Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993 TAG: 9310280331
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS C. McMILLAN and H. THOMAS MULLIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It said that a full professor has "top billing, top pay ... and no professional worries for the last two decades of his career." Where did Mr. Walzer get this factoid? We know of no university faculty member who carries into the full professorship such a flippant and unprofessional attitude. Faculty in all the professorial ranks have a professional commitment, which is trivialized by the caricatures given in Mr.Walzer's article.
Let us consider the preparation and sacrifice that university professors make for a career in academe. The undergraduate records of university professors are usually exceptional. As a result of their commitment to excellence, many opportunities are available at graduation, but, because of their love for their discipline and their desire to contribute to its growth, they reject lucrative employment opportunities to go to graduate school. In graduate school, they typically live below the poverty level, acquiring staggering levels of debt while acquiring the knowledge and research skills they need to contribute to their discipline. They also gain experience as teachers.
The pressures of graduate school are intense. These pressures are compounded by the temptation to leave. It is difficult to remain committed to a goal when employment opportunities are luring graduate students away. It is difficult for graduate students to remain in school when their college friends are starting their families and are already earning more than the graduate student can expect to earn after a six- or seven-year program of study. It is the love for their discipline that keeps graduate students committed to their goals.
For the few who survive the rigors of a graduate program and earn the Ph. D., a career as a university or college professor is a possibility. A fortunate few will find tenure-track positions. For many, the next stop is a one- to three- year post-doctoral training period at another university. A significant number will become "transient scholars," moving from university to university and never entering a tenure-track position.
Some who desire it will be unable to find work in higher education. For nearly all newly graduated Ph.D.s, the starting salary will be not much more than the starting salary of those newly graduated with a bachelor's degree. A university career is not a quick path to riches.
People who suffer this kind of hardship and make such significant sacrifice do not do so with the intent of retiring as soon as they get tenure. The same commitment to excellence that characterized their education and early academic career characterizes their performance in the higher professorial ranks.
The vast majority of professors are self-motivated to provide the highest- quality education to their students, but professors of all ranks are subject to detailed and rigorous performance evaluations. It is certainly not true, as Mr. Walzer's caricature indicates, that a faculty member can "write his own ticket" and "teach zero classes" when he reaches the rank of full professor. What happens when he reaches that rank is that performance evaluations continue as before, and any decrease in quality will adversely affect his career.
In his article, Mr. Walzer draws attention to the salaries of certain university professors and implicitly suggests that salaries may be out of line. Of course, we cannot know if they are out of line if we base our conclusions on the few "facts" that that can be separated from fantasies in the article.
It is disingenuous to say that a faculty member makes $300 per hour in the lecture hall. This misrepresents both the salary and the work involved in earning that salary. Does a surgeon earn his or her salary only when performing surgery? Is a lawyer paid only for time in court? A newspaper reporter is paid for more than just sitting at a typewriter and banging keys. Just one of these $300 lectures includes many hours of preparation and many hours of follow-up work with students for which (using Mr. Walzer's formula) the pay is $0 per hour.
Virginia is in the lowest 10 among all the states with respect to support for higher education. We face the shameful reality that we can send our students to out-of-state institutions for about the same cost that our universities are forced to charge. Further erosion in the support of our state institutions will encourage our best faculty and students to look elsewhere for opportunities in higher education. This will be a dear price to pay. Mr. Walzer's biased and unprincipled attack on the hard-working members of university faculties hastens the day when we will pay this dear price.
\ Thomas C. McMillan and H. Thomas Mullis are professors at Radford University.
by CNB