Hitting home

M

MarkS

Mark Svereika
Not a wine post, although I'll need to put up my recent notes as soon as
I can assemble them. This is just another commentary about the sagging economy,
which is now hitting supposedly "immune" areas. Our university has just announced cuts of 48 support staff and 25 or 6 of them fall in the place I work. So just to let all of you trust-fund babies out there know, we in academia (excepting Professors and administrative heads, who appear immune to this crisis and will keep their positions) are taking one for the team. Thought you'd like to know.
So far, I am still here, but 5 of my colleagues are not.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
Hitting home So just to let all of you trust-fund babies out there know...
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Wrong board :)

Regardless, I think this will be hitting home for all sorts of jobs and all sorts of people who may not expect that it could happen to them.

Uggh.
 
If you work in a State school, this crisis hit home a long time ago when, in response to their own burgeoning deficits, various states cut the budgets to their university system. Also schools whose budgets depended to any great extent on income from their endowment have already been cutting. This MLA was one of the first in some years in which job openings had been closing down in the weeks before the convention.

Private schools who are tuition dependent may well be hit next. Recent history indicates that enrollment goes up in times of economic hardship, but recent history didn't have the credit funding student loans drying up.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
If you work in a State school, this crisis hit home a long time ago when, in response to their own burgeoning deficits, various states cut the budgets to their university system. Also schools whose budgets depended to any great extent on income from their endowment have already been cutting. This MLA was one of the first in some years in which job openings had been closing down in the weeks before the convention.
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Yes, our Dean recently announced that two previously-approved asst. prof. hires were being rescinded for lack of funds, which I am certain makes my colleagues in CS and Math just buoyant with happiness.

Mark Lipton
 
I passed the first cuts at my work. Amy was laid off as part of the big state cuts in November. There's not much out there for work. She just got "hired" for a job as soon as the freeze ended in January, but the branch has extended the freeze indefinitely. Another position she applied for was hiring 26 positions. They received over 700 applications.

Ugh, indeed.
 
Lill's university slot looks pretty solid at this point. They are actually looking to hire another grant administrator. ASU wide they are losing quite a few slots though.

And being a defense contractor specializing in esoteric defensive systems, I don't have the warmest fuzzy about the strength of upcoming R&D budgets.
 
My sympathies to all affected. What I am seeing in is lots more white collar/professional people losing their jobs or afraid of losing their jobs than in other recessions I've lived through. That means that they will be taking a lot more purchasing power out than in other recessions, raising the real possibility of a snowball effect and a true depression.
 
originally posted by VLM:
We are just in the "hiring freeze" mode so far.

I hope it stays that way.
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Same for us - hiring freeze - plus furlough days for everybody. I think it is better than laying off people.
 
yes, scary......being an artist, i acutely feel people's minds focused on just making it through this period. will gladly throw in a free bottle of wine with every purchase.
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
yes, scary......being an artist, i acutely feel people's minds focused on just making it through this period. will gladly throw in a free bottle of wine with every purchase.
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Joel, what is your art? Are you the "Adventures of a Nose" artist (which was a constant in one of the classrooms I oversaw) or the Eastern-influenced print artist, or yet another Joel Stewart artist?
 
And, sadly, the economy today has felled someone else most of us know. Although I remain confident he will land on his feet. Maybe outside of NYC? Kinda, maybe has worked for me. So far. I think.
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
Joe...the latter, I suspect, is more accurate
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Ah, the perfect position to etch a spot in Art History.

While it might not help sales, art is more important than ever in times like these. At least, thats what I learned before I dropped out of art school (sadly not Risdee - the fashionable art school to drop out of).

Best,
Joe
 
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