by P.D. Lesko

The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) sprang forth from the National Congress of Adjunct, Part-time, Graduate Teaching Assistants and Non-Tenure Track Faculty. The National Congress met in Washington, D.C. in 1996. That same year, graduate student members of the Modern Language Association held a caucus and a panel discussion titled, “Making the MLA More Proactive” in part-time faculty issues. In 1998, the National Congress held its second meeting at CUNY, in New York, and renamed the group “The Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor.” It was at that meeting the first real leadership was elected. The next year, in Boston, COCAL members from area colleges met and, for a time, COCAL was based in that city.

Then, in 2001, COCAL moved west, and leaders of the California Part-Time Faculty Association, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, hosted COCAL IV, in San Jose. COCAL V saw the group cross the border and into Canada. The meeting, at Concordia University, in Montreal, was the first held outside of the United States. In 2002, COCAL-California was founded. By the time of COCAL VII, in Vancouver, British Columbia, presenters included representatives of the major education unions in the United States and Canada: AFT, NEA, and AAUP and CAUT. Representatives from four universities in Mexico attended, as well.

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