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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2000)
Faculty pay continued from page 1 ty concerns at the Feb. 18 meeting. “We’re talking about building these peaks of excellence, but the only way that can happen is if you hire quality instructors,” Richmond said. “It’s terribly important that we can lure those teachers to our cam puses, and we cannot do it with the current entry-level salaries. ” Statistics Schools in the Oregon University System pay their faculty far less than the national average, accord ing to information from the U.S. De partment of Education and OUS. University faculty overall are paid almost $5,000 less than the na tional average faculty salary, ac cording to the statistics, while at Western Oregon University, faculty overall earn up to $18,000 less. Sta tistics also show that OUS schools rank well below the average salaries among their “peer univer sities” — schools of similar size from around the nation, such as Purdue University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Uni versity of Washington. The OUS uses information from the peer uni versities for comparison in areas such as student demographics, tu ition rates or faculty salaries. Schools throughout the OUS Eire beginning to show the conse quences. Some are already having difficulty recruiting new profes sors because the starting salaries they offer are so low. “When there are low salaries and high workloads, new instruc tors leave for higher-paying schools,” said Dean Braa, a sociol ogy professor and faculty union president at WOU, which has had difficulties recruiting candidates. “It’s hai'd to stay competitive.” Faculty searches are time con suming and expensive, he said, and the school is sometimes hav ing to settle for candidates who are not among their top choices. “We’re having a devil of a time getting candidates interested in our programs,” he said. “And when we do find someone, we usually have two chances of sign ing them — slim and none.” Students’ opinions The issue of faculty salaries af University of Oregon Athletic Department Teamwork Internship Positions Available Become a member of the Oregon Athletic Department Gain valuable experience in: • Recruiting process of student athletes • Marketing and promotions • Fund raising • Sports information • Receive class credit 008716 There will be an informational meeting on Thursday, March 9th in the Football Theater, located on the 2nd floor of the Casanova Center (next to Autzen Stadium). Meeting will begin at 7 p in. Pick up your application in the Football Office, 2nd floor of the Casanova Center. Interviews will be held on March 13, 14 and 15. You may sign up for your interview time when you pick up your application. Application deadline is March 10th. Little Caesars ** MEDIUM PEPPERONI OR CHEESE PIZZA 1711 Willamette (next to Blockbuster) 343-3330 fects more than just the instructors — it has a direct effect on students’ education, ASUO President Wylie Chen said. “We’re not spending ten grand a year to get mediocre professors,” Chen said. Robin Miller, a sophomore po litical science major, agreed that in order to recruit quality professors, the OUS needs to raise faculty salaries. “In order to make Oregon a more enticing place, you have to have salaries that will attract those profes sors,” Miller said. “I think the legis lature has left professors’ salaries at the wayside. They haven’t done much to respond to the reality that professors in the Oregon University System aren’t paid enough.” OUS spokesman Phillip Brans ford said that students and faculty have to remember that salaries are just one of many different compet ing needs within the OUS. "Balancing needs is part of the challenge,” he said. Lorraine Davis, vice provost for academic affairs, said that the University is actually more com petitive salary-wise at the associ ate professor level than at senior professor levels. “When we try to recruit at the senior level, it’s far more difficult,” she said. “That’s when salary be comes a bigger issue, and we’re talking more dollars to do that.” Until the state legislature in creases the amount of money going to higher education, the situation is unlikely to change, she said. “Certainly, more state support would be more than welcome to solve some of our problems,” Davis said. But for the amount of money the University is able to pay their faculty, the school and the OUS are “getting a lot of bang for their buck,” she said. Closing the funding gap Bransford, said the chancellor and members of the board “remain committed to closing the gap” be tween the average OUS faculty salary and the national average. “Faculty compensation has been increasing, but not to the ex tent that we’d like,” he said. “But we recognize the importance of staying competitive. That point is undisputed.” Wykoff, agreed that keeping salaries competitive is important, and said that “while there’s al ways a cadre of people who are looking to climb up the economic ladder,” higher salaries could per suade many faculty who are enter taining offers from other colleges to stay at the University. “When faculty are looking at low salaries and a state that hasn’t shown a commitment to increase funding for education, they go elsewhere,” Wykoff said. Money from the state doesn’t go as far as it did in the past, mostly because of inflation, he said, which translates to a cut in the buying power when schools are looking at faculty salaries. The OSA is researching ways the legislature could help reverse the trend, Wykoff said, such as of fering free college tuition to the de pendents of faculty who attend that university. The group will present its findings to the legisla ture during its next session. Miller is also planning to lobby the legislature, a step she said is the most effective way to get more funding for faculty salaries. “It’s the biggest thing we can do as students,” she said. Members of the legislature “need to put their money where their mouth is. ” Web site continued from page 1 social services and resources. Al though the service is available to anyone, it is targeted toward peo ple with low or no income. The site’s address is www.thelane.net. TheLane is a combined effort from local organizations to pro vide users with information about health care, income securi ty, individual and family life, lo cal organizations and communi ty services. “The site is intended to em power people to be self-suffi cient,” project coordinator Lise Stuart said. “TheLane provides step-by-step instructions for indi viduals and families that need in formation about local resources to help get them through hard times and promote their well-being.” Although most libraries and public schools offer free access to the Internet, educating people about how to navigate the Web is of central concern to the backers of the new Web site. Stuart said she was concerned about the level of access her target audience has to computers and the Internet. “If you’ve never used a comput er before and have had limited ac cess to the Internet, when you sit down to use a computer for the first time, it can be really hard to navi gate,” Stuart said. “As more and more kids come out of the schools with prior experience navigating the Web, educating our audience won’t be as much of a concern.” The cost of running the site is $80,000 to $85,000 a year. Stuart said the site is funded by social service organizations and private organizations interested in em powering the community to use Internet services. In addition to the new Web site, the Eugene Public Library and Eu gene Free Network are offering free Internet instruction to low-in come residents of Lane County. “You can’t give someone a tool without teaching them how to use it,” EFN general manager Ruth Ann Howden said. “People who can afford to pay for classes, we ask them to pay. For those who can’t pay, we raise money for the classes through OPN [Oregon Pub lic Broadcasting].” Although the Web may some times be difficult for beginners, Rebecca Teasdale, a reference li brarian for the Eugene Public Li brary, said TheLane is a great re source for finding just about anything in one location. Teasdale contributed her database on Liter acy and English as a second lan guage to TheLane. “TheLane is useful for a broad range of resources,” Teasdale said. “The site brings together a lot of social service resources in one database.” Teasdale said she thinks the site may aide underprivileged people in Lane County to become more knowledgeable about the In ternet and computers. “The site is very easy to navi gate,” she said. “There are several search options, and you don’t need advanced computer skills in order to use it.” Renters’ rights continued from page 1 living space, while organizing methods to effectively deal with those issues. Originally, the intent of the cam paign was to develop a West Uni versity area housing code, which currently does not exist. However, enacting such a large change in city policy would require much more information than the campaign has gathered so far. While developing a housing code remains the ultimate goal, its status has been relegated to the longterm. In the meantime, the focus is on a more achievable goal: imple menting a renters’ rights hotline. The hotline would be a referral service for students that would let them know what their options are and/or point them in the direction of legal specialists. “We’re kind of setting ourselves up for the bigger fight for the hous ing code while providing a service for the students,” said Matthew Lieuallen, ASUO housing advocate. The ASUO and OSPIRG hope to have the hotline in place by the end of the school year. The imme diate obstacle is finding a perma nent location, which could possi bly be a cubicle outside the ASUO office. Beyond that, implementa tion is simply a matter of logistics. “Really what we need is a phone, a filing cabinet and some people who are trained,” Lieuallen said. Although it was initiated last fall, the campaign didn’t really kick in until this term. Through “days of action,” which included information tables around campus and walking door-to-door around the community, a number of sur veys were distributed to Universi ty students. The surveys asked re spondents to detail what problems they have had while renting and what the responses of the land lords were if they were reported. So far, the response from stu dents has shown that there is a def inite need to address the issue of renters’ rights. “We’ve gotten a lot of really good feedback,” Marian Fowler, ASUO community outreach direc tor, said. At this point in time, the cam paign has gathered around 200 surveys and is currently in the process of compiling the results to see what the main problems are. Many of the issues that have ap peared seem to deal with “a lack of response for immediate con cerns,” Fowler said, such as heat ing complications during winter months or backed-up plumbing. Owing to the fact that Eugene does not have a housing code, this movement has become an impor tant one for students. “Students do not know how, for the most part, to go about getting things fixed,” said junior political science major Brian Tanner, who has been helping with the cam paign since the beginning of this term. “We’re a financially handi capped segment of the population, and for us to go through these legal means is a headache. ” Once the ASUO and OSPIRG have gathered sufficient informa tion, they plan to compile the re sults with a legal assistant and present their findings to the city. “We’d wrork with city officials to develop a housing code,” Fowler said. “It’s possible if there’s a lot of support.” OSPIRG addressed the issue of renters’ rights a few years ago, when it distributed a renters’ rights pamphlet. Though the cam paign fizzled out, OSPIRG still re ceives calls in response to the pamphlet, which prompted OS PIRG member Greg Bae to join up with ASUO when the idea was brought up again. “If we’re getting five to 10 calls a week out of these outdated numbers, then we know this pro gram is really needed,” said Bae, who is acting as the renter’s rights campaign coordinator for OSPIRG. Meanwhile, the campaign will continue, with members planning to engage in another door-to-door night when they will distribute surveys to other areas of Eugene.
