The university administration proposed to address the budget cuts by raising the instructors’ work load from 4 to 5 courses per semester without raising their pay in any way.
One of the instructors responded that a greater amount of money could be saved by docking the pay of everybody who makes over $120,000 per year by 5%. For those who are not familiar with public education in the US, these are people who do absolutely nothing of any value at a university.
Of course, I’m in complete agreement with the instructor. I hope the instructors (and their union) stand strong and united in this fight.
Clarissa's Blog 
Something tells me that a 5 % (or more) reduction of the lowest paid is far, far, far more likely.
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Disgusting. We have similar issues at my school. The worst is when people who are making $250,000 or more a year smugly announce that there is no money in the budget for a 1% cost of living increase to those of not even making a quarter of their bloated salaries………….Also five courses a semester? That’s insane. Who can do that?
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For now, there is a single instructor who has spoken out against it. Let’s see if more people have something to say. There is also a union, and I have no idea why it would agree to this.
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Have the unions in Illinois been neutered like they have been in Wisconsin? I seem to remember that Illinois might have passed similar legislation to Wisconsin’s? I could be wrong about that. I don’t know why there aren’t full scale strikes of all university faculty all across the country. I am not unionized but I am tenured. I would certainly strike if others were doing so. But I think people feel powerless to change the system.
Not to dump on one of your commenters but Matt represents a huge majority here. Someone who thinks that faculty should be over-burdened, unhappy, and ignorant because it meets some diseased model of “profit making.” Only unhappy faculty are “worth” tax payer money and faculty knowledge and expertise is under-valued. Too many in the American public have somehow started believing that education is worthless and that is the true death knell for our higher education system.
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“Not to dump on one of your commenters but Matt represents a huge majority here. Someone who thinks that faculty should be over-burdened, unhappy, and ignorant because it meets some diseased model of “profit making.””
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I know we don’t always agree on purpose of higher education etc or my critique of what professors should do, but I 100% agree with you here.
The number of administrators and support personnel is higher than number of professors (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php?page=all)
That is absurd, and they are often highly paid as you note. I favor professors with potentially less research (we probably disagree) but certainly more time and compensation to interact with students / industry employees on actual learning / knowledge transmission.
Sadly though this is bureaucracy, and its super rare that the people in power vote to cut their own jobs.. so not sure that I have a great answer what to tell you to do short of starting your own university… but sadly that barrier to entry is insanely and probably unrealistically high.
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“I favor professors with potentially less research (we probably disagree) but certainly more time and compensation to interact with students / industry employees on actual learning / knowledge transmission.”
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“What knowledge can a person who does no research possibly transmit? The kind she learned 20 years ago in grad school and that has become hopelessly outdated? What will such a person be able to interact with students about? The way knowledge is generated these days, it all happens so fast. You are out of an active engagement in your field for just 2 years and you are not likely to catch up at all.”
This is what bothers me about people who “don’t do research.” What that means to me is that they don’t want to learn anything ever again and only teach outdated information. I have actually learned more in doing my research while I’ve been in a TT job than I ever did in grad school. I’ve been more free to follow my own interests, and that has increased my interest in doing research overall. My students benefit because I’m more knowledgeable about my field, and it makes a difference in their experience. Not doing research is irresponsible pedagogy.
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Exactly! My active research agenda is the only thing that allows me to stay current with everything that is happening in my field. And a lot is happening. But obviously keeping up takes quite a lot of time.
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I always thought top level administrators for universities made far in excess of $120 K, as well as the football team coaches in D-1 schools.
Such is the nature of capitalism. They never cut the salaries at the top because supposedly they are the most “competitive.” How are the service and lower administrative staff faring?
I favor professors with potentially less research (we probably disagree) but certainly more time and compensation to interact with students / industry employees on actual learning / knowledge transmission.
Not necessarily. The professors who did less research and had little interest in it had little interest in their students. My advisor who did a Fulbright volunteered sources for a paper in another class. In contrast, a professor who hadn’t written anything since the early 1980s actively resented my questions and often came to class stinking of booze.
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“I always thought top level administrators for universities made far in excess of $120 K”
“How are the service and lower administrative staff faring?”
“I favor professors with potentially less research (we probably disagree) but certainly more time and compensation to interact with students / industry employees on actual learning / knowledge transmission.
Not necessarily. The professors who did less research and had little interest in it had little interest in their students. ”
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University presidents do something useful, if they are doing their jobs. They solicit and obtain tens of millions of dollars in donations from alumni and other interested parties. If they do not do this, they should be fired promptly. Other administrators, at a lower level, often do as little as you say, I suspect.
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“University presidents do something useful, if they are doing their jobs. They solicit and obtain tens of millions of dollars in donations from alumni and other interested parties. ”
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As an ordinary faculty member who is in the bracket proposed for 5% salary cuts, I am a bit disturbed by how low it is. And I am still earning less than the average for full professors here.
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“As an ordinary faculty member who is in the bracket proposed for 5% salary cuts, I am a bit disturbed by how low it is. And I am still earning less than the average for full professors here.”
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“We are a public university in a state that is broke. Our full professors make $90,000, if they are very lucky.”
At my school, the full professors make less than 60K. Salary compression at its finest. They don’t do any bumps between assistant/associate and associate/full. It’s absurd. The pitiful raises I’ve been getting since starting at HU mean that I will essentially be making 50K in real dollars for the rest of my life. The financial aspect of my job fills me with despair. Meanwhile, our administration keeps hiring VPs who, by their own admission in front of the full faculty and staff of the university, don’t know what their jobs entail.
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“At my school, the full professors make less than 60K. Salary compression at its finest. They don’t do any bumps between assistant/associate and associate/full. It’s absurd. The pitiful raises I’ve been getting since starting at HU mean that I will essentially be making 50K in real dollars for the rest of my life. The financial aspect of my job fills me with despair. ”
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The staggering student loans I have aren’t any help with my salary either.
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That is absurd, and they are often highly paid as you note. I favor professors with potentially less research (we probably disagree) but certainly more time and compensation to interact with students / industry employees on actual learning / knowledge transmission.
That’s the students working the phones and the heads of the development offices. I knew someone who had a spouse in alumni development. They were not making millions of dollars or even a quarter of a million dollars, I promise you.
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The people you mention do indeed solicit small donations. The president solicits large donors who give six, seven, eight, or nine figure donations. I said nothing about the people who were soliciting donations from small donors making lots of money.
I am pretty sure that very few university presidents make salaries outside the six figure range, so if they manage to raise ten million dollars a year, they have earned their pay.
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“I am pretty sure that very few university presidents make salaries outside the six figure range”
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I am pretty sure that very few university presidents make salaries outside the six figure range…
Quite a few make over a million dollars. Most university presidents make over $250k by a large margin.
“The median pay package for public university presidents, including deferred compensation and other one-time payments, jumped 5% to $441,392 for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education analysis of 212 presidents at 191 institutions. Meanwhile, the median base salary rose 2% to $373,800.”
The point is in MBA logic, that the people with the biggest salaries usually have the biggest target on their back. But university presidents are immune to that logic no matter how useless they are. In their eyes, faculty and students are a support system for fundraisers and not the other way around.
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Have you read this? I don’t know why we are so intent destroying higher education in this country. This ruined my Saturday. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/asu-new-american-university-its-terrifying
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I looked at the article but I wouldn’t take it very seriously. This is a review of a book that the article’s author hasn’t read. Plus, he is a person who lacks all credibility. He believes that teaching 3 sections with 20 students each and doing nothing else whatsoever is enormously onerous. I find it hard to take such a person seriously.
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A salary of 90k or even 60k a year looks to be fabulously wealthy from my point of view. University lecturers in Ghana do the same amount of work as those in the US for about 15k a year. Also despite what people think, lots of prices here are a lot higher than the US. Look at the list below. You also have to pay your full rent at least for at least a year up front, although two or even three years is more common.
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=Ghana&city=Accra
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