student loans

It's that time of year, and both SEIU's Adjunct Action and The New York Times have information on student loans that could be of use. My understanding is that if you've already accrued the loans, then some income-based relief, or even forgiveness, is most possible if the money was lent after 2007 and if your loans were from the federal government.

Kentucky on my mind

So the University of Kentucky lost the title game, and perhaps that was seen as a victory for those who dislike the lopsided recruiting of the contemporary moment, the way one school lands a half-dozen future NBA draft picks while other teams are lucky to field a single star. Of course, UConn has also had stacked teams in the past, so this year's final game was hardly a win for the little guy.

But I was also thinking of the flat tire I got on the highway in Kentucky on I-75, and how it was winter, but thankfully not too cold. Although Triple A took a good while to arrive, the Wal-Mart service center changed the tire very quickly, and I was able to drive the entire distance from Ohio to South Carolina in one day. My ten-hour drive turned into twelve, but I survived.

Finally, on the college front, I thought that I recently read that Ohio residents can pay in-state tuition to attend the University of Kentucky, but I can find no mention of this anywhere online. There do seem to be reciprocity agreements among smaller schools in those states.

A few weeks back, Dave Newman and I discussed Kentucky born-and-bred Chris Offutt's writing, and I think we agreed that we like his memoirs better than his fiction, and also that we both like No Heroes as well as the more commonly praised The Same River Twice.

Not once have I stopped at a KFC buffet or the "original restaurant" in Corbin, Kentucky although when I pass billboards advertising for such, I'm always tempted. This eliding of fried chicken is particularly sad to note because Corbin is often where I stay when I break the drive up into two days.

Fight for Your Leg Fried!

Cowboy Chicken in Xi'an, China

and in other news in the blue grass state

The Kentucky Wildcats, an 8th seed in their region, roared into the NCAA championship game last night on a three-pointer in the final seconds against Wisconsin. If they win the final game, then the small state of Kentucky will hold the men's basketball championship for the third consecutive year (UK won two years ago and Louisville last year).

But in another part of the college scene, where adjuncts struggle to survive while teaching many of our most economically vulnerable students, the story is not so rosy. In a blog, Christian L. Pyle reports on "Life in Adjunct America" for instructors at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. His writing includes these sobering notes:

In my previous article  on this subject, I revealed that I was suffering from depression and that I could date the beginning of the disease to my “adjunct awakening.”  I’m not alone.  In the comments on my article, Tim Arnold posted

"A colleague of mine at then-Lexington Community College, worked for years as an adjunct. Finally, they had no classes for him. I last saw him standing alone playing trombone at the amphitheater behind Memorial Chapel. His depression bloomed into a full flowered psychosis.  A coordinator of the Business Writing ‘department’ at UK died alone in his apartment under suspicious circumstances as his meager adjunct position began slipping away."

I did also see that Tennessee is strongly considering advancing two free years of community college to all of its high-school graduates, so there are also these glimmers of hope, that change can be effected, that learning, lives, and livelihoods can be improved.

Clemson Literary Readings 4/16 and 4/17

In Clemson, South Carolina, I'll be reading on campus with Chris Benson and Will Stockton in Daniel Studio on April 16, from 4 to 5 p.m.

I'm also organizing a reading for Keith Lee Morris and Sarah Blackman on April 17 from 7 to 8 p.m. at Nick's Tavern and Deli. Please do attend if you're in town for these events!

Harvey Mudd College

According to this Slate article, Harvey Mudd College ranks number in Return On Investment (ROI) of over one million dollars after twenty years. I'd just recently been describing Harvey Mudd, part of the Claremont consortium in Southern California, as similar to Cal Tech, and, yes, like many people the person I was speaking to had never heard of it.

Anyway, back in the late 1980s, I almost applied there because a) late into high school, I still strongly identified as a "math person" and b) my father had moved to the Los Angeles area in the early part of the decade.  As it turned out, he was out of L.A. by 1991, and freshman fall of undergrad was the last time I took a "real" math class although I did enjoy some history of calculus before graduating.

If you read this blog, then you're probably aware that I don't think that financial return is the primary way we should rank colleges or the main reason we should attend one, but I do believe that burgeoning student-debt should be a concern of anyone interested in maintaining our economy, or even our democracy.

1 avril

some of my father's Kunderas

It's Milan Kundera's birthday, of course, and that's no joke.

Happy 85th, Milan!

I consider that a rather mind-boggling anniversary that I have almost no chance of seeing, but poor Kundera must not only continue to endure, but he has to spend his last years in disguise, hoping no one recognizes him as me.

Here at L.U.S.K., we grow older and more ridiculous on a month-to-month basis. Or sometimes all at once.