“I feel committed to being the person who’s there to help millennials, the next generation, go on to become critical thinkers,”
Said the person unable to use critical thinking to avoid becoming a prostitute.
Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
111–120 of 449 posts
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tenure's not the problem, the problem is that in their academic career, a PHD will produce X new PHDs. Where X is substantially greater than 1. Until this is fixed, it doesn't matter if academic jobs are for life, or are contracts that get renewed (or not) every 8 hours. This pyramid scheme was fine while demand for PHDs was increasing (By industry, and growth of academia), but now its really not (Industry doesn't wa…
Interesting to note grad students. My university found they could increase income by taking in more international students, but when those same students wanted paid GTA jobs, they had to find a way to pay for it. So they did what all universities do: They made the undergraduates pay for it, by requiring those students take paid "labs" for classes that never before had labs, for no course credit.
Another way is to have the grad students teach, and grade all the courses, so that you don't have to hire any faculty. (Which means no academic jobs for them once they finish grad school.)
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#113For 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…
> In parts of Europe there the expression: "That's Texas." It roughly means "That's crazy." but with a 'Murica flavor to it.
According to this article [1] in Washington Post, the first occurrence of Texas as "crazy" in Norwegian dates to 1957. Makes me wonder if it's used this way in other European countries too, and whether or not the etymology is independent.
It's worth noting that unlike the term "Amerikanske tilstander" ("American conditions") in politics (as shorthand for implying your opponent is pushing for whichever stereotypically bad thing about American politics fits best in the specific policy area), the use of "Texas" refers to wild west movies, and so is about 19th century lawlessness, not modern Texas (though there certainly is still a stereotype of Texas as being at least, well, somewhat Texas)
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/2...
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#114The explosion of administrative staff is crazy universities keep cutting teaching positions and increasing admin.
I'm not sure why you're downvoted. This is a real problem that is palpable for anyone that has worked in higher ed since the 1980s as most universities have moved to act more and more like for-profit entities. The reasons for this move are complex, and one result is a rise in well-paid administrators and low-paid adjuncts with a decline in tenured faculty. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/mar/30/academic-b.…
> most universities have moved to act more and more like for-profit entities.
I think this reflects a larger trend.
Most institutions are taking on the rituals of the dominant organizing principle in society: the corporation.
I believe this is why church groups are having "annual general meetings" and that formerly not for profit institutions are mimicking the organizational structure of corporations: meetings, hierarchical teams, layers of administrators etc...
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#115Obviously the answer is to tear down colleges and erect large statues of President Trump. Made of copper.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure why you're downvoted. This is a real problem that is palpable for anyone that has worked in higher ed since the 1980s as most universities have moved to act more and more like for-profit entities. The reasons for this move are complex, and one result is a rise in well-paid administrators and low-paid adjuncts with a decline in tenured faculty. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/mar/30/academic-b.…
> most universities have moved to act more and more like for-profit entities. At my alum mater, the state cut support to the state universities to practically nothing. Voters saw how much money the big universities were making on college football. They consistently voted to cut the money to the university system. Only problem? Most state supported universities did not have a football program. My university: * turned…
This sounds like something people could perceive about Clemson so I'll use them as an example.
In SC funding went down while tuition went up and lottery scholarships went up. The university budget is around $800 million / year and the athletic department across all sports is about $80 million / year. Of that budget, it's entirely self sustained but it's also almost entirely spent. It's performance has no impact on the rest of the university except for alumni engagement/excitement. Even if it were making a $20 million dollar profit it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the total university budget.
At the same time, applications are through the roof and there's not enough room to take everybody (but they are investing in new buildings to increase capacity). The ratio of in state to out of state has always remained close to 60/30 though.
Admin costs have increased but the prestige factor has gone up significantly as well. Clemson went from being the #70 something PUBLIC university to a top 20 in the span of 2 decades.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#117> an adjunct professor of Romance languages
> precarious academic jobs
> a teacher of English composition
> teaches history
> teaching English composition and critical thinking
> began teaching English composition
> published a poem
> with one novel under her belt, is working on a second
I see a pattern. I think those jobs are not much in demand.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#118Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#119This is the result of entirely understandable forces, with no solution in sight. High school students (and their parents) select Universities based on status first (or second), and education quality nearly last. Worse, this is entirely sensible. There is an implicit understanding better ranked Universities are a prerequisite for higher-status jobs, moving up in the economy. Employers making the decision to favour hig…
It wasn't always this way, though. Tuition rates outpacing inflation has only been over the last few decades.
You're right that each actor is making (more or less) rational decisions, but federal subsidies for student loans are what throws a wrench into the mix. Previously, the decisions were all the same, but consumers had much more limited capital and were far more price sensitive.
Now they can get bigger loans much more easily, and sure enough, they're willing to pay higher prices. The less the consumer knows / cares about the price of something, the faster that price will increase. See also: health care in the US.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#120Six courses, $40,000 in pay; about $7,000 per course.
If we make a few rough assumptions based on the $1500 rent figure, and 3 credits average, the college is probably charging around $1,000 per credit, with a 30-40 person attendance per class.
So for one of those courses, the college is pulling in an estimated $90,000, and paying $7,000.
Huh.