Updates from the House of Lloyd

Greetings fellow 5th Palmers:

As the Darkroom Coordinator for Arts on the Hill and LHSP, I came to the scary realization recently that, apart from some custodial staff, I am the most senior employee of Alice Lloyd Hall. What a sad commentary on committment in America these days.

After a recent visit, I found out some relatively interesting information that I thought I would share with you. First of all, Frank, our lovely custodian, was gone for about 8 months due to serious discovery of cancer. I'm not exactly sure what type of cancer, but he is now in remission so that was very good to hear (he also looks much more healthy; I think he might have quit smoking). It was interesting to talk with him about his ordeals with the hospital, and more importantly the employment system. After 6 months of being off work (without pay) his health insurance decided that, seeing as how he wasn't working, why should the University continue to cover health costs? In order to file for unemployment, however, he had to be off 5 months, and then it took an additional three to process, meaning that he was back at work before he was able to receive any assistance, and working of course cut off access to such help. Because of the fatigue and such he was only able to return for four hours a week, but it was enough to keep his job and bring his insurance back online.

By the way, the custodial staff, who gets to clean up after the children of millionaires, are paid a salary that keeps them below the poverty line, even if they've been working there for decades (and we know how much employment mobility being a custodian give you).

Also, just as Frank is still up on the 5th floor, Earleen is still on 2. She's actually having knee surgery next week and the doctors told her that she could be out for six months. Here's hoping the University actually continues to cover her health insurance during that time.

Anyway, it was an interesting day at Lloyd, and a reminder of just how stark the divisions are between the haves and have nots, even within one building.

In other building news, the Michigan Photography Club seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth, leaving only one poor girl with an e-mail address plastered on a website that she can't modify and a whole campus full of photographers who want darkroom access. So, in an effort to make everyone happy, the Lloyd Darkroom Photo Club is now the temporary (albiet indefinitely) home of all b&w darkroom photographers on campus. That room is going to be hopping!

There's other randomness in life as always, but I thought I would just send along an update in the hopes of keeping you all in the loop of Lloyd (if I have to be trapped in it I'm taking you all with me!), and adding a post to this highly dejected website. Add things people, please!



In conclusion, here's another photograph from the vault. Given the theme of the post, I thought I would go with a more "old fashioned" photo, developed in the depths of Lloyd.

I hope that you are all doing well! Let us know!
--Shoshana