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Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

theguardian.com

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Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#71

Post by sambull »

pwaivers wrote: post #12

There is only one academic who turned to sex work in this article right? Unless I missed some one else the article mentioned. This is a very specific example and paints with a broad paintbrush.

I know of a a 'virgin' who tried to sell her self for academia at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in NV. She went by the moniker 'Natalie Dylan'. Specific case I know, she was a personal friend and it kind of caught us off guard at the time. She made some money but never did go through with it. Her stated cause though was for graduate studies.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginity_auction

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#72

Post by _Codemonkeyism »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #38
_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #14

With companies no longer requesting university degrees, online learning (like watching Harvard courses) becoming more popular and in some countries university being outragous expensive, the future of universities is bleak because people will stop going there. And that of acadamics teaching is even worse. The internet will cut all middleman, and teachers being the middleman between you and knowledge, or gatekeepers to…

I very strongly doubt that. The market for a piece of paper is way too strong. That's why this stuff is expensive. Everyone can do this stuff, so the surest (and most advertised) way to get a leg up in the economy is by getting a piece of paper. That effect only seems to be growing. That said, certainly do agree with you in principle.

"The market for a piece of paper is way too strong."

Penguin, PwC and EY have already dropped university degrees as a requirement.

"The move comes just months after accountancy firm Ernst & Young, one of Britain’s biggest graduate recruiters, made a similar announcement, saying in August that it would no longer consider degree or A-level results when assessing potential employees"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/18/penguin-ditche...

"It found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken."

http://www.ey.com/uk/en/newsroom/news-releases/15-08-03---ey...

Also related

"Goldman last year also made other moves to help it identify strong candidates who may not attend Ivy League schools by scrapping first round interviews on college campuses in favor of a video platform."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-hiring/goldm...

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#73

Post by GlenTheMachine »

eric_b wrote: post #43

I'm surprised to see adjunct's make so little. When I was in school the full-time professor's salaries were public (since it was a public university). They were all making over 100k/year, and this was some time ago. Many were high 100's or low 200's. Even the lecturers were pulling in 70k or more, and this was in a midwestern state with low cost of living. Why do the adjunct's put up with this? You can make more bein…

In engineering, at least, adjuncts often are teaching in their free time and working a full-time engineering job. They do it because they enjoy the teaching, or because in a few cases they appreciate the extra money. Several of my colleagues do that; my office is next to the guy who teaches advanced undergraduate and graduate level astrodynamics at the local state university. But he is working full time as a civil servant and pulling that salary, plus the adjunct pay on top of it.

You can get away with paying those adjuncts a pretty low wage. But then it drives the cost of adjuncts down across the board.

The problem really comes in when you are in a field that doesn't afford you full-time non-academic employment, such as the arts or sciences such as archaeology etc. and are teaching full time to pay the bills (or not, as the case may be).

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#75

Post by Larrikin »

paapi__gudiya wrote: post #37

What is the inherent value that lecturers offer anyways? All the material they teach in classes has been available online for the last 20 years. It makes sense (going by market needs) that they have been driven to such levels of poverty. The only value universities offer is that one can meet other like-minded and driven people at universities. If some other social structures can offer the same, i.e. a place where one…

If you sit in the back of the class on Facebook the entire lecture the classroom setting still offers the invaluable information of evaluating how well you actually understand the material at the end of the class. Even in project based classes, getting guidance and suggestions of improvements from people that know a lot more about the subject than you is always invaluable.

Obviously if you engage in class you often get immediate clarity on issues that you may have had to research for hours in a different source than your online material.

If you're not taking advantage of the lecturer, then it is on you, and obviously you won't get much more out of it than an online course with little to no feed back

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#76

Post by jmilloy »

paapi__gudiya wrote: post #37

What is the inherent value that lecturers offer anyways? All the material they teach in classes has been available online for the last 20 years. It makes sense (going by market needs) that they have been driven to such levels of poverty. The only value universities offer is that one can meet other like-minded and driven people at universities. If some other social structures can offer the same, i.e. a place where one…

To call professors "lecturers" is a straw man. Sure, I had classes, too, that I didn't attend because the material was straightforward and covered in a text book, but other classes were not like that. I got the most value from class in office hours (one-on-one with professors), and the most academic value out of university as a whole in research positions outside of class (again, working with specific professors).

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#77

Post by uaydin »

3pt14159 wrote: post #42
KirinDave wrote: post #9

For those who have university degrees, this should be a difficult read. Next time you say to yourself, "Sure, I went to college. I know that's a privilege, but I worked hard there and made it because of my hard work and nothing else!" Remember this article. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it's a phenomenon that's becoming more acute. Even if we ignore the adjuncts, the brilliant folks who taught us all what we know…

In parts of Europe there the expression: "That's Texas." It roughly means "That's crazy." but with a 'Murica flavor to it. Lately, I've been finding myself frequently thinking: "That's Texas." Let me get this straight. Take a course load of 4 double semester courses per year with 200 hours of class time total in the given year. Let's double it to 400 hours just to be safe to include exam marking and office hours. A s…

We have that saying in Turkey as well. The funny part is, I've been living in Texas in last 4-5 years and Texas is actually a great state, especially if you stick with metroplexes such as DFW or Austin.

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#78

Post by irrational »

3pt14159 wrote: post #42
KirinDave wrote: post #9

For those who have university degrees, this should be a difficult read. Next time you say to yourself, "Sure, I went to college. I know that's a privilege, but I worked hard there and made it because of my hard work and nothing else!" Remember this article. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it's a phenomenon that's becoming more acute. Even if we ignore the adjuncts, the brilliant folks who taught us all what we know…

In parts of Europe there the expression: "That's Texas." It roughly means "That's crazy." but with a 'Murica flavor to it. Lately, I've been finding myself frequently thinking: "That's Texas." Let me get this straight. Take a course load of 4 double semester courses per year with 200 hours of class time total in the given year. Let's double it to 400 hours just to be safe to include exam marking and office hours. A s…

The money goes to Football (and not the good kind of Football).

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#79

Post by wfo »

virmundi wrote: post #53
adamnemecek wrote: post #10

Bernie can't come soon enough.

For Bernie to work, we have to restructure education to be more from the 1980s and 1970s. You won't have private rooms with private baths. You won't have school creating new pool and phsycial fitness megaplexes. You will have 2-4 people per room with a common shower. I'm not saying this is wrong. I'm saying that the quality of life will have to go down. When you picture a Bernie school, you need to picture Animal Hou…

Or, better, you will have school divorced from 'lifestyle' which is completely unnecessary and wasted money. You will have students of all age groups (since it is free) and students who take classes in the evening after work and many students who save money by living at home as well as many students who find cheap residences together exactly as they do today. The school could provide dormitories if they break even but only then.

Why should the school provide housing at all? It is there to provide an education.

Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars

#80

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #6

Reminds me of the former Eastbloc countries where you will find scientists as janitors and living in terrible conditions. Not that people who are not scientists don't live in terrible conditions but you would never expect a maths or physics professor to be unemployable. Even here in NL there are niche websites that pretend to be dating sites but that actually are sites where students are hooked up with 'sugar daddy's…

[deleted]
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