Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2000)
Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu Wednesday January 12,2000 Volume 101, Issue 74 Emerald Salaries frozen for too long Professors’ salaries are losing ground in relation to other universities America is a funny place. We’re in an election year, so the buzz words “educa tion,” “values” and “prior ities” are on the tips of politicians’ tongues. But the fact is that someone can raise more than $67 million to run for president while teachers in this country are forced to get by on rather meager salaries. While most of the attention paid to teacher salaries is for the public school systems, Uni versity professors aren’t doing much better in the big picture. Average salary for our University professors is $51,300, well below some of our peer universities’ aver age salaries: $65,400 at University of North Carolina and even $52,300 at Oregon State University. With talk that diversity is important and that keeping good professors is a priority, the fact remains that cost of living in creases have not been given out in four years while inflation has jumped 10 percent in the same time. The University jumped a tier in the U.S. News and World Report rankings this past year; teacher salaries haven’t seemed to jump as well. That’s why a new pro posal to the University Senate is looking to make cost of living pay increas es an annual thing. As it stands now, budgets allow for each department to give out “merit” raises to a few se lect faculty members. These raises are gener ally based on teaching awards and quality or quantity of published work. In other words, the professors receiving the awards are raising both their prestige and the University's. The problem with the sys tem as it works today is that these merit pay raises are pretty subjective and of ten don’t take the students’ wishes into account. A few se lect and favored professors could easily rise to the top of the pay schedule while other teachers — who might have better student evalua tions but who aren’t as flashy or out spoken — may miss out. And no department has any busi ness handing out subjective merit pay raises while the majority of pro fessors lose out when their salaries stay the same but the cost of living rises. With talk about diversity and maintaining high standards and pro viding a welcoming environment for professors, the absence of pay in creases that merely offset the gaining economy is outrageous. Any money that is available should be spread out equally. If there is more, then merit based pay raises are fine, provided they are fair. The proposal out now would not increase the amount of money spent on raises, but it would distribute it more fairly. As in all subjective evaluations, merit-based pay raises are problemat ic. But the playing field could be made more even if students are given the chance to vote or otherwise ex press their evaluation of their teach ers. With a board or a dean making decisions, there’s a good possibility that an award will go a professor who has published a well-regarded book but who has neglected his teaching time to do so. That does not reflect well on the University. What might be needed is an over haul to the whole pay system . One such system is also being proposed. In the so-called “White Paper” salaries would be spelled out very specifically, with professors hoping that cost of living pay raises will be the cornerstone of the system. If our professors are among the lowest paid in the nation with respect to our stature and size, then something cer tainly needs to be reworked. We’re starting to be known here at the University as a school that cares about all its employees. That is why the classified workers fought hard to reach a deal this summer. That’s why graduate teaching fellows did the same with health care coverage earli er this school year. Now, let’s make the same commitments to the teach ers who are responsible for making the University the rising star it is. Give credit where credit is due. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Giovanni Salimena Emerald 7 ijmjMWS Letters to the editor Peaceful WTO protest commended I was tremendously impressed by the courage shown by the WTO protesters in Seattle as they sat nonviolently, while the police used pepper spray, tear gas and rub ber bullets on them. Incidentally, all this po lice violence occurred long before the win dow-breaking by a few people there. Rubber bullets and tear gas are not innocuous weapons and can be fatal. Just ask the Pales tinians! The police, dressed in black and fir ing hi-tech weapdns that looked like some thing from Star Wars, reminded me of Darth Vader — particularly when some of them started kicking people in the groin. They have certainly come a long way from when they broke up labor demonstrations using police on horseback wielding billy clubs. I was also impressed by the intelligence of the protesters in recognizing that the WTO is not about trade as much as it is about corporate power and corporations’ ability to overrule laws that restrict the max imization of profit. That tiny less-than-1 percent of the U.S. population that controls most of the wealth of this country and increasingly the world would do anything to protect their wealth and power — absolutely anything! If the CIA, working on behalf of corporate power, could develop a chemical to turn the popu lation of the United States into a docile bunch of sheep, they would do it in a flash. Perhaps, with television and sophisticated propaganda, it is unnecessary, but this mas sive Seattle protest has to cause them some concern. Gary Sudborough Bellflower, CA Fourth-graders need postcards Our fourth grade class from Gifford Grade School is studying the United States. We would like your help. We would like your readers to send us postcards or letters telling us about your state. Thanks for your help. Please send in formation to: Fourth Grade U.S.A. Project Gifford Grade School #188 406 S. Main St. Gifford, IL 61847 Calling all brides and grooms Planningaspring or summer wed ding? The Emerald is seekingout Uni versity students, faculty or staff to offer anecdotes and information about the process, with stories to run in a Jan. 25 bridal supplement. Please call the Emerald office, 346-5511,and leave a message— with phone num ber and best time to reach you—for supplement editor Jack Clifford. Quoted “He did have a his tory of good rela tionships with players of different races and different ethnic back grounds. What we have here is a play er who has ex pressed remorse. Under those cir cumstances, I am not going to aban don a player or an employee or a friend.1* —Atlanta Presi dent Stan Kasten, on comments made by relief pitcher John Rock er to Sports Illus trated two weeks ago. Rocker insult ed gays, Asian women, foreigners and people from New York City. He has been ordered by Major League Baseball to under go psychological evaluations. ESPN.com, Jan. 7. “This is not only ‘no new taxes,'this is‘a tax cut, so help me God.'” —Presidential candidate George W. Bush, in a GOP debate last week, where he ap peared to echo the ill-fated words of his father, former president George Bush: “Read my lips: no new tax es,"CNN.com, Jan. 6. “I think for the first time ever, we’re back out in the neighbor hoods. We do want to be seen as a household in the neighborhood. We’re here 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.” — Matt Shuler, Eugene interim co fire chief, on the revamping of the city’s fire stations to meet the stan dard of four minute response. Another goal of the building and renovation project was to secure a better community presence for fire stations.
