In other weather-related news, it snowed here. A bunch. I'm feeling kinda ill so I didn't go take pictures as promised. I had to beg off on my radio show with Tom, even. And going out in that, at least any more than I already did today, would have been begging for more.
And speaking of bureaucratic double-talk, I found out that "tuition waiver" doesn't actually mean "tuition waiver." You see, the college does this diabolical thing where they promise to pay for all of your tuition if you're a GA, and then sneak a bunch of it in under the name "tuition fees" and then you get a $700 bill out of nowhere because the Board of Trustees is a bunch of sociopaths.
Seriously, I mean I was expecting to pay a couple hundred every semester for campus activity fees and the like, but a tuition waiver should actually for real cover all of my fucking tuition, and fuck anyone that says otherwise.
They claim "Well we only do it for online classes because Sakai costs a bunch of money and you can do your classes from home now." Bullshit. You know what doesn't cost a lot of money? Adjunct professors. One of those in a college in New York killed herself recently because she was being paid with the coins dug out from under the dean's sofa cushions.
And you know what else costs even less money? Graduate assistants. For $700 a month and a tuition waiver, we will grade your classwork and do your research and run your offices and even fucking straight-up teach your lower-level freshman classes.
The college saves money with online classes; that's why they've proliferated so much. Graduate assistants and other underpaid staff are the backbone of this new system. Do. Not. Fuck with us.
Have you heard of Frank Schaeffer, the evangelical-warrior turned Orthodox turned liberal? You might like this post:
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I haven't, but he's clearly pretty spot-on about it all.
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