The MTA (NYC-area subway and buses), in a financial crunch, voted yesterday to eliminate free student MetroCards.  Which might mean that K-12 students, who are required by law to actually go to school, will have to pay their own way to get there.  $2.25 a trip, 2x a day, 180+days a year…$810/school year/student.  That’s a significant sum of money for many NYC families, especially if compounded by having multiple school-age children.

There are over 585,000 students that use the MTA to get to school.  $473,850,000 in annual “lost” revenue is probably what the MTA board was seeing when they decided to cut student passes.  I’m not sure how these student passes work, but I’m feeling that they aren’t magically limited to only 2 uses per day.  If so, then school-age kids definitely use these free passes when not going to/from school (wouldn’t you?)…another hit to the MTA’s bottom-line.  (Maybe a new system could be devised to make students have to go to school to get the next day’s subway pass… Pick up your 2-ride pass at the end of the day — that way you have to be there all day….?)

But still.  It’s ridiculous that students should have to pay their way to get to school.  Other communities provide school buses to pick up and drop off kids every single day, and that is of course a burden to that district.  It just so happens that school buses aren’t really practical in New York City, especially when some students commute to other boroughs to a specialized high school.  And because of rush-hour traffic.

It should be the city’s responsibility to get its kids to school and home every day.  I can understand why the MTA – technically an independent agency that needs to be financially solvent – would cut the student pass program.  But then Mayor Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein should step up, scavenge some money from the cash-strapped city, and fulfill their duty to students.

Again?! The Iron Floss Cross Society is a fucking joke. The Cardinal wrote an identical article a year ago … and now it’s off their website.

The real secret society on campus is the PPP. Members of both post on this here blog and I’ll let them explain how worthless the Iron Floss Cross Society is.

A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS?!!! How mysterious!

Through a series of interviews, The Daily Cardinal was able to uncover some details behind one such group, the little known student organization called the Iron Cross Society.
In the spring of 1951, then Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Cardinal Jack Zeldes attempted to nominate his successor, Jean Matheson, to UW-Madison’s Iron Cross Society. A nomination to the Iron Cross Society, a UW honor society, is “the highest honor an undergraduate could achieve at this university” according to the group’s website.
However, the tradition was not to continue as Jean Matheson was barred from receiving the honor. At the time, membership to the Society was only open to men.
Zeldes fought to earn a spot for Matheson in the organization but was out-voted by a margin of eight to one by then-active members and alumni alike. The Society did not begin to admit women until 1987.
The Society has had a complex role as a university organization since its founding in 1903. Deemed a “secret society” by some, the Society is neither entirely secret nor public according to 2006-’07 Wisconsin Union President Shayna Hetzel.
“I think it depends on how you frame ‘secret society,’” Hetzel said. “Membership is very public. The names are cast on a shield in the union. The secret part is how they select members and what the society does.”
Hetzel added, “the fundamental principle of Iron Cross is that it is a prestigious group of student leaders to sort of influence the governance of the campus community.”
The Iron The

Where’s their hope and change?

The unemployment rate dropped last month for men and women, blacks and whites, lifting hopes that the long dry spell in the jobs market may be coming to an end. But for recent college graduates and other young adults, the labor situation didn’t just remain dire — it got worse.

For 20- to 24-year-olds, the jobless rate rose four-tenths of a percent to 16% in November, even as unemployment nationally slipped to 10% from 10.2%.

And data from the Labor Department show that the unemployment figure for college graduates in that age group was 10.6% in the third quarter — the highest since early 1983 and more than double the rate for older college-educated workers.

Case study:

Kyle Daley, 22, of Walnut Creek, Calif., provides a grim case study. In June, Daley graduated from UCLA, one of the country’s best universities. He received a degree in political science. His grade-point average: a solid 3.5.

Since January, he has applied for about 600 jobs, mostly entry-level positions such as office assistant, junior analyst and marketing associate. He has reached out to small firms and Fortune 500 companies in aerospace, entertainment, finance and government, from Alabama to Washington state.

The results: two interviews, one in person and another over the telephone, neither of which panned out. Compounding his financial bind, Daley doesn’t have enough work history to qualify for jobless benefits. So he lives with his parents and gets around with mass-transit tickets from his mom.

PS: Yes, I accidentally posted this on the CB a minute ago. Oops.

Some New York notables, before I plunge back into the depths of the library.

A man with a loaded semiautomatic starts a shootout in Times Square.

I bet it made people need a restroom.  But don’t think about what happens once you flush.

Some people fled the scene on bicycles and hid inside.  Their co-ed dorms.

Too bad they have to compete with the crazy drivers.

Whatever, it is the most wonderful time of year here in NYC, with the Rockefeller Tree and Red Kettles.

And some residents have one more thing to celebrate, at the expense of Columbia University.  Though Columbia might get its revenge in other ways.

And don’t you forget it:

There’s a lot of silence around the program right now, which could spell trouble for this staff.

This much is certain: boosters aren’t pleased with what they’re seeing.
“There are guys like me,” a booster who said he donates $30,000 per year to the university told GateHouse News Service’s John Supinie. “I’m just the tip of the iceberg. What I’m hearing is half aren’t going to renew on season tickets and half won’t donate to the [scholarship] fund. The athletic department tells me, ‘Don’t give up the ship. Something is going to happen. Give us until next week.’ I said something has to be done. If we ran our business the way they ran that football program, we’d be bankrupt. It’s not going in a positive direction.

“You don’t reward mediocrity in business. You don’t reward mediocrity in coaching.”

Happens at Illinois and I’m sure there is similar pressure in Madison.

After the UW-Madison made the decision to cancel school Wednesday at 7:45 last night because of the impending blizzard, the campus immediately morphed into impromptu holiday spirit. Perpetual snowball fights with rotating participants sparked up wherever flows of people coalesced, such as on the corner of Frances and State streets as folks came down from Langdon to join the wintry melee.

After bartime, the scene was even more chaotic, with a ten-foot snowball slowly making its way down State and then Gilman. A cop car came rolling toward it and suddenly, as if on cue, the hundreds of students on each side of State Street began pelting our city’s finest with snowballs. Near the Chocolate Shoppe, the cop finally jumped out of the car swearing and proceeded to chase a kid in red-and-white striped pants, then biffed it by Stop & Shop market.

We all stopped to laugh, including the kid in red-and-white, whom the cop then caught and ticketed. But despite the unhappy ending, last night was the best instance of spontaneous fun I’ve yet seen at this university.

Check out Madison.com photos of the ferocious weather.

*****UPDATE*****

This video was taken around 2 p.m. on Bascom; the snowball brawl was still going two hours later. Video courtesy of “my main man” JC aka Pecan Pie.

*****UPDATE UPDATE****

This from CNN.com: “Madison, Wisconsin, received more than 17 inches of snow, prompting the University of Wisconsin to cancel classes for the first time since 1990. The campus police department estimated 3,000 students descended onto the school’s Bascom Hill Wednesday afternoon for a snowball fight, with a few minor injuries reported, according to the university’s Web site.”

There was never 3,000 kids on that hill at any one time, but with students arriving from or leaving for sledding outside nearby Liz Waters dormitory, it’s possible the total number of participants was in the thousands (a Facebook event for this latest incarnation of the Southeast-Lakeshore dorms snowball rivalry racked up 6,720 confirmed guests).

From a pamphlet I found in the UW-Madison Multicultural Student Center lounge about 2 years ago.  Published by jimmiehatz.com.

Uh, yeah…

Blogging was on the very very back burner of my life for the last couple of months, but I am now back with the intent to make an occasional post. Please do not expect me to be as prolific as Suchita, Eli, CB, or Alec.

My brief blurb for now… Significant information about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) came out today:

The Obama administration had estimated the cost to taxpayers of the $700-billion Troubled Asset relief Program, or TARP, would be $341 billion but now says it can cut that by $200 billion.

In part because:

“Total bank investments of $245 billion in FY2009 (the U.S. tax year that ended September 30) that were initially projected to cost $76 billion are now projected to bring a profit of $19 billion,” the official said.

This is marginally good news for the federal budget this fiscal year (FY2010), which will probably run a deficit well over $1 trillion as happened in the last fiscal year (FY2009).

I just heard today that a 51-year-old man committed suicide at the Wisconsin Historical Society Monday.  The only press coverage the incident received was a brief in the Wisconsin State Journal that said simply that the man had died in a fall.  In fact, the man deliberately fell to his death from the fourth floor of the stairwell after staff attempted to restrain him.

Suicide is a notoriously difficult subject to cover, but given past reportage of suicide on campus, you would think at least a short, carefully written news piece would run, especially in the campus newspapers.  It seems the difference this time was that the suicide occurred at the Historical Society, which is not part of the university.  Capitol police responded to the incident, and local and state officials kept a lid on the story.

The argument can be made, of course, that publicity might give other suicidal people “ideas.”  The argument can also be made that this view is patronizing and denies the fourth estate its duty to inform the populace of news events.  Thoughts?

Yesterday afternoon I was wandering around the Union Square holiday market and walked by the NY Times subscription stand.  Here’s how the conversation went:

Salesman:  “I’ll offer you 50% off the home delivery price and give you a free gift!”

Me:  “Oh, no thanks.”

Salesman:  “I’ll give you 3 free tchotchkes…”

Me:  “Nah, I read it online.”

Salesman:  “Well they’re going to start charging this month for the online articles.  You might as well subscribe right now.”

Me:  “I didn’t know that.  But I’ll stick it out another month online, thanks.”  [and walk away]

I dashed off a quick text to a Badger working at the Times, and he confirmed my suspicions that the paper had no plans to charge.   This salesman was desperate, so desperate that he would blatantly lie.

Ah, dear Gray Lady…has it really come to this?