What Is a Gift?

…from a post that is not about adjuncts, precarious knowledge workers, NTT faculty, or whatever we call ourselves this week ~ but very relevant. Compare "gifts" as used here to similar gifts, perks, favors offered adjunct: more pay but not equity and the gap still widening, adjunct appreciation days, awards, being "lucky" to get hired at the last minute, impossible schedules, etc). From Keithpp's Blog:

As the holiday season fast approaches, it has come to our attention that some of our colleagues, managers and co-worker need help understanding the concept of “gift.”

College Affordability? For whom?

A little story: one that occurs to me as I wait high above a rather nice golf course, Eagle Crest, waiting for the start of a weekend powwow of those who have signed on with the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education. It regards, my little story, college affordability.

One evening, as I crossed the Triboro Bridge into Queens, to teach my single community college class there, I realized something. I had to take a loan to get to my job. This is because my E-Z pass, though it may have thought it was sucking the $6.50 out of our checking account (what does E-Z Pass care?) it was actually getting it from the overdraft protection that bankrolls our household's continued between-semester-contract operations. 

And that money, of course, we would have to pay back, with interest. The repayment would start when the first one or two of the three colleges I teach at got around to sending me a check. Sometimes they take a couple of weeks, sometimes a month. So I was taking a loan to teach  college. 

 What do you think? Cost-effective? Sustainable? Fair?