Mackinac Bridge? ca. 1952? One scary project, that one.
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 ...
That would be my pipe dream, but I doubt it will come to pass in the near future.
“Think someone’ll pay $50 per hour to sit at a desk?”
Millions do. “Managers” all over the country do nothing all day but sit in meetings and get paid $100,000+. I sit in a building with about 200 of them.
I felt for the kid. The one thing about Marines, you don’t do it for the pay, you do it because you really want to be a Marine. You are right, the accident may have saved his life, but he might spend the rest of his life second guessing.
On the other hand, he had one safety hazard clearly marked in front of him and couldn’t get through his first day without putting both hands into it, should he really be handling weapon systems?
Mackinac Bridge? ca. 1952? One scary project, that one.
A lot of people can’t even bear to drive across the Mackinaw bridge. If you ask, they’ll even drive your car across for you.
Its never bothered me at all.
It has been many years since I was in northern Michigan. 1300 miles from where I live now. Not likely to be back any time soon. Beautiful area nonetheless.
I read the wiki page. One accident was a Yugo that was blown over the side by a gust from below the open deck part of the bridge. One more reason to stick with the GMC 2500 Diesel that I currently drive. Much less susceptibility to the wind.
Not quite a bridge to nowhere, but I agree that it is more of a destination than a pathway. Personally have been over it a few times, and also under it twice. Once eastbound, once westbound, sailing from Charlevoix to/from Mackinac Island.
Actually, I have been over it an odd number of times, having driven from Denver to southern Indiana by way of Duluth and Mackinac in the late 70’s.
A decade? The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged the SF/Oakland Bay Bridge, and we're still a couple years away from finishing building a new section. That's over 22 years gone by. With Chinese technology and the steel and concrete components manufactured in China. The authorities said it couldn't be done here. That's what experts said about building the original and the GG Bridge in the 1930s, but back then they had a can-do attitude to figure it out, and built both bridges in 3-1/2 years simultaneously. We need to get "can-do" back in our conversations.
Its sad how far we’ve fallen in this country.
Now, now. English professors aren’t a complete waste of time. I majored in English. Studying language and literature is a valuable use of time. That being said, it is not a pursuit I expected to be well paid for.
I had one professor who taught me so much. How to read, appreciate, apply criticism to, and truly love language. I loved linguistics, too.
However, I noticed that shift my senior year—a new young teacher who pushed feminism and gender-blurring.
Thank God for that one great professor who taught english, not liberalism.
An English professor is a valuable person. There just don’t seem to be too many of them in English departments these days.
But I totally agree that oil workers should get paid more than a teacher. I want to teach and I still think that.
bttt
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