due to closing of residence halls for coranavirus precautions played a role in the school’s decision to cut positions.'

Recession or depression?

Fuck, this is going to get way worse, and we're only two months into this thing.

and if we're lucky, a Democrat (along with Congress) will be the ones to repair this enormous mess.

Happens every 4 or 8 years, the clean-up gang.

(The orange poison, too.)

Mine will likely furlough staff and faculty will be asked to take pay cuts in the fall. I’m taking a leave of absence as of January and then renegotiating my contract, I’m sure my department will be overjoyed to have the savings.
It’s grim.

Of many contract faculty. Her university does not use a lot of adjuncts, but they do employ a considerable number of full-time contract instructors who are on a year-to-year contract (more senior instructors are eligible for multi-year contracts).


Interestingly, my daughter, who is going to college in the Fall, hopefully, has gotten increased scholarship offers from every school she was accepted to. They are desperate to have students not do a gap year.

reach out to our students and encourage them to enroll and attend. I never knew when I signed up for a PhD that I’d end up being a salesperson/cheerleader.

I was admitted to a law program in England and they will be very happy for my international tuition.

Last edited Sat May 2, 2020, 08:52 AM - Edit history (1)

This will hammer Athens, County OH because it is already the county with the highest
level of unemployment in the state and those AFSCME jobs helped to support a lot of
people. Rocky Boot is gone. Coal is Gone. And now this?

America is looking @ a depression.

The only blue county in Southern Ohio as well.

I remember the AFSCME strike from March 1978 (pretty sure it was '78). According to my Spectrum Green, the university closed down 5 student cafeterias -- 6000 students on meal plans were given refund checks (got to love how the Student Senate supported the strike and encouraged student employees not to cross picket lines). Strike lasted 14 days and was primarily over increased health benefits. What else is new?

I was living off campus so the strike didn't affect me. But I remember how messy things got in a hurry.

This is sad news. The workers I remember were really nice people and we all got along despite the generation gap.

This will be a hammer for the county. I wonder if all those rural white Trump voters
in S.E. OH* will understand this is 95% + from having Trump in the White House.


* I was in semi denial about the coming "beast" until in late March/early April I read that
there was a C-!9 in Gallipolis/Gallia County, OH and I thought oh shit "it" is here. Because
I don't think many people from Gallipolis, OH were traveling to Asia or Europe and or going
on cruise ships and that told me that case was from the community.

Hear it was a fun venue and I missed out on a lot. Spent most weekends bouncing between The Long Branch and The Greenery. Senior year I was hunkered with study and spent a lot less time Uptown. But damn, I sure do miss those days.

Here's my take on Trump voters, or base, however they're defined:

There are hardcore who will believe in him till the very end. It would take a miracle to convince them COVID-19 was bungled by Trump.

There are fringe who are disenchanted, but they'll NEVER, EVER vote for a Democrat (see below) So they'll either vote for Trump, a third party or write-in, or not at all.

And then there's the third group, not exactly hard core, maybe identify as Independent, who will side with Joe Biden.

I base almost all opinion on the theory behind group moral behavior as argued by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who wrote The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. It's an awesome read, and explains IMHO how and why people "vote against their best interests." I highly recommend it. New York Times review at the link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html

So I expect maybe a few rural white SE Ohio Trump voters may break ranks and vote for Joe. Some might not vote at all. Hopefully this applies to all of Ohio, and the state swings blue.

Last edited Sat May 2, 2020, 02:14 PM - Edit history (4)

It pisses me off when I hear or read about the angry White voting put Trump into the
White House, no Russia did that. Now enough of them voted for Trump to keep it close
enough that "they" (Russia, Mitch, Trump, Ryan, Pence, Manafort, Flynn, Stone, the Trumps,
Russia/Ukrainian Mobsters, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Mercers, the Mercers, Facebook/
Cambridge Analytica, Parscale, and others) to steal it. Exit polls had HRC winning "this
thing" in a walk.

We are the majority easily but the GOP has been stealing elections for years. They have
to because the demographics and the % of society's wants is brutally against them. Mc-
Connell knows this so he has been packing the courts for years so a shrinking minority can
still have control over the levers of power in this country.


Vlad Putin was into every one of the 50 states and he was into the hardware and software
of the voting machines and central tabulators. He wasn't there just to "look around." Have
no doubt that the Mueller Report would show massive collusion between Trump & Russia.
https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/trumps-russia-cover-up-by-the-numbers-70-contacts-with-russia-linked-operatives/

What we are seeing now with those dumb asses protesting the lock down and the MAGA shit
heads is the result of Reagan's getting rid of the fairness act which has now bathed a % of
Americans in misinformation for 2.5 generations. Those people are lost. End of story.
Although some might not vote and or vote blue as they lose their jobs and their relatives get
sick and die but most of those motherfuckers are brain dead by now. In late winter of '17 I
went to New Germany State Park in the Mts. of Western MD. but one day the snow was no good
for x-country skiing and so I drove around where VA, WV, and MD come together in the very
worst "dog patch towns" I would see in front of a beat up old trailer/shack home/out buildings/
and pick up truck homestead the Stars and Bars, a Trump sign, and an NRA flag. Fuck 'em
their coal jobs are not coming back and both they and Trump know that but they are being stupid
just to be stupid. Besides Trump has given them permission to use the "n****r word" again.
And they love that freedom from being "politically correct."

Sorry to babble.

so much prop up the local economy.

I've heard that Ohio University is also terminating tenure track (perhaps not tenured yet) faculty. That's a big deal.

Hidden in every state educational institution’s contract structure is a financial exigency clause that allows them to fuck over each and every employee regardless of safeguards, protections, seniority, and tenure. And there is a board of trustees and an administration licking their chops to get rid of the people that do the actual work.

You will notice that the almost endless list administrators remain untouched. It’s always the workers who get screwed.

Sometimes