Tuesday, June 29, 2010

STEPing on the Working-Class

Old Main must be very worried about the blowback from the Seat Transfer and Equity Plan (STEP), which raises the kickback required to get season football tickets by 500%, since they've sent  out Graham, a man with the cojones to say,"I assure you, we don't do anything very lavishly at Penn State. We're very working-class when it comes to what we do,"  to do a damage control interview with BlueWhite Illustrated

Let's review some of Graham's working-class bona fides.

First off, Graham just received a contract extension which boosted his salary by 12.9% from $620,000 to $700,000. Com'on, what UniMart clerk hasn't received an $80,000 raise in one year? This is working-class through and through. No?

Then there are the corporate boards that Graham sits on.  In  2008, he made $270,9800 in compensate as a director of US Steel and last year he pulled in another $170,000 from the gig. ...not bad for our working-class hero. He has also sat on the board of Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania  for a number of years and it was announced this summer that he was appointed as a director of FM Global,an insurance company, which according to the press release announcing Graham's appointment does business with Penn State. Unfortunately, these are not publicly traded companies, hence the compensation of a director is not disclosed by either. But this sort of thing is commonplace amongst the working-class. Staff assistants at Penn State are always being tapped to serve on corporate boards.

Of course, we can't overlook Graham's role as the sometimes washboard player in the Deacons of Dixie, a local Dixieland jazz band. This is a very down to earth hobby, very working-class. The Deacons are working-class to the bone. They often preform at the W.C. Handy Festival in Florence, Alabama and what's more working-class than driving to Florence in a beat up RV?

Now, Graham didn't make the trip that year. When he did make the trip, he didn't think the RV was working-class enough.  Here's Graham's concept of working-class travel.

I understand Lear Jets are all the rage amongst retirees on fixed incomes...very working-class.

Like I said, it takes a man with a big set of cojones to live the way Graham does and then to claim that "We're very working-class when it comes to what we do."  Graham doesn't know working-class.






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