The following is a roundup of news relating to contingent academic workers, courtesy of activist Joe Berry. If you have suggestions for to include in the next roundup, e-mail him at joeberry@igc.org. You can also e-mail him to get on his list to receive the updates by e-mail–he includes more than I have here, with some attached Word docs and pdfs.

Here’s what has been happening lately, in Joe’s words:

• Inside Higher Ed:  Cal State U system starts an integrated online hub with the for-profit Pearson.
• Forbes magazine responds to “How the American University Was Killed in Five Easy Steps” by Debra Leigh Scott (of the Homeless Adjunct blog and movie).
• New report on contingent faculty from Campaign for the Future of Higher Education. Coauthored by our colleagues Maria Maisto, the late Steve Street and Esther Merves. See also articles about the new report from Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• A very good op-ed from a Missouri paper on adjunct unemployment insurance rights.
• Things heat up at the Chicago City Colleges.
• A Chronicle of Higher Education blogger (a community college dean) asks for free work from adjuncts.
• Columbia College Chicago action against union president delayed, thanks to protests. And the NLRB amends its complaint against Columbia College to include retaliation claims.
• Higher ed students and academics strike in Sri Lanka, partially over the issue of privatization.
• The rise and demise of the neoliberal university, an article from Logos.
• A blogger’s response to the Al Jazeera article on adjuncts.
• A report on poverty and the rise of contingent work, from the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
• In the Chronicle of Higher Education: questions about for-profits and how they manage their student default rates.
• On AlterNet: Temp Worker Nation.