Posted on 11/01/2011 8:27:13 AM PDT by thackney
Jim Stout, an English professor at Williston State College in Williston N.D., started losing some of his best students to the oil fields last year. It was too hard to compete: The students could either spend thousands of dollars on a college education or earn $100,000 a year working on the rigs, performing maintenance on oil wells or driving trucks.
"At some point they decide, 'Well, college will always be here ... but the oil boom won't,'" he said.
One engineering student dropped out of college last winter to take a job boiling the water used in hydraulic fracturing. In just two weeks, he made $5,000, according to Lance Olson, a science instructor at the college.
While some students leave the college altogether, others take the bare minimum of courses necessary in order to qualify for campus housing and still be able to work. So class time often comes second to their day jobs.
"One of my students working in the oilfields habitually came in late, and started to fall asleep in class," said Stout. "I asked him what was going on, and he said, 'I'm putting in 90 hours a week because the overtime pays so well ... to be honest with you, I'll get what you cover from my friends in class, but don't count on me staying awake or getting to class on time.'"
America's Biggest Boomtown
Only about one-third of Williston State College students graduated from the two-year associate's degree program last year, said Mike Hillman, vice chancellor for academic and student affairs with the North Dakota University System. That rate has stayed around 35% to 40% for the past few years, but Hillman said he expects it to plunge even lower this school year as students exit early for jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
My cousin worked on an oil well back in the 80's. Got his arm caught in a chain and it was cut off. They were able to reattach it though.
He could be working in oil fields and tutor at night you know for nostalgia sake
That’s why those oil rig jobs pay well and come with top of the line insurance (life, health, etc.).
Think someone’ll pay $50 per hour to sit at a desk?
bump
In the video linked to in the thread Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs host) talks about the discoveries he’s made in the real world and the dire situation we’re nurturing by looking down on dangerous, dirty, menial jobs.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2650612/posts
I especially liked his comments on OSHA and the Alaska crabbing industry.
Most of them were farm boys, some from that part of the state. My Dad told them to take the jobs because college would still be here and the boom might not last. The administration came down hard on him and demoted him for his honesty.
Almost to a man, the kids whom he advised came back to college after the boom ended, with more than enough savings to see them through until degree time, and thanked him for his honest and sound advice. Some of them even set up a fan page for him on Facebook, even though he has been gone nearly 20 years now.
>>There are lots of dangerous jobs.<<
I got my hand caught in a machine that stuffed envelopes. Even jobs that don’t look all that dangerous can be if one is not careful. (I was young and gabbing when it happened)
>>Some of them even set up a fan page for him on Facebook, even though he has been gone nearly 20 years now. <<
Sometimes Greatness is defined by how people remember you.
I was a 3 knife trimmer operator in a bindery once too. Industrial paper knives are downright scary.
Oil leases and purchases in the Bakken Shale/Williston Basis are private land. The only way the feds can screw things up is to block frac-ing. However, they have yet to prove, and cannot prove, that frac-ing is detrimental to subsurface water sources.
Who are you going to get to teach the classes (most of the geologists out here are well employed, too.)
Im sure he has what is considered a PHD in Welding. Its not like you can just fart around and learn to weld high pressure pipes to government specs.
I saw a guy throw a bucket of water on an electrical fire in a high-voltage breaker box. It’s a miracle that he didn’t get fried. But he wasn’t very bright; I figure that sooner or later the odds caught up to him.
Not to be crass, but your roommate sounds totally dangerous. I hope he made a full recovery. Yes, there are hazards, and potentially lethal ones. Knowing the dangers and avoiding/preventing them is part of the job.
I applaud the students who realize this and are able to make an informed decision about their own futures.
College will still be there, as will night and weekend school. And cheaper colleges for when you already have a job and just need a diploma for advancement and not for the resume.
Those guys had guts. I once heard as a child that in building a skyscraper, you could count on one death per floor. Don’t know if that was ever true or just the crap kids tell each other when they are in junior high.
being a Professor means you don’t get the money in exchange for the time to pursue matters of the intelect. (not to be confused for matters of the inane)
College is just a meal ticket, these students simple do not need him.
Yeah...they want a huge border exclusion zone up by Canada...extending across the USA....and controlled by the TSA.
was a post on FR about this a week or so ago.
Its astounding to me that the Mackinaw bridge was built in about 3 and a half years total with no winter construction.
Compare that to the decade spent building the Hoover dam bypass bridge.
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