Skip to content
Do you have adblock enabled?
 
If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(Politico)   College workers of the world, unite   (politico.com) divider line
46
    More: Interesting, Law, Barack Obama, Education, University of California, California State University, Higher education, Collective bargaining, Wage  
•       •       •

1964 clicks; posted to Politics » on 04 Feb 2023 at 11:02 AM (6 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



46 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
tfresh [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 9:38:58 AM  
By all means please strike and grind the fleecing machine to a halt.
 
ytterbium [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 10:37:30 AM  
About damned time. I've been facing a lot of heat for being openly critical about the dismal pay and conditions at the public university where I work. My colleagues all feel the same way but have been conditioned to stay quiet and blame each other.

I will throw myself into any organized effort should it happen.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 11:07:25 AM  
OnlyFans and PornHub?
 
zetar
2023-02-04 11:07:48 AM  
I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.
 
pehvbot [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 11:12:13 AM  

zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.


Contingent faculty get farked hard and dry.  Grad students get a better deal, and grad students are basically expendable.  Most don't even know when they will get their next gig until the last minute.  This system genuinely sucks.
 
BitwiseShift
2023-02-04 11:18:16 AM  
Politico took great pains to hide not communicate the very successful tech professionals union that is incubating this movement.    It would be the kind of union that media workers are especially prone to join.
 
Blathering Idjut
2023-02-04 11:24:41 AM  
Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?
 
LurkLongAndProsper
2023-02-04 11:26:20 AM  
FTFA: Frustrated by low wages and new laws limiting what they can teach - and buoyed by President Joe Biden's pro-union bent - campus workers across the country are moving with new urgency to organize.

Wrong. Joe Biden single-handedly busted the railway union, took away their paid sick leave, and shiat in the tank of their toilet. This is known.
 
MusicMakeMyHeadPound [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-04 11:27:13 AM  

Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?


Let's ask the college presidents about their outrageous multimillion dollar annual salaries.
 
Glockenspiel Hero [OhFark]
2023-02-04 11:30:27 AM  

zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.


Clearly the solution is to get rid of tenure for the overpaid, coddled professors and let the free market dictate what they are paid.  As a side bonus then you can simply fire adjunct professors in useless departments like Philosophy and Sociology or who teach radical, unamerican ideas like CRT, global warming and evolution and replace them with Business professors.  And when you can't get actual people with advanced degrees in Business to teach for $3500/course you can just recruit some local small business owners since they have actual experience rather than all that ivory tower bullshiat

In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.

Problem solved!
 
zetar
2023-02-04 11:31:16 AM  

pehvbot: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Contingent faculty get farked hard and dry.  Grad students get a better deal, and grad students are basically expendable.  Most don't even know when they will get their next gig until the last minute.  This system genuinely sucks.


You are 100% correct. As a grad student (at Iowa) I had a union. The pay was still terrible, but at least we got really great insurance (which was a life saver).
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 11:31:50 AM  

Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?


Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...
 
austerity101
2023-02-04 11:33:07 AM  

Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?


At public universities, those numbers are quite accessible.

When we were negotiating with our university over our next contract, they would just lie about the financial numbers to our face. We were like, "You know these numbers are public, right? And that a bunch of us are working on PhDs in economics?" They didn't care. It was beyond maddening.
 
zetar
2023-02-04 11:34:35 AM  

Glockenspiel Hero: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Clearly the solution is to get rid of tenure for the overpaid, coddled professors and let the free market dictate what they are paid.  As a side bonus then you can simply fire adjunct professors in useless departments like Philosophy and Sociology or who teach radical, unamerican ideas like CRT, global warming and evolution and replace them with Business professors.  And when you can't get actual people with advanced degrees in Business to teach for $3500/course you can just recruit some local small business owners since they have actual experience rather than all that ivory tower bullshiat

In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.

Problem solved!


I assume you're kidding. At the University of Iowa the combined pay of all 500+ adjunct faculty was less than the pay of the football coach. That is correct. It was also about 1% of the total budget for the University.
 
Dr. Nick Riviera
2023-02-04 11:34:49 AM  

Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?


There's a reason college and basketball coaches are the highest paid public employees in nearly every state.  That money has got to come from somewhere.

Out of 1,102 Division I, II, and III athletic programs, only 25 turn a profit.

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-explain-it-me/should-institutions-support-sports-programs-don't-make-money
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 11:36:21 AM  

Glockenspiel Hero: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Clearly the solution is to get rid of tenure for the overpaid, coddled professors and let the free market dictate what they are paid.  As a side bonus then you can simply fire adjunct professors in useless departments like Philosophy and Sociology or who teach radical, unamerican ideas like CRT, global warming and evolution and replace them with Business professors.  And when you can't get actual people with advanced degrees in Business to teach for $3500/course you can just recruit some local small business owners since they have actual experience rather than all that ivory tower bullshiat

In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.

Problem solved!


I looked up the salaries at the University of Iowa, the numbers mentioned above are inflated about 50% above reality.

https://provost.uiowa.edu/data-and-reports/departmental-faculty-salary-reports
 
Halfabee64
2023-02-04 11:39:54 AM  
I can't complain.  I had great paying jobs, paid internships, and assistantships through five of six 1/2 years of undergrad and grad school, with tuition included for most of that time.  I was getting $11 an hour when minimum wage was $3.35, with a free on-campus apartment each summer.  In-state tuition, room, and board was only about $6-7K a year back then.  It was like living in a bubble:  safe, exciting, fun.  To waive tuition today would be a godsend.

Working summers for the housing authority, we had master keys to all of the on-campus apartments to do maintenance.  The university hosted week-long conferences and professional training schools, including on-campus housing.  On check-out day, we would gather all of the crap that they left behind because they couldn't bring it on a plane:  handles of everything imaginable, beer, wine, horsderves, frozen food, burgers and steaks, cheese, cold cuts, condiments, coolers, mini grills and hibachi, boom boxes, paper goods, wine and bottle openers: it was quite the racket.
 
ytterbium [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 11:47:39 AM  

pehvbot: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Contingent faculty get farked hard and dry.  Grad students get a better deal, and grad students are basically expendable.  Most don't even know when they will get their next gig until the last minute.  This system genuinely sucks.


Anyone who isn't tenured faculty bringing grant dollars and prestige is duly f*cked. They sell it as steps in your progression, or hook you into the rah rah culture so you feel noble in the pursuit of knowledge while barely existing.

I'm familiar with a staff person at my place of employment who hit the 30-year mark of service last year. The highest salary possible at that clerical position is $15.75/hr, no matter how long you've been there or how well you perform. It's disgusting.

The university has shaved staffing to the barest of bones so that one person basically runs a 150-person department with one other shared position who assists 5 other departments.

My pay isn't much more but there is massive resentment from that level to mine and the glacial pace of work flow is completely based on those feelings.

I admin for one (awesome) department and have shared duties with the college, and I have to supplement my basic existence by using the university-run food pantry and running a resale booth on the weekends. I work to live and I do not want to die at my desk at 63 like my predecessor, but it's hard to step away when there's so much daily responsibility and you want the students to succeed.
 
Glockenspiel Hero [OhFark]
2023-02-04 11:50:28 AM  

zetar: Glockenspiel Hero: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Clearly the solution is to get rid of tenure for the overpaid, coddled professors and let the free market dictate what they are paid.  As a side bonus then you can simply fire adjunct professors in useless departments like Philosophy and Sociology or who teach radical, unamerican ideas like CRT, global warming and evolution and replace them with Business professors.  And when you can't get actual people with advanced degrees in Business to teach for $3500/course you can just recruit some local small business owners since they have actual experience rather than all that ivory tower bullshiat

In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.

Problem solved!

I assume you're kidding. At the University of Iowa the combined pay of all 500+ adjunct faculty was less than the pay of the football coach. That is correct. It was also about 1% of the total budget for the University.


Look, you have to make allowances for the value of the job.  Does the football coach bring value to the University?  Obviously yes.  Do the adjunct faculty?  Given that a lot of them are teaching useless fluff or anti-american bullshiat, clearly not.  You need to economize these days

Things would run much more smoothly if you simply eliminated the classes and let the football players get on with the footballing
 
groppet
2023-02-04 11:52:52 AM  

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Let's ask the college presidents about their outrageous multimillion dollar annual salaries.


And coaches that are sometimes the highest paid public employee in a state.
 
phalamir [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 11:56:26 AM  

thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...


No, it really isn't.  Over the last thirty years, faculty numbers have increased ~20% (and most of that is adjuncts, not tenured).  Staff have about doubled (which considering enrollment went up significantly, isn't even a problem).  But administration numbers went up 400%..And the salaries of the first two have been essentially flat adjusted for inflation, while administrative salaries ballooned - especially at the top of the heap.  The Third Assistant to the Assistant to the Assistant Vice-President for Assistants makes more than a tenured professor despite doing approximately fark-all.  All while the maintenance guys are using equipment bought during the Hoover Administration.
 
sinner4ever
2023-02-04 12:00:40 PM  
I'm sure Democrats will write legislation shortly forcing them back to work.
 
Nuc_E
2023-02-04 12:01:16 PM  

zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.


At first I was like, that's bullshiat.   Then I did a little public records searching.

The department chair makes 180k.   One professor makes 250k.

Wtf.   And that doesn't indicate that their salary is being supplemented by grants.  That quarter million dollar man must walk on water in the comp sci world.

Dr. My Better half makes 114k, or 152k if she takes a full summer salary pending she has the grant money available.  She's attained full professor.  This is at a somewhat reputable private university.  She only has one course a semester.   She has brought in a couple million in grants and has a productive lab.   She does her own teaching and has won awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching and advising.  She tries to get as much compensation as possible for her post doc, her grad student and her lab tech as she can and has been a strong proponent of tenure for lecturers.

How many of thes academic fat cats can't be bothered to teach a course?

The business school at the university she is at wants to run the university like a business.  Presumably off load teaching to "visiting" professors like yourself for dirt cheap and rake in big salaries themselves.

My older sister was a visiting professor like you.   She quit and took a job outside of her field because despite her teaching the same load as actual professors and running the schools art gallery, they had no intention of making her full time, tenure tracked faculty
 
moresugar
2023-02-04 12:08:09 PM  
I was at a major public university.  The administration told us over and over that it couldn't afford to give the grad students dental insurance because the university couldn't afford it.  Then the grad students started taking steps to unionize.  Suddenly - dental insurance!  I'm sure it was just a coincidence.  I can't remember the university's explanation for the about-face - something like "we were in the president's office looking through the cushions of his couch and found enough loose change to pay for dental coverage."
 
zetar
2023-02-04 12:15:07 PM  

Nuc_E: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

At first I was like, that's bullshiat.   Then I did a little public records searching.

The department chair makes 180k.   One professor makes 250k.

Wtf.   And that doesn't indicate that their salary is being supplemented by grants.  That quarter million dollar man must walk on water in the comp sci world.

Dr. My Better half makes 114k, or 152k if she takes a full summer salary pending she has the grant money available.  She's attained full professor.  This is at a somewhat reputable private university.  She only has one course a semester.   She has brought in a couple million in grants and has a productive lab.   She does her own teaching and has won awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching and advising.  She tries to get as much compensation as possible for her post doc, her grad student and her lab tech as she can and has been a strong proponent of tenure for lecturers.

How many of thes academic fat cats can't be bothered to teach a course?

The business school at the university she is at wants to run the university like a business.  Presumably off load teaching to "visiting" professors like yourself for dirt cheap and rake in big salaries themselves.

My older sister was a visiting professor like you.   She quit and took a job outside of her field because despite her teaching the same load as actual professors and running the schools art gallery, they had no intention of making her full time, tenure tracked faculty


I, of course, know who is pulling down the quarter mill in comp sci at Iowa.Has he written a book? Nope. Does he have any grants? Nope.

In fact I did a little study and discovered that no tenured faculty in comp sci at Iowa has published a book or been first author on any paper since they got tenure. Lots of activity to get tenure and then... nothing. (This was true in 2015 the last year I was there, I assume it's still true now.)

Also, the dept. isn't too worried about grants. When DARPA wanted to give me a grant, Prof. Quarter Mill wasn't interested. That's when I left and became a PI for DARPA.
 
austerity101
2023-02-04 12:18:53 PM  

moresugar: I was at a major public university.  The administration told us over and over that it couldn't afford to give the grad students dental insurance because the university couldn't afford it.  Then the grad students started taking steps to unionize.  Suddenly - dental insurance!  I'm sure it was just a coincidence.  I can't remember the university's explanation for the about-face - something like "we were in the president's office looking through the cushions of his couch and found enough loose change to pay for dental coverage."


Wait, they chose not to unionize for dental? They would have almost certainly gotten dental through their union negotiations, and they'd also have gotten a union.
 
Nuc_E
2023-02-04 12:24:44 PM  

zetar: Nuc_E: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

At first I was like, that's bullshiat.   Then I did a little public records searching.

The department chair makes 180k.   One professor makes 250k.

Wtf.   And that doesn't indicate that their salary is being supplemented by grants.  That quarter million dollar man must walk on water in the comp sci world.

Dr. My Better half makes 114k, or 152k if she takes a full summer salary pending she has the grant money available.  She's attained full professor.  This is at a somewhat reputable private university.  She only has one course a semester.   She has brought in a couple million in grants and has a productive lab.   She does her own teaching and has won awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching and advising.  She tries to get as much compensation as possible for her post doc, her grad student and her lab tech as she can and has been a strong proponent of tenure for lecturers.

How many of thes academic fat cats can't be bothered to teach a course?

The business school at the university she is at wants to run the university like a business.  Presumably off load teaching to "visiting" professors like yourself for dirt cheap and rake in big salaries themselves.

My older sister was a visiting professor like you.   She quit and took a job outside of her field because despite her teaching the same load as actual professors and running the schools art gallery, they had no intention of making her full time, tenure tracked faculty

I, of course, know who is pulling down the quarter mill in comp sci at Iowa.Has he written a book? Nope. Does he have any grants? Nope.

In fact I did a little study and discovered that no tenured faculty in comp sci at Iowa has published a book or been first author on any paper since they got tenure. Lots of activity to get tenure and then... nothing. (This was true in 2015 the last year I was there, I assume it's still true now.)

Also, the dept. isn't too worried about grants. When DARPA wanted to give me a grant, Prof. Quarter Mill wasn't interested. That's when I left and became a PI for DARPA.


Good for you.

Thankfully my wife is in a supportive department.   Others...not so much.  She spearheaded the creation of a new program joint with another department.  They wanted half the tuition money for teaching less that half of the courses.  Academia is farked up.  Between old (mostly male) faculty playing the role of fark you I got mine, and administration that only sees dollars and cents, I can't imagine how difficult it is for those who stay true to continued learning and imparting knowledge to others to accomplish that.   I told her that if a bigger name university came calling, I wouldn't and couldn't say no.   The thing is, she would be hard pressed to find another school and department with the support she has now.
 
ytterbium [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 12:28:09 PM  
There was an organized effort to change grad worker conditions a couple of years ago, COVID was a final straw.

The administration quietly defunded the entire grad program of the department where it originated from and replaced their office space with upper-level admin offices. Which were renovated nicely of course.

All discussion of it and any media coverage was squashed.
 
zetar
2023-02-04 12:35:43 PM  

Nuc_E: Academia is farked up. Between old (mostly male) faculty playing the role of fark you I got mine, and administration that only sees dollars and cents, I can't imagine how difficult it is for those who stay true to continued learning and imparting knowledge to others to accomplish that.


THIS.
/ I loved teaching.
// Had the highest student evals in the dept.
/// I think that pissed off Prof. Quarter Mill even more
 
NathanAllen
2023-02-04 12:41:28 PM  
Weird, I went to UW Madison, so everyone except professors and office staff were union.

Other than the Teaching Assistants most of them benefitted from collective bargaining.
 
Psychohazard
2023-02-04 12:44:59 PM  
I left academia when I saw an associate professor working $3k / semester gigs at other institutions to stay afloat.  I haven't looked back but wish well to any and all union efforts.

/ loved research
// got exploited
/// the ree
 
moresugar
2023-02-04 12:49:12 PM  

austerity101: moresugar: I was at a major public university.  The administration told us over and over that it couldn't afford to give the grad students dental insurance because the university couldn't afford it.  Then the grad students started taking steps to unionize.  Suddenly - dental insurance!  I'm sure it was just a coincidence.  I can't remember the university's explanation for the about-face - something like "we were in the president's office looking through the cushions of his couch and found enough loose change to pay for dental coverage."

Wait, they chose not to unionize for dental? They would have almost certainly gotten dental through their union negotiations, and they'd also have gotten a union.


No, the dental insurance was just one demand among many.  I left before the grad students formally unionized, so I'm not sure how that all turned out, but they definitely didn't stop organizing just because they got dental insurance.
 
12349876
2023-02-04 12:55:38 PM  

groppet: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Let's ask the college presidents about their outrageous multimillion dollar annual salaries.

And coaches that are sometimes the highest paid public employee in a state.


That's only because the Universities control the coaches endorsement and appearance fees.  Money that Bob's Car Dealership gives to the University knowing it will go straight to the coach in exchange for coach being on TV commercials.  They'd do it for professors too if Bob's Car Dealership was interested.
 
The Irresponsible Captain [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 12:58:02 PM  

zetar: Glockenspiel Hero: zetar: I taught comp sci at the University of Iowa for many years. I had the rank of 'Visiting Assistant Professor'. Sounds great, right? I was paid by the class (it worked out to about $15/hr). I had no tenure. No insurance, No 401(k)s. Nothing. But I did get to share an office with two other non-tenured faculty.

/ Tenured faculty in the same dept. average salary: $180k a year
// Plus benefits + retirement
/// Some animals are more equal than others.

Clearly the solution is to get rid of tenure for the overpaid, coddled professors and let the free market dictate what they are paid.  As a side bonus then you can simply fire adjunct professors in useless departments like Philosophy and Sociology or who teach radical, unamerican ideas like CRT, global warming and evolution and replace them with Business professors.  And when you can't get actual people with advanced degrees in Business to teach for $3500/course you can just recruit some local small business owners since they have actual experience rather than all that ivory tower bullshiat

In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.

Problem solved!

I assume you're kidding. At the University of Iowa the combined pay of all 500+ adjunct faculty was less than the pay of the football coach. That is correct. It was also about 1% of the total budget for the University.


So it's a sports franchise with a side hustle in education?
 
misanthropicsob [OhFark]
2023-02-04 1:15:01 PM  
FTA: buoyed by President Joe Biden's pro-union bent

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

*breathe*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Remember when Joe Biden supported the rail unions? I don't.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 1:26:40 PM  

phalamir: thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...

No, it really isn't.  Over the last thirty years, faculty numbers have increased ~20% (and most of that is adjuncts, not tenured).  Staff have about doubled (which considering enrollment went up significantly, isn't even a problem).  But administration numbers went up 400%..And the salaries of the first two have been essentially flat adjusted for inflation, while administrative salaries ballooned - especially at the top of the heap.  The Third Assistant to the Assistant to the Assistant Vice-President for Assistants makes more than a tenured professor despite doing approximately fark-all.  All while the maintenance guys are using equipment bought during the Hoover Administration.


media.istockphoto.comView Full Size


Me: money also goes to pay a lot of working class and professional staff and infrastructure and utilities.

You: that is so wrong, staff have doubled!
 
fnordfocus [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 1:28:33 PM  

thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...


Sure but mostly football and basketball coaches. The idea that those programs bring in more than they cost has been mostly busted for years.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 1:32:07 PM  

fnordfocus: thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...

Sure but mostly football and basketball coaches. The idea that those programs bring in more than they cost has been mostly busted for years.


I never said that coaches and provosts weren't money suckers. I was just answering the question about where money goes and literally all the people and expenses of running a college are not trivial.
 
MusicMakeMyHeadPound [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-04 1:44:10 PM  

thealgorerhythm: I never said that coaches and provosts weren't money suckers. I was just answering the question about where money goes and literally all the people and expenses of running a college are not trivial.


This is true but also not the problem.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 2:26:25 PM  

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: thealgorerhythm: I never said that coaches and provosts weren't money suckers. I was just answering the question about where money goes and literally all the people and expenses of running a college are not trivial.

This is true but also not the problem.


A major public university system is a billion dollar a year operation.

Let's say that overpaid administration and athletics are sucking money to the tune of 25-33% of total expenses.

You still have a $750 million dollar a year operation which could then have some substantial portion of $250 million reinvested in education and services.
 
Insurgent
2023-02-04 2:26:48 PM  
"Frustrated by low wages and new laws limiting what they can teach - and buoyed by President Joe Biden's pro-union bent - campus workers across the country are moving with new urgency to organize."

"With union-friendly Biden in the White House, campus workers feel they have the extra leverage they need to unionize and strike."

the authors just add these two bits in with no evidence from the people quoted in TFA. nice editorial.

biden has never been on the side of labor. the rail workers strike is merely the most recent example of this.
 
zetar
2023-02-04 3:12:07 PM  

NathanAllen: Weird, I went to UW Madison, so everyone except professors and office staff were union.

Other than the Teaching Assistants most of them benefitted from collective bargaining.


In Iowa state employees cannot go out on strike (state law). I was an undergrad at UW Madison. I'm pretty sure state employees can strike in Wisconsin. Wisconsin used to be pretty progressive.
 
Sliding Carp [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 4:49:13 PM  

Glockenspiel Hero: In fact, just skip the business courses altogether and sell students into indentured servitude apprenticeships.


Internships have already become essential components of STEM students' degree programs.
 
phalamir [TotalFark]
2023-02-04 5:28:33 PM  

thealgorerhythm: phalamir: thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...

No, it really isn't.  Over the last thirty years, faculty numbers have increased ~20% (and most of that is adjuncts, not tenured).  Staff have about doubled (which considering enrollment went up significantly, isn't even a problem).  But administration numbers went up 400%..And the salaries of the first two have been essentially flat adjusted for inflation, while administrative salaries ballooned - especially at the top of the heap.  The Third Assistant to the Assistant to the Assistant Vice-President for Assistants makes more than a tenured professor despite doing approximately fark-all.  All while the maintenance guys are using equipment bought during the Hoover Administration.

[media.istockphoto.com image 612x612]

Me: money also goes to pay a lot of working class and professional staff and infrastructure and utilities.

You: that is so wrong, staff have doubled!


Did you miss the part where the vast majority of the increase goes to the parasites?  "Staff goes up to deal with a commiserate increase in students" isn't a gain when the money these students brings in goes to make sure ghe President has another yacht.  Wages compared to the 1920s have also increased, but I simoly dare you to say the average working class family is living an upper class lifestyle
 
shinji3i
2023-02-04 5:56:31 PM  
Question for you long time Academia farkers, have those Cengage/McGraw Hill/etc. programs that autocreate and grade assignments been well received by the teachers or are they being forced on you by admin for cost cutting? I looked over the sholder for some younger folks using them and dear god they seem terrible for both teaching and using as a student. Maybe it was just the ones I saw.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-02-04 8:07:11 PM  

phalamir: thealgorerhythm: phalamir: thealgorerhythm: Blathering Idjut: Wait, where is all of that student loan money colleges suck out of kids going if not to support working folks at colleges?

Janitors, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers, motor pool mechanics, accountants, secretaries, HVAC specialists, locksmiths, librarians, cops, IT support, equipment and supplies for all those people, water, electricity, internet, paving, pest control, heating, air conditioning ...

No, it really isn't.  Over the last thirty years, faculty numbers have increased ~20% (and most of that is adjuncts, not tenured).  Staff have about doubled (which considering enrollment went up significantly, isn't even a problem).  But administration numbers went up 400%..And the salaries of the first two have been essentially flat adjusted for inflation, while administrative salaries ballooned - especially at the top of the heap.  The Third Assistant to the Assistant to the Assistant Vice-President for Assistants makes more than a tenured professor despite doing approximately fark-all.  All while the maintenance guys are using equipment bought during the Hoover Administration.

[media.istockphoto.com image 612x612]

Me: money also goes to pay a lot of working class and professional staff and infrastructure and utilities.

You: that is so wrong, staff have doubled!

Did you miss the part where the vast majority of the increase goes to the parasites?  "Staff goes up to deal with a commiserate increase in students" isn't a gain when the money these students brings in goes to make sure ghe President has another yacht.  Wages compared to the 1920s have also increased, but I simoly dare you to say the average working class family is living an upper class lifestyle


I'm sorry zi only respond to facts
 
Displayed 46 of 46 comments

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh comments
This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking

Want to see behind the curtain? Try

TotalFark

It's how we feed the squirrel

learn more | sign up
On Twitter

  1. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community.

  2. When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story.

  3. Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them.

  4. Click here to submit a link.