78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



Grumpy Old White Men
2006-04-06   3:06 p.m.

There's something sort of amusing about registering for a Genocide class - and about seeing "Genocide" on your transcript under fall courses. It reminds me of Eddie Izzard's quip about Pol Pot in his show, "Dressed to Kill":

"You killed a hundred thousand people? You must get up very early in the morning! I can't even get down the gym! Your diary must look odd: Get up in the morning, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Lunch, Death, Death, Death, Afternoon Tea, Death, Death, Death, Quick shower..."

Of course, the class discusses the nature of Genocide and cultural/imperial practices that have enabled national or ethnic genocidal tendencies. Or something.

So this month (albeit new) has been, to say the least, bad - with the exception of Steven's birthday, for which I made Lasagna, Cheese Cake, and a fancy salad. Much fun was had there, and he was happy. This was good, because I really tried to make him happy - it's not everyday your young man turns 32.

But the bad:

- When I've said before "oooh, things at work are so MESSY!", I never, EVER anticipated that a democratic governor would cut the operating budgets of state schools by $169 million dollars. I don't know how familiar everyone is with state budgeting practices and ed./higher ed. funding; my own understanding is shaky at best. But this, dear readers, may as well be a hundred billion trillion dollar cut. We're just as screwed anyway. Some think we're over panicked, and some don't seem to think we're panicking enough here at the state Uni(s) as we react to the daily activities of the budget talks - but one thing is for sure, the rumor mill is wicked right now.

Someone (big cheese) told me he overheard at a Dean's meeting that RU-Newark would have to cancel 200 courses to make up for the $ loss. (So, what...no history courses next year?) That would take out several departments; we're a small outfit over here. So that's unlikely, but here's what isn't: each dept. cutting all they can and raising class size (BAD, VERY BAD) to reduce the "expense" of non-tenured faculty members (moi and all my friends).

Someone else (not so big a cheese) told me that the uni. could override the state limitations on tuition hikes and raise costs next year by 20-30%. Oh my god! Who will be able to afford that? Not our students - at either school I work for. Newark; say it with me: NEW-ark. For those of you in Albuquerque or somewhere reading this who don't know Newark, NJ: it's a poor city, and most of the students are local kids on government EOF grants or are adults working two jobs to cover tuition and living expenses. The kids on grants only get funded so much - the rest they have to make up for. If "the rest" winds up being a grand or so, there's no way they'll be able to stay full-time students, at which point they'll lose all their funding anyway.

Three of my friends already lost jobs and benefits in higher ed because of this; I - or anyone else for that matter - could be next. I've also had friends with other, non-ed. governmental jobs (or jobs where their contracts are mostly governmental) lose them (one) or get told that they'll likely be laid off by July (three). Well we'll just have one big unemployment party, then, I told them. A little (union) birdie told me that the state will cover the cost of grad. classes - even at the PhD level - for people collecting unemployment as long as those classes "have to do with professional development". And since that's the most flexible phrase ever invented, they'll likely pay for just about anything. It would be so fucking ironic if I got laid off and wound up costing the state more money as an unemployed graduate student than a working university lecturer taking money from a partially privatized tuition remission grant. I must be stupid, because I don't get the logic there.

So...how's that war going, fellas?

- My SIL got hit by a truck. Like, tractor-trailer truck. My niece and nephew weren't in the car with her, and she's all right, but understandably she's all tweaked out.

- My cousin fell - just sort of fell over, really - and broke his ankle so bad that he had to have emergency surgery. I think he said his foot was facing the wrong way when he was brought into the hospital.

- We found out my friend's mother likely has colon cancer.

So this news plus the substantial amount of lay-offs pending/happening make me stay away from the phone.

I'm going to an all-day conference on Women's History tomorrow at Monmouth University. My school fronted the $35 registration fee, isn't that nice? The conference includes lunch, but I'm wondering if that will now be headcheese on ritz crackers or something since Monmouth is surely affected by these cutbacks too.

I just got this GD job, and so obviously am not ready to leave it yet. I'm taking classes no matter what happens I have something good to look forward to. I wish I could say I'm being dramatic. I hate this uncertainty and put the blame for all of this squarely on the shoulders of GW "will work for billionaires" Bush. The sequels are always worse than the originals, aren't they?

meh.