[MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shawn L Johnston" <sjohnston at satshot.com>
To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Criminalize Community Volunteers?


> Different field, but for profit hospitals solicit and use volunteers.
>
> Shawn


    A huge example of the volunteer issue is graduate schools. Most PhD
programs are funded, so the person going for the PhD doesn't pay tuition and
gets a stipend to live off of. However, to gain the stipend, the student
most often has to teach. There are specific numbers of hours expected per
week, both 'contact' [spending time with students], and preparation hours.
    However, that's all just a small percentage of the time, and is the
excuse to pay them.

    On the flip side, there are many many hours put into a PhD, especially
into research. The research benefits the lab. The lab gets grants. The
institutions get money off of the grants, automatically from indirect costs.
The institutions also gain from the prestige and possibilities for the
paying students. But in any case, most research done at an institution by a
graduate student is in essence, volunteer work.

    The same often goes for the research professors as they get paid to
teach, and manage the lab and research, etc, on the side as it were, still
bringing in money to the institution they're at.

    This is the example of a large volunteer system. It fuels a large
percentage of research. The people using the volunteers in this case is most
likely the U.S. government, which is paying for the costs of the research,
but not the costs of the grad students or professors [tho often they do pay
for their summer salaries, and for post-doctoral salaries].

    Rayzam




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