From Temple to Texas State, universities continue to celebrate their employees.
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
Showing posts with label Temple University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Temple University. Show all posts
Sunday, March 5, 2023
Friday, November 1, 2013
44 redux
In a post on Dan Fante's Point Doom, I mentioned being the same age as the narrator, and now it's as if my age is chasing me around the web. Recent findings?
The prison guard featured in a story about the most unequal place in America is 44. He works a night shift in Louisiana for $8.50 an hour.
The guy who learns the vast comic collection he has saved since childhood is worth about $500 is also 44, and now he has to find alternative funding to pay for his kids' college educations.
And the suspect in the Anderson Hall assault on an adjunct is 45.
So, to an extent, it's my age, even in food stamps lost, that's hitting me over the head on this first of November, and it doesn't feel like a good time to be a mid-forties male in America.
I better write fiction quickly from now on. . .
(Returning to this on February 3, 2014, and 1) from a student essay on a magazine advertisement I learned Jennifer Aniston is 44 2) newly crowned Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Frank Sherlock is 44! and, alas, 3) we've lost a great actor who was 46.)
(Stumbled upon on March 1, 2014, a Times Op-Ed, on what you learn in your 40s that begins, "If all goes according to plan, I’ll turn 44 soon after this column appears.")
The prison guard featured in a story about the most unequal place in America is 44. He works a night shift in Louisiana for $8.50 an hour.
The guy who learns the vast comic collection he has saved since childhood is worth about $500 is also 44, and now he has to find alternative funding to pay for his kids' college educations.
And the suspect in the Anderson Hall assault on an adjunct is 45.
So, to an extent, it's my age, even in food stamps lost, that's hitting me over the head on this first of November, and it doesn't feel like a good time to be a mid-forties male in America.
I better write fiction quickly from now on. . .
(Returning to this on February 3, 2014, and 1) from a student essay on a magazine advertisement I learned Jennifer Aniston is 44 2) newly crowned Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Frank Sherlock is 44! and, alas, 3) we've lost a great actor who was 46.)
(Stumbled upon on March 1, 2014, a Times Op-Ed, on what you learn in your 40s that begins, "If all goes according to plan, I’ll turn 44 soon after this column appears.")
Thursday, October 31, 2013
hit on the head inside his office
From 1996 through 2007, I taught classes in this building, Anderson Hall at Temple University, and so this story, too, touched me very directly. There's the indignity of being 81 years old, contributing to campus by teaching Intellectual Heritage at Temple (you don't have to be Eva Keuls to know there is also a war against Thucydides and friends in this country), and then getting robbed and beaten inside "his" office (most likely a shared one). The adjunct instructor is presumably on Medicare, but as a "part timer" he wouldn't have health coverage from the university and because PA has rejected the Medicaid expansion, he most likely wouldn't be able to afford any health coverage were he under 65. As best I understand the latest news on the story, although he suffered "brain trauma" he was well enough to be released from the hospital after a one-night stay. This man deserves better, no?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
American unemployment
The New York Times has a somewhat accurate portrayal of the situation in this op-ed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/opinion/14tue1.html?hp
But then again, some of their statistics fail to give us a clear idea of the American economy or the desperation experiencd by millions of American workers. The article tells us that the pay of the median college-educated male is $72,000, but I bet you anything that does not include the millions of college-educated males in America who are no longer counted as working unless they are still counted as unemployed (actively looking for work within the last 6 or 9 months). But discouraged males, willing house husbands, college-educated men who have been "bought" off the rolls with disability, as well as our imprisoned, mentally ill, couched at Mom's, or drunk in older sibling's basement are not counted.
For women, this median is only $52,000, so yes, they most likely experience greater want than men (on average). But again, all the same factors are in play. Not counted? For example, married women with college degrees who might like to work but have become "discouraged workers" or stay-at-home Moms because no one beyond Starbucks and the local collections agency seem to be hiring. So they have accepted not being in the workforce although to call this a "choice" is deceiving.
Another group of workers who just recently rallied to raise the false medians would be Temple University's adjunct faculty, who by trying to protect themselves, lost their employment. Presumably, we'll have to wait 6 or 9 months until they are no longer counted in the employment statistics, but once they and their below-the-median salaries disappear (no, not in the Stalinist sense), we can all rest easy knowing that median American income is on the rise.
If the major American newspapers can not be counted on to give reliable and accurate pictures of American employment, is it any wonder that their employees are also increasingly fortifying the false medians of American employment statistics through layoffs and attrition?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/opinion/14tue1.html?hp
But then again, some of their statistics fail to give us a clear idea of the American economy or the desperation experiencd by millions of American workers. The article tells us that the pay of the median college-educated male is $72,000, but I bet you anything that does not include the millions of college-educated males in America who are no longer counted as working unless they are still counted as unemployed (actively looking for work within the last 6 or 9 months). But discouraged males, willing house husbands, college-educated men who have been "bought" off the rolls with disability, as well as our imprisoned, mentally ill, couched at Mom's, or drunk in older sibling's basement are not counted.
For women, this median is only $52,000, so yes, they most likely experience greater want than men (on average). But again, all the same factors are in play. Not counted? For example, married women with college degrees who might like to work but have become "discouraged workers" or stay-at-home Moms because no one beyond Starbucks and the local collections agency seem to be hiring. So they have accepted not being in the workforce although to call this a "choice" is deceiving.
Another group of workers who just recently rallied to raise the false medians would be Temple University's adjunct faculty, who by trying to protect themselves, lost their employment. Presumably, we'll have to wait 6 or 9 months until they are no longer counted in the employment statistics, but once they and their below-the-median salaries disappear (no, not in the Stalinist sense), we can all rest easy knowing that median American income is on the rise.
If the major American newspapers can not be counted on to give reliable and accurate pictures of American employment, is it any wonder that their employees are also increasingly fortifying the false medians of American employment statistics through layoffs and attrition?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)