David Wilder 1955-2017
David's nephew, Nathan Wilder, started a Go Fund Me page to raise money for funeral costs since David's adjunct positions did not include benefits. The page raised much more than was needed and there is now a scholarship being set up in David's name. Funds are still being collected for the scholarship. Donate here.
Education should enrich, not impoverish. Education can only remain the great equalizer if committing to being professors doesn't trap us in poverty, if our students don't go into poverty taking out loans for an education, and if others in poverty have access to degrees instead of prison sentences and tragically premature deaths.
Maria Maisto of the New Faculty Majority, a friend and colleague of David's, pays tribute to his tireless activism with the Ohio Part-Time Faculty Association and so much more in a beautiful piece written shortly after his death.
David's version of the "Scarlet A," became the most ubiquitous symbol of the adjunct equity movement since he designed the "Campus Equity Now" button for the CEW 2013 campaign. The rest of us on the steering committee for this year's CEW have chosen to use his "Scarlet A" in our masthead in honor of our friend.
David's horrible murder is a reminder of how important it is to create an interconnected movement in which we fight for equitable working conditions in higher education, but also stand for racial and economic justice in all areas of society.
We dedicate the 2017 CEW mAsk4CampusEquity Arts campaign to David Wilder, a leader in the fight for adjunct and contingent faculty equity, a talented and prolific artist, and key member of this campaign’s planning committee. David’s tragic and untimely death on March 25, 2017, was a tremendous loss to his friends, family, and colleagues across the country, and to the many students who had the privilege of learning from him. Although it is with deep sorrow that we go forward without him, his passionate commitment to social justice and his belief in the transformative power of art are infused into the fiber of our work. His strong and selfless heart is very much the heart of this campaign.