[Alumni-chat] What will the BOT do?

[john_hevelin (bwotte at rexx.com)]

Hi, Bob,

First, I wanted to thank you for your continuing contribution to these discussions during what must be a profoundly demanding time for you.  I don't consider your comments "bankrupt," but I did find them, alas, to be more discouraging even than the financial picture.  My thoughts below are an attempt to make sense of all this.

>Are you referring to the 8-8-12-12 which was J.D. Dawson's favorite incarnation of co-op alternation?  When we were revising the calendar in the early 90s, he tried very hard to sell that model to faculty.
I would have found Dawson's schedule difficult and confusing.  And I don't think anyone should be sent out on co-op without at least one study quarter under their belt.

>The challenges of co-op have changed significantly since the 50s and 60s, and therein is part of the problem:
>
>a) The cost of transportation has made travel to-and-from co-op a challenge for the 90% of Antioch students who are on financial aid.
I guess I don't understand this.  Greyhound can take you from Columbus, Ohio, to New York City (Port Authority) for eighty dollars.  It's a fifteen-hour trip.  I did this several times as a student.  I didn't own a car until after graduation, and only flew once as a student -- flying was too expensive for most students.  Actually, the New York Central train used to be my preferred mode of travel, but Amtrak fares are astronomical.  But both airlines and buses have become cheaper over the years.

>b) The cost of living in urban centers has increased dramatically, and co-op pay is no longer able to cover cost of living in most situations.  While in my era we were able to actually save some cash on co-op and return to campus with startup money for the academic term, today, on average the co-op experience is a double whammy for students.  They pay tuition to be working, and then end up paying for the living costs of the job as well.
Again, I guess I don't understand.  The majority of co-op jobs I had paid minimum wage.  As a financial aid student, I was expected to cover all living costs out of that plus save at least two hundred dollars towards the study quarter.  I managed to do this.  Some co-op jobs paid much better than minimum wage, but these were usually in the sciences.  Many interesting jobs paid nothing because they were essentially volunteer -- excellent learning opportunities, very poor pay.  If you were on financial aid, you had to balance all these options, another learning experience.

>c) The cost of living in a safe place is proportionately higher than basic costs.  These days I find students in New York living 7 to a 3 bedroom apartment, paying $2500-3,000 rent, with attendant transportation costs, but residing in a neighborhood that is relatively safe.
I encountered a similar situation a few years ago when looking for housing in Berkeley.  I eventually calculated that you could obtain a room in shared housing for about $400-$500/month, roughly equivalent to what you describe.  But these are prime locations in a world-class housing market.  I'm sure smaller cities would provide economical alternatives.  As for a "safe place," I lived in many unsafe places as a co-op, as you know many elderly and other folks do today.

Perhaps one possibility would be for the College to lease housing in major target cities on a long-term basis and rent that housing to co-ops.  This would solve one of the major problems in renting in high-occupancy areas, the need to come up with first- and last-month's rent in advance.  And the Internet can assist in remote house-hunting:  you can look on craigslist and other sites from Ohio.

>d) Entry level jobs of the sort that used to fill half of the co-op list, have been eliminated by computer and internet technology and other automation.
But I would think that many of our potential students would have backgrounds in these technologies, as savvy users if not developers.  I'm wondering if we simply haven't exercised sufficient creativity and energy in finding these opportunities?

>e) From the X-generation on, (and probably before), students have been seeking more than simply entry into the adult world of work; they've been seeking "meaningful" work, and many eschew filing and gopher positions in favor of work in which they feel they can make a difference.
But these were always the trade-offs.  In our day, you often had to choose between going to a city you were interested in (which meant taking an entry-level or boring job) or taking a more meaningful job and ending up somewhere uninteresting.  Of course it's wonderful to be able to make a difference.  But I think it's unrealistic to think that we can provide meaningful jobs at high pay in interesting places for all students.  Part of the co-op plan was to give you experience in the "real world," to develop life skills in addition to academic skills.  (I know I'm preaching to the choir.)  I think we need to take a hard look at all this and see if we can't come up with something that works.  

And you were always free to find your own job if you didn't like the College's offerings.

One of the things that has occurred to me after reading this Forum for the past two months is the need for a mandatory first-year class titled "Surviving Contemporary America".  (And no, I'm not being silly).  The syllabus might look like this:

(A) Owning Your Sexuality -- How to recognize and reject unwanted sexual advances.

(B) Basic Self Defense (or, When "No" Isn't Enough) -- How to recognize and avoid unsafe situations, how to determine when to walk and when to run, basic streetfighting to build confidence and morale.

(C) Home and Work -- How to find safe, affordable housing, and find a job to pay for it (maybe based on the Bolles books, "Job Hunting on the Internet" and "What Color Is Your Parachute").

(D) Cooking -- How to prepare nutritious, affordable meals on a minimum-wage salary.

John Hevelin '68