Classic campus hijinx may only be on film

Bill Knight column for 6-15, 16 or 17, 2020 

Come fall, colleges that reopen may stress a new type of test, for COVID-19, plus low-density dorms, socially distanced classrooms and face coverings.

For some sense of what campus “normalcy” had been, 2020 students may look at old movies.

Films using campuses as plot devices or settings are as different as riots and raccoon coats, calculus and college football, “The Wonder Boys” and “Legally Blonde.”

Moviegoers’ fascination with college life has endured from before the Roaring Twenties to the 21st century. Campuses are isolated, physically and philosophically, and one microcosm of U.S. society, though hardly representative of Americans as a whole. However, that microcosm can show the good and the bad in people.

 “The Freshman,” a silent comedy starring the hilarious Harold Lloyd, was the one of the first campus films, ushering in not only many more comedies, but dramas and melodramas, musicals and thrillers. Comedies have been the most numerous, including “Dead Man on Campus,” “The Mind Benders” and “Genius”; “The Nutty Professor” (both versions) and “The Absent-Minded Professor” (both versions); plus Ronald Reagan in “Bedtime for Bonzo” and Clark Gable in “Teacher’s Pet,” “Blondie Goes to College” and “Mr. Belvedere Goes to College,” “School Daze,” “Mother Is A Freshman” and “Revenge of The Nerds.”

Within each type are several characteristics: collegial learning and interaction within the academy, the Ivory Tower and wild Greek life, Big Men on Campus and coeds, stereotypical professors and college radicals, jocks and geniuses. Settings are stately buildings and tree-lined campuses, dorms and frat houses, bars and communities off campus – surrounding the protected “zone” schools can be. Whether in the classroom or on the gridiron, dating or demonstrating, colleges were for learning and growing – not always simultaneously.

Romances and farces range from “Love Story” to “Sex Kittens Go to College,” with “Hold That Coed” and “The Male Animal,” Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were” and Barbara Stanwyck in “Red Salute.” Thrillers include “The Sorority House Murders” and “Flatliners”; military academies were settings for “Brother Rat” and “The West Point Story.” Others include “The Strawberry Statement,” Educating Rita” and “The Student Prince,” “Oxford Blues” and “Tea and Sympathy,” “Fraternity Row” and “Final Exam.”

Here are 10 top college films:

“The Affairs of Dobie Gillis” (1953). Eventually made into a TV sitcom starring Dwayne Hickman, Max Schulman’s collegian was first played on the big screen by Bobby Van in this musical co-starring Debbie Reynolds and Bob Fosse.

“Animal House” (1978). Technically titled “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” this John Landis comedy is a nice slice of life about the idyllic, mythic and goofy early ’60s. It stars Tim Matheson, John Belushi and Verna Bloom in the adventures of a misfit fraternity.

“College” (1927). Buster Keaton satirizes campus life in this silent film with Keaton as a serious student trying to win back his girlfriend, who dropped him for an athlete.

“Good Will Hunting” (1997). Matt Damon stars as a college janitor who’s also a prodigy torn between old friends such as Ben Affleck, and new challenges, from education to romance. The Oscar-winner co-stars Robin Williams and Minnie Driver.

“Higher Learning” (1995). A group of freshmen face various crises in this compelling social drama directed by John Singleton, who tackles racism, sexism and campus unrest. Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube star.

“Horse Feathers” (1932). The best of the comedies featuring all four Marx Brothers, this has Groucho as a college president trying to build a winning football team, with Zeppo as his philandering upperclassman son. Thelma Todd co-stars as a “college widow.”

“The Paper Chase” (1973). Timothy Bottoms is a first-year student at Harvard Law School, dealing with studies and love. Co-starring as a demanding professor and father of the woman the student romances (Lindsay Wagner), John Houseman won an Academy Award.

“PCU’ (1994). This wild comedy stars Tom Lawrence as a freshman at Port Chester University, where a variety of special interest groups – from an “anti-meat brigade” to student Republicans – aren’t as attractive as a party-hardy fraternity. David Spade and Jeremy Piven co-star.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966). Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Duncan star in the adaptation of Edward Albee’s Broadway hit. The directing debut of Mike Nichols, this dark-drama free-for-all pits a professor against his “faculty wife,” along with a young teacher and his wife, alcohol, sex and vicious verbal sparring. It won five Oscars.

“With Honors” (1994). Brendan Fraser stars as a Harvard student whose computer crashes, leaving him with one paper copy of his thesis, which is lost and found by a homeless man (Joe Pesci). In exchange for returning the thesis (page by page), Monty feeds and houses Pesci, and the two men bond. The touching gem feature Gore Vidal as a professor.

Comeback unclear with jobs report

Bill Knight column for 6-11, 12 or 13, 2020

Until this month’s partial re-openings, business districts seemed like something out of an old “Twilight Zone” episode: eerily quiet, with closed shops, few vehicles and fewer pedestrians, all affected by the pandemic and precautions to avoid it.

The resulting economic woes are because of the COVID-19 virus, not government responses, skittish or selfish investors, or aggressive doctors or bankers. The contagion requires public-health safeguards that included closing many businesses, which laid off employees.

            However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week reported that the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell 1.2 percentage points in May, to 13.3%. The BLS conceded that the rate doesn’t include another 3% of workers who lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, classified as on “temporary layoff.”

About 42 million Americans have lost their jobs in recent months.

The official number of unemployed fell by 2.09 million as of the week of May 12, BLS said. That still left 20.99 million jobless. (The figure also doesn’t include dropouts from the labor force or people forced to work part-time when they really want full-time jobs – or once had them.)

 “If all the 32.5 million workers who are out of work as a result of the virus had shown up as unemployed, the unemployment rate would have been 19.7% in May instead of 13.3%,” said Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz.

Plus, the federal agency’s survey of metro areas showed every one of the nation’s 389 metro areas lost jobs and saw higher unemployment rates due to the pandemic.

Previously, BLS reported that April’s job loss was 10 times the number of jobs as last April: 20,626,000 compared to 2,600,000. In that month alone, the country lost all the job growth that had happened since President Obama’s first term.

That’s obviously felt by many households. A Census Bureau survey released this month said that more than 20% of Americans said they had little or no confidence in being able to pay next month’s rent or mortgage.

As for Illinois, the state’s jobless rate is now a record-high 16.4%, according to the Department of Employment Security, up from 4.4% before the pandemic. IDES’ most recent report shows 823,100 jobs lost since February. Most have been in “leisure and hospitality” (restaurants and taverns, hotels and theaters, concerts and sporting events), which has less than half of its February number (301,000 compared to 623,500).

Elsewhere, a June 3 payroll report from Moody’s Analytics and ADP said U.S. companies in May cut another 2.8 million jobs. That news was mixed since it was a decline, but it wasn’t as bad as the 8.8 million lost jobs economists forecast.

“The good news is … the COVID-19 recession is over – barring another, second wave,” commented Mark Zandl, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. However, “the recovery will be a slog until there’s a vaccine or therapy that’s distributed and adopted widely.”

            In the meantime, unemployed Americans still have some aid available – for a few more weeks. Jobless benefits are paid by states, but the $2.2 trillion CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) that Congress passed in March provides an additional $600 in weekly benefits. However, that expires next month (compared to the Great Recession’s unemployment assistance, which extended benefits to 99 weeks).

In Washington, Republican leaders oppose extending assistance, and Democratic leaders propose subsidies for businesses to cover payrolls.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who predicted joblessness could reach 20%, said the country will probably need three to six more months of government financial help for employers and families.

 “We may need to do more, and Congress as well,” he said, adding, “For the economy to fully recover, people will have to be fully confident, and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine.”

Some in the GOP support more help for the jobless. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said, “It’s unfathomable that the Senate is set to go on recess without considering any additional COVID-19 assistance for the American people.”

In Business Insider, Wall Street analyst Henry Blodgett and business journalist David Plotz echoed cautious tone expressed by Powell and Zandl, stressing, “Even when everything is open, our economy won’t recover until people feel safe resuming their normal lives.”

Remembering George Perry Floyd… and endless others

Bill Knight column for 6-8, 9 or 10, 2020     

Maybe it’s only superficial appearances that suggest that tsk-tsk finger-wagging about property damage is more prominent than public outrage about another black man killed by another white cop, not unlike the optics of more apparent concern about business re-openings than the risks posed to workers and customers in a pandemic of a very contagious virus.

One also can’t help comparing 2016’s sensationalized fury about NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick protesting brutality against African Americans by KNEELING during the national anthem, to the virtual shrugs by too many people at the footage of Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin KNEELING on the neck of unarmed and handcuffed George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on Memorial Day, when the 46-year-old African American died of his injuries.

Other recent killings of black Americans show the results of centuries of systemic racism in the United States, where despair over disparity, inequality and injustice gnaw at the soul of the whole nation.

Remember Ahmaud Arbery?

According to data from Mapping Police Violence, last year saw 1,099 Americans killed by police. Blacks (13% of the country’s population) were 24% of those killed. Even where such deaths are obviously not justified, police are rarely charged with a crime, much less convicted.

We can go on – and put names on numbers:

            Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Eric Garner…

Yes, we could go on.

A 577-page poll conducted by Morning Consult May 31 and June 1 shows that a majority of Americans (54%) support the protests that have unleashed unrest in dozens of U.S. communities. (About 22% say they’re opposed.)

In a culture steeped in narcissism, greed and violence, white Americans must mostly listen to the anguished voices, acknowledge the crisis, and bear witness to the daily terrors others bear.

            … Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, Botham Jean …

We could go on.

Focusing just on selfish looting, misdirected arson, or mindless destruction of retailers, CNN, the AFL-CIO, etc. by demonstrators (or bystanders, or infiltrators) seems to overlook African American targets of police misconduct.

            …Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice…

We could go on.

The world cannot remain silent, yet white Americans should also be relatively quiet. too, and concentrate on heeding racism and its consequences, having empathy, and showing solidarity with all parts of our race – the human race – with special attention to black people tragically the most frequent victims of bias and brutality.

            … Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor …

… and we could go on about untold others.

Ijeoma Oluo, author of 2018’s “So You Want to Talk About Race,” commented, “If you live in this system of white supremacy, you are either fighting the system or you are complicit. There is no neutrality to be had towards systems of injustice. It is not something you can just opt out of.”

We CANNOT go on.