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.