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Progressive Faculty Network
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Welcome to PFNweb, an information site maintained by the Progressive Faculty Network (PFN). Here you will find information relevant to a variety of progressive issues on and off the UNC-CH campus. Please read our statement of principles, view documents issued by PFN and others, check our list of upcoming and past events, browse relevant course offerings at UNC-CH and links, and send suggestions for other documents and links to be added to the site. Join the PFN listserve to get the latest in progressive news about the campus, the community, and the world.

Statement of principles

The Progressive Faculty Network (PFN), which brings together faculty from all colleges and schools at UNC-CH, works to further the causes of economic and social justice. Using our positions as faculty, we participate in ongoing debates about issues concerning our university (for example, the increasing privatization of a public institution), our students (access, diversity, and political expression), and our community (staff salaries and working conditions). The PFN also addresses issues that extend beyond campus by articulating positions to be circulated by the press or by electronic means and by supporting work that addresses social, political, and ethical concerns. Bringing together faculty who are committed to the vision of a public university that makes education available to all citizens and remains vitally connected to their needs--whether students or not--the PFN is a clearinghouse for information, a body for collaborative work, and a collective voice. Our ultimate goal is to create a just university at which we are proud to work and a just society in which we are proud to live.

Signatories (members of PFN): Rob Anderson, Martine Antle, Frieda Behets, Trude Bennett, Susan Bickford, Judith Blau, Karen M. Booth, Kathryn Burns, Erin G. Carlston, Jill Casid, Pam Cooper, Altha Cravey , Carole Crumley, Elyse Crystall, Gena Diamant, Jim Fraser, Maria DeGuzman, Derek Goldman, Beth Grabowski, Lawrence Grossberg, Karla Henderson, Joanne Hershfield, Glenn Hinson, Michelle Hughes, Scott Kirsch, Beth D. Kivel, Sherryl Kleinman, Beth Kurtz-Costes, David Levine, Steven I. Levine, Catherine Lutz, John McGowan, Howard Machtinger , Don Madison, Victor Marshall, Megan Matchinske, Alejandro Mejías-López, Hassan Melehy, Charles Mitchell, Chris Nelson, David Newbury, George W. Noblit, Don Nonini, Patricia S. Parker, Andrew Perrin, Bob Podolsky, Julius Raper, David Richardson, Paul T. Roberge, Dwight Rogers, Patricia E. Sawin, Maria Servedio, Sarah Shields, elin O'Hara slavick, Lynda Stone, Meenu Tewari, James Thompson, Jane Thrailkill, Rashmi Varma, Gert Webelhuth, Jonathan Weiler, Steve Wing, Wendy Wolford, Cathy Zimmer, Leo Zonn

(Signatories can vote on PFN-sponsored activities and statements. Send a note to ask that your name be added or deleted.)

Ongoing priority issues

* Corporatization of the university:
Sodexo-Marriot on campus; University Licensing ("sweatshop") agreements; the UNC Capital Campaign...

* Labor Relations:
mobilizing support for housekeepers and other non-faculty employees; the status of temporary and part-time faculty; the nature of PFN's relationship with the new graduate student union...

* Access, diversity, and political expression:
academic freedom, the right of student dissent on campus, the rise in tuition and other student costs...

Internal information: PFN Bylaws, List of Media Contacts

Documents issued by PFN

Statement against the firing of Professor Elizabeth Ito (Sept 30, 2003)

Statement against plans for war in Iraq (Feb 10, 2003)

Statement against the war in Afghanistan (Nov 19, 2001)

Statement condemning acts of intolerance following events of Sept. 11, 2001 (Sep 24, 2001)

Letter of introduction to Chancellor Moeser (Oct 25, 2000)

Press release on UNC responsibility to end unfair sweatshop labor practices, (Mar 28, 2000).
(See also: Karen Booth's summary of the debate over sweatshop monitoring, Mar 22, 2000)
(See also: the official UNC Committee recommendation report.)

Statement against proposed tuition hike, sent to UNC Board of Governors (Nov 16, 1999)

Other documents

"US Foreign Policy in West & South Asia (From whose perspective is the region called the Middle East?)"
Howard Machtinger, UNC School of Education (Nov 5, 2001)

Report of the Licensing Code Labor Advisory Committee (LCLAC) at UNC on participation in the Fair Labor Association vs. the Worker's Rights Consortium (Mar 22, 2000)

UNC student enrollment by race (compiled by Chad Haines)

Past events

PFN and PROGRESS sponsored Teach-Ins

(more information)

"Enduring Freedoms: Civil and Immigrants' Rights After Sept. 11"
November 29, 2001

"Women Fighting Fundamentalisms: Before and After Sept. 11"
November 1-2, 2001

"Interfaith Responses to September 11"
October 10, 2001

"Understanding Terror: What is War? What is Peace?"
October 1, 2001

"Understanding the Attack on America: an Alternative View"
September 17, 2001

"A Dialogue for Peace and Justice"

November 10, 2001

Human Rights Week 2001

March 26-30, 2001

Courses of special interest at UNC-CH

EPID 278: "Community-Driven Epidemiology and Environmental Justice" (Steve Wing)
Web page: http://www.unc.edu/~vanwijng/

GEOG304: "Second Nature: Technoscience and New Geographies" (Scott Kirsch)
Fall 2001, Graduate Seminar in Political Geography
Course description

SOCI 24: "Sex and Gender in Society" (Sherryl Kleinman)

WMST 50: "Introduction to Women's Studies" (Karen Booth)
Web page: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2001spring/wmst/050/001

WMST 81/INTS 81: "Gender and Global Change" (Karen Booth)
Web page: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2001spring/wmst/081/001

WMST 93: "Gender and Imperialism" (Karen Booth)

Courses for the undergraduate Minor in Social and Economic Justice are listed at:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/soc/sej/

Relevant links

EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE

Check out The Journal of Academic Labor! Here you will find articles and reports from university faculty, staff, and students on organizing for employee rights, corporations on campuses, conferences and other important news. http://www.louisville.edu/journal/workplace/issue4/contents22.html

For those interested in K-12 education:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org

James Crawford's Language Policy Web Site & Emporium
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jwcrawford/

Website on sexist language:
http://www.youall.freeservers.com

POLITICS AND POLICY

The Center for Voting and Democracy: a nonprofit research organization focusing on how voting systems affect participation and representation. They offer an online library of articles on redistricting, proportional and semiproportional systems, and a calendar of pending ballot measures and legislation about these issues.
http://www.fairvote.org

SURGE: Students United for a Responsible Global Environment
http://www.unc.edu/surge

North Carolina Environmental Justice (NCEJ): website produced by the Environmental Justice Research Team at the Department of Epidemiology, UNC, in partnership with community organizations
http://bongo.epi.unc.edu/NCEnviroJustice/

The Internationalist books and magazines: a progressive, not-for-profit bookstore & community resource center
http://www.internationalistbooks.org/

SOCIAL ISSUES

To subscribe to Chapel Hill's LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) weekly calendar, and see past editions:
http://lyris.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=LOCAL-EVENTS

CAMP (Carolina Alternative Meetings of Professional and Graduate Students) website (including a list of LGBT resources):
http://www.unc.edu/student/orgs/campsite

QNC (Queer Network for Change) website:
http://www.unc.edu/~bglad

To subscribe to the faculty/staff rainbow caucus:
http://lyris.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=LBGEA

Feedback and suggestions

To suggest information or a link for this site, please include the exact text that you want to appear and the exact link address. Please do not send suggestions that must be researched or descriptive messages with the suggestion that something ought to be posted. A small committee will make decisions about content and editorial revision.

Documents posted in full at this site are issued by PFN and/or are of public record.
Please send all feedback and suggestions to this link.