Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20141202

Popular, the citys Public Schools rethink how they can compete to attract students and improve education. Everybody learns at their own pace. So if im quicker than chauncey, ill be able to keep going instead of waiting for him to come to my level, or viceversa. Ifill those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from Electronics Systems to intelligence analysis and cyber operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. Knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. Thats bae systems. Thats inspired work. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill president obama may be ready to announce his nominee for secretary of defense, later this week. It was widely reported today that Ashton Carter will be the choice, after hes thoroughly vetted. He served as Deputy Defense secretary from october 2011 to december 2013. White house spokesman josh earnest would not confirm the reports, but he spoke highly of carter. Hes somebody that certainly deserves and has demonstrated strong bipartisan support for his Previous Service in government. He is somebody that does have a detailed understanding of the way the department of defense works. I think for all these reasons its been widely reported mr. Carter has been on the short list. Ifill chuck hagel resigned as defense secretary last week, highlighting ongoing tensions between the pentagon and the white house theres word today a woman whos married to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Albaghdadi is being held in lebanon. Authorities in beirut say the woman and a boy who may be baghdadis son were detained near a Border Crossing with syria. The officials suggested they may be swapped for more than 20 lebanese soldiers and police held by Islamic State militants. In kenya, alshabaab militants have carried out a new mass killing of nonmuslims. This time, the victims were 36 workers at a quarry. Police loaded the bodies onto trucks after the massacre, near the border with somalia. Alshabaab said the attack was in retaliation for the presence of kenyan troops inside somalia. But, kenyas president insisted the troops will not be withdrawn. We will not flinch or relent in the war against terrorism in our country and our region. We shall continue to inflict painful casualties on these terrorists until we secure our country and region. Our stability and prosperity depends on a secure neighbourhood. Ifill the president also fired the interior minister and accepted the resignation of his National Police chief. Longstanding tensions came to a canada today warned its citizens to leave afghanistan immediately for their own safety. In the last few weeks, afghan insurgents have increasingly targeted foreigners, killing four since last friday. The canadian statement said the threat is extremely high. Israels governing coalition crumbled today, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired two cabinet ministers and called for early elections. Longstanding tensions came to a head over a bill defining israel as the jewish state. The two centrist ministers charged it would discriminate against israeli arabs. In a televised address, netanyahu rejected their criticism. translated in one word that is called putsch and that makes it impossible to run a government, that makes it impossible to lead a country. Therefore, also due to the necessity to ensure a stable and proper conduct of government, i decided to push forward legislation to dissolve the knesset and go to election as soon as possible. Ifill the early elections put the Israeli Government in political limbo amid growing violence between israelis and palestinians. Three founders of hong kongs prodemocracy movement called today for protesters to retreat. The leaders also said theyre turning themselves in. The protests demanding free elections in 2017 have paralyzed the city center for two months, and triggered violent clashes with police. Back in this country about 100 buildings in downtown detroit lost power for much of the day, after a major cable failure. The lights went out around 10 30 in the morning, forcing Public Schools to dismiss students at midday. The bankrupt citys mayor mike duggan said the power grid run by the Public Lighting Department p. L. D. Has not been modernized in decades. Today is another reminder of how much work we still have to do to rebuild this city. And a bankruptcy order doesnt solve the decades of neglect in our infrastructure and thats what we saw today in the p. L. D. System. Ifill power was gradually being restored throughout the afternoon. 35 u. S. Hospitals have been officially designated ebola treatment centers, should the need arise. The department of health and Human Services released the list today. Most of the hospitals are in major cities, and have the best trained staff and essential equipment. The announcement came as president obama visited the National Institutes of health to highlight progress toward an ebola vaccine. A federal report card out today finds u. S. Hospitals are making fewer serious mistakes. Errors dropped 17 between 2010 and 2013. As a result, 50,0000 fewer patients died and 12 billion in Health Care Costs was saved. In economic news, chicagos city Council Voted to increase the citys minimum wage nearly 5 to 13 an hour by 2019. It affects some 400,000 workers. And auto makers reported surging sales in november. Chrysler led the way, with a gain of 20 . The upbeat news on auto sales and on construction helped wall street. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained more than 102 points to close at 17,879. The nasdaq rose 28 points to close at 4,755. And the s p 500 added 13, to finish at 2,066. Still to come on the newshour Syrian Refugees poised to lose food assistance, after u. N. Funds run dry. What Congress Needs to get done before the end of the year. How professional sports tackle Domestic Violence. Philadelphias Public Schools fight to win back students. Preparing cities to withstand disasters. And the cozy relationship between the fed and big banks. Ifill now, to a Funding Crisis at the unted nations World Food Program. Yesterday, the organization announced that it can no longer provide food vouchers to more than a million andahalf Syrian Refugees as winter approaches. Ifill at a makeshift camp in Lebanons Bekaa valley last week, a syrian refugee one of 1,000 at this location grimly assessed conditions after winter storms hammered the place where shes lived for a year. translated these tents dont keep us warm. Even when lit the heaters dont keep us warm. I survive only thanks to the u. N. Food vouchers. I dont get anything else. Ifill but now, those vouchers, a vital lifeline to so many, have been suspended by the u. N. s World Food Program because of a severe cash shortage. That means 1. 7 million syrians living in turkey, lebanon, egypt, jordan and iraq face an immediate food shortage. Theyre part of an estimated 3. 2 million syrians spread across the middle east. The w. F. P. Says donor countries failed to meet financial commitments, and it warned today of potentially dire consequences. We are expecting that people will maybe have to send their children out to work, theyll have to skip meals, theyll have to do without food, and what we are worried about is that some may even feel that they are forced to go back to syria, even though their towns and villages are not necessarily safe. Ifill the u. N. Agency got a cash infusion from the u. S. Last week to cover novembers voucher operation. But it needs another 64 Million Dollars for december. Its the latest hard blow to refugees like this woman from syrias northwestern idlib province. translated this is unfair, the syrians do not deserve this. We fled our country from the ongoing war and hunger, and became refugees here. I have patience for one day without food but my son cannot. Ifill the World Food Program also assists four Million People inside syria, and that program will run out of money in february. I spoke earlier today with muhannad hadi, the World Food Programs regional emergency coordinator, from amman, jordan. Muhannad hadi, thank you so much for joining us. I want to start by asking about the suspension of the Voucher Program how did we get to suspension . Basically the suspension is the decision the World Food Program has to take for the lack of funding. Its a decision we were forced to take and unfortunately, as a result, we have more than 1. 7 Million People, refugees, lacking food this month and the months after if the situation doesnt change. Ifill what is the value of food vouchers or this debit card system as opposed to just handing out food directly to the recipients . The most important thing about this Voucher Program is that it keeps the dignity, it retains the dignity of the refugees and puts the decisions in their hands. Theyre the ones who decide from where to do their shopping, what do buy. It gives the mothers the right to decide what do they want to feed their children on any night for dinner, and it also resolves issues of protection and a lot of tension between local communities and the refugees. So its a preferred option, and this is the best way to serve the refugees in such circumstances. Ifill so explain the shovel t the shortfall to me. Is it because not must have nonny is pledged or enough pledges not being fulfilled . Not enough pledges being bull filled. In the kuwait pledging conference, 2 billion were pledged but only 40 committed. We are running a big program in syria. In syria and the neighboring countries, every month, we feed 4 Million People inside syria in addition to approximately 2 million refugees in neighboring countries. Thats a big program. Were talking about 6 Million People the World Food Program feeds every month and on that we need approximately 35 million a week to do this operation. This month only and in order to resume the operation for the refugees, we need 64 million immediately, but the the beauty of the program that we have, if we get the money tonight, by tomorrow morning, we can charge and load the cars of the refugees and they can start the Grocery Shopping as of tomorrow so they will not miss a meal, if we get funds immediately. Ifill who are you counting on to fill the gap . Donations, corporations, individuals . Well, were counting on everybody. Were countering on the United States, were counting on the big donors and were also counting on the regional countries, approaching the gcc countries and arabia and everybody else. The crisis in syria is not only about syria or the region. Its becoming an international crisis. It has taken so long and the suffering of the people has also increased. We are counting on the International Community standing by the syrian people. The syrian conflict is a political conflict. We are doing a humanitarian solution in absence of a political solution and thats why the humanitarian solution must be supported by the International Community until the syrian problem is resolved. Ifill is there a connection to be made between food an security and political stability in syria and beyond . Right now, people have no choice. The people of whom we are feeding are totally dependent on the World Food Program to feed them simply because they have no job opportunity, their livelihoods have been destroyed, theyre either displaced within their own countries or refugees living in camps or in makeshift shelters or informal settlements in neighboring countries. They have no access to the labor market. Their lives have been destroyed, and until that situation is rectified somehow, the humanitarian operations must remain to support the syrian people. Ifill muhannad hadi, the regional emergency coordinator for the World Food Program in syria, thank you so much. Thank you. Ifill the house and senate are back in washington for the final weeks of the 113th congress. Big ticket items, from financing government to tax breaks for corporations and classroom teachers, remain up in the air. Lisa desjardins reports on the highstakes todo list, as republicans and democrats alike debate deadlines. Reporter crowded halls, a crowded agenda and a bit of frenzy have taken over the capitol. Im late for something. Reporter late and not much time left. House republicans like paul ryan are trying to leverage their election momentum in the final weeks of this congress. With a big and critical to do list reauthorizing Defense Department spending. Funding the fights against ebola and Islamic State militants. And extending dozens of tax breaks which expired last year. Those include billions of dollars for corporations to promote research. But the package also adds tax breaks for teachers to buy supplies, as well as special provisions for nascar and incentives for mass transit. Thats the relatively easy stuff. Both house and senate are poised to extend the tax breaks for one year. The white house is thinking about it. But things get dicier when the federal government runs out of funds next week. Republicans insist they will fund almost all of government at current levels, but they are hotly debating a way to limit one thing the president s executive orders protecting more Illegal Immigrants from deportation. This is a serious breach of our constitution. Its a serious threat to our system of government. And frankly we have limited options and limited abilities to deal with it directly. But thats why were continuing to talk to our members. Reporter House Republicans, led by Speaker Boehner are fuming, and considering a creative option fund most of government for the next year. But fund the department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, only until march. And, potentially try to cut funds for that program. The man who oversees those funds, secretary of Homeland Security jeh johnson, objected to the plan today at a house hearing today. I need congress to act on border security, so im encouraging you act on current appropriations request for the sake of border security. Reporter for now, House Republicans are debating the plan. The president is debating a veto, and all of congress is wondering if the todo list can be done in the two weeks officially left on the calendar. Lisa desjardins. Pbs newshour. Ifill this was a day when questions about how professional sports leagues handle Domestic Violence were back on center stage. Representatives from the major leagues appeared during a hearing on capitol hill. Lawmakers said they must do a better job of cracking down. Senator claire mccaskill, a democrat from missouri, admonished the record up to now. Professional sports, with very few exceptions, have done little to hold those who commit this crime accountable. And perpetrators know that if they can only get their victims to recant, refuse to cooperate, threaten their financial future, if they can accomplish those things, then nothing will happen. Ifill earlier in the day, former Baltimore Ravens running vincent told lawmakers that as a child he and his brother saw his mother get beaten up repeatedly acted knocked unconscious. Ive committed my lifes work for the last 20 years as an advocate against Domestic Violence in an effort to keep others from experiencing this lifetime pain. I relate to the 20 million victims, survivors of Domestic Violence, abuse in every Community Across our great nation. Ifill ray ifill earlier in the day, former Baltimore Ravens running back ray rice asked for a Second Chance to play in the n. F. L. Rice was suspended from the league this fall after knocking his thenfiancee unconscious in an elevator. An arbitrator ruled last week the suspension was illegal. Rice and his nowwife, janay, appeared on the today show along with her parents. He was asked about whether he had ever hurt her before. Had arguments. When you talk about abuse, you know, thats something that, you know, we know weve never crossed that path, but then did we say things to each other that we want to take back at times . Yeah, weve crossed that line before, but it never got to an altercation where it went that far. You know, that was just very uncharacteristic of, you know, myself. I take responsibility. That was very uncharacteristic. Ifill Domestic Violence may also be connected with another major problem in football concussions and brain injury. Our colleagues at hbo real sports have a report this month exploring those possible links. Heres an excerpt, beginning with the case of an n. F. L. Player who died last year. His name was paul oliver, a five year veteran in the league. His wife, chelsea, told correspondent jon frankel how her husband changed from a gentle giant with no history of any kind of violence, to a man who terrorized his own family after suffering three concussions. His behavior started to change, and one example was we got in an argument, he shattered both our phones so i couldnt call the police and locked all the doors and he told me that if i get up off the couch that he would slam my head into the floor. Reporter did you think that it was a direct relation to his playing football . I started to suspect that. Hes never been like that, and every time after, he would always say, i dont know whats wrong with me, somethings wrong with me. Hes, like, i cant control myself anymore. As his behavior deteriorated did you tell anybody . No. How come . I was trying to protect him, and if i was to tell somebody, he would lose control. On september 24, 2013, paul oliver lost control for the last time, after yet another domestic dispute, he did the unimaginable. He went up to his bedroom, loaded a gun and walked down the stairs towards chelsea and their two young sons. He just looked at me and he said, this is how miserable i am. And he tilted his head and smiled. And thats when he shot himself in the head. Whats the location of your emergency . He killed himself he shot himself in the head in front of both me and the kids please hes not breathing oh, god paul oliver became the ninth former player to shoot himself in just a threeyear span. It had become a familiar tale. Another suicide for the n. F. L. , another autopsy revealing c. T. E. , the brain disease that can cause sudden and dark personality changes. But as much attention as these mens suicides were getting, Something Else was being ignored, a different pattern of impulsive violence many showed before their deaths, a pattern of domestic abuse, a pattern scientists at Boston University had already begun to notice when, last fall, they received from Chelsea Oliver the remnants of her husbands brain. There were areas of abnormality in the anterior temporal lobe and those areas are parts of the brain concerned with emotion that and the ability to control ourselves. Are you telling me that as the disease progressed he lost the ability to control himself . Yeah, thats a pattern weve seen over and over. These doctors are part of the team at boston in fact what helped bring n. F. L. s head injury crisis to light. Now theyre seeing evidence the n. F. L. s new crisis, Domestic Violence, may be linked. Were not saying what theyre doing is not wrong, and they shouldnt be punished like anybody else, but what we are saying is we have to acknowledge the fact that the root of some of the behavior might be the damage were doing to their brains. Its very hard to comprehend Domestic Violence specifically. How do you hurt somebody you love . Now you want us to believe that because a guy suffered head trauma, this may lead to his actions. T why shouldnt i look at all the other factors and variables in life . Well, there are plenty of variables that can lead to it, but we know that with c. T. E. It leads to a short fuse. These guys used to be fine. They were entirely reasonable at all times of day, but now these guys are assaulting, overreacting, paranoid, jealous in a 2013 study, the boston team analyzed the case histories of 33 victims of c. T. E. , nearly all of them football players. 17 of the man, more than 50 , reportedly never engaged in any violence until after suffering head injury, then changed drastically. B. U. s dr. Robert stern authored the study after speaking with the families of the men to learn about their pasts. When you heard of these stories of Domestic Violence, were there any that really struck a chord with you, hit you raw . They all were so painful to hear, and their loved ones, their spouses couldnt make sense of what happened to this guy. He was sweet, he was kind, he was a big teddy bear. And then something changed. Ifill the number of students fleeing philadelphias troubled Neighborhood Schools has almost tripled in the past decade. This year, 70,000 students are choosing Charter Schools instead. Tonight, special correspondent for education john merrow looks at what the city schools are doing to fight back. Reporter philadelphia cant force students to attend their Neighborhood Schools, so the system is trying to make them more appealing, by copying other successful schools. Reporter this school relies on projectbased learning. Students work in teams doing real world research. These seniors are exploring how a babys brain develops by designing toys for them. Youll need to research whats going on in the month of an 812 month old. Reporter test scores at this Public School are among the highest in the city, but it is not open to everyone. It sets admission standards and rejects nine out of every ten applicants. Philadelphias challenge can an innovative curriculum be successful in schools that accept allcomers, and all skill levels . We believe it can, and we believe it can because it has. Reporter william hite, philadelphias superintendent, acknowledges the obstacles and challenges, including finding teachers and principals who are willing to try something new. And, he says, thats not all. One additional obstacle is a true belief that all children can succeed. Reporter who does not believe these kids can learn . I think some of the adults who are working with them, many some of the Community Members who are in, some of the individuals who are leading special admit schools. Reporter the superintendent said there are people in philadelphia who do not believe that kids like this, kids who go to the u school, are capable of learning. Exactly right. And thats exactly the belief. These young people themselves dont believe that they can do it. And so something is happening, where young people arent being given opportunities and being trusted to demonstrate success. Reporter i told some of principal geyettes students what the adults were saying about them. How does that make you feel, that statement . I feel offended. I feel like theyre belittling me as a person. They say kids like you dont have the ability to learn. And thats basically discouraging me instead of encouraging me to want to fight and go to college, and do things that kids like us dont do. Reporter these ninth graders have an opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong, because theyre now attending the u school, a neighborhood no Admission Test high school thats following an innovative path. The u school is one of three innovative Public Schools that opened this fall. Here everything is project based. In english class students wrote poems about themselves and their world. Now they are turning their poems into video presentations. You have to decide whos going to be the producer. Reporter teacher sam reed has high hopes and big plans for his students. Like what are the problems here at our school, what are problems in the community at large, how do we highlight those, those problems through creating blogs, through creating podcasts, through creating visual infographics. Reporter these students werent exactly beating down the doors to try project based learning. This was kind of my backup plan to come here. I could have went to my Neighborhood School, but my mom wanted me to come here. Reporter once they got here, students found Something Else that made u school different. Everybody learns at their own pace. So if im quicker than chauncey, ill be able to keep going instead of waiting for him to come to my level, or viceversa. My friends, they want to come. They want to join this school. Reporter why . Because they like how we learn. They like that we get to learn at our own pace. Reporter class projects are divided into a series of goals, entered on the schools computer network. Each time a student achieves a goal, the teacher grades the work, and the student moves on to the next. Programs like this one track student progress. You have to make a goal plan, so youll say, i want to get task one through three done in this time span, and you have to keep up with it. Reporter principal neil geyette and his teachers strive to make u school a nurturing environment. When kids misbehave, instead of punishments being handed out, teachers and students come together to explore what went wrong and what can be done to prevent future occurrences. So lets say i had a bad day. We can talk, and they can help me out with that. So its like a caring community. Reporter a caring community. Yeah, like we all care. We dont leave anybody behind. Reporter contrast that approach with the message that greets students at this Neighborhood School every morning unexcused absences are unlawful punishable by a ride to the truancy center. Principal geyette knows from experience that threats alienate students theyre removed. They come back. The teacher and the student never have a conversation about it and everybody pretends like it doesnt happen, right . And so the first step for us was to get young people to own try to get start to get young people to own what theyre doing. Reporter to own and take responsibility for what theyre doing. Principal geyettes second step give students a chance to show who they are and what they can do. In their video presentations for example. We are from mouthwatering cheese stakes, creamy milk shakes, and salty fries. We are from strong single mothers. We are from the u school where my fellow classmates want to become something great. Reporter superintendent hite is giving his innovative schools five years to make a go of it, and he wants to open more every year. However, keeping up with Charter Schools will be a challenge. More than 40 organizations have applied to open new Charter Schools in philadelphia next year. Ifill whether its hurricanes, a health scare, or a cyberattack, communities and institutions survive only if they can prepare for the unpredictable. Thats the topic of a new book called, the resilience dividend by judith rodin, whos also the president of the rockefeller foundation. I sat down with her recently at the miami book fair. What is resilience . Well, somewhere in the world, at least once a week, there is a storm or a new epidemic people havent heard about six months before, civil unrest, a cyberattack, and in this age of so much unpredictability and so much turmoil, we need to shift our paradigm and, so, we are very much focused now in the United States and around the world on relief and recovery and not enough on preparedness and readiness. Let me tell you just one short story, and i think it will make the point about preparedness. Boston, for at least six or seven years, had been rehearsing for something to go wrong, whether it was a terrorist attack or a Violent Storm or flooding. They didnt know what it would be. Of course, none of us know what it will be. So this is about readiness for any kind of disruption makes you better ready for every disruption. Ifill in bostons case, it was about the Boston Marathon bombing. Right. Even though you say they were preparing, for some reason, that kind of disrumtion, youre still completely unprepared. But they brought together all the elements of government, they brought together communication, companies, water companies, Transit Companies and all of the medical responders precisely because they didnt know what it was, and they had a plan so they really knew who was on first. Ifill think about the world resiliency. I think about it as bouncing back. Does this mean there always has to be a disaster involved . No, because obviously this is about planning in case something goes wrong. The idea here is that not every disruption has to become a disaster. The dividend that i talk about is really the investment in preparedness that pays off whether or not something going s wrong and thats the ambition. Ifill so much of the disasters or disruption you write about in the book have to do with water, and i think of katrina. Thats a case where we would be hard put to say that the gulf coast was terribly resilient or prepared. It is very clear that new orleans was completely unprepared. Think about all the elements that made them dysfunctional a greatly of poverty, having housing in areas that were totally vulnerable to flood plains even if the levies had not broken, a very dysfunctional City Government and very high rates of crime. It will be ten years next year since katrina, and i was in new orleans a couple of weeks ago, and they used their recovery to revitalize in the most profound and really elegant way. They took over all their Public Schools and the School Childrens performance now is truly extraordinary. They completely diversified their economy. Diversity is such an important component of resilience because it gives you strength. Ifill when you talk about diversity, you have a different definition that would leap to mind when they talk about diversity. It is both, actually. One of the elements of resiliency is diversity and typically we think about that as redundancy and redundancy is critical. Ill give you another example from the book and that is many people will remember the debacle of lula lemons yoga pants in 2011 when they were so unbelievably sheer. They lost 2 billion of market caps and had many, many lawsuits and lost consumer confidence. What was wrong is they were relying on a single manufacturer for a Single Source of that fabric from a single kind of fiber. So redundancy in that sense is really very critical. Ifill well, heres another example. In japan the faceboo the fuka disaster was ultimately a disaster said to be made in japan. I talk about fukushima and analyze it deeply in the book because they had for the first time a postsituation commission. Its the first time in the history of modern japan that they have ever been willing to publicly analyze what went wrong. So theres a wealth of data. Part of it they absolutely attribute to their culture, the culture of acquiescing, the culture of not being willing to call out something that goes wrong, the culture of not being able to be adaptable and flexible. But theres a positive example from japan, toyota. Toyota lost almost 700 plants and 370,000 cars, so they slipped from number one car producer in the world to number four. But toyota has this amazing culture. They rebounded very quickly, and they revitalized, and two years later, while japan is still reeling economically, toyota is again the number one car producer. Ifill but isnt ate natural human instinct to not to want to acknowledge risk let alone plan for it . Im a psychologist and i would argue that we need to acknowledge potential risk or potential failure in order to cope better, and if thats something we need to teach our children do do more effectively. Its really easy to learn how to succeed. Its harder to learn how to fail. And part of resilience building is learning how to failsafely and not catastrophically, whether youre a person or a city or a business. Thats, in a way i, what this is really all about. So we are building core elements of strength when we are building resilience in people, in institutions and in our cities. Ifill judith rodin, thank you very much. And thank you all. applause ifill well be back with a look at the Federal Reserves cosy relationship with big banks. But first, its pledge week on p. B. S. This break allows your Public Television station to ask for your support. And that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. Ifill for those stations not taking a pledge break, we take a second look at a growing trend in Higher Education the rise of adjunct professors, and the financial struggles they face. Newshour economics correspondent paul solman has the story. Reporter life in academia turns out to be different than what french professor professor and single mother Nicole Beth Wallenbrock had in mind. Ive been on food stamps for, i think, about 6 months. Reporter Arik Greenberg teaches theology at Loyola Marymount university. We are not given any kind of benefits; no medical; no dental; no vision; no retirement; no family leave; no sick leave; nothing. Reporter to support his family, rob balla drives to three different ohio universities to teach six english classes, and tutors on the side. He had pneumonia last fall, worked anyway. We go to school under any circumstances, really, because you cant afford to have your pay docked. Reporter these are adjuncts, parttime professors paid an average of 2 3,000 per class with few to no benefits who now make up half of college faculties, a drastic change from just a few decades ago. In 1970, about 80 of the faculty were on the tenure track. Reporter but nontenured faculty have become the rule, says education professor adrianna kezar. This trajectory started in community colleges, it spread across 4year institutions and research universities, and its public and private. Reporter Nicole Beth Wallenbrock got a p. H. D. In french lit to become a fulltime professor. Anywhere. I had this idea that i could get a job so that i could have a good income to support my son. And it didnt work out that way. Reporter since graduating in 2012, shes worked parttime and is now teaching just two courses at the City University of new york, making 2,800 a class, though shes more highly rated than almost all of her peers. Shes moved to the cheapest place she could find on the outskirts of the city, a three hour a day commute. But she cant make it without public assistance and help from her family. It has gone in the direction of big business; of hiring more and more part timers to do the work of full timers. Reporter Arik Greenberg has been an adjunct for more than a decade. He brings in 20,000 a year. If im not teaching during the summer, i go on unemployment. It keeps us going for a while. It puts food on the table. Reporter and these are just a few examples of the adjunctivitis epidemic. Adding these parttimers, who are half of all faculty to fulltime professors without tenure and much lower pay , more than 70 of Americas College teachers are socalled contingent. Many are unavailable to their myriad students, given their necessarily shorter office hours, says longtime adjunct joe fruscione. Less energy in the classroom, fewer comments when grading papers or tests. You can race through them, but to give meaningful, concrete, detailed feedback that a lot of these students need its virtually impossible. Reporter but are students really getting short shrift . Terry hartle is with the American Council on education. In some disciplines, particularly occupationally oriented fields, you may be ahead by having an adjunct faculty member whos got extraordinary levels of real world experience. Reporter but dont adjuncts teach in all disciplines . Look, says hartle, bottom line, schools have no choice. The pressure is on colleges and universities to maintain tuition, to prevent tuition hikes, are extraordinarily high. Does the use of contingent faculty like adjuncts provide more flexibility to colleges and universities as Economic Enterprises that need to stay in business, yes it certainly does that. Reporter would you be happy if your members were paying a little more to adjuncts . Nobody forces someone to become an adjunct. It is a very difficult way to make a fulltime living. Reporter peter brown, Professor Emeritus at the State University of new york, new paltz, believes colleges are exploiting adjuncts so they can spend more on nonacademic niceties. A lot of money is spent not just on coaches, but on athletics, on stadiums, on fancy facilities, on climbing walls. The tuition dollars ought to go towards the instruction in the classroom not what happens outside. Reporter brown, and others throughout academia, were galvanized by the death last fall of 83 yearold Duquesne University adjunct Margaret Mary vojtko. She had been teaching there for over 20 years and getting good evaluations. She was suddenly nonrenewed. She was impoverished, and basically died so poor that she had to be buried in a cardboard box. Reporter duquesnes response . They tried to help with shelter and other assistance in the months before her death. But if poverty is what half of College Faculty might be facing, why do schools continue to offer graduate degrees to the likes of Nicole Beth Wallenbrock . They keep accepting more and more phd students at american universities, because they need to keep their own classes full. Reporter i put the question to College Spokesman terry hartle. Reporter are universities arguably being irresponsible by turning out as many phds into a job market where some people wind up going on food stamps . People who get phds owe it to themselves to think long and hard about the labor market that theyre entering. Reporter former George Washington University President Stephen Trachtenberg goes further. I have counseled adjunct faculty at some point if they are not earning enough to support themselves to not do that and go do Something Else with their lives. Merely because youve earned a phd does not oblige you to take on a life of tenure. Reporter Nicole Beth Wallenbrock says she cant give up teaching, and doesnt want to. I dont know what other place in society there is for me. I love teaching, and i love researching and writing, so i havent given up on this dream yet. Reporter and considering all the resources she and our society have put into her education, there is arguably an economic reason to keep on dreaming. Ifill finally, new questions about how the Federal Reserve supervises big banks. Propublica and public radios this American Life have produced reports focusing on the role of a former supervisor from the new york fed, carmen segarra, who was monitoring goldman sachs. Segarra was placed inside the bank as required by law, but she also made secret audio recordings that seemed to show other fed officials were going too soft on goldman, including over a deal one regulator called legal, but shady. Segarra was fired a few months later. The fed has denied any connection, but said it will conduct its own review. Those issues were the subject of a recent Senate Hearing with new york fed president william dudley. Jake bernstein helped break the initial story for propublica. Judy spoke with him recently. Woodruff Jake Bernstein, welcome. So tell us more about what has sparked interest in the fed all over again and how it does its job. Sure. The genesis of this is really a Bank Examiner who was at the fed in 2011 and 2012. She was fired after about seven months on the job. But before she was fired, she secretly recorded hours approximately 46 hours of meetings of her on the job with her colleagues and at the bank that she was supervising which happened to be goldman sachs. We got access to those recordings and have written some stories based on them. Woodruff and how does the fedex plain it . As we and how does the fed explain it . They seemed to go soft on goldman sachs, is that a fair interpretation . And how does the fedex plain it . Well, its interesting. Its not our interpretation. In 2009, the fed brought in an outside consultant to do a toptobottom review of their supervisory practices involving big banks and the outside consultant found the new york fed was too deferential of the banks it was supervising and there was a climate of fear. He basically said the culture of the new york fed was the biggest obstacle to completing its mission. So we sort of viewed that as a baseline to then look at what these recordings showed and what they seemed to demonstrate is not a lot had changed since the Consultants Report in 2009. Woodruff how does the fed defend its actions. William dudley said in a hearing that you should judge us on the fact the Banking System is stronger since the financial crisis, that there hasnt been another crisis since 2008 and that is evidence we are doing a better job. But there have been a number of incidents, not just our reporting, but others reporting and a Senate Report that have pointed to problems still existing. Woodruff now, as we also mentioned, we know now the fed has announced its conducting its own internal investigation of how it deals with the big banks, how its own examiners deal. What is the genesis of that . Whats expected to come out of that . Thats a very good question. They will not say what the genesis of it is, but it seems clear that it is the result of these media reports, ours in particular, that sort of prompted this. There are going to be two investigations, one internal by the Federal Reserve board in washington, d. C. , and one by the inspector general. They will be parallel but overlapping. Theyre going to be looking at the feds, the regional banks, not just the new york fed but the other regional fed banks that supervisor big banks ricrichmond fed, the san francio fed, others and look how they do their supervision of these big banks and particularly theyre going to be looking at whether, when examiners find things, they are able to communicate that to the higherups and the higherups actually act on it. Woodruff does it appear, Jake Bernstein, that the fed may be headed toward some reforms in the way its Bank Examiners operate and how they view their conflicts ofpotential conflicts of interest . There seems to be gathering steam in that direction. Time will only tell if it actually happens, but there has been a bill introduced in the senate which would make the president of the new york fed a nominated position by the president and confirmed by the senate. That seems to have a little bit of Energy Behind it. Then you have these two investigations. So i think there is sort of a Gathering Movement for, you know, recognizing theres the need for some reform, and that reform could very well happen. Woodruff and what about the roll the u. S. Congress is playing in all this . Yes. I think the Federal Reserve board is one of the things that unites the left and the right. They sort of approach it from different places. You know, the republicans are a little bit more concerned about monetary policy. The democrats are a little bit more concerned about supervision. But i think theyre both concerned about transparency and whether there is sufficient oversight over the feds operations, and i think there could be a meeting of the mind in the next congress about that. Woodruff Jake Bernstein who did this reporting for propublica, we thank you. Thank you. Ifill again, the major developments of the day. President obama prepared to announce a nominee for secretary of defense. It was widely reported that former pentagon official Ashton Carter will be the choice. And islamist militants killed 36 nonmuslim workers in kenya, the second such massacre in recent days. And much of downtown detroit was blacked out by a power outage after a major cable failed in the citys aging electrical grid. Power was fully restored by Late Afternoon on the newshour online right now, we revisit past interviews with Ashton Carter. Watch our conversations with the man many say will be picked to lead the pentagon on how we should be using our defense dollars. Thats on the rundown. All that and more is on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. And again to our honor roll of American Service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. We add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. Here, in silence, are two more. And thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, nasa tests an ambitious new spacecraft to shuttle humans to mars. Im gwen ifill, well see you online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. 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