Comments on: As students, we should care about health care

By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:15:54 +0000

Dean X said my work was not sustainable. What did he mean? They did not want to pay my health insurance. This has been an issue for quite a while. For just one example, they gave my signature course “Karma and Rebirth” the “Cultural Diversity” rating, without my knowledge, while denying the same rating to its companion course, “Miracles, Marvels, and Magic,” in spite of a vigorous student petition, on the grounds that they did not want to make the latter class permanent! They wanted “Karma and Rebirth,” a course “rapidly developing the reputation as a course that no WashU student should graduate without taking,” but they did not want me teaching it. This was partly for ideological reasons (according to one colleague, I “let my Hindu students be Hindu,” etc.), but I think it was mainly economic. Since 2003 I have been an open supporter of organized labor on this campus, with the predictable reaction. I knew what to expect, based on my experience in grad government at other schools. Treating their workers, including me, decently will cost them some money. Health insurance for a faculty member with worsening low vision, who may require repeat surgery, will cost them a lot of cash. Why not give him nothing, and make an example of him?

The last time I checked, “Karma and Rebirth” had not been assigned to anyone else, and South Asian religion classes have not been offered in University College (I am still here, and available to teach). The Freshman Co-op Focus course, taught pro bono, has not been offered, though I offered to teach it pro bono once more. Thanks for not crossing our virtual picket line. I am still here, ready for duty. So are many others, who have been laid off and denied benefits.

I thank the alumni who contacted me after reading my recent posts, to inquire about me, and thank me for teaching your favorite courses. Apparently not enough of you know what is going on here now. I have been treated better than many others, who have worked here longer.

You Webster students and alumni, please be aware that your school is implicated in this too. Webster makes extensive and exploitative use of cheap academic migrant labor, a policy concealed by a thick layer of redwash. If you say anything your courses will be pulled.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
per veritatem vis

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By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:57:50 +0000

A footnote to my comment above: I have no intention of suing for medical malpractice, because there was none. I have had so many surgeries I have lost count, and I know the proper procedure. It was followed in my case. One reason health insurance is so expensive is that so many people are filing frivolous lawsuits against their doctors.

So many of my life decisions have been determined by my need for uninterrupted coverage of my preexisting condition. I was job locked in graduate school, too, until I got a job in the library with union benefits, including good health insurance and paid vacation, and could afford to apply for my PhD, and stop paying the nominal dissertation tuition just to keep my health insurance.

This situation is far too common in this country, and is easily exploited. I am glad you students are beginning to pay attention.

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By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:05:10 +0000

Tell me about it. I did double and then triple duty here from 1999-2007, strung along as a special medical case when it suited WashU’s corporate interests, terminated, in a very deceptive way, in the midst of a medical crisis which cost me my right eye when it did not. I was supposed to accept meekly my downsizing and loss of benefits, as so many others have done. Even this offer was withdrawn when I dared to protest, and Webster University’s Religious Studies Department similarly withdrew an offer of part time employment when I dared to suggest that my health insurance benefit ought to be an issue. Now, I am underinsured, undermedicated, and will have to give up the inferior health insurance I now have. My refusal to accept meekly the exploitation of my job lock situation, due to a preexisting condition (a rare form of advanced glaucoma, requiring repeat surgery and multiple medications), has put me on the brink of bankruptcy, like so many others. Tell me about it. This will happen to you, sooner or later.

Some members of the disability rights community here in St Louis tell me that it is my duty to litigate, as a citizen with standing, no matter how severe is the personal cost. They inform me that Universities can lose all sorts of public monies if they treat their workers this way. I am afraid, though, that without my high blood pressure medication, my head will explode if I do.

Let all our faculty and administrators take a year’s poverty sabbatical, to live without salary or health insurance, or a roof over their heads. Walk a mile.

Then you can tell me about it.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–with 10,000 hours, at least, of sweat equity in Washington University in St Louis, and at least as much right to a voice as any Trustee with a bag of money, or any tenured professor
–not yet expelled from the Company Town

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