LETTERS
LETTERS Low Blows at Highbrows While certain tenured professors in the most prestigious universities may get away with teaching only one course per term at full pay [“Highbrow. Robbery” by...
...ERILE GOLDEN San Diego, California Mr...
...Noah, if we include under that heading the development of materials for new courses, and the deepening and updating of materials for old courses...
...He does not address the inequitable burden of repayment for female graduates, who will earn about 40 percent less than their male counterparts...
...So, one can claim that the “average full professor” makes “a miserly $41,600” per year and teaches “nine hours overall”which ain’t bad, given a “life of contemplation under Gothic spires and arching boughs:’ three to four “glorious summer months:’ frequently spent in Europe (when not trying to push through the mobs of students who are the majority of patrons in those “pricey boutiques and trendy little restaurants” dotting the towns where faculty supposedly live), and such perks as free housing...
...As for the conference, we’d be delighted to break even...
...at the favored end of the scale...
...Paul, Minnesota The Impervious Presidency William Greider (“On Political Books:’ July/August) suggests that Ronald Reagan’s policies in Central America may lead to a repetition of what happened to Jimmy Carter when by backing the Shah (and thus precipitating the Iranian hostage crisis), he “failed to face reality and, in time, reality made him look like a wimp...
...It’s plenty obvious that Washington doesn’t have a monopoly on strong and innovative leadership...
...Noah’s mention of trendy shops surrounding college campuses tells me that his experience of academia is limited, perhaps to Harvard or Princeton...
...Before allowing reality to make him look like a wimp, Ronald Reagan would blow reality to kingdom come...
...Noah thinks it is...
...LEONARD ROY FRANK San Francisco, California Fleece Or Be Fleeced ~~ Your article [“How to Fleece the PACs” by Tom Hamburger, July/August] forced a bit of self-analysis on me, as a campaign manager for a small local election...
...Noah addresses...
...Less pretentious institutions, such as the University of Minnesota, attract mostly pizza and hamburger shops...
...MALCOLM MITCHELL Roseville, California The editors reply: While we don’t scorn profit as a goal, it has, alas, proved largely elusive, as those who know our history will attest...
...Are you saying none of them are worthy of recognition when they finally get there...
...Timothy Noah proposes long-term student loans for college expenses, a sound beginning to the solution of the problems Mr...
...M. ESTELLIE SMITH Oswego, New York And Speaking of Robbery...
...I ran a state conference for four days at half that price...
...Your July/August issue is well namedL‘Highbrow Robbery: ” Just look at the ad on page 21 for the “Neoliberal Conference” at $250...
...SARA E..MEYER St...
...But after conducting 100 interviews in 50 states you concluded that not one woman met the mark...
...For example, I teach two-thirds time for a consortium of colleges in the Twin Cities (I did my graduate work at Cornell and Yale) but my annual salary is less than half the starting salary of the lowest paying of these colleges, and I get no benefits...
...Similar disparities exist between whites and minorities...
...It was particularly galling to me because, although included in the various averages to which he resorted to make his point, I am one of the majority whose job profile is distorted by the few...
...A campaign manager better have a lawyer and an accountant on staff to take care of all the legal questions and the paperwork...
...Constellation Consternation I am totally appalled by your “Stars of the States” article [by Douglas Jehl, July/August...
...Noah’s article cannot go without comment from one of the academicians for whose jugular he went...
...KAREN SANDNESS Robbinsdale, Minnesota If the “Some of X implies all of X” logic of your “Highbrow Robbery” article were applied to the auto industry, the typical car would have the price of a Mercedes, the fuel efficiency of a motor home, the repair record of a demolition derby contestant, and be assembled by a worker making the salary of Lee Iacocca...
...His program for tuition reform is weakened by the unworkability of one of its main proposals: to double the “teaching work week” from 15 hours (five hours of classroom teaching plus ten hours of class preparation) to 30 hours, which would still leave professors “plenty of time for research and writing...
...It’s a wiser use of time to go out and massage a few fat-cat contributors than to bury yourself in paperwork for the $5 donor...
...Women struggle long and hard to make it to the top...
...Florida state law requires that if someone wants to sponsor a good old-fashioned fund-raiser where people contribute $5 at the door, it must be fully reported in advance, all expenses incumbent to the fund-raiser must be paid for out of the campaign treasury, the printed disclaimer required is twice as long as the ticket invitation, and the full name, street address, and occupation of every little $5 contributor must be dutifully reported on the forms...
...The business districts surrounding Yale and Columbia are decidedly untrendy...
...One can point to the populace of, say, various Latin American countries and claim that the mean income is, e.g., $5,000 a year-ignoring that if one used the mode rather than the mean, we would find that some 10 percent of the society have incomes of several hundred thousand per annum but 70 percent have incomes of less than $500 per annum...
...PETER K. ILCHUK Key West, Florida...
...In practice, most teachers I have known at major universities and small colleges spend more than the “standard two hours of preparation per classroom hour” estimated by Mr...
...In academia, as in autos, a single example does not an average make...
...Who gets all that money...
...Whatever a given institution’s definition of full time is, part-time instructors typically receive a per-course salary that is less than proportionate to the full-time salary...
...We are asked to feel sorry for “the 40-yearold GS-15s who may secretly yearn to abandon their comfortable sinecures [he said it, not me!] and strike out on their own in jobs they’d truly enjoy, but instead stay put at their desks churning out planning analyses for $55,000 a year...
...Robbery” by Timothy Noah, July/August], the normal teaching load at most institutions is three courses per term, exactly the 12 to 15 hours per week that Noah recommends...
...I have seen positions advertised which require four courses per term-at an annual salary of $13,000, in one case...
...JOYCE VAN DYKE Washington, D.C...
...But a conservative estimate of a “teaching work week” based on five hours of classroom teaching is actually about 30 hours, twice what Mr...
...These shopping districts are found only around the campuses of certain of the most expensive colleges, and they cater far more to the overindulged children of M.D.s, C.P.A.s, J.D.s, and M.B.A.s than to the rank-and-file Ph.D.s who make up the faculty...
...PHILIP A. SCHRODT Evanston, Illinois Timothy Noah has relied heavily on innuendo and gossipy generalizations to give readers a suggestive glimpse of the well-paid, underworked college professor...
...Greider has it all wrong...
Vol. 15 • October 1983 • No. 7
