So a student at NYU slept in the always-open library because his $15,000 scholarship and his part-time jobs couldn’t cover the $10,000 a year dormitory costs as well as books and food. And he blogged it: just look at the cover page of his blog, he’s revelling in his story and boy has he found a hook for his blog! The library threw him out after the press got the story (here the NY Times story, subscription-free in a syndicated newspaper) but NYU have put him up in dorms for free for the rest of the semester. As you would, given the press.

Free tuition, student loans for everyone that actually more or less cover living expenses and practically no homelessness ROCKS! I *heart* Norway.


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4 thoughts on “blogging homelessness gets press and home”

  1. Doug

    Amazing story. Studying in the UK has really reinforced to me how relatively affordable education at home (Australia) is. It’s still terribly hard for some, but there is not the need to take on debt on the scale of the US or (it seems) the UK.

    (Back in Oz tuition is sort-of free on your first degree, you pay relatively modest up-front fees and the government then charges you a “contribution”, ie a percentage of the full cost of your education, which is then repaid by your marginal tax rate being a bit higher while you earn. By international standards, I’m beginning to realise it’s a relatively sane way of chargning people for education.)

    Anyway, thanks for the link. It’s so important to remember what a privilege education is, especially when (as in my case) you get to live in relative comfort and almost entirely at a foreign government and the university’s expense …

  2. scribblingwoman

    In Academic News
    The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on the late, lamented Invisible Adjunct. And here is Henry Farrell’s thoughtful…

  3. andedammen

    ÿstkantglede
    “I heart Norway”, skrev Jill her om dagen, og i kveld kjente jeg p meg da jeg gikk hjem fra…

  4. razors

    Homeless…
    I was a homeless student, and I wasn’t smart enough to live in a library that was always open, nor was I lucky enough to have a laptop and the resources for my very own dot-com with which to chronicle the adventures. They are interesting advent…

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