeton and Rider, Lawrenceville, where the curriculum is challenging and the costs of tuition and living are so steep, is that students while committed to a better future, have such great demands on their time keeping up with the challenges of their course work as well as trying to work parttime jobs – and if for Rider – for minimum wage pay – that they do not have the luxury of expending hours a day or week on the organizing around the many issues circling the Rider and Princeton campuses currently.

The AAUP is always willing to meet with students to discuss the situation of the university – and to work with students.  From my working with them over the years – I have learned there is a hesitancy to initiate such interaction because the AAUP does not want to come across as trying to be overly forceful in getting its views across directly to the students.  Meanwhile the administration continues to promote its perspectives – using every means – employing the fulltime resources of the vast administrative staff and working through the student SGA organizations to propagate the administration line on matters.

I believe the AAUP needs to move past the hesitancy.  Rider University – through the recklessness of administration – is almost in self destruct mode.  It might not survive another administration attempt to plunder the contract, the administration moves against Westminster and the general trends that private colleges are facing throughout the country – 100s failing in recent years.

Resources on current assault on quality of education at Rider and Westminster:
http://www.rideraaup.net/

http://riderstudentsunion.blogspot.com/2017/02/time-for-solidarity-with-aaup-no-move.html

http://riderstudentsunion.blogspot.com/2017/02/save-westminster-in-princeton-support.html

In order for there to be a significant fight against powerful structures like Rider University administration, be it around the issue of the shuttering of Westminster Choir College Princeton campus or the quality of education and AAUP contract issues, there needs to be significant resources leveraged in this fight. 

As far as the Westminster issue goes, 1000s have been collected for a legal challenge but none have been leveraged to hire organizers at the campus level.  While funds have been amassed for t-shirt printing, the t-shirt job is currently held up since the printer has been waiting almost 2 weeks for Rider to approve that the design is not a copyright violation.  (Rider had already made that approval of the design for a shorter run previously but is now delaying its approval a second time which the printer is requiring.)

But funds have not been pooled to staff organizing of student opposition to the move.  Indeed in order for Westminster to be adequately organized among students – there should probably be about 6 or more students receiving stipends for working 6 – 10 hours per week.  There is nothing wrong with organizers being compensated for doing meaningful work around struggle. 

Meanwhile, it would behoove AAUP to utilize some of its resources to seek and employ student Education Quality Organizers or Advocates.  During quiet times between administration efforts to undermine faculty and education quality (as few and far between as they are) these stipend supplemented staff can organize educational events, forums between students and faculty, promote information about greater student democracy, student issues like perhaps increased minimum wage, controlling tuition and fee hikes, access to clean and free water in dormitories and education about the role of faculty and its representative organization in protecting the integrity of the university. 

In times like now, when the administration has already fired a round of disinformation around the issues of the faculty contract, the stipends can fund activities to organize social networking and face to face sharing of information to clarify and debunk the untruths being promoted by the administration.

As far are remuneration, the stipends offered should be minimally $15 per hour.  Training should be provided and mentors (AAUP officers or staff and community and alumni organizers) should offer support, consultation and advise.

While I get that there is strong likelihood that this proposed set of actions has a possibility of not every coming to fruition, I would be bereft to have this idea and not to share it. 

Indeed I fully believe that this model of organizing is relevant not only to our own campuses here but could prove to be a going forward model for campuses across the country where faculty and students have commonalities but resources are lacking for more effective across the board student organizing and campaigning.