The Blue Sky Times: Free Tuition, 4-Day Weeks and Shipping Container Homes

Spring break is fast approaching to offer Loyola students a rest with friends and family to look forward to. The Blue Sky Times is here to remind you that no matter what you’re doing these next couple of weeks, make sure you carve out some time to stop and feel the sun and sit with the people you love. Here are this week’s good news stories.

Shipping Container Homes

In a new city project, Atlanta is providing houses for homeless people by turning metal shipping containers into tiny homes, CNN reported. 

The project is called The Melody and was named after an Atlanta native who died after a struggle with chronic homelessness. The homes are located in downtown Atlanta and came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when Atlanta would use the storage containers as temporary ICU rooms, according to CNN.

The homes are complete with a bed, sink, shower, refrigerator, oven and microwave. The area also has a courtyard with red chairs and grass. The homes each have a window that looks out into the courtyard, according to CNN. 

“I want to say it’s made just for me, but it’s made for people like me and others,” resident George Suddeth said.

Free Tuition

A 93-year-old woman has donated $1 billion of her late husband’s fortune to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. The donor, Dr. Ruth Gottesman, has requested that the funds be put towards paying the full tuition of the students in attendance. 

Gottesman is a former professor at Einstein, a school located in a historically low income area, making the donation all the more significant, according to The New York Times. 

The donation is one of the largest donations to an educational institution and the largest to a medical school in history, according to the article. Gottesman’s fortune came from her late husband David Gottesman, who worked with Warren Buffet during his time on Wall Street and was an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway. 

Gottesman said she hopes her donation will allow doctors to start working in the field without the burdens of school debt and also bring new students into the school who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the tuition. 

Shorter Work Weeks

A brief six-month pilot experiment in 2022 testing the effects of a four-day workweek has continued to prove the success of a shortened week over a year later, NPR reported. New data from follow-up surveys with the original participants in the pilot experiment have shown that the positive effects of a reduced week including happier and more efficient workers are long term.

At least 54 of the 61 original organizations who participated in the pilot experiment told researchers they continued to implement the policy and 31 companies — or 51% of all participants — said they made a permanent change, according to the study. Every manager and CEO consulted by the researchers said the four-day workweek had either a “positive” or “very positive” effect on their company.

Benefits found at the end of the pilot including boosts to physical and mental health, reductions in burnout, lower work intensity and higher job satisfaction have all continued a year on.

Have a great break everyone and remember, as Diana Ross once said “If we hold on together /

I know our dreams will never die.”

This article was written by Isabella Grosso, Lilli Malone and Hunter Minné

Featured image by Lilli Malone / The Phoenix