Underpaid 83-Year-Old Professor Died Trying to Make Ends Meet by Working Night Shift at Eat an' Save

[SheilaT]

114. As several others have pointed out,

there's a lot missing from this story.

If she was 83, had been teaching there for twenty-five years, she started teaching at the age of 58. I suppose it's possible she had never worked until then, but not entirely likely. Where was Social Security and Medicare in this equation? And the well known inclination of too many people, also mentioned in this thread, to be too proud to seek help. What would Adult Protective Services have done for her? Given her a safe place to stay? If so, why didn't she accept their services?

I'm not letting Duquesne completely off the hook, but still, there is much more than we've been told.

As an aside, in my youth I gave serious consideration to becoming a college professor, but when I learned that women were routinely paid a lot less than the men, I decided I wasn't willing to put up with that nonsense. I also have known my share of adjuncts over the years as I've attended college on and off my entire adult life, and I wonder why so many of them do it. They'd make better money at WallyWorld, and there are lots of other options out there. Perhaps if the colleges faced a genuine crisis in hiring enough teachers, they'd finally start paying more. Who knows?