university pay hikes

Originally posted by sh76
They work too long hours on what? On research projects of their own initiative, presumably. In the US, professors typically teach no more than three courses each semester. That's no more than 9 hours in a classroom. Plus, the regular semesters only go about 32 weeks a year, and even if you teach a summer course, you're still looking at 8-10 weeks of no classes. ...[text shortened]... r tenure and to a lesser extent before tenure, professors largely write their own schedules.

Yes, on research projects. That they are required to do as part of their job. In the UK all departments are assessed on their research output, which affects the funding they get. Which means all the staff are also assessed on their research output. As Palynka said - if you don't do it you're out. They're also expected to bring in extra funding from outside the University. Oh, and build links with other Universities, attract students, etc, etc.

Tenure was abolished in the UK over 20 years ago.

With regard to teaching - most of the marking (and second marking - there's a quality control system in place) is done by the people who write and run the course.

You're also overlooking the third part of the job - administration. Academics basically run the place, and there's a lot of bureaucracy.

Then there's editing journals, reviewing articles, acting as an external assessor at other Universities, organising conferences...

Originally posted by Palynka
Low pressure environments and time to moonlight? What world are you living on?

sabbaticals are paid, aren't they?

even public school teachers get three-month summers. they can choose to spread their annual pay over 12 mos or 9 mos but anytime you hear about low-paid teachers remember they are getting paid for 180 days vs the 250 the rest of us work. and excellent retirement benefits.

i don't see how college faculty would get worse deals than public teachers.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/12/teacher-pension-bombs

A Missouri teacher can technically retire as early as age 52 so long as her combined age and time of employment totals 80 years, then double-dip, going back to work and collecting two checks at once.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
sabbaticals are paid, aren't they?

even public school teachers get three-month summers. they can choose to spread their annual pay over 12 mos or 9 mos but anytime you hear about low-paid teachers remember they are getting paid for 180 days vs the 250 the rest of us work. and excellent retirement benefits.

i don't see how college faculty would get ...[text shortened]... oyment totals 80 years, then double-dip, going back to work and collecting two checks at once.

Sabbaticals these days are used to work in other universities not to sit at home twiddling thumbs. You're relieved of teaching duties but are expected to do more research during this time.

Is your argument that university professors cannot possibly be working more than public school teachers? I don't get it.

Originally posted by Palynka
Sabbaticals these days are used to work in other universities not to sit at home twiddling thumbs. You're relieved of teaching duties but are expected to do more research during this time.

Is your argument that university professors cannot possibly be working more than public school teachers? I don't get it.

college faculty have much more control over administration of colleges than teachers do of primary and secondary education, yes or no?

my impression from listening to professors talk about their pending sabbaticals is that they use them for writing books. do they donate the royalties back to the university?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbatical

In the United States, academic sabbaticals are typically granted by an academic dean only if the faculty member who applies is qualified in terms of consistently high job performance, has demonstrated success in previous research, and possesses a well-conceived, well-planned, and promising research proposal that requires sustained effort. Sabbaticals are not granted automatically and usually are not even scheduled automatically. Provided the faculty applicant is first granted academic tenure, the opportunity to qualify for one's first sabbatical usually comes only after an initial waiting period the length of which may vary. Thereafter, the opportunity to qualify for sabbatical typically follows at seven-year intervals of full-time employment. The most common arrangement is for a half-year at full pay, or a full year at half pay.

http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/12/15/gop-still-plans-to-go-after-university-sabbaticals/

GOP still plans to go after university sabbaticals

by O. Kay Henderson on December 15, 2010

Republican legislators may try to scuttle some of the sabbaticals professors at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa just got approval for last week.

The Board of Regents approved sabbaticals for 95 faculty members, but Representative Linda Upmeyer, a Republican who will be the House G.O.P. Leader in 2011, is raising questions about some of those sabbaticals.

“Iowa taxpayers are not interested in funding a study of the growth of billiards in the Phillippines,” Upmeyer says.

...

one wonders if Iowa taxpayers are interested in paying any salary whatsoever to someone who'd dare apply for a sabbatical to study billiards in the Phillippines.

essentially, they've found a money tap, who can blame them for creating inventive ways to profit from it?

Originally posted by zeeblebot
http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/12/15/gop-still-plans-to-go-after-university-sabbaticals/

GOP still plans to go after university sabbaticals

by O. Kay Henderson on December 15, 2010

Republican legislators may try to scuttle some of the sabbaticals professors at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa just g ...[text shortened]... rested in funding a study of the growth of billiards in the Phillippines,” Upmeyer says.

...

this raises the question, if we could replace faculty members for approximately $4200 each, why not do it permanently and get some value for our tuition dollars?

http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/12/15/gop-still-plans-to-go-after-university-sabbaticals/

The university presidents say sabbaticals are part of the “fabric” of research universities and said it would cost about $420,000 to hire people to teach the courses of the 95 faculty members who got sabbaticals approved for 2012.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
college faculty have much more control over administration of colleges than teachers do of primary and secondary education, yes or no?

my impression from listening to professors talk about their pending sabbaticals is that they use them for writing books. do they donate the royalties back to the university?

How, exactly, does having more control mean less work? It means more work, because you have to actually do the controlling!

Yes, academics use research leave to do research that leads to publications. This is because, as I said earlier, they are required to do this. In other words, it's work.

Royalties? From academic publishing? If you're Simon Schama, OK.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
essentially, they've found a money tap, who can blame them for creating inventive ways to profit from it?

Yeah, science is totally useless. If only people would stop practising science! 🙄

Originally posted by mtthw
How, exactly, does having more control mean less work? It means more work, because you have to actually do the controlling!

Yes, academics use research leave to do research that leads to publications. This is because, as I said earlier, they are required to do this. In other words, it's work.

Royalties? From academic publishing? If you're Simon Schama, OK.

having more control means making it easier to set higher salaries.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
having more control means making it easier to set higher salaries.

They have no control over that. Unless you're talking about the senior management of the University - VCs and the like - but I didn't think we were. That's not relevant to the average academic.

Originally posted by mtthw
They have no control over that. Unless you're talking about the senior management of the University - VCs and the like - but I didn't think we were. That's not relevant to the average academic.

Seconded. I'm an "average academic" and I certainly didn't have any say in what my salary was going to be!

I work only part-time, and spent the rest of my working week on journalism (which is how I'm in front of a computer as often as I am). My full-time colleagues, though, work very hard indeed during term-time, and there's certainly no question of delegating marking to assistants. I'd say most of them work six-day weeks rather than five-day weeks while the terms last.

Our research obligations are part of our jobs. If I didn't produce publishable research I wouldn't be sacked, but I'd find myself obliged to teach more to compensate.

The long holidays are a luxury, but I supervise graduate students during the holidays, revise and redesign my courses, and so on.

It's not the most pressurised environment imaginable, but nor is it the bed of roses zeeblebot implies!

Originally posted by Teinosuke
Seconded. I'm an "average academic" and I certainly didn't have any say in what my salary was going to be!

I work only part-time, and spent the rest of my working week on journalism (which is how I'm in front of a computer as often as I am). My full-time colleagues, though, work very hard indeed during term-time, and there's certainly no question of del ...[text shortened]... pressurised environment imaginable, but nor is it the bed of roses zeeblebot implies!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denice_Denton

Denton's recruitment package would eventually include a $275,000 salary, $68,750 as a moving allowance, improvements to the chancellor's on-campus residence which included a $30,000 dog pen initially budgeted at $7,000. Included in the deal was a tenured professorial appointment with a $192,000 salary, and a housing assistance allowance of up to $50,000 for her partner, Gretchen Kalonji.[8]

Although much of the 7,000 square feet (650 m2) residence was used for campus functions, the approximately $600,000 renovation cost, and overall cost of Denton's recruitment brought criticism.[9][10] This contrasts sharply against increasing student fees, up 79 percent in four years, and low pay raises for clerical and service staff.