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Ann Coulter article

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DrAmazon:
http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi

I'm thoroughly annoyed by Ann Coulter's latest article where she equates college professors with oil company executives and rails against them as overpaid, underqualified and useless.  

In order to post on her forum, I have to publicize my e-mail address, so I'll just vent here a bit.

As most of you know, I'm a college professor.  I in no way shape or form have anything in common with Ward Churchill.  Ok, I'm a homo sapiens, but other than that...

I'm a conservative professor, but keep politics out of my classroom because it doesn't belong there.  As for being overpaid, I'm barely making ends meet.  I'm almost ashamed of how little I make, compared to how long I was in school and how many hours a week I work.  I spend my "free time" writing grants so I can have a little research program and pay students to work in my lab and buy their equipment.  

She blames faculty salaries for the current high price of college tuition, when one of the biggest things driving up tuition is the students' demands for services and programs, which we feel compelled to provide in order to compete with other schools to attract and retain the best students.  Colleges spend a ton of money on IT infrastructure to accomodate music streaming, real time networked video games, hard drive and server space.  Students want and expect  state of the art fitness centers, pools,  gourmet dining halls, ample parking spaces, seats in any class they want, any time they want, free tutors, special advising, small class sizes, free wireless, subsidized health clinics and pharmacies, apartments (not dorms).  They protest for "living wages" for custodial and food service help, but then complain when room and board fees go up.  

At the state schools, the other huge factor is the states' decreasing support for higher ed, as K-12 and medicaid programs grow and grow every year.  Many states had complete hiring, budget and wage freezes during 2001-2003.  

Gaargh!!  

Thanks for listening...I'm feeling better now.  

DrA

RevDisk:
Now now, Doc, you're expecting logic from Ms Coulter.  That was your first mistake.  

As for the rest, you're correct.   All of the services and facilities you meantioned do cost a ton of money.    But more than a few colleges and universities make extremely bad financial planning.   My university sold their on campus concession rights (book store, pseudo mini mart, etc) for insanely cheap rates, and the companies that bought the concession rights are making money hand over fist.   Look over any college's books, and you'll see a large number of questionable expenses.

Most profs I had were ordinary folks.  Some were "good", some weren't.  Most are just folks making a living.  Overpaid, they are not.   I've known very very few teachers who make extremely good pay.   It's one of those jobs you do because you enjoy, or are masochistic, not for the money.   Obviously there has to be something about the job ya love, otherwise, you'd have moved on.   So, let's here it.  Why ya do it?   What's your motivation?

Justin:
Coulter hasn't been rational for the better part of five years.

El Tejon:
She left Michigan and started drinking whatever is in the water in DC and NYC and became a superflake long ago.

roo_ster:
DrAmazon:

I think you're reading a bit too much into her column.  She thinks it is useless to rail against oil industry salaries, especially in relation to their products' prices.  Even if they are paid a lot, they provide us all with the go-juice or autos need.  PC lefty profs of worthless fields get paid...for providing no real utility or product.  Yet the oil execs get the vitriol from the MSM for salaries.

Note, that she held up Ward Churchill as her whipping boy.  $120K/year for what?  Department "chair" of the Ethnic Studies Dept ay CU.

Who, outside of lefty academics, thinks being in charge of such a worthless, PC dept is worth more than minimum wage?  "Ethnic Studies?!"  What a waste of tuition, taxpayer, and endowment dollars.

How many other worthless PC departments feed at the higher ed trough?
Womyns Studies
Victim Studies
Gay Studies
etc.

Each such dept requires funding for salaries, equip, IT, and overhead.

Throw in all the other boondoggles I saw in college: health clinics, separate student unions for different ethnicities, recycling programs, etc., and we get soaring tuition.

Let's face it: higher ed is a sh!tty steward of resources.  Anything that sheds light on that fact is welcome, even if it is in a somewhat scattershot Ann Coulter article.

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