Welcome to COCAL XIII International Conference
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, from non-credit adult ed to community colleges to liberal arts colleges, to 4 year universities, with and without grad schools, from public to private non-profit and for-profit institutions, from all disciplines taught in higher ed, from all unions that represent us on campuses and from the those who have not unionized as yet. We gather because of what we have in common.
COCAL conferences are great fun! Ironically, coming together to talk about a massive problem that oppresses us all very directly 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.
COCAL XIII will be taking place in San José, California, United States, August 3-5, 2018 at the San José Hilton Hotel, 300 Almaden Boulevard, San Jose, CA 95110. The California Faculty Association (CFA) which represents the 28,000 tenure-line, Lecturer, Librarian, Counselor, and Coaching faculty in the 23-campus California State University, will be the primary host. COCAL has successfully hosted conferences in Boston, San José, Chicago, San Diego, Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Mexico City, New York, and Edmonton Alberta. We are excited to once again add San José, the heart of Silicon Valley, to this list.
Please consider attending COCAL XIII and helping us achieve our conference goal of Empowering Precarious Academic Workers: Hope Through Organizing. Plenaries will include: Where We Are Today, Solutions for Ending Precarity, as well as hands-on workshops for marshaling our power to move forward to improve our job security and working conditions. Please visit: COCAL 2018 for full conference details.
