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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

#101

Post by _ptgt »

empath75 wrote: post #35
qaq wrote: post #2

The explosion of administrative staff is crazy universities keep cutting teaching positions and increasing admin.

It seems like there should be a market for low overhead small schools with high paid teaching staff.

Right? I've thought about this as well. My guess is that:

1) Nearly all university students are making their decision when they're 18, so a lot of them are mostly interested in non-academic aspects of their school

2) It seems really hard to actually start a new university. Anecdotally, every university I can think of is quite old.

3) This is probably related to (2). The benefits of universities aren't really dependent on good professors. The advantage of top schools in both educational progress and student outcomes can probably mostly explained by signalling, filtering out weak students before they arrive, university culture, and networking. None of this has much to do with professors.

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

#104

Post by xythian »

pm24601 wrote: post #50
xythian wrote: post #13

Earlier 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…

You basically typed out what I would have typed, but got lazy and just said "reasons are complex."

There's something of a joke/quote in university circles about how universities went from "state funded to state supported to state located." When you get Also, you forgot the Saudi Arabian nationals whose govt fully funds their US education (though this program is becoming more restrictive in recent years with the Saudi govt selecting specific eligible degrees). I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but my personal experience is that many of these Saudi students struggled deeply, this fact was known by the administration, but the giant full-price checks were essential to keeping the lights on.

Other Fees: Yes, the rise of fees that are starting to rival tuition. Fees are a convenient way to lower the sticker shock of tuition while keeping the total cost the same. My former uni made a big promise about "freezing" tuition for years at a time, but all they ended up doing was jacking up the fees to compensate.

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

#105

Post by samfriedman »

xythian wrote: post #64
yardie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what percentage of the admin is dedicated to chasing money. While I was working as an undergrad assistant the grant writing process was insane and I rarely saw the professor overseeing research. He was walled off in his office writing grant proposals. I learned that for the budget of most research projects, 50% was administration. That is 50% wasn't for researchers, the lab, labor, or equipment. Part of the…

In my experience (former PhD student and instructor and my spouse is a full-time faculty and program director), if you're a tenured faculty member at a R1 university, then grant writing is your job. You're expected to be self-funding and the only way to do this is to grind out grants and pass the work onto graduate students and staff. And, you pay a ~50% tax on your grant award as 'overhead' to the university, so you…

I'm surprised more high-tier universities don't supply tenured PIs with dedicated grant writers, or at least easy access to them.

Many of my social circle work as grad students at a private R1 institution, and I've seen a vast difference in the experience of students with a PI who self-funds and writes grants all day - less interaction, most of the teaching and mentoring is done by postdocs - and a PI that has an alternate source of funding like clinical work - grants are still needed but less often, much more hands-on input to projects, much more direct mentoring. It seems like the top universities could definitely chip in to help ease that load on the researchers: science as a whole stands to benefit.

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

#107

Post by Upvoter33 »

mattkrause wrote: post #69
yardie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what percentage of the admin is dedicated to chasing money. While I was working as an undergrad assistant the grant writing process was insane and I rarely saw the professor overseeing research. He was walled off in his office writing grant proposals. I learned that for the budget of most research projects, 50% was administration. That is 50% wasn't for researchers, the lab, labor, or equipment. Part of the…

Some of the Ivys take around 65-70 percent, and a few places (admittedly with very specialised facilities) are over 100%--spend a dollar on research, spend another (edit: had written two) on admin.

This is wrong. 50% overhead means for every dollar in, an additional 50 cent "tax" is paid as overhead (thus, out of 1.50 total, 1.00 goes to the research, 0.50 to the overhead).

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

#108

Post by Overtonwindow »

hashberry wrote: post #103
adamnemecek wrote: post #10

Bernie can't come soon enough.

Bernie wanted to tax daytrading/Wallstreet to fund college education. I like this idea but it would probably cause the stock market to crash.

He can try, but where there's a tax, the wealthy will find a way to avoid paying it.

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

#109

Post by sgt101 »

petra wrote: post #93

One thing i didn't understand from the story: those are smart people, motivated people, with good people's skills. All the things our economy loves. Why don't they say "fuck it" and change profession, to something more decent ? it would be hard, but is it possible ? And i say this without judgement, just out of curiosity.

Because they have a vocation - to help young people to become educated.

This is a socially productive vocation that we should capitalise on as a society, to exploit it is demeaning for all of us and eventually destructive of our social fabric.

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

#110

Post by skosuri »

mattkrause wrote: post #69
yardie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what percentage of the admin is dedicated to chasing money. While I was working as an undergrad assistant the grant writing process was insane and I rarely saw the professor overseeing research. He was walled off in his office writing grant proposals. I learned that for the budget of most research projects, 50% was administration. That is 50% wasn't for researchers, the lab, labor, or equipment. Part of the…

Some of the Ivys take around 65-70 percent, and a few places (admittedly with very specialised facilities) are over 100%--spend a dollar on research, spend another (edit: had written two) on admin.

To be clear, a 60%-70% overhead rate implies that the university is taking 37-42% of the money (for each dollar spent, another 0.60-0.70 goes to university). In addition, other expenses like tuition and equipment have no overhead taken out.
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