Faulty system greatly exploits the needs of students

Column by Austin Hill

Students who have given up time through the latter years of school have minimized opportunities to make money, taking low-to-no paying positions with internships or work studies. After the struggle of keeping the bills paid during those strenuous times, the knowledge they sacrificed for becomes vague or clouded experience when not continuously used.

The pace of today’s educational process puts too much emphasis on memorization rather than applied knowledge. Not taking the information that is still fresh and giving it the opportunity to develop makes the whole point of learning moot.

In every field of study, students are targeted and forced to get creative or be patient, while making the transition from school to work. Look at the field of journalism, print media and the newspaper industry. Papers are laying people off every day due to competition with the Internet and other news sources. With fewer readers, the price of the paper has increased, while decreasing in wealth of information and manpower to produce such a product.

What about the journalism majors who have already spent the last few years of school working to go into the field and report news to people? Well, they could switch fields, but that would render all the experience, not to mention credit hours in school, useless, and an expensive cycle continues to perpetuate.

UK President Lee Todd just unveiled a new campus online news site. Giving the president his own personal blog may seem cutting edge and a “revolutionary” gateway from faculty to student. With all due respect, the Kernel has been an established, independent newspaper for 38 years, and gives students hands-on access to the news in print as well as online.

Would it have been a bad thing to dump any amount of money, endorsement or effort into the tradition for which this university has stood with for 38 years, rather than creating another entity for that tradition to compete with?

Forced to find jobs in markets that give adequate financial compensation while agreeing with the odd schedules they have by balancing classes, many have turned to the restaurant industry. As a result, waiting tables and taking classes have paired like peanut butter and jelly over the years. Restaurant owners have never minded the turnover, as the demand is always steady and the door always revolving. The problem is even these positions are becoming increasingly hard to come by as a large number of graduates are holding their shifts to stay afloat while they attempt to find work with their degrees.

I myself wait tables at Dudley’s, a local establishment offering some of Lexington’s finest innovative cuisine. Owned by local resturaunteur Debbie Long, Dudley’s employs 17 current students. On Oct. 31, she will relocate her tradition of 28 years to a new downtown location. The move has been publicized as a great move for her and her patrons. However, her employees must reapply for their jobs and will be forced to find work elsewhere while the moving occurs.

Someone who makes their living reliant on the services of students, though, doesn’t seem to worry what her 17 student employees will do for money for two months. How are they supposed to pay their bills when they are losing their job two weeks after midterms? And in that part of the semester, how can one be expected to look for a new job in a vacant market when they are supposed to be studying? They’re forced to choose between bills and grades.

Long recently sold a sister restaurant, which employs 12 student workers and many recent graduates. Within a week of the purchase the young buyer that was named in a federal investigation charged with money laundering to a former employer, a story broken by the local newspaper, and its Internet counterpart, I might add. The complaint alleges the perpetrator embezzled over $300,000, which is not far from the figure he invested in the sale of the diner. If convicted, a number of jobs would be in limbo. Long was quoted in Saturday’s paper as saying, “I will have one less restaurant to worry about.” Meanwhile, the employees have a lot to worry about. One can understand trying to get your eggs in one basket in this economy, but a savvy businessperson should at least check the references of the buyer of your establishment, when most employers check the references of their employees.

Should she be scrutinized for not running proper background checks? Yes. President Todd and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart are still reminded of mistakes from the previous basketball hire. The major issue is how it affects the students that are depending on the income to live on. Gratuity for the support paid to the industry is rewarded with more problems instead of solutions.