Dear Commons Community,

After a fifteen hour plane ride, I have arrived in South Africa and have met colleagues from North-West University.  Seugnet Blignaut and Verona Leendertz were gracious hosts on my first day.  They gave me a tour of North-West’ s Vaal Triangle Campus, which is quite attractive and very large.

Located on the banks of the Vaal River in a proclaimed nature reserve, the Vaal Triangle Campus is an inspiring setting for study.  The campus has a number of buildings spread nicely so there is always a feeling of openness.  Mostly brick construction provides a uniformity and style to the campus. The student residences are most attractive two-story townhouse style facilities.   The campus is connected to a small game preserve and you can see springbok (kind of like a small gazelle) grazing in the distance.

At night, Seugnet invited me to dinner at her home where we had a South African dish, bobotie (minced meat) with rice.

A most pleasant evening.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Today is a travel day  and I will be on a flight to South Africa in a couple of hours.  If all goes well, my next post will be from the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University which is located about fifty miles west of Johannesburg.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the UFT are to be congratulated for reaching a new contract that appears fair and equitable to both sides.   Here is Eyewitness News commentary on the details:

“The 9-year agreement will implement a number of groundbreaking reforms that the city says will make schools laboratories of innovation and improve public education for every student, while also making important changes that will provide more than $1 billion in health care cost savings over the next four years.

“Working together with our dedicated teachers – instead of being locked in rancorous debate – we have found common ground today that moves us closer to those critical objectives,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Everyone needs to play a positive role in our children’s future, and this agreement deepens parental engagement, recognizes quality teachers, and ensures our students will benefit from a new era of educational reforms that will improve learning and performance in the classroom.”

The United Federation of Teachers represents 100,000 teachers and other school employees who have been working on an expired contract since 2009. Union leaders have long pushed for substantial retroactive raises of up to $3.4 billion.

Under the proposed agreement, teachers would receive similar raises to those that had been granted by the previous administration to much of the municipal workforce of 4 percent each for 2009 and 2010. The raises will be restructured and provided to teachers in increments from 2015 to 2020. The agreement includes a one-time $1,000 ratification payment. Wage increases constituting a new pattern for the following years are on the schedule below:

May 2013: 1%
May 2014: 1%
May 2015: 1%
May 2016: 1.5%
May 2017: 2.5%
May 2018: 3%

The deal ends years of hostility between the teachers union and City Hall. De Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, declined to grant any retroactive raises and often engaged in verbal clashes with the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew.”

It is a breath of fresh air that teachers are being treated with respect again here in New York City.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York media yesterday focused on a recent report conducted by the Center for Economic Opportunity that concluded that 45.6% of all NYC residents live in poverty and were struggling to make ends meet.  Just as startling was the fact that Asian-Americans were the largest group of New Yorkers living in poverty having surpassed the Latino/a population.  As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Despite a rise in employment, nearly half of New York City’s population is living near poverty levels — a problem that is particularly striking in the city’s Asian population, which has surpassed Hispanics as the city’s poorest group…

The study revealed 45.6 percent of New Yorkers are barely making ends meet, even with more adults working full-time since the recession. A combination of low wages, rising rents, and a lack of benefits is largely to blame.

The dismal numbers, presented Tuesday to City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, follows a growing number of studies showing the harsh realities of income inequality in New York. Just last week, city comptroller Scott Stringer released a study showing just how unaffordable the city has become, with the median rent in New York City rising a staggering 75 percent from 2000 to 2012.

The annual study also showed significant shifts within racial and ethnic demographics. As the report indicates, the poverty rate of Asians and Hispanics were “statistically identical” in 2008, at 22.4 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively. But by 2012, the rate surged to 29 percent for Asians, more than 3 percent higher than Hispanics.”

These are stark findings and will challenge Mayor Bill de Blasio to develop a comprehensive solution to the problem.

Tony