The Part-Time Racket

Work.

Portland State University is locked into a months-long labor dispute that focuses on the role of temporary and part time teaching faculty at the University. While the Oregon State University system averages about thirty percent part time staff, PSU is reaching towards fifty. No one, not the administration, the faculty, nor the students think more part time faculty results in a higher level of quality in education. And they are right, it doesn't. The part time teaching racket exists as an employment catchment for people with Master's degrees in particular, those that find themselves under-qualified for tenure track positions but over-qualified or too niche-educated for mainstream commercial jobs. From experience I can say that part time faculty are typically paid a flat fee based on in-class hours, a system that devalues extra time spent on curriculum development and grading. And in order to earn a living wage, and make the inevitable student loan payments, part time instructors teach many, many classes, sometimes at more than one campus. What ends up being created is a factory-farmed education. The students are numbers, the curriculum is simplified, attachment to the university fades, as does pride in one's vocation. The recent higher education boom has seen massive increases in infrastructure and technology at our universities, but little investment in the heart of education, the people. Are you an alumni? Tell your school how you feel about the role of part time staff. They listen. Or at least they should.

Backpacks, Rocks And Nuts - A Girl Gone Wild Excerpt

Weight.

It is 6 am and I am sitting on the front stoop of my apartment with my hiking boots on waiting for a a guy I met at a bicycle event in a local brewery two days earlier. I am newly single, in my late twenties, and living in Portland, This means that I am accustomed to brew pubs, bicycle boys, and first dates that involve hiking. The six am is new. But this man seems nice, and has a long history of mountaineering and rock climbing, and wants to get an early start. In my mind I have chalked this up to being “hard core”. I also want to be “hard core” and also prove to my ex that I can still have outdoor adventures without him. Especially with men more hard core than himself. I figured that mountain climber beat kayaker and hiker any day. Besides, its going to be a beautiful sunny Saturday in late summer, the trails will be packed if we don’t get an early start, I quietly reason with myself, he’s just being practical. 

We have chosen a hike called Angels Rest, aptly named for the spectacular view of the Columbia River Gorge from the rocky crag at the top of the trail. It is a moderate day hike, five miles with a steep climb over the loose rock of a crumbling basalt flow. When we arrive at the trail head we grab our mostly empty backpacks, containing little more than water and a light lunch and head out of the parking area. At the trail head he stops saying, “Hold on, I need to grab some weight.” And he reaches down and starts loading softball sized chunks of basalt into his pack. “I really want to stay in shape for my next ascent.” He says, barely looking up as he continues to shove rocks into his pack. Great, I think. This guy is nuts.

www.RubyGoneWild.com

The Lucky Seven

Portlandia.

I know that as a native Portlander I am supposed to like to talk to people about Portlandia, hipsters, and "green living". I am supposed to embrace all of these things as a part of my cultural heritage, especially Portlandia, the only thing that people from other parts of the country find capable of validating our little, insignificant, Pacific Northwest existence. But to be honest, Portlandia really irritates me. For a while I dismissed this as my own lack of sense of humor, an inability to laugh at myself. But try as I might I still just felt like I was being ripped off, like everything that was unique and special about my life was being stolen and used by former Sleater Kinney band members to make money. It couldn't be true. I was surely just jealous of other hipsters making good. Until.

Until one day someone sent me a clip from the show about the Lucky Seven punk flop house. A place that actually existed, that was cool, and filled with music and people and noise and dirt and parties. So who cares if it's in a Portlandia sketch? Most of the things in Portlandia are based in reality, why should I care about the Lucky Seven sketch? Why would someone go out of their way to send it to me? Because what they lifted out of my life was not just the Lucky Seven, they lifted my sister and her boyfriend, Kathleen and Lars. Kathleen and Lars were the real thing, real musicians and artists that really hung out at the Lucky and really lived in houses like the one from the sketch. And there they are, the only named people in the sketch, Kathleen and Lars. What are the chances?  

So no, it's not paranoia or pretension, it's just really hard to like something so clearly based off of, and then redirected back at you. And, my sister is way cooler than that Portlandia, do her some justice next time.

To watch the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAXtqmanVIQ

Cover Up

Reservoir.

The City of Portland has waged an eight year battle to preserve its open-air drinking water reservoirs despite a federal mandate from the post-911 era stipulating that all public water reservoirs be covered. This week, they gave up the ghost and declared plans to cover the city's beautiful reservoirs.  I consider this the worst kind of consequence of our modern era of fear and paranoia.  I grew up with these reservoirs.  They, to me, are part of what "home" means.  The reservoirs are where I go to retreat, walk, think, celebrate, and talk.  I cannot imagine what the city will look like without them.  My heart mourns.

That someone could put something in the water is true, but it has not happened in the history of the reservoirs and the erosion of public trust and the loss of our civic features and way of life is not worth the concrete symbol of our resolve to fight terrorism and dissonance.  Write a letter.  Suggest a design that keeps these areas as some kind of public water features.  Go see the reservoirs while you can.  Remember the good old days.

Photograph Courtesy of:

http://bojack.org/2011/03/disconnecting_the_mount_tabor.html