Hello--first time posting in this subreddit. I received my Ph.D. from BU in 2019 and have been teaching as an instructor in the Writing Program there since 2014. I have loved learning and teaching at BU, but have been dismayed by how poorly they treat their faculty--poverty wages, no affordable insurance, no PPE during the pandemic, and so on. After this fall, after nearly 7 years of teaching at BU, I finally had to quit due to the simple fact that I cannot afford to be employed by BU anymore. Over the course of the Fall 2020 semester, I wrote this essay about my experiences and why I have to leave BU, trying to figure out this frustrating situation. I shared it with my students last semester and they were grateful to have the insider information about how BU operates as a educational institution. I thought this subreddit might appreciate reading as well. I have copied the entirety of the essay below.
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TL;DR: BU has a demonstrable record of failing its faculty and devaluing the classroom experience for its students.
-BU doesn't believe its teachers need living wages even amidst a pandemic and despite record fundraising and endowments. Or, in other words, students pay full price for classes taught by exhausted faculty who often live on publicly subsidized health insurance and work many other jobs to make ends meet.
-In a moral sense, it's repugnant for other reasons: BU paid $13,000 in security fees for the right wing commentator Ben Shapiro to speak for one night on campus in the Fall of 2019 while also paying members of their faculty just $6,000 dollars to teach a semesters-long course.
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ESSAY:
November 22, 2020.
Post-Doc 2020
Dr. Sam ShupeCollege of Arts & Sciences Writing Program Boston University
I am writing because I need to figure some feelings out. First, I feel embarrassed. I must quit my beloved job teaching at the elite private research university where I earned my Ph.D. because I can no longer afford to live on the meager salary they pay, even with publicly subsidized healthcare, multiple roommates, and second jobs. Second, I feel a growing sense of anger toward my institution that is unproductive, unsettling, and in need of translating. Third, and finally, I feel deeply saddened. The very institution that taught me to think and write about the intricacies of the human condition does not care if I can afford basic housing, healthcare, or financial stability while I teach their students. The institution that taught me how to see humanity with depth has chosen to see me as a number to be flattened on a page. I love teaching truth where I myself learned to access it, but my university does not care about that. My university does not pay me or dozens of other part time lecturers and adjuncts enough to be fully alive in their classrooms. They know they do not pay enough for many of their teachers to live, that many of their faculty work other jobs to survive. They know it and are okay with it. I can be okay with it, too, but I need them to admit it. I need them say it out loud: we do not believe living wages are essential for the optimum performance of teachers for our students. Or, we are okay with our students paying full-price for courses taught by faculty who cannot afford to pay their full attention to those students.
The fact that the university entrusts me to teach the analytical skills it takes to see and communicate their low standards is the most difficult truth for me to live with.I cannot ignore this topsy-turvy world they have empowered faculty to both teach and struggle within. I am one of many thousands of vastly underpaid lecturers and adjuncts teaching hundreds of thousands of American college kids. We are the backbone of every university. They cannot serve what they purport to offer without us. It nears amusement to consider how oblivious American universities have become to the growing resentment resulting from their mistreatment of the most diverse and trained generation of thinkers in American history. Do they think we are stupid? They taught us. Sometimes it feels like satire. They want teachers smart enough to teach critical thinking, but too stupid to realize they are being taken advantage of. It is as if they want architectural historians who see no physical and symbolic differences between the Pyramids of Egypt and the facades of Las Vegas or literature scholars who can only pull a fishing trip out of Moby Dick. You can blame Millenials for irony in pop culture but blame the prior generations in charge of the academy for forcing irony into education. Ironically, they helped Millenials understand that.
I write this amidst the pandemic. COVID is freezing budgets in seemingly every industry. But even with some belt tightening, my university's endowment recently hit 2.3 billion and freshmen deposits for September enrollment surpassed administration's goals. A little over fifty percent of the university's revenue—some $157 million in 2019—comes from student tuition while the rest is made from sponsored programs, donations, and research grants. In the last year's financial report, the university's treasurer happily reported the institution "experienced another successful year of strong financial growth and continued support of our primary mission of teaching and research, ending the year with assets totaling more than $7 billion."1 Things look financially rosy. But somehow, at the same time, I have woken up to the news that the university will not provide PPE to faculty. I read emails on my department's list-serve soliciting donations for a faculty-funded stock of masks, face shields, gloves and sanitizer. I am one of dozens of part time lecturers in just one single university department who walk into billion-dollar-backed- classrooms without affordable healthcare or provided PPE. Can anyone supply a good argument beyond cost saving as to why this is?
While the endowment grows, so too do the numbers of students, parents, faculty, and staff who can no longer trust their university to do the right thing with that money. My university is but one of many and will defend themselves by comparing their awful numbers to the similarly awful numbers of other private institutions like them. They will probably counter my arguments by showing how other universities also pay similarly low wages. But that does little to allay my criticisms of how educational institutions have decided to handle themselves, not as leaders of purveying intellectual truths, but loyal followers of steady business. We expect it from Walmart, but not a school. My university can continue its path but I feel called to ask them to be honest about their choices. In a time of chaos and pain, I am selfishly asking for attention. I am asking students, faculty, administrators, parents, and all degree holders to consider my story and ask is this what we want for each other?
The Facts
I teach in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University. Beginning as a graduate student and in the years following, I have designed and taught sixteen total undergraduate class sections over the course of eleven semesters, seven as a Graduate Writing Fellow (GWF) and nine as a Part-Time Lecturer (PTL). According to my union-won contract, I am scheduled for a modest raise of my per-class rate after teaching eight classes as a part-time lecturer. However, BU Labor Relations has denied me this raise by arguing that four of the nine classes do not count because I was still in my last year of school while teaching them and technically still a student. Despite paying me the lower PTL rate per class and allowing me to teach two sections a semester (which is not allowed for GWFs), they have reasoned that I was a productive and responsible enough educator for the workload but not the basic financial security. My contract allows me to purchase a health plan through BU, but it costs more than twenty-five percent of my annual salary—three times as much as my current public subsidized plan. Public health is my best option.
The numbers are funny in a sad way. Fresh out of school PTLs like myself make roughly $6,000 per class at BU. If you're lucky and get offered to teach the maximum four total classes, you will make a little over $25,000 a year. The reality is more likely less as PTLs typically teach only two or three sections a year. The raise provides a little over $2,000 extra per class. Raise or not, PTLs still make below $30,000 a year without benefits for Ph.D. level work in one of the most expensive cities in the country and only after teaching for two years at an even lower rate. Each course, capped at around eighteen students and costing them each at least $5,000, generates close to $100,000 for BU. PTLs can make the university upwards of $400,000 in a year and receive less than ten percent of that. The funny: I am a highly educated and impressively employed thirty-one year old professor whose physical life resembles his students'. The sad: the raise would do little to change that.2
I am single, white, straight, and male with a Ph.D. in New England. I have near fantastical odds of financially surviving. This sort of pain is a more easily weathered storm for a guy like me. I know that because I am an historian and my field of study clearly shows us how this world is set up for me to thrive. I have this wonderful luxury of being able publicly detest money for philosophical reasons and live more or less accordingly without mortal fear. Writing this essay critical of my employer, for example, is an immense privilege. So when I really pick apart my pain, the deepest source comes from the violation of intellectual truth imbedded in this struggle. It is the principle of the thing.
I got the news they were denying my raise a month before the start of the fall 2020 semester. It was a Saturday. The week before was filled with faculty meetings on Zoom and I answered texts from colleagues. Did your raise go through? I still haven't found out myself. I opened up my personal email account to follow conversations with my union reps and comrades discussing all the ways BU was refusing to help teachers prepare for mandatory in-person teaching amidst the pandemic. It was not all bad. I wrote a letter of recommendation for a student applying to a study abroad program—a joyous task as it was in support of a motivated freshman who refused to let COVID interrupt his spring semester and completed my course with style and grace. (For the sake of transparency, I feel I must disclose that those summer meetings and student advising sessions were paid for by the State of Massachusetts Unemployment Office.)
Summertime can open up all sorts of beautiful moments for teachers. The most passionate learners come out of the woodwork. At the request of another student, I took and emailed iPhone photos of an out-of-print essay I had by Howard Zinn, BU's own radical professorial patron saint of yore, so that they could expand their already graded research paper. Their essay deals with Depression Era Boston and the beginnings of a politically and socially radical yacht club for working-class youth and they needed some background history. Zinn's essay is a historiographical introduction to a collection of speeches and essays by New Deal politicians and progressive journalists. In a Zoom meeting, my student and I discussed a striking quote, "Their thinking does not give us facile solutions, but if history has uses beyond that of reminiscence, one of them is to nourish lean ideological times with the nectar of other years."3 What a wonderful summer reminder. It might be a lean time, but that does not preclude it from nourishment. Nice work if you can afford it. If I got fired today, I would be content with having introduced just one BU student to Howard Zinn. He, along with Martin Luther King Jr. and now Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, are among the institution's best.
My writing courses tend to focus on the history of play and public space in America, mostly in the late nineteenth century. We examine bicycles, boats, baseball, and boxing alongside urban public parks, racetracks, stadiums, YMCAs, and underground fight clubs. I put the word "sport" in my course titles whenever possible. Surprisingly, I have never had more than half of a section comprised of athletes. Similarly, my courses have also been divided somewhat equally along gender identities. My students initially often think they have signed up for a writing course about sports history, which makes sense as I use overtly flashy titles like "American Sweat: Origins of Modern Sport and Recreation." However, they end up diving deep, sometimes uncomfortably so, into how sports culture does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, a major take away from units on Boston bicycling in 1890s is how male politicians and cultural leaders of all kinds publicly argued that women should not be allowed to sweat in public space. Studying early twentieth century boxing, students dwell on the full-bodied paintings of George Bellows and grainy silent films of semi-legal pugilism to get a grasp on the history of toxic, violence-dependent masculinity.4 At the end of every semester I make the same joke: I tricked you all. When I look at my pay stubs, though, it seems like I have been tricked, too.
The Symbols
The recent denial of my raise is little more than the small financial tip on top of a larger conceptual iceberg that has been floating in my professional life for a while. The fall of 2019 was my first semester teaching with a Ph.D. I taught two sections at the entry rate. $12,000 was not enough to pay my normal bills and the newest additions of publicly subsidized medical insurance and student loans, both of which had been previously covered and deferred by my graduate student status. I got a part-time job as a bicycle courier in Boston, a stimulating gig for a historian of play and cities. Tuesdays and Thursdays I spent my days on campus teaching and holding office hours. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I was downtown on my bike with a sling bag full of legal fillings and architectural plans, rushing to move them to and from court houses and office buildings for stamps and signatures. There is not a lot of money in the bicycle courier world, but it was enough for me to make ends meet. I was happy to alternate between leg work and mind work as the leaves of Boston changed. I graded papers in high-rise lobbies while on standby, delighted to watch the city breathe in front me.
Halfway through the semester, I started to worry about more than BU's payroll strategies. In November, the right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro came to campus to give a talk titled, "America Was Not Built on Slavery, It Was Built On Freedom." The BU chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, a national conservative student group, sponsored the talk and successfully gave away 1,500 tickets to mostly white college aged young men. In the weeks preceding, I started opening my classes with brief warm-up discussions about Shapiro. Should he be allowed to speak at BU? I looked for guidance from my administration, but found little more than vague quotes from the deans about free speech and safety in the university's daily press release, BU Today.5 We tackled the issue anyways. Many of my students were motivated to understand how someone who champions the phrase "facts don't care about your feelings," could be so controversial. After all, we were in a nonfiction writing class learning how to research facts.
At the beginning of each day, we examined different examples of Shapiro's writing— tweets, book chapters, articles from his website—and placed them against whatever writing lesson was on the docket for the day. Without fail, his work broke nearly every rule of valid argumentation outlined in our textbook. During a unit on balancing sources, we read a short article from November 2019 he wrote amidst the heated Democratic Primary.6 Shapiro rails against the Democrats for being "too ashamed to stand with an actual pro-Israeli group." Nearly every sentence reads in this exclamatory language that my students quickly recognized as argumentative, and thus requiring evidence. If you argue the existence of a fact (Democrats feel ashamed), our textbook suggests showing how and why you believe that in order to build trust with the reader and thus convince them (evidence of a Democrat expressing shame). The article continues without a single quote, mention of an explicit source, or any voice other than Shapiro's. Under the freshman magnifying glass, we discovered that very little of his writing passes the basic standards of our BU-recommended writing textbook. We concluded that Shapiro was easily the most untrustworthy writer we had encountered all semester. He is a New York Times best selling author and host of a wildly popular podcast, but we could not find any of his work that would receive a passing grade in our class. My students, wonderfully growing as researchers and thinkers, kept asking, "Why is BU supporting this?" Free speech is important on campus and student groups can and should sponsor speakers at their schools, but BU did little to contextualize Shapiro and left anyone who did not know of him already relatively aimless in determining what he really means on their campus.
I attended the evening talk in order to investigate on behalf of my class. Shapiro's lecture only led to more questions. There were so few facts to be found. The title alone had sparked righteous outrage on campus and when huge full-color posters with his face draped exterior dormitory walls, many students made their feelings known through protest and anticipated Hitler mustache graffiti. It was hard not to see his planned visit as a stunt to rile up emotion. Before the talk, I waited in a closely packed pre-COVID line, holding a notebook, some printed out articles and tweets, and my textbook. There was a group of four male BU student Shapiro fans in front me. It was cold and they all wore those thousand dollar coats with dead Canadian coyotes on the hood. They asked what all my stuff was for. When they learned I intended to ask a Shapiro what he thought of my students' critique of his writing methodology, they told me I was going to get "owned." I was able to hold the ear of one of them. He told me he had earned an A in his required writing course. I explained how his fellow students found that much the work from the man we were about to see would not earn the same grade. "Hm," he said.
The actual talk lasted forty-odd minutes and concluded with a brief question and answer section. I sat near a microphone with the intention of getting first in line but perhaps for the best, eager students beat me to it. I did not get to ask him to respond to our class findings that his writing possesses little reliable fact and startling amounts of plainly alarmist language. But I did not need to. He gave us the evidence anyways. Shapiro lectured at a lightening fast and near impossible to follow cadence, slowing down and stopping only when protestors stood up with signs. He recited Atlantic slave trade statistics from a few historians and a great deal of quotes from the slave holding Founding Fathers to support the tired and beaten argument that early America was merely a mild sinner in the context of many western colonial powers who owned even more slaves.7 However, like a lot of struggling students, he clearly stopped researching after page one and forgot to mention that America alone developed chattel slavery. He omitted mentioning that America pioneered the system in which it was legally decided that human beings could be born slaves, a system that required violent enforcement easily traceable through documentation to today's police forces. This system of course allowed the Founding Fathers, who were mostly skilled white businessmen creating wealth from trading slave-made goods with other colonies, to eliminate the need to import slaves at the high numbers of other Western powers.8 I sat quietly and gave thanks to my history professors at BU for teaching me how to read and understand the truth. I will never go Vegas and believe to have seen the Pyramids.
While he rattled off quotes and sprinkled in jabs at the left, much of the lecture time was given to a mic'd up Shapiro calmly talking over yelling protestors. A YouTube search reveals this to be a signature feature of his public appearances. On the Daily Wire channel, chopped up videos of him clashing with protestors have racked up millions of views. Most have aggressive all-caps verbs in the titles: "DESTROYS," RIPS," CRUSHES."9 At BU, he opened his talk saying, "The lecture that I'm giving is almost pointless, because if America was built on slavery, not freedom, then we wouldn't have a bunch of protestors outside exercising that freedom—and good for them." Later, he offered "no thanks to the leftists who sought to have this lecture cancelled out of apparent fear of my wretched evil... who wrote that BU should ban me to protect its students from me. Look at me. Saying things."10 None of the half dozen questions asked by students after the talk related to the content of the lecture. Most were requests for Shapiro to comment on Twitter feuds he was in with politicians and celebrities. We watched a grown man brag about his life's work winning emotionally charged battles of his own creation. Cellphones and video cameras were everywhere. We had all collectively participated in a wrestling match to be broadcasted on the Internet later. His fans were there to watch their man play- out the verbs they read in his video titles, hopeful of becoming an extra in a whole new recorded scene filled with USA chants and police escorting protestors out of the venue. Fittingly, the talk was held not in a lecture hall, but the track and field building, a place where students' hard physical work leads towards clear winning or losing. In the night's match for truth, BU lost.
I returned to my class to discuss the lecture. The disappointment of not getting to ask a question was real. We had all this evidence from Shapiro's writing and passages from our textbook, but ultimately our work was unfinished. Thankfully, academic work is always unfinished. Good arguments built on solid research should always lead to more questions. We discover truth not to win anything for ourselves, but to simply understand it better so we can all have more of it. But we still could not understand why BU supported the talk. My lecture observations were another source and BU Today put the above Shapiro quotes on the official record for us all. We wondered, can he explain why believing slavery contributed to America precludes you from also celebrating your right to free speech? It would have been great to get Shapiro on the record directly responding to my class. We still want comment. Mr. Shapiro, if you are reading this, please respond to our argument: "Your work is controversial on college campuses not simply because of the content, but also because your methodology rarely meets basic standards of college-level research, writing, and thinking*.*"
Three students reached out to me individually with the desire to discuss more about truth, free speech, and the role of the university during office hours. My bike messenger schedule made it near impossible to meet with more than one student at a time in my shared office with six PTLs, two desks, two computers with Windows 7, and no actual windows. Still, our conversations were productive and enlightening. Teachers dream of moments like those, where students excitedly build a bridge between the classroom and the real world. We had energy, we had momentum, we had ideas for an op-ed or letter to the editor. But I got tired and slow, increasingly soggy and cold from delivering packages on my bicycling between days of teaching through a rainy late November. I let a really powerful potential student project slip away. Sometimes on a slow job from downtown to the Back Bay I would incorporate the Charles River Esplanade into my run. Long straight paths protected from cars can let a cyclist's mind wander. I would think about all the excited student questions that I would never have enough time to answer, the conversations left in their cocoons. I hope those students remember and I hope they know I am sorry for letting them down.
It eventually came out that after some debate, BU folded to pressure and agreed to pay the roughly $13,000 in security costs for the hour-long lecture.11 In other words, BU paid the same amount of money for one night of blatantly elementary history lecturing as they do to members of their faculty for teaching two semester-long courses. Resentment grew. It was especially hard because the better I did my job the easier it was to feel indignant. Experiences that helped me feel like a meaningful teacher revealed deeply uncomfortable truths. When I did the work of my mentors, I saw pain not just in the past, but also in my life. When discomfort turned to depression, I was happy to be on my bicycle three days a week, downtown and far away from campus.
Facts and Symbols: Boston University, 1970 and 2020
The students kept me going. No matter how much I loved the respite of riding downtown, I always felt like I was failing my students. I would ride and think and think and ride and their work always filled my head, reminding me I was still a teacher. A month before the spring 2020 semester, my program director offered me a third class, which would be enough compensation to leave the courier work behind and teach full time. In fact, teaching five sections in a year—two in the fall, three in the spring—technically counts as a full-time load. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to be a full-time academic. Even as COVID blew my course plans apart mid-semester, my students and I still crafted some valuable time together. I made the PTL rate of $18,000 dollars for those three classes and I felt rich. I saved a little and even bought myself a hand-built boutique road bike from 1991. This summer, in between preparing for my two classes this fall and sifting through emails, I have been riding it far out of the city without a bag on my back, delivering nothing but fresh landscapes into my mind. The student who asked for a recommendation for a study aboard program ended their email with a similar sentiment. The cycling history we studied in class inspired them to follow their uncle into the sport when the pandemic forced them to move home. Biking far and fast, they told me, was a nourishing break from studying organic chemistry over Zoom all summer.
Like Howard Zinn suggests, I look to history and the work of others to maintain my mind and water ideological droughts. Diving into the history of BU has helped me understand and contextualize my experiences. Years ago as a graduate student, I completed a project for a class on construction of BU's mid-1960s concrete buildings designed by Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert. My favorite sources were the photographs of the buildings from the student-run yearbooks, The Hub. I found powerful images of blocks' worth of brownstones being demolished with the Prudential tower under construction and cleverly framed into the background. When I found the shelf of the yearbooks in the library, I did as all historians do and sat on the floor of the stacks to read before I decided what I wanted to check out. When I looked at the 1970 yearbook, I chuckled with plain joy. There were beautifully photographed full-page spreads of poorly rolled joints and "END THE DRAFT" buttons. The kids are always all right. But the section for portraits of university administration stood out the most. In simple two-tone black and white, four silhouetted figures stand with their arms stretched out in the seig heil position.12 Revisiting these sources, it is clear how those students saw their university leaders. Historians wonder, what has changed over time?
Zinn was in the middle of his educational career when BU students went on strike in response to the Vietnam War and closed the university in May of 1970. A radical spirit filled the campus. The yearbook included a timeline. "Thursday April 30th: U.S. Forces start Cambodian operation." "Sunday, May 10: Rock concert held at Nickerson Field. Collection taken for Black Panther Defense Fund. Press praises BU for handling of tense situation."13 The demonstrations culminated when students succeeded in forcing BU to fund a summer program of courses on community engagement they designed and cleverly titled, "Communiversity." The goal was to "deal directly with such critical problems as war, inflation, the deterioration of cities and civilian services, and the pollution of the environment."14 In so many ways, the challenge and work students face with their universities remains the same.
Like 2020, there was no in-person commencement ceremony for BU students in 1970. Instead of a pandemic, however, the students themselves had shut it down. Ironically, it rained that day, meaning there ceremony would have been cancelled regardless of the collective action. In a short essay printed towards the end of the yearbook, a student flexed their analytical skills and described a silver lining in the storm clouds. They wrote, "The irony lies not in the lack of a cap and gown, or in the optimistic rhetoric of some, nor even in this climax or anti-climax of maturity. It lies in the fact that we, the Class of 1970, ended our stay profoundly." It is a bright student who can understand what the university is really for, reason and action not regalia and rhetoric. They concluded, "We either learned something new, or began to apply our 'knowledge.' Maybe we had a Commencement after all."15
I wonder if Zinn loved teaching at BU and how he felt during that heady year on campus. I assume it was invigorating. His classes were regularly overenrolled and it is clear he motivated students to not just think like an intellectual, but act like one too. I imagine he flipped through that yearbook with delight. I have also loved teaching at BU. The Writing Program has been an intellectual home most young academics like me can only dream of. But the administration above my department makes it feel like just that, a dream of some distant place in my mind far away from reality. Boston University is on a dangerous path towards becoming an institutional facsimile our president: just another business stripping people of resources to make themselves feel whole. Is that the role of higher education?
I am here to report that approach does not work for creating substance, truth, or happiness. It merely creates a façade, a shell, a balloon. BU might be a balloon, but my colleagues and I are not. Neither are our students. And we are still free to think and write, even if that means wading through painful truths. History shows us that. I have decided to take an optimistic approach and believe that BU is still the institution for teachers, students, and alumni like Zinn, King, and AOC. Indeed, the history of the university and its students reveals a pattern of love and action that fills me with hope. If the balloon pops, or the façade falls over, I believe there will always be students and teachers there to build something real on campus. I am just sad and sorry I will no longer see them in class.
NOTES
1 Martin J. Howard, "Letter From the Treasurer—Fiscal Year 2019," in Consolidated
Financial Statements: June 30, 2019 and 2018, (Boston University).
2 "Cost of Attendance for 2020-2021," BU College of Arts & Sciences, (https://www.bu.edu/cas/current-students/ma-and-ms-students/cost-of- attendance/), accessed August 12th, 2019.
3 Howard Zinn, "Introduction," in New Deal Thought, Howard Zinn, ed., (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1966), pp. xviii.
4 See Robert Haywood, "George Bellows's 'Stag at Sharkey's': Boxing, Violence, and Male Identity," Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1988).
5 "Ben Shapiro's Visit to BU: 20 Questions and Answers You Need to Know," BU Today(http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/ben-shapiro-at-bu-20-things-to-know/), November 11, 2019.
6 Ben Shapiro, "The J Street Democrats," The Daily Wire,(https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-the-j-street-democrats), November 1, 2019.
7 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
8 There are many works of recent scholarship that hold this view. For a representative example, see Calvin Schermerhorn, The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).
9 Ben Shapiro and Daily Wire Channels*, YouTube.com,*(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQC_G5Xsjhp9fEJKuIcrSw), accessed August 12, 2020.
10 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
11 Anna Facciola, "Negotiations for Ben Shapiro Event on Campus Lead to Decrease in Venue Size," The Daily Free Press, Boston University, September 24, 2019.
12 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 241. 13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
14 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 299.
15 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook( 1970), pp. 299.

Hello--I'm pretty new to Reddit and this is actually my first post anywhere. I recently decided to leave academia due to the low pay and general disrespect I felt from my institution. I'm happy to say I've found employment elsewhere, but obviously quite sad as well. It will always hurt to have left a job I love--I'm an historian and I taught research and writing courses.
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Over this past summer, fall, and winter of this COVID Zoom year I wrote an essay about my experience falling out of love with academia. When I finally accepted my new job, I sent this to my faculty listserv and got some wonderful reactions of solidarity. Perhaps you all would like to read it, too. The text of the essay is copied below:
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November 22, 2020.
Post-Doc 2020
Dr. Sam ShupeCollege of Arts & Sciences Writing Program Boston University
I am writing because I need to figure some feelings out. First, I feel embarrassed. I must quit my beloved job teaching at the elite private research university where I earned my Ph.D. because I can no longer afford to live on the meager salary they pay, even with publicly subsidized healthcare, multiple roommates, and second jobs. Second, I feel a growing sense of anger toward my institution that is unproductive, unsettling, and in need of translating. Third, and finally, I feel deeply saddened. The very institution that taught me to think and write about the intricacies of the human condition does not care if I can afford basic housing, healthcare, or financial stability while I teach their students. The institution that taught me how to see humanity with depth has chosen to see me as a number to be flattened on a page. I love teaching truth where I myself learned to access it, but my university does not care about that. My university does not pay me or dozens of other part time lecturers and adjuncts enough to be fully alive in their classrooms. They know they do not pay enough for many of their teachers to live, that many of their faculty work other jobs to survive. They know it and are okay with it. I can be okay with it, too, but I need them to admit it. I need them say it out loud: we do not believe living wages are essential for the optimum performance of teachers for our students. Or, we are okay with our students paying full-price for courses taught by faculty who cannot afford to pay their full attention to those students.
The fact that the university entrusts me to teach the analytical skills it takes to see and communicate their low standards is the most difficult truth for me to live with.I cannot ignore this topsy-turvy world they have empowered faculty to both teach and struggle within. I am one of many thousands of vastly underpaid lecturers and adjuncts teaching hundreds of thousands of American college kids. We are the backbone of every university. They cannot serve what they purport to offer without us. It nears amusement to consider how oblivious American universities have become to the growing resentment resulting from their mistreatment of the most diverse and trained generation of thinkers in American history. Do they think we are stupid? They taught us. Sometimes it feels like satire. They want teachers smart enough to teach critical thinking, but too stupid to realize they are being taken advantage of. It is as if they want architectural historians who see no physical and symbolic differences between the Pyramids of Egypt and the facades of Las Vegas or literature scholars who can only pull a fishing trip out of Moby Dick. You can blame Millenials for irony in pop culture but blame the prior generations in charge of the academy for forcing irony into education. Ironically, they helped Millenials understand that.
I write this amidst the pandemic. COVID is freezing budgets in seemingly every industry. But even with some belt tightening, my university's endowment recently hit 2.3 billion and freshmen deposits for September enrollment surpassed administration's goals. A little over fifty percent of the university's revenue—some $157 million in 2019—comes from student tuition while the rest is made from sponsored programs, donations, and research grants. In the last year's financial report, the university's treasurer happily reported the institution "experienced another successful year of strong financial growth and continued support of our primary mission of teaching and research, ending the year with assets totaling more than $7 billion."1 Things look financially rosy. But somehow, at the same time, I have woken up to the news that the university will not provide PPE to faculty. I read emails on my department's list-serve soliciting donations for a faculty-funded stock of masks, face shields, gloves and sanitizer. I am one of dozens of part time lecturers in just one single university department who walk into billion-dollar-backed- classrooms without affordable healthcare or provided PPE. Can anyone supply a good argument beyond cost saving as to why this is?
While the endowment grows, so too do the numbers of students, parents, faculty, and staff who can no longer trust their university to do the right thing with that money. My university is but one of many and will defend themselves by comparing their awful numbers to the similarly awful numbers of other private institutions like them. They will probably counter my arguments by showing how other universities also pay similarly low wages. But that does little to allay my criticisms of how educational institutions have decided to handle themselves, not as leaders of purveying intellectual truths, but loyal followers of steady business. We expect it from Walmart, but not a school. My university can continue its path but I feel called to ask them to be honest about their choices. In a time of chaos and pain, I am selfishly asking for attention. I am asking students, faculty, administrators, parents, and all degree holders to consider my story and ask is this what we want for each other?
The Facts
I teach in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University. Beginning as a graduate student and in the years following, I have designed and taught sixteen total undergraduate class sections over the course of eleven semesters, seven as a Graduate Writing Fellow (GWF) and nine as a Part-Time Lecturer (PTL). According to my union-won contract, I am scheduled for a modest raise of my per-class rate after teaching eight classes as a part-time lecturer. However, BU Labor Relations has denied me this raise by arguing that four of the nine classes do not count because I was still in my last year of school while teaching them and technically still a student. Despite paying me the lower PTL rate per class and allowing me to teach two sections a semester (which is not allowed for GWFs), they have reasoned that I was a productive and responsible enough educator for the workload but not the basic financial security. My contract allows me to purchase a health plan through BU, but it costs more than twenty-five percent of my annual salary—three times as much as my current public subsidized plan. Public health is my best option.
The numbers are funny in a sad way. Fresh out of school PTLs like myself make roughly $6,000 per class at BU. If you're lucky and get offered to teach the maximum four total classes, you will make a little over $25,000 a year. The reality is more likely less as PTLs typically teach only two or three sections a year. The raise provides a little over $2,000 extra per class. Raise or not, PTLs still make below $30,000 a year without benefits for Ph.D. level work in one of the most expensive cities in the country and only after teaching for two years at an even lower rate. Each course, capped at around eighteen students and costing them each at least $5,000, generates close to $100,000 for BU. PTLs can make the university upwards of $400,000 in a year and receive less than ten percent of that. The funny: I am a highly educated and impressively employed thirty-one year old professor whose physical life resembles his students'. The sad: the raise would do little to change that.2
I am single, white, straight, and male with a Ph.D. in New England. I have near fantastical odds of financially surviving. This sort of pain is a more easily weathered storm for a guy like me. I know that because I am an historian and my field of study clearly shows us how this world is set up for me to thrive. I have this wonderful luxury of being able publicly detest money for philosophical reasons and live more or less accordingly without mortal fear. Writing this essay critical of my employer, for example, is an immense privilege. So when I really pick apart my pain, the deepest source comes from the violation of intellectual truth imbedded in this struggle. It is the principle of the thing.
I got the news they were denying my raise a month before the start of the fall 2020 semester. It was a Saturday. The week before was filled with faculty meetings on Zoom and I answered texts from colleagues. Did your raise go through? I still haven't found out myself. I opened up my personal email account to follow conversations with my union reps and comrades discussing all the ways BU was refusing to help teachers prepare for mandatory in-person teaching amidst the pandemic. It was not all bad. I wrote a letter of recommendation for a student applying to a study abroad program—a joyous task as it was in support of a motivated freshman who refused to let COVID interrupt his spring semester and completed my course with style and grace. (For the sake of transparency, I feel I must disclose that those summer meetings and student advising sessions were paid for by the State of Massachusetts Unemployment Office.)
Summertime can open up all sorts of beautiful moments for teachers. The most passionate learners come out of the woodwork. At the request of another student, I took and emailed iPhone photos of an out-of-print essay I had by Howard Zinn, BU's own radical professorial patron saint of yore, so that they could expand their already graded research paper. Their essay deals with Depression Era Boston and the beginnings of a politically and socially radical yacht club for working-class youth and they needed some background history. Zinn's essay is a historiographical introduction to a collection of speeches and essays by New Deal politicians and progressive journalists. In a Zoom meeting, my student and I discussed a striking quote, "Their thinking does not give us facile solutions, but if history has uses beyond that of reminiscence, one of them is to nourish lean ideological times with the nectar of other years."3 What a wonderful summer reminder. It might be a lean time, but that does not preclude it from nourishment. Nice work if you can afford it. If I got fired today, I would be content with having introduced just one BU student to Howard Zinn. He, along with Martin Luther King Jr. and now Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, are among the institution's best.
My writing courses tend to focus on the history of play and public space in America, mostly in the late nineteenth century. We examine bicycles, boats, baseball, and boxing alongside urban public parks, racetracks, stadiums, YMCAs, and underground fight clubs. I put the word "sport" in my course titles whenever possible. Surprisingly, I have never had more than half of a section comprised of athletes. Similarly, my courses have also been divided somewhat equally along gender identities. My students initially often think they have signed up for a writing course about sports history, which makes sense as I use overtly flashy titles like "American Sweat: Origins of Modern Sport and Recreation." However, they end up diving deep, sometimes uncomfortably so, into how sports culture does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, a major take away from units on Boston bicycling in 1890s is how male politicians and cultural leaders of all kinds publicly argued that women should not be allowed to sweat in public space. Studying early twentieth century boxing, students dwell on the full-bodied paintings of George Bellows and grainy silent films of semi-legal pugilism to get a grasp on the history of toxic, violence-dependent masculinity.4 At the end of every semester I make the same joke: I tricked you all. When I look at my pay stubs, though, it seems like I have been tricked, too.
The Symbols
The recent denial of my raise is little more than the small financial tip on top of a larger conceptual iceberg that has been floating in my professional life for a while. The fall of 2019 was my first semester teaching with a Ph.D. I taught two sections at the entry rate. $12,000 was not enough to pay my normal bills and the newest additions of publicly subsidized medical insurance and student loans, both of which had been previously covered and deferred by my graduate student status. I got a part-time job as a bicycle courier in Boston, a stimulating gig for a historian of play and cities. Tuesdays and Thursdays I spent my days on campus teaching and holding office hours. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I was downtown on my bike with a sling bag full of legal fillings and architectural plans, rushing to move them to and from court houses and office buildings for stamps and signatures. There is not a lot of money in the bicycle courier world, but it was enough for me to make ends meet. I was happy to alternate between leg work and mind work as the leaves of Boston changed. I graded papers in high-rise lobbies while on standby, delighted to watch the city breathe in front me.
Halfway through the semester, I started to worry about more than BU's payroll strategies. In November, the right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro came to campus to give a talk titled, "America Was Not Built on Slavery, It Was Built On Freedom." The BU chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, a national conservative student group, sponsored the talk and successfully gave away 1,500 tickets to mostly white college aged young men. In the weeks preceding, I started opening my classes with brief warm-up discussions about Shapiro. Should he be allowed to speak at BU? I looked for guidance from my administration, but found little more than vague quotes from the deans about free speech and safety in the university's daily press release, BU Today.5 We tackled the issue anyways. Many of my students were motivated to understand how someone who champions the phrase "facts don't care about your feelings," could be so controversial. After all, we were in a nonfiction writing class learning how to research facts.
At the beginning of each day, we examined different examples of Shapiro's writing— tweets, book chapters, articles from his website—and placed them against whatever writing lesson was on the docket for the day. Without fail, his work broke nearly every rule of valid argumentation outlined in our textbook. During a unit on balancing sources, we read a short article from November 2019 he wrote amidst the heated Democratic Primary.6 Shapiro rails against the Democrats for being "too ashamed to stand with an actual pro-Israeli group." Nearly every sentence reads in this exclamatory language that my students quickly recognized as argumentative, and thus requiring evidence. If you argue the existence of a fact (Democrats feel ashamed), our textbook suggests showing how and why you believe that in order to build trust with the reader and thus convince them (evidence of a Democrat expressing shame). The article continues without a single quote, mention of an explicit source, or any voice other than Shapiro's. Under the freshman magnifying glass, we discovered that very little of his writing passes the basic standards of our BU-recommended writing textbook. We concluded that Shapiro was easily the most untrustworthy writer we had encountered all semester. He is a New York Times best selling author and host of a wildly popular podcast, but we could not find any of his work that would receive a passing grade in our class. My students, wonderfully growing as researchers and thinkers, kept asking, "Why is BU supporting this?" Free speech is important on campus and student groups can and should sponsor speakers at their schools, but BU did little to contextualize Shapiro and left anyone who did not know of him already relatively aimless in determining what he really means on their campus.
I attended the evening talk in order to investigate on behalf of my class. Shapiro's lecture only led to more questions. There were so few facts to be found. The title alone had sparked righteous outrage on campus and when huge full-color posters with his face draped exterior dormitory walls, many students made their feelings known through protest and anticipated Hitler mustache graffiti. It was hard not to see his planned visit as a stunt to rile up emotion. Before the talk, I waited in a closely packed pre-COVID line, holding a notebook, some printed out articles and tweets, and my textbook. There was a group of four male BU student Shapiro fans in front me. It was cold and they all wore those thousand dollar coats with dead Canadian coyotes on the hood. They asked what all my stuff was for. When they learned I intended to ask a Shapiro what he thought of my students' critique of his writing methodology, they told me I was going to get "owned." I was able to hold the ear of one of them. He told me he had earned an A in his required writing course. I explained how his fellow students found that much the work from the man we were about to see would not earn the same grade. "Hm," he said.
The actual talk lasted forty-odd minutes and concluded with a brief question and answer section. I sat near a microphone with the intention of getting first in line but perhaps for the best, eager students beat me to it. I did not get to ask him to respond to our class findings that his writing possesses little reliable fact and startling amounts of plainly alarmist language. But I did not need to. He gave us the evidence anyways. Shapiro lectured at a lightening fast and near impossible to follow cadence, slowing down and stopping only when protestors stood up with signs. He recited Atlantic slave trade statistics from a few historians and a great deal of quotes from the slave holding Founding Fathers to support the tired and beaten argument that early America was merely a mild sinner in the context of many western colonial powers who owned even more slaves.7 However, like a lot of struggling students, he clearly stopped researching after page one and forgot to mention that America alone developed chattel slavery. He omitted mentioning that America pioneered the system in which it was legally decided that human beings could be born slaves, a system that required violent enforcement easily traceable through documentation to today's police forces. This system of course allowed the Founding Fathers, who were mostly skilled white businessmen creating wealth from trading slave-made goods with other colonies, to eliminate the need to import slaves at the high numbers of other Western powers.8 I sat quietly and gave thanks to my history professors at BU for teaching me how to read and understand the truth. I will never go Vegas and believe to have seen the Pyramids.
While he rattled off quotes and sprinkled in jabs at the left, much of the lecture time was given to a mic'd up Shapiro calmly talking over yelling protestors. A YouTube search reveals this to be a signature feature of his public appearances. On the Daily Wire channel, chopped up videos of him clashing with protestors have racked up millions of views. Most have aggressive all-caps verbs in the titles: "DESTROYS," RIPS," CRUSHES."9 At BU, he opened his talk saying, "The lecture that I'm giving is almost pointless, because if America was built on slavery, not freedom, then we wouldn't have a bunch of protestors outside exercising that freedom—and good for them." Later, he offered "no thanks to the leftists who sought to have this lecture cancelled out of apparent fear of my wretched evil... who wrote that BU should ban me to protect its students from me. Look at me. Saying things."10 None of the half dozen questions asked by students after the talk related to the content of the lecture. Most were requests for Shapiro to comment on Twitter feuds he was in with politicians and celebrities. We watched a grown man brag about his life's work winning emotionally charged battles of his own creation. Cellphones and video cameras were everywhere. We had all collectively participated in a wrestling match to be broadcasted on the Internet later. His fans were there to watch their man play- out the verbs they read in his video titles, hopeful of becoming an extra in a whole new recorded scene filled with USA chants and police escorting protestors out of the venue. Fittingly, the talk was held not in a lecture hall, but the track and field building, a place where students' hard physical work leads towards clear winning or losing. In the night's match for truth, BU lost.
I returned to my class to discuss the lecture. The disappointment of not getting to ask a question was real. We had all this evidence from Shapiro's writing and passages from our textbook, but ultimately our work was unfinished. Thankfully, academic work is always unfinished. Good arguments built on solid research should always lead to more questions. We discover truth not to win anything for ourselves, but to simply understand it better so we can all have more of it. But we still could not understand why BU supported the talk. My lecture observations were another source and BU Today put the above Shapiro quotes on the official record for us all. We wondered, can he explain why believing slavery contributed to America precludes you from also celebrating your right to free speech? It would have been great to get Shapiro on the record directly responding to my class. We still want comment. Mr. Shapiro, if you are reading this, please respond to our argument: "Your work is controversial on college campuses not simply because of the content, but also because your methodology rarely meets basic standards of college-level research, writing, and thinking*.*"
Three students reached out to me individually with the desire to discuss more about truth, free speech, and the role of the university during office hours. My bike messenger schedule made it near impossible to meet with more than one student at a time in my shared office with six PTLs, two desks, two computers with Windows 7, and no actual windows. Still, our conversations were productive and enlightening. Teachers dream of moments like those, where students excitedly build a bridge between the classroom and the real world. We had energy, we had momentum, we had ideas for an op-ed or letter to the editor. But I got tired and slow, increasingly soggy and cold from delivering packages on my bicycling between days of teaching through a rainy late November. I let a really powerful potential student project slip away. Sometimes on a slow job from downtown to the Back Bay I would incorporate the Charles River Esplanade into my run. Long straight paths protected from cars can let a cyclist's mind wander. I would think about all the excited student questions that I would never have enough time to answer, the conversations left in their cocoons. I hope those students remember and I hope they know I am sorry for letting them down.
It eventually came out that after some debate, BU folded to pressure and agreed to pay the roughly $13,000 in security costs for the hour-long lecture.11 In other words, BU paid the same amount of money for one night of blatantly elementary history lecturing as they do to members of their faculty for teaching two semester-long courses. Resentment grew. It was especially hard because the better I did my job the easier it was to feel indignant. Experiences that helped me feel like a meaningful teacher revealed deeply uncomfortable truths. When I did the work of my mentors, I saw pain not just in the past, but also in my life. When discomfort turned to depression, I was happy to be on my bicycle three days a week, downtown and far away from campus.
Facts and Symbols: Boston University, 1970 and 2020
The students kept me going. No matter how much I loved the respite of riding downtown, I always felt like I was failing my students. I would ride and think and think and ride and their work always filled my head, reminding me I was still a teacher. A month before the spring 2020 semester, my program director offered me a third class, which would be enough compensation to leave the courier work behind and teach full time. In fact, teaching five sections in a year—two in the fall, three in the spring—technically counts as a full-time load. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to be a full-time academic. Even as COVID blew my course plans apart mid-semester, my students and I still crafted some valuable time together. I made the PTL rate of $18,000 dollars for those three classes and I felt rich. I saved a little and even bought myself a hand-built boutique road bike from 1991. This summer, in between preparing for my two classes this fall and sifting through emails, I have been riding it far out of the city without a bag on my back, delivering nothing but fresh landscapes into my mind. The student who asked for a recommendation for a study aboard program ended their email with a similar sentiment. The cycling history we studied in class inspired them to follow their uncle into the sport when the pandemic forced them to move home. Biking far and fast, they told me, was a nourishing break from studying organic chemistry over Zoom all summer.
Like Howard Zinn suggests, I look to history and the work of others to maintain my mind and water ideological droughts. Diving into the history of BU has helped me understand and contextualize my experiences. Years ago as a graduate student, I completed a project for a class on construction of BU's mid-1960s concrete buildings designed by Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert. My favorite sources were the photographs of the buildings from the student-run yearbooks, The Hub. I found powerful images of blocks' worth of brownstones being demolished with the Prudential tower under construction and cleverly framed into the background. When I found the shelf of the yearbooks in the library, I did as all historians do and sat on the floor of the stacks to read before I decided what I wanted to check out. When I looked at the 1970 yearbook, I chuckled with plain joy. There were beautifully photographed full-page spreads of poorly rolled joints and "END THE DRAFT" buttons. The kids are always all right. But the section for portraits of university administration stood out the most. In simple two-tone black and white, four silhouetted figures stand with their arms stretched out in the seig heil position.12 Revisiting these sources, it is clear how those students saw their university leaders. Historians wonder, what has changed over time?
Zinn was in the middle of his educational career when BU students went on strike in response to the Vietnam War and closed the university in May of 1970. A radical spirit filled the campus. The yearbook included a timeline. "Thursday April 30th: U.S. Forces start Cambodian operation." "Sunday, May 10: Rock concert held at Nickerson Field. Collection taken for Black Panther Defense Fund. Press praises BU for handling of tense situation."13 The demonstrations culminated when students succeeded in forcing BU to fund a summer program of courses on community engagement they designed and cleverly titled, "Communiversity." The goal was to "deal directly with such critical problems as war, inflation, the deterioration of cities and civilian services, and the pollution of the environment."14 In so many ways, the challenge and work students face with their universities remains the same.
Like 2020, there was no in-person commencement ceremony for BU students in 1970. Instead of a pandemic, however, the students themselves had shut it down. Ironically, it rained that day, meaning there ceremony would have been cancelled regardless of the collective action. In a short essay printed towards the end of the yearbook, a student flexed their analytical skills and described a silver lining in the storm clouds. They wrote, "The irony lies not in the lack of a cap and gown, or in the optimistic rhetoric of some, nor even in this climax or anti-climax of maturity. It lies in the fact that we, the Class of 1970, ended our stay profoundly." It is a bright student who can understand what the university is really for, reason and action not regalia and rhetoric. They concluded, "We either learned something new, or began to apply our 'knowledge.' Maybe we had a Commencement after all."15
I wonder if Zinn loved teaching at BU and how he felt during that heady year on campus. I assume it was invigorating. His classes were regularly overenrolled and it is clear he motivated students to not just think like an intellectual, but act like one too. I imagine he flipped through that yearbook with delight. I have also loved teaching at BU. The Writing Program has been an intellectual home most young academics like me can only dream of. But the administration above my department makes it feel like just that, a dream of some distant place in my mind far away from reality. Boston University is on a dangerous path towards becoming an institutional facsimile our president: just another business stripping people of resources to make themselves feel whole. Is that the role of higher education?
I am here to report that approach does not work for creating substance, truth, or happiness. It merely creates a façade, a shell, a balloon. BU might be a balloon, but my colleagues and I are not. Neither are our students. And we are still free to think and write, even if that means wading through painful truths. History shows us that. I have decided to take an optimistic approach and believe that BU is still the institution for teachers, students, and alumni like Zinn, King, and AOC. Indeed, the history of the university and its students reveals a pattern of love and action that fills me with hope. If the balloon pops, or the façade falls over, I believe there will always be students and teachers there to build something real on campus. I am just sad and sorry I will no longer see them in class.
NOTES
1 Martin J. Howard, "Letter From the Treasurer—Fiscal Year 2019," in Consolidated
Financial Statements: June 30, 2019 and 2018, (Boston University).
2 "Cost of Attendance for 2020-2021," BU College of Arts & Sciences, (https://www.bu.edu/cas/current-students/ma-and-ms-students/cost-of- attendance/), accessed August 12th, 2019.
3 Howard Zinn, "Introduction," in New Deal Thought, Howard Zinn, ed., (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1966), pp. xviii.
4 See Robert Haywood, "George Bellows's 'Stag at Sharkey's': Boxing, Violence, and Male Identity," Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1988).
5 "Ben Shapiro's Visit to BU: 20 Questions and Answers You Need to Know," BU Today (http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/ben-shapiro-at-bu-20-things-to-know/), November 11, 2019.
6 Ben Shapiro, "The J Street Democrats," The Daily Wire, (https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-the-j-street-democrats), November 1, 2019.
7 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
8 There are many works of recent scholarship that hold this view. For a representative example, see Calvin Schermerhorn, The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).
9 Ben Shapiro and Daily Wire Channels*, YouTube.com,*(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQC_G5Xsjhp9fEJKuIcrSw), accessed August 12, 2020.
10 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
11 Anna Facciola, "Negotiations for Ben Shapiro Event on Campus Lead to Decrease in Venue Size," The Daily Free Press, Boston University, September 24, 2019.
12 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 241. 13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
14 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 299.
15 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook( 1970), pp. 299.

A Fallout game set in the Four state Commonwealth.
• Fallout: New Mexico takes place in May 2296, 15 years after Fallout: New Vegas and 9 years after Fallout 4. 219 years after the great war. With the death of Caesar during the events of Fallout: New Vegas. The legion quickly implodes into waring warlord fighting against each other and some of them simply split off from the legion to from their own legions and doing their own identities. This cause a 15-long war between the many legions across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado up to Denver, and eastern Utah. Caesar’s legion has broken into two major factions who are rule by two legions, the Maximius Legion and Red Legion. Addition other smaller legions factions. In central New Mexico there a five-way struggle among the Maximius Legion, Red Legion, The Midwest Brotherhood, Desert Rangers, and The Reservation. The prisoner, the player’s character, wakes up in abandoned prison after a recent prison riot had happened. Causing the guards to flee into the wasteland and remain prisoners left in the wasteland. There no background as to why the player’s character left in the prison. One day their door in their cell mysterious opens. The prisoner leaves the prison and venture the New Mexico wasteland to find clues why they were left in prison and soon after that change the New Mexico Wasteland forever.
• Location: The are three main game worlds and alongside mini-game worlds in New Mexico Wasteland. First the Northern Central New Mexico Wasteland. The surrounding areas around Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. Addition Southern New Mexico Wasteland. The surrounding areas around Silver City, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Roswell. Final, Northwest New Mexico Wasteland. The surrounding areas around Farmington, Shiprock, and Navajo lake state park. The other locations like Gallup, NRAO Very Large Array, Dulce, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and Fort Summer. These locations serve as their own mini-game worlds like The Witcher 3 game worlds and classical games of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
• Fallout: New Mexico Atmosphere: The main theme must deal with the aftershocks of Caesar’s death regardless of what happens in Fallout: New Vegas. With the death of Caesar during the event of Fallout: New Vegas the legion quickly implodes into warlord legions waring against each other and some of them simply split off from the legion to from their own legions and doing their own things. This cause a 15-long war between the many legions across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado up to Denver, and eastern Utah. This civil war among the Caesar’s Legion is called the “Wars of the Legions” It plays out like Alexander’s Successor’s Wars of the Diadochi who become successor states like the Mongol Empire. In 2296 when Fallout: Novus Mexicum starts there only major two legions remain the Red legion and Maximius Legion alongside lesser smaller legions who remain outside their territory rule. The lesser legions who survive the wars from their legion identities and customs across the wasteland control parts of New Mexico Wasteland. While some of them turn back into raider gangs who raid the settlements across the New Mexico Wasteland. In addition, new raider tribes have moved to various parts of New Mexico. Taking advantage of the chaos and lack of security to raid settlements in the region. Settlements who are not under control by the legions from their identities and customs. While some New Mexico settlements are trying to return to their original identities and customs. Most trades between settlements have drastically gone down because lack of safe roads to travel. This cause some communities to wither away or other communities invented new ways to survive. While the rest join the various factions in New Mexico for security. Traders once again travel on their own with guards New Mexico Wasteland, as all raider tribes are back raiding caravans and settlements. Some Legions factions still hold firm to their ideology against drugs and alcohol, punishing those they capture with the illicit substances severely. Some Legions factions still outsiders under their rule are considered to be "dissolute" or are called "profligates," referring to those lacking morals. In some settlements and legions use a mixture of Latin and English vocabulary. Since the fall Ceasar legion currency of aureus and denarius have to drop in value severely. This cause the people in New Mexico Wasteland to revert back to using bottle caps as their main currency. Some legion factions and other factions use their own currency, but minimalist of success. Different regions in New Mexico are war-torn by the of the Wars of the legions. These regions are desolate, destroyed land. Its people were killed, crucified, burned alive, raped, and hung – all the worst things imaginable. Signs of trench warfare, destroy bunkers, tunnels, barbed wire, anti-artillery bunkers, abandoned artillery, the skeleton remains, chemical warfare, tanks, ruin power armor suits, and crudely rebuild pre-war vehicles. Most of the NPCs in New Mexico are under the age of 30s and below. While the rest are the age of '30s to '50s. Even few are the age of '50s and above. The reason for this was that Caesar forcibly integrated the tribes and settlements into the Legion. The men were integrated into the Ceasar army. The sick and elderly were killed, the women sold as wives to ranking officers, and the tribe's identity is annihilated. Finally, all factions throughout New Mexico are preparing for the final war between the legions and other major factions. The New Mexico settlements and tribes are in danger of being eradicated or assimilated. So they fortify their defenses and train their people for the coming war that will change the New Mexico Wasteland forever.
Lesser Legion Factions
• Silver Shields - they were once veterans of Caesar legion, and now broken form legion to form their own legion call, Silver Shields. They were able to fight off the other legions and raider tribes since because most of them were over the age of sixty, they were feared and revered due to their battle skills and experience. They carried silver-plated shields and long pike spears plus they dress like Greek soldiers of the Hellenic era. Silver shields have an uneasy alliance with Apache Raiders, Spartan legion, and Tercio legion. They control Sliver City and surrounding territories around Silver City.
• Tercio Legionario – Once veterans of Caesar legion, they form their own legion at Las Cruces call Tercio legion. The Tercio legion uses the Spanish pike and shot that known for its on the battlefields of Europe during the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century. They dress like Spanish soldiers from the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century. Until Maximus Legion try several times to take Las Cruces and surround areas. They were defeated by an uneasy alliance with Apache raiders, Spartan legion, and Silver Shields. They control Las Cruces and surrounding territories around Las Cruces.
• Augustus Foreign legion – once a part of Caesar legion they form into a mercenary army in Central New Mexico Wasteland. They fight for money or other forms of payment rather than for political interests in the New Mexico wasteland. The Foreign Legion can be hired to sometimes guard caravans, service as arm guards for waste landers, bounding hunting for factions in New Mexico wasteland, sometimes clear out raider’s camps or monsters’ dens. Augustus Legionnaires are highly trained soldiers, and the Legion is unique in that it is open to recruits willing to serve legion. The Foreign Legion in New Mexico today known as a unit whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on as its men come from different parts of New Mexico with different cultures. The legion does not swear allegiance to anyone, but to the Foreign Legion itself. Any member who gets wounded during a battle for Foreign Legion can immediately apply to be a member under a provision known as "Français par le sang versé" ("French by spilled blood"). When the war of legions started, they form their own legion at Grants New Mexico. Eventually, they were defeat by Maximus Legion at Grants New Mexico, and retreat to San Ysidro New Mexico. The mercenary army/group loyal to the city of Santa Fe as along the bottle caps flow. They harass the Red legion, Urban Cohort, and Maximius Legion. They control San Ysidro New Mexico and surrounding territories around San Ysidro.
• Commonwealth Republic - simply as the Commonwealth Republic organized by high-rank officers who once part Caesar legion who are led by Enclave remnants. When the war legion starts, they form their own legion call Triarii legion at Phoenix Arizona. They defeat Maximus Legion at Phoenix. They retreat to Very Large Array New Mexico were encounter enclave remnants. There they form an alliance and create the Commonwealth Republic. Made up of enclave remnants members who decide to break away from the main enclave force who were relocated to the Capital Wasteland. When the legions began entering the civil war the enclave remnants were able to use their military skills and tactics to control their own region around Very Large Array. They even control pre-war military bases across New Mexico Wasteland. The Commonwealth Republic has enclave vertibirds, but only a few inside their bases. Right around 2296 the Enclave remnants children are now adults who now high-rank officers of Commonwealth Republic with few old-timers still in charge. They bit like the Enclave faction, but they openly recruit anyone who not ghoul from the New Mexico wasteland. The Commonwealth Republic considers humans outside its ranks as Abominations to be destroyed so that "true humanity" could take its place as the "real" America. They promise the people of wasteland where could guide American back to the golden age of mall shops and drive-in movies. There are propaganda Eyebots that spewed “Stars and Stripes Forever” found in New Mexico Wasteland. The Maximus Legion try several times to take Very Large Array but was meet with defeat each time. They control Very Large Array and surrounding territories around Very Large Array.
• Varangian legion – once part of the personal bodyguards to Caesar legion. The praetorian guards from their own legion call Varangian legion at New Constantinople in ruins of Farmington New Mexico. They are Descendants of the Eastern Orthodox dwellers from Vault 41. Who resettled and rebuild most of Farmington in 2101. Later name it New Constantinople. They know for being primarily composed of recruits from outside their realm of influence. They are a mercenary army/group in New Mexico wasteland. Loyal is their core value for the Varangians. Once someone paid them, they have their undying allegiance. They lacked local political loyalties and honor also was another key virtue of these mercenaries. They wear heavily armored, adorned in mail hauberks, vambraces, and iron conical helmets with Norse-style round shields for protection. They have weapons like the Dane ax in their inventory. Eventually, they were defeat by the Red legion at Navajo Dam and New Constantinople. Their remaining forces retreat to Carson National Forest. They are now a mercenary army/group loyal to the city of Santa Fe as along the bottle caps flow. They control Carson National Forest and surrounding territories around Carson National Forest.
• Urban Cohort – Once the slavers of Caesar legion, they form their own legion at call Urban cohort at Bernalillo New Mexico. They were able to fight off the other legions and raider tribes eventually because of allies to the Maximius Legion.
• Cataphract legion – Once a part of Caesar legion they form into the Cataphract legion in Pecos New Mexico. They were able to fight off the other legions and raider tribes. They form into a mercenary army loyal to the city of Santa Fe as along the bottle caps flow. They control Pecos National Historical Park and roads that connect Santa Fe and Las Vegas around Carson National Forest.
• Spartan legion – Once part of the personal bodyguards to Caesar legion. The praetorian guards from their own legion call Spartan legion at Truth or Consequences New Mexico. Later they renamed Truth or Consequences to Sparta. Spartan legions have an uneasy alliance with Apache Raiders, Silver shields, and Tercio legion.
Major Settlements
Los Alamos – Rename to The Reservation – made up of Los Alamos scientists who have survived to become ghouls, and other ghouls from across the wasteland. The Reservation itself remained relatively intact thanks to most of the facility being underground. Its large growing ghoul community and mandated that all the knowledge and research that was archived and stored in the Reservation's libraries and laboratories for the ghouls' cause. Research continues in the Reservation, and over the course pass two centuries, weapons and war materials. The Reservation ghouls a very paranoid group that believes it is inevitable that the smooth skins will invade their precious facility and try to wipe out the ghouls. This paranoia feeds the ghouls' desire to scavenge, create, and build new weapons with whatever they can find in the "gold-mine" of a research facility. In addition, the labyrinth of underground tunnels makes hiding the ghouls' accomplishments and numbers from prying eyes easy. In fact, the casual passer-by on the surface of the Reservation would only see one ruined one-story office buildings, two dilapidated aircraft hangers with decaying aircraft, and roughly two dozen ghouls meandering about. Surrounding this decaying mess is a large stretch of barbed wire and sheet metal (probably from destroyed planes in the hangers) that keeps trespassers away and the ghouls on the surface feeling more secure. No other organization or faction is aware that deep underground this ruined community there is a multitude of ghouls living and working. Since the area surrounding the Reservation is highly radioactive, the only safe way to approach the makeshift surface community by a human is with a lot of Rad-X, or a radiation suit. When the makeshift gate guards are approached by someone wearing a radiation suit, the ghouls will be civil, but not necessarily friendly. Mention that you are here for trade and they will let you into a holding area just big enough for perhaps two-dozen people.
Santa Fe – Once the capital of New Mexico four commonwealths are now home to former slaves, war refugees Vault dwellers from Vault 55, and trade folks who rebel after Caesar’s fall. Santa Fe is a major trading city in the entire New Mexico Wasteland. Santa Fe is an enormous trading center and settlement established in an old town relatively untouched by the Great War. Caravans are organized here, carrying goods north to Pueblo City, Taos, the Great Plain commonwealth, and south to the Roswell. It houses a large community of traders, barterers, gamblers, and other interesting individuals. The wide variety of people passing through ensures that there is always something interesting going on. The caravan houses that work the routes trade in everything: chems, tires, guns, bullets, food, brahmin, dirt, even scraps of metal. Some of the people of Vault 55 left the Vault who were lead by a man named Franco who resettle in the city of Santa Fe in 2102. They rebuilt in ruins of the old town and was build a wall around the old town in the same year. A wall that was built around the old town was named Wall Franco 2110. Another series of walls was built outside the old town in 2158. The Wall is the name, Wall Miranda. In 2234 six raider tribes attack Santa Fe but were stop by Desert Rangers. By the year 2265, another wall was built after they surrender to Caesar's legion in 2264. The wall once has once name Ceasar’s Wall, but later name Wall Carlos.
It the largest settlement in the region and it a major Trading city settlement. Three layers of the wall surround the settlements.
1.The lower ring is home to former slaves, Mormons, and war refugees who made up much of the population in Santa Fe. Due to the impoverished state of the citizens of the Lower Ring, as well as the influx of refugees, the crime rate is significantly higher. The Lower Ring is also the most densely populated area of Santa Fe. Buildings in the Lower Ring are generally small because the Lower Ring houses most of the populace and many people need to be crammed into the space available. The Lower Ring's status and poverty have remained unchanged since 2265.
2.The Middle Ring of Santa Fe contains the city's middle-class populace. Inside this ring are a vast assortment of shops and restaurants as well as the financial district and Town. Santa Fe University, a great repository of knowledge anywhere in the New Mexico wasteland. The buildings of this Ring are is generally wealthier and have a more peaceful atmosphere than the Lower Ring, and there are many flowers and trees. Citizens of the Middle Ring are free to enter the Lower Ring, and Middle Ring without needing permission.
3.The Upper Ring contains the city's upper-class population, as well as military and government officials. The most important citizens of the city reside here. The Santa Fe old town is in the center of the Upper Ring, within its own walls. The buildings of the Upper Ring are generally huge walled compounds. Upper Ring citizens are free to go wherever they please within Santa Fe. The Palace of the Governors once again served as the seat of government for the Santa Fe since 2175 after the settlement was found. The Palace of the Governors is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States.
They are an independent settlement who are free from the Major factions. There are several Roman aqueducts that provide water from the surrounding mountains. The people use the water and the farmers water their fields outside Roman-style Wall Carlos. Much of the buildings are rebuild with Spanish, Pueblo, in the historic downtown or rebuild in series of walls. The rest of the Settlement has a mix of Spanish, Pueblo, and Roman Architectural. Armguards dress like Spanish conquistadors patrols the Roman style walls surround the Settlement from their Watchtowers. Schools are found here and kids in Santa Fe go to schools. Newspapers the Santa Fe New Mexican, Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe Times provide news for the past and current events in New Mexico wasteland. There is a Zoo that currently being built outside the walls of Santa Fe. There one Brothel for each ring of the City. Canyon Road, east of the Plaza in the old town, was once the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and it was once a major destination for international collectors, tourists, and locals during the pre-war’s day. The Canyon Road galleries are trying to preserve Historical knowledge of the Southwestern, indigenous American, and newly Roman Artifacts. There are three Dinners found in all three in each wall in Santa Fe. Ghouls are ban from entering Santa Fe Settlement. The reason for this is outright prejudice and fear of being kidnap by Ghouls from The Reservation. At the same time defenses are being built and soldiers are being trained for the coming war between the legions. Most traders across New Mexico Wasteland stop by Santa Fe before they reach Plains Commonwealth or elsewhere.
Las Vegas – Headquarters of the Midwest Brotherhood in who established their foothold in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. It was a small settlement found in 2220 by some of the people from Vault 55. In 2220 Las Vegas was saved from raider attack by Desert Rangers. The Desert Rangers protect and train Vault Dwellers of Las Vegas. When Caesar's legion comes they welcome them and thank them for destroying the raider tribes. When the War of legion start the legion garrison left to fight other legions in the region. When the brotherhood arrives they again welcome them and thanks to them of sense of security. In 2296 they slowly prosper once again. They are made up of Brotherhood soldiers, former raider tribes, ex-slaves, war refugees, vault dwellers, wastelanders, and ghouls. The Midwest Brotherhood is stranded from Main Headquarters from Chicago. Their airship crashes land nearby Las Vegas in 2290. The people of Las Vegas welcome them. Eventually, the Brotherhood offers their protection to Las Vegas from raider tribes and legions raids. They traded advanced medicines in exchange for food and labor. They also traded protection from bandits in exchange for new recruits. It one of the few places where ghouls free from prejudice. The Brotherhood's position was still not as secure as it would prefer it to be and the supply lines were stretched thin. As the supplies carried by Brotherhood vehicles, food, weapons, and medicine, were all in high demand among the waste landers, this created ample opportunity for raiders and other troublemakers. The Brotherhood focused on securing its position in the region. One vital aspect was maintaining their stocks of advanced technology, which included securing old military and scientific installations and removing anything of value, particularly rare fusion batteries. Another involved securing new allies. In exchange for military protection, the Brotherhood takes recruits, raw materials, and other goods to sustain its expansion and existing rule. Anyone living under its control is also expected to submit to Brotherhood's rules without question. The most expedient way to achieve this in the Brotherhood's opinion is to terrorize its enemies and strike fear in the heart of those they 'protect', by dealing with all threats without hesitation or mercy. All settlements under its protection must also accept the laws of the Brotherhood or suffer the consequences. Collateral damage is generally dismissed out of hand, as the Brotherhood considers a few lives lost by accident to be a small price to pay for a free, prosperous world, particularly if those who died were mere tribal. Ensuring obedience is its justice system: Swift, harsh, and far-reaching. If any subject of the Brotherhood severely breaks its laws, they may expect swift retribution. At the same time defenses are being built and soldiers are being trained for the coming war between the legions.
Cuba – Rename to The Red Fort - Red Legion Main HQ in the central New Mexico Wasteland. Home of Red Legion’s who controls surrounding areas. Found in the year 2294 it was once home to an unknown tribe who were destroyed in 2263 by Caesar Legion. It becomes a trading outpost during the Ceasar legion. When the War of legions starts. It was again destroyed by various legions and raider tribes. The Red Legion forces took Cuba to rebuild into a fortress. The Red Legion has vast reserves of manpower and industrial capacity to maintain its edge in the main fort. The fort serves as an outpost for Red Legion. Outside the walls of the fort are land mines and pulse fields, capable of literally frying power armor operators alive in their suits. The Red legions who live in the fort enjoy a stable, consistent flow of electricity and water, a steady and ample food supply, and exceptionally low crime and corruption levels. They enjoy safe and productive lives with one caveat: “never disobey or disturb the Union.” Anyone outside the Union ranks or under their rule is "Bourgeois" (lacking in morals), while those that are both outsides of it and are called " Capitalism "
Farmington - Rename to New Constantinople - Recently capture by Red Legion back in 2294. It was founded by the Eastern Orthodox dwellers from Vault 41. They resettled and rebuild most of Farmington in 2101. Later name it New Constantinople. The Desert Rangers help them when a Raider tribe almost destroy New Constantinople in 2204. Again in 2234 when three Raider tribes attack New Constantinople. Slowly over time, it come the biggest settlement in the Four Corners Wasteland. Trading with other settlements in the region and new settlements appear all along the San Juan River. They eventually rebuild the Navajo Dam, PNM Resources Power Plant, and APS Four Corner Power Plant to power New Constantinople. When the Caesar Legion come in 2264 they surrender to the legion. New Constantinople becomes prosperous under Caesar's legion. When the war of legions started the praetorian guards from their own legion call the Varangian legion at New Constantinople. They begin to recruits from outside their realm of influence. As War of legions wage, they are able to fight off the other raider tribes and legions attack. Until they were defeat by the Red legion at Navajo Dam and New Constantinople. Some of the remaining citizens of New Constantinople who don't follow the Eastern Orthodox were spare. The rest were killed, escape, or send to Red Legion re-education camps. The siege by the Red Legion has left most of New Constantinople a ruined city. There are still signs of battle around New Constantinople and various other settlements in the region. Its slowly repopulated by traders, ghouls, war refugees, and citizens from the Red Legion. Their remaining people retreat to Carson National Forest.
The Entertainment Vault - The people of Entertainment Vault offers their rare goods and entertainment items to the wastelanders and traders at a heavy price. In addition, willing to buy any pre-war goods that are in good condition. Eventually, the people of Vault 55 renamed their Vault to The Entertainment Vault. In 2150 they open their doors. By using their only GECK, combined with power from Vault 55's fusion generator, they created fertile grounds and buildings. In 2189 two raider tribes attack Entertainment Vault but stop by a group of Desert Rangers. Years after residents of Vault 55 emerged, they offer their rare goods and entertainment items to the wastelanders and traders at a heavy price. In addition, willing to buy any pre-war goods that are in good condition. Wastelanders and traders flock across the New Mexico Wasteland to The Entertainment Vault to buy and trade their goods. The Entertainment Vault creates their own police force and hires Mercenaries, guards, to patrol the roads. In time, quickly become the best available places to buy products of post-war America. In addition, become the richest people in New Mexico Wasteland. The remainder people of Vault 55 resettle in the city of Las Vegas in 2220. When Caesar's legion comes they welcome them and thank them for destroying the raider tribes. When Entertainment Vault has integrated the goods and entertainment items related to homosexuality were destroyed. The Entertainment Vault become prosperous under Caesar's legion. When the War of legion start the legion garrison left to fight other legions in the region. Entertainment Vault uses their police force to enforce the law and again hires Mercenaries guards to patrol the roads. When the brotherhood arrives they again welcome them and thank them for a sense of security. In 2296 they slowly prosper once again.
Pueblo City - What use to be Santa Cruz is renamed Pueblo City. Most of the pueblo tribes from Pueblo Vault found a settlement in Pueblo City in the ruin of Santa Cruz in 2095. It is known for an urban center built from scratch, using pre-War ruins as the foundation. A protective wall was also erected to protect the city from raider tribes that formed in the winter, raiding outlying communities to replenish their food supplies. In 2226 alliance with Desert Rangers stop the raider attack by three raider tribes. By 2296, it is the biggest but thriving settlement second to Santa Fe in central New Mexico Wasteland. It completely self-sufficient, as they managed to irrigate the wasteland soil to support crops (primarily maize and cabbage), harness from the Rio Grande to provide them with water, and even establish brahmin herds, chickens, sheep, and goats. They grown crops and resources sustain the settlement and provide goods for trade with other towns. Pueblo City does keep order within its walls with a large and competent police force. Outside the walls, the Pueblo City has so far been operating through others, buying and trading for things. The settlement kept mostly to itself, trading with the occasional merchant from Santa Fe or Taos. When the Caesar Legion come in 2264 they surrender to the legion. Pueblo City becomes prosperous under Caesar's legion. When the War of legion start the legion garrison left to fight other legions in the region. Pueblo City then creates its own police force to enforce the law and protect from raider attacks. In 2296 one of few thriving settlements in Central New Mexico. Former raider tribes, former legions, ex-slaves, and war refugees have flocked to Pueblo City. The settlement is having a hard time feeding their population and tensions are happening with citizens and war refugees. At the same time defenses are being built and soldiers are being trained for the coming war between the legions.
Taos - Found and rebuilt Protestantism dwellers from Vault 41. They eventually resettled and rebuild most Taos in 2101 with the help of Pueblo tribes from Pueblo City. Slowly over time, it come the biggest settlement in the Central New Mexico Wasteland. Trading with other settlements in the region. In 2206 alliance with Taos Pueblo, Desert Rangers defend Taos from 4 Raider Tribes. PIn 2215 a man named Michael P. Joes and his followers arrive at Taos. Michael P. Joes was a former Vault Dweller. He ask the people of Taos that people to emigrate to Settlement. They at first did not convince and until his people begin to use structures built under his direction utilize everyday trash items like aluminum beverage cans, plastic bottles, and used tires. Instead of using conventional, energy-consuming, recycling methods. His people emigrated to the settlement. Ever since then the town of Taos began to expand rapidly. When the Caesar Legion come in 2265 they surrender to the legion. Taos become prosper under Caesar legion. When the War of legion start the legion garrison left to fight other legions in the region. In 2296 one of few thriving settlements in Central New Mexico. Former raider tribes, former legions, ex-slaves, and war refugees have flocked to Taos. The settlement is having a hard time feeding their population and tensions are happening with citizens and war refugees. At the same time defenses are being built and soldiers are being trained for the coming war between the legions.
Roswell - Found and rebuilt by the Hubologists dwellers from Vault 41. They resettled and rebuild most of Roswell in 2102. Trading with other settlements in the region and eventually into a grew thriving settlement. In 2223 the Apache raiders almost destroy Roswell but were stop by the group of Desert Rangers who completely outnumber. The Desert Rangers protect and train the Hubologists of Roswell. When Caesar's armies arrive some of the Desert Rangers and alongside the Hubologists of Roswell fought the legion. They were eventually defeated by the legion. Desert Rangers and alongside most Hubologists were killed. The surviving Hubologist were slaves by the legion. When the War of legion starts the remaining Hubologist returns the Roswell. As years pass they rebuild Roswell with help of Desert Rangers. Brotherhood has an outpost in Roswell, although it is outwardly indiscernible from other Brotherhood outposts. Its distinguishing feature is an extensive basement stocked with Brotherhood technology and armaments, but otherwise, the faction maintains a low profile in Roswell.
(This is all concept idea and is a work in process. Addition subject to change) Feel free to add more ideas, if you want to.

This thread is being updated as new information becomes available. Please bear this in mind.
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There are multiple confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Columbus area. There are additional cases in Franklin County. These numbers will rise, however, due to inadequate testing current reach and spread of the virus is unknown but believed to be moderately active with community spread. People have died in Ohio from this virus. Treat it seriously and accordingly.
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Prevention and preparation

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• The Ohio Department of Health has issued guidance on how to prevent and prepare for COVID-19 here.
• Additionally the CDC has a comprehensive website on what you should know about COVID-19 and how to respond.

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If you suspect you may have COVID-19

• Call the Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 hotline at 1-833-4-ASK-ODH (1-833-427-5634). The call center will be open 7 days a week from 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Pay attention for potential COVID-19 symptoms including fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Call your doctor immediately before seeking care if you feel like you are developing these symptoms. Do not go to the emergency room unless you are experiencing severe symptoms or have been advised to do so. Understand the reality of the situation right now is that it may not be feasible or a medical priority for you to receive a test if your symptoms are mild, follow the guidance of your doctor.
• Seek prompt medical attention if you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19. In adults, these can include: Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, persistent pain or pressure in chest, new confusion or inability to arouse, bluish lips or face.
• Consult CDC guidance in addition to the recommendation of your healthcare provider.
• Doctors expect the majority of cases here will be mild, treat the disease as you would any other respiratory illness. Most of these cases will be able to be treated and recover at home. The elderly and those with underlying health conditions need to take additional precautions and follow the guidance of their healthcare provider.

Information about how long symptoms last is still evolving. But the February WHO study may give us some preliminary clues:

• The median time from symptom onset to recovery is about two weeks for mild cases
• For patients with severe or critical disease, the median recovery time is three to six weeks
• Among patients who have died, the time from symptom onset to death ranges from two to eight weeks

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Stay at home order

On 3/22/2020 Governor Mike DeWine announced a statewide 'stay at home' order from Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Amy Acton. The order will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Monday and stay in effect until April 6 May 29th, albeit with some major exceptions, in addition to those already listed below.
The full text of the order can be read here. It contains broad exemptions.

The second part of the order talks about essential workers and businesses using Homeland Security guidelines. These are the accepted businesses that are essential for us to continue to live.

An overview of those sectors can be found here, or here:

• Health care and public health workers
• Law enforcement, public safety, and first responders
• Food and agriculture workers
• Energy employees
• Water and wastewater
• Transportation and logistics
• Public works
• Communications and information technology
• Other community-based government operations and essential functions
• Critical manufacturing
• Hazardous materials
• Financial services
• Chemical workers
• Defense industrial base

In addition, Ohio's order carves out specific exemptions for the following:

• Stores that sell grocery or medicine
• Food, beverage, and licensed marijuana production and agriculture
• Organizations that provide charitable and social services
• Religious entities
• Media
• First amendment protected free speech
• Gas stations and businesses need for transportation
• Financial and insurance institutions
• Hardware and supply stores
• Mail, post, shipping, logistics, delivery, and pickup services
• Critical trades (i.e. building and construction tradesmen, plumbers, electricians, exterminators, HVAC repair, painting, cleaning and janitorial, moving and relocation services)
• Educational institutions
• Laundry services
• Restaurants for consumption off-premises
• Stores that sell supplies to work from home
• Supplies for essential businesses and operations
• Transportation
• Home based care and services
• Residential facilities and shelters
• Professional services (such as legal services, accounting services, insurance and real estate services)
• Manufacture and supply chain for critical products and industries
• Critical labor union functions
• Hotels and motels
• Funeral services

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Bans and event cancellations

Gatherings of more than 100 50 people in the state are banned. The ban does not include grocery stores, forms of transit or athletics events that exclude spectators.
Limitations on visitations to nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been put into effect.
For the time being, assume any large event or business where people gather has been shut down until further notice.
Specifically:

• The MLS, including the Columbus Crew, have suspended their season.
• The NHL, including the Columbus Blue Jackets, have suspended their season.
• OHSAA postseason tournaments are postponed until further notice.
• The Ohio State spring football game is cancelled. Other university athletic events are closed to the public until further notice.
• All Big Ten conference and non-conference competitions have been canceled.
• Some voting locations for Ohio's March 17th primary have changed. You can get additional information and find your polling location here.
• NCAA has canceled all remaining spring and winter championships, including March Madness.
• COSI is closed beginning March 13th until at least April 3rd.
• The Columbus Library is currently open, but all meetings, classes, programs and events are cancelled through March 31st. All library locations will close effective at 6 p.m. today, Friday, March 13 and remain closed through at least April 6 May 2nd
• All three branches of the Delaware County District Library will be closed beginning March 17.
• Numerous houses of worship have cancelled services. Ohio's Catholic bishops have dispensed with the obligation of Mass. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is suspending all church services worldwide until further notice.
• The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Downtown Columbus and the Irish Family Reunion previously scheduled for Tuesday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center is cancelled. The Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade is also cancelled.
• CAPA has suspended all events and performances at the Ohio Theatre, Palace Theatre, Southern Theatre, Lincoln Theatre, McCoy Center for the Arts, and Riffe Center Theatre Complex.
• The Columbus International Auto Show scheduled from March 19-22 has been cancelled.
• CATCO is postponing shows through April.
• The Ohio History Center and Ohio Village are closed/covid19) to the public until further notice.
• UFC Fight Night: Ngannou vs. Rozenstruik at Nationwide Arena has been cancelled and moved to Las Vegas.
• EXPRESS LIVE!, Newport Music Hall, A&R Music Bar, and The Basement are all closed.
• All Columbus city recreation centers are closed. This closure includes all city golf courses.
• The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will close all public indoor facilities and rides, and temporarily canceling its events, tours and programs beginning Saturday, March 14 until at least Monday, April 6, 2020. is closed indefinitely.
• Upper Arlington Public Libraries are closed through April 5th.
• All bars and restaurants have been ordered closed by the governor, effective 9pm, March 15th. This does not include carryout service.
• The Capital City Half Marathon has been rescheduled to late August.
• COTA is adjusting (cutting) service on some rush hour routes. During the crisis, COTA service is free and you are asked to board via the backdoor. Riders are required to wear a mask.
• All gyms, fitness centers, recreation centers, bowling alleys, indoor water parks, movie theaters, and trampoline parks across the state are closed until further notice.
• The Ohio statewide primary has been delayed until further notice.
• All ACT and SAT tests have been postponed.
• Elective surgeries are being postponed at Wexner Medical Center. Other hospitals are likely to follow suit.
• The Columbus Arts Festival has been cancelled.

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Local school and university closures

• Ohio K-12 schools are closed for the academic year.
• Ohio State has suspended in-person classes until March 30th through the remainder of Spring through Summer semester. Commencement is postponed. being held virtually on May 3rd. Apple CEO Tim Cook is the keynote speaker.
• Capital University is canceling all classes for Wednesday, March 11 through Saturday, March 14. Starting on Monday, March 16, all classes will be moved online. University offices, residence halls, dining facilities and other support services will remain open and operate during regular business hours. Commencement is also postponed.
• Columbus College of Art & Design: Spring break is extended by one week, until Monday, March 23, 2020. Classes are being temporarily shifted to online instruction starting Monday, March 23.
• Columbus State Community College all classes are canceled from March 16-20, with alternative learning to begin on March 23rd.
• Denison University will have classes switched to remote learning from March 23.
• Franklin University will move to remote learning through May 9th.
• Mount Carmel College of Nursing will have classes suspended until March 16th.
• Ohio Wesleyan University has suspended classes and will utilize remote learning from March 18th.
• Otterbein University has suspended classes and will move to remote learning on March 16th.

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Unemployment

Ohio has relaxed unemployment insurance benefits for those that have been affected by COVID-19. Cleveland.com has a guide on how to apply for these benefits. Some frequently asked questions about these changes are answered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services here.
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Local Resources

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The Columbus Dispatch has removed its paywall for coronavirus related coverage. You can find their latest updates here.
The Ohio Department of Health has a toll-free COVID-19 hotline setup. The call center will be open 7 days a week from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. and can be reached at 1-833-4-ASK-ODH
Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health are both posting updates to their Twitter accounts as more information becomes available.
Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security have launched a text message alert system related to COVID-19. To enroll, text COVID19FC to 888-777.
Columbus Public Health has setup a COVID-19 website to provide updated information and resources.

Marathon OP. I visited Delphi on November 1-3, while attending Purdue/Nebraska football. I didn’t venture to Monon High until the third day. I wanted a feel for the area and city first. I can post photos of Delphi itself later. But since the tragedy is our natural focus, here is a photo album of my visit to the bridge area:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/D9ikbLDuDRazkcyb8
It appears the best way to view the album is clicking a photo to large view, then using arrows to advance. I provided captions for most photos.
On edit: Now adding a second photo album, this one of Delphi itself. Same format. I may have been a bit aloof in some of the captions. As a former 24-year resident of Las Vegas I'm still in disbelief that anything can close for the day at 4 PM. Open for the day at 4 PM...that's logical:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kE3AUGmbnuDMmiBt9
Most views will be familiar. But I tried to provide different angles, and a straightforward day to day perspective, instead of the hyper agenda from local videographers. Monon High is a gorgeous trail, the best in Delphi. I walked many of them. There’s a reason the Indiana Bicentennial statue was placed at Monon High and not elsewhere. I could immediately see why Abby and Libby were drawn to that trail.
I didn’t plan on crossing the bridge. The main trail is fenced off, with a warning sign. But it is simple to circle the fence and regain the trail. About 40 feet of temporary boards at the beginning of the bridge allow less stress until reaching the oft-shown missing plank and 2-foot gap. The temporary boards end at the missing plank. I didn’t film videos while walking across. It was roughly 40 degrees and I was wearing a heavier than needed jacket. I wanted both hands free to grab the last branch on the way down. But I did stop and film my thoughts at several platforms. Those videos are included with the photos.
Other observations:

• I do not believe Bridge Guy is local. Online I thought State Road 25 (Hoosier Heartland Highway) was a local commute. What a joke. There is no commute because there is no population. State Road 25 is a dream escape route. It is new and double lane and free flowing at 60 miles per hour. Simple access and departure. No threat of stop lights or delays of any type. Mile after mile of farmland and silos. Only variable is how far removed the home and structures are from the highway. Long gone. He was long gone. When I left Delphi I was in Indianapolis before I knew it. IMO, Bridge Guy was in quick and ongoing delight that local law enforcement believes he is local.
  
• Delphi is a trail town. They are promoted downtown and on the internet. But other trails loop and join at spots like Canal Park and Trailhead Park. Central areas where you can choose which trail to take next. Only Monon High is isolated, at the east edge of town. The end of the bridge is most isolated of all, with a down the hill trek that almost nobody took or contemplated before this tragedy. You can scream all you want down there. There won’t be a quick cavalry coming down the hill. If someone did approach it would be incredibly easy to dip into the woods and disappear. This guy was a deviant handicapper who chose the most vulnerable trail in a city with a surreal escape road.
  
• Kelsi’s drop off point is amazingly close to the trailhead intersection. I was shocked. I paced it off. It was 79 steps. Online depictions have not been to scale. From main parking area to trail intersection is quite the walk. But that drop off location on Route 300 is visible from the trailhead, which is slightly elevated. Bridge Guy could have seen the drop off from the trail head area. Abby and Libby could have walked to the bridge in 8 minutes or less. Since they had 90+ minutes until scheduled pickup I now believe they lingered and enjoyed before embarking on the bridge. Obviously a delay like that gave Bridge Guy —wherever he was — more time to notice and scheme.
  
• The main trail is known as 501. Minus leaves it was easy to peer between trees and view the 501 trail from the smaller 505 trail at right. I included one photo of that. Speculation is that Bridge Guy tracked the girls from the lower trail. The two trails are approximately 20 steps apart and same level at early stage. Then the 505 trail steadily separates from 501 and drops lower. On 505 it was roughly 50 yards beyond the closed 501 fence that I saw a small “AL” memorial to Abby and Libby. I’m sure it was placed at that specific spot because there is an obvious impromptu new path there, back to the left to rejoin 501 and proceed to the bridge. A crane and Bobcat are now on the path immediately in front of the bridge. Some type of structural work is being done.
  
• The bridge is in woeful shape. Planks are soft and obviously getting worse. At least 4-5 times I stepped on a seemingly solid plank only for it to be shockingly spongy. One time I wobbled backwards after my left foot was absorbed by a soft plank. I struggled to regain my balance. Falling on my back would have tested several planks at once. I never contemplated that scenario until it nearly happened. There was a second similar lesser wobble. Wearing bulky clothing was not helping me, particularly since I'm not used to it as a Floridian. There are also patches of green slick moss that complicate footing. Finally I realized that faster and leaning forward was exponentially more sensible and safe than slow and tentative while toe tapping each plank. I more than doubled my pace while traversing two planks at a time and making quick visual evaluations of planks in front of me. Bridge Guy was there for evil purposes. But after walking the bridge I think it is perfectly normal to accelerate the pace considerably, after you get a feel for things, and beyond the initial tentative nature. I think it would happen to me every time. Abby and Libby as Monon High veterans undoubtedly had experienced the same thing, and seen it from others. That might have been why they weren’t overly concerned by a stranger suddenly advancing more rapidly over the second half of the bridge.
  
• Down the hill is two stages. The first drop immediately beyond the bridge to a gravel access road is long and steep. It looked more daunting in person. I didn’t even consider it. I don’t believe it would have been attempted during a planned attack. Simply too many things can go wrong for the perpetrator. In contrast, I always wondered why nobody ventured beyond the red barrier. Is that a crime? As I walked back there everything opened up in crystal fashion. Now it’s like a theater ramp. There’s an easy gentle switch back that doesn’t require exiting the tree line at all. You are still concealed. The only annoyance is some narrow trees to duck around at the beginning. You emerge down the hill at the same spot as the steep treacherous drop.
  
• Beyond the rail there was a potential escape route for Abby and Libby. Note my first photo of the red railing beyond the bridge, looking toward big open field at left, immediately beyond the tree line. Same level as the bridge. That land includes a nice looking home with a tall flag pole. The home is perhaps 150 yards beyond the tree line. Parked vehicle, during my visit. A few photos later I used basically the same angle but well beyond the barrier toward what the lawn looks like, just before exiting the tree line. No blockage other than avoiding some narrow trees. I’m hardly saying Abby and Libby should have raced there before Bridge Guy reached them. They expected a brief awkward encounter with the creepy guy. It was light years the most logical outcome. But I haven’t seen it mentioned that a wide open lawn was not far away. That home was also closest in terms of hearing any noise from the creek area below. Of course, who knows what Bridge Guy would have done if Abby and Libby had scampered screaming into that lawn?
  
• Second stage of down the hill is every bit as steep, but doesn’t offer a theater ramp cheat. Backtracking left alongside the bridge lessens the grade and the distance of the drop off to your right. I had seen videographers take this route. It indeeds stands out as most logical. However, most logical hardly means 50% or greater. It struck me that crossing the bridge itself held so few permutations, then once you venture down toward Deer Creek it could have been anything. I found myself wondering if Bridge Guy had hidden something down there, a kill kit a la Israel Keyes, and had to retrieve it from the specific spot once he had victims in tow.
  
• I angled feet sideways and skidded down that second stage. No big deal. Perhaps 15 feet. The thick layer of leaves really helps, as opposed to rocks and mud alone. I filmed myself skidding down that hill but I screwed up and lost 3 videos filmed there and at the creek. I changed cameras beyond the bridge after running out of video space. I thought I understood the new camera, but did not. That’s why the photos near the creek are somewhat disjointed, and not the caliber I’d prefer. I thought I had a wide sweeping video of the creek area on both sides. I was in Indianapolis hours later at the site of the 1978 Burger Chef murders before realizing I lost those 3 videos at Monon High. I’m still ticked.
  
• After the second drop it is an easy walk right toward Deer Creek. There’s an obvious path there now, probably from so many people taking the route since the tragedy. I didn’t cross the creek. It would have been simple. The beginning is mostly a puddle. Then a gravel midsection. Finally an unremarkable 20 foot swatch of water that looked to be perhaps 18 inches deep in the center. The opposite bank was unusually steep, maybe 4-5 feet. That would have been difficult to quickly ascend, especially if being pursued.
  
• Overall that area alongside the creek felt strangely removed and somewhat dull. It wasn’t part of a trail. It wasn’t forest. There wasn’t plenty of tranquil rushing water. It wasn’t nearly as scenic as other Monon High areas, or to the degree I expected. The bridge was not visible. When I think back to my visit on the trail that time spent near the creek is least memorable of all. Without the photos I can’t envision much of anything. Under the bridge is considerably more interesting. Note how many pictures I took there. I started wondering if perhaps Bridge Guy didn’t plan it that way. He took them to a spot that doesn’t stand out, and therefore likely wouldn’t be considered or searched in the early going. If not for those deer I’m not convinced the bodies would have been discovered for hours, if at all on the 14th.
  
• Without backtracking over the bridge it too me an hour to return to the parking lot. I got lost after going back under the bridge. I thought I merely had to cross Deer Creek to the right and maneuver up the hill to regain the trails. That still seems logical. I crossed the creek using a downed log. Then no strategy worked. I was wandering and stumped. Finally I had to listen to the traffic and head toward State Road 25, emerging perhaps a quarter mile west of where I thought I was. I mention this to point out that Bridge Guy had countless options. There was no rule he had to park anywhere near the trails, or exit there. I felt totally at ease throughout my bewilderment in the woods. Deers were scampering away. There was no threat of anyone encountering me. I included pictures of what I was dealing with. In February there would be even less vegetation, and more availability to go wherever was desired, or planned.
  
• I never saw anyone on the trail or near the creek. There were no other cars when I arrived at noon. Once I finally got back to the parking lot at 2:30 there was a white van with Texas plates. That is what Delphi is dealing with…curious tourists.
  
• I had a great time at Purdue’s comeback victory over Nebraska a day prior. That is the final picture, alongside recent Purdue grads Hannah (left) and Elaina. I talk plenty at games so no trouble meeting local fans. For some reason I don’t remember the guy’s name at far right. Frustrated Bears fan. Green jacket is same one I wore at Monon High. Weather was nippy for a Floridian…from 29 to 46 degrees during my stay in Delphi.