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UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

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Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#71

Post by linguae »

newyankee wrote: post #33
cute_boi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to think it is easy to have roommates. My roommates were horrible, they wouldn't clean anything, blast music and always a privacy risks.

It is also that US is mostly filled with either very large single family homes or apartments in areas where rents are generally always high. A focus on efficient, individual space that is like 400 sq ft. dense studios but which actually translates into lower rent (e.g. 2500$ in the example to somewhere 1000-1500$ is needed). A lot of reforms and time needed for this.

This is one of the things I miss about Tokyo: there are plenty of small apartments there at relatively affordable prices. I personally would rather have a 400 sq ft unit to myself than to live in a shared house or apartment.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#72

Post by nordsieck »

elashri wrote: post #66
robertlagrant wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current system is not an extreme. Only concentrating power into the people who will pick what is good for society is extreme.

The extreme here is underpaying the professors and researchers so much in comparison with others (Like University and labs administrators)

> The extreme here is underpaying the professors and researchers so much

The problem is not that those people are underpaid.

The problem is the morass of regulation that prevents people building enough housing where they want to live, which keeps the cost of housing high.

And look - I get it - most of that regulation is there for a reason: it's popular. People like it. People like having rent control, or limited increases in property taxes. People in single family houses like not having apartment buildings go up next door to them. People like seeing green space on office campuses. People like mandatory parking requirements for homes and businesses.

But ultimately, a high cost of living is deeply corrosive to society, and all the little perks that come from these regulations just aren't worth it.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#73

Post by rconti »

SoftTalker wrote: post #50
mistersquid wrote: post #23

McKeown should be paid more, without question, but he is a lecturer, not a faculty member. His title and appointment is not as a "Professor". [0] This is due to the hierarchical ranking system of academic institutions. McKeown's qualifications may be the same as his more highly ranked colleagues, but the tiered system which rewards research does not pay as much for lecturers whose primary assignment is to teach. [0]…

Yes, lecturer is a low level academic position, using the word "professor" to describe him is inaccurate, even though he has a Ph.D. If he is teaching one class, it likely isn't even a full-time position. Academics are also typically paid a 10-month salary (the "academic year" he mentions), if they teach summer classes that is separate "summer pay." At research universities, part of a professor's salary is also funde…

It’s in the article. 6 classes a year, so presumably a 3/3.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#74

Post by switch007 »

willcipriano wrote: post #16
switch007 wrote: post #6

(Brit here). I'm not saying it's a huge salary at all but $70k is around $4500/mo after tax. If his rent was $2500, that leaves $2000 for everything else, which doesn't seem to equal homeless? Paycheck to paycheck probably I guess. What am I missing?

> I’m only being paid $70,000 for this academic year hmm... > ac·a·dem·ic year > the period of the year during which students attend an educational institution, usually from September to June. That's around 100k annualized. Something is rotten in Denmark.

I think that's over-interpreting his words

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#75

Post by wolfram74 »

avg_dev wrote: post #8
delichon wrote: post #7

This is a physicist who could likely make much more in the private sector. That's a compromise I've had to make too. I spend my weekdays doing work that I have little interest in and has less chance of improving the human condition, but it let me buy a house and pay the taxes and fees. If I instead choose to do what I'm interested in I'd be lucky to afford renting a room in someone else's house. I admire the guy for…

Of course you are correct, nobody is ever promised anything like the ability to fulfill their dreams or to live a decent quality of life. But maybe the universities could pay them a living wage for teaching six classes a week.

You've done a bit of a bait and switch, "fulfill their dreams" and "decent quality of life" are two very different standards. One, sure, we're in a society and sometimes that calls for sacrifice, the other, if we can't promise a decent life we shouldn't be surprised when people break the contract and act in ways that hurt the common good.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#76

Post by lolinder »

wesselbindt wrote: post #35
delichon wrote: post #7

This is a physicist who could likely make much more in the private sector. That's a compromise I've had to make too. I spend my weekdays doing work that I have little interest in and has less chance of improving the human condition, but it let me buy a house and pay the taxes and fees. If I instead choose to do what I'm interested in I'd be lucky to afford renting a room in someone else's house. I admire the guy for…

> But I'm not owed a decent salary in return for following my own dreams rather than my employer's dreams. Nobody is. Ok, but he is owed a decent salary for performing an important job. Without guys like this, we don't have a next generation of physicists (most of whom will move into the private sector).

> Without guys like this, we don't have a next generation of physicists (most of whom will move into the private sector).

There are plenty of people who would be totally happy to step into this professor's shoes at his current rate of pay just to have a position in academia. We have too many PhDs—there are more people who want a position in academia than academia can support.

We're not faced with the prospect of not being able to train a next generation of physicists, but there's a real possibility that the next generation doesn't view academia as the ideal place to be—the physics equivalent of Broadway. If that happens, fewer people will put up with low-valued positions and a dangled tenure carrot, and the college job market will adapt.

In the meantime we're not going to solve the problem of academic jobs being overvalued by the workforce by artificially inflating pay for the lucky few who landed an academic job at all.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#77

Post by SoftTalker »

rconti wrote: post #73
SoftTalker wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, lecturer is a low level academic position, using the word "professor" to describe him is inaccurate, even though he has a Ph.D. If he is teaching one class, it likely isn't even a full-time position. Academics are also typically paid a 10-month salary (the "academic year" he mentions), if they teach summer classes that is separate "summer pay." At research universities, part of a professor's salary is also funde…

It’s in the article. 6 classes a year, so presumably a 3/3.

Thanks, I did miss that.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#78

Post by oysterville »

delichon wrote: post #7

This is a physicist who could likely make much more in the private sector. That's a compromise I've had to make too. I spend my weekdays doing work that I have little interest in and has less chance of improving the human condition, but it let me buy a house and pay the taxes and fees. If I instead choose to do what I'm interested in I'd be lucky to afford renting a room in someone else's house. I admire the guy for…

I'm of the mind that if we had the best in the field educating the next generations and compensated them well that we would end up with better qualified graduates. It seems like this would be the result at all levels of education, really.

In America we are doing the opposite, and then wondering why the results are sub optimal.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#79

Post by salawat »

delichon wrote: post #7

This is a physicist who could likely make much more in the private sector. That's a compromise I've had to make too. I spend my weekdays doing work that I have little interest in and has less chance of improving the human condition, but it let me buy a house and pay the taxes and fees. If I instead choose to do what I'm interested in I'd be lucky to afford renting a room in someone else's house. I admire the guy for…

>But I'm not owed a decent salary in return for following my own dreams rather than my employer's dreams. Nobody is.

Why should that employer's dreams take primacy over anyone elses?

The answer: there isn't a reason why. All semblance of economic activity is based on a fiction. That fiction has been guided to structurally elevate a subset of people's wishes and motivations over everyone else's, including yours. And you're totally okay with that state of affairs. Useful idiot much?

Can at least applaud the guy for sticking to his principles. Sometimes society needs a good nut kick to realize it's destroying itself. That it collectively takes so many ruined lives to do so is the true tragedy of our times.

Re: UCLA professor says he's homeless due to low pay

#80

Post by FfejL »

“Technically, I am homeless. I do not have a place of my own. I’m not on any lease,” he says.

That is not 'technically' homeless, or any other kind of homeless. If it was, millions of adults who move back home with their parents would be 'homeless.' Millions of spouses who aren't on the lease or deed would be 'homeless.' Millions of roommates, too -- which is, in fact, what this guy actually is.

I sympathize that the guy is in a tough spot, $70k a year is not a lot to live on in LA. But this kind of self-victimization is not helpful, Professor.

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