You have to give the State Administration it's due. They need to cut budgets. They don't want to cut services. They don't want to be seen as cutting the already low pay of faculty (when one considers the cost of living in California). So, we have the two day faculty furlough.
In my position I currently work on campus minimally 6:30 am - 5:30 pm, Monday through Saturday. This is the only way I can maintain my research program and do all the other administrative, advising, and teaching stuff I do. I don't get paid in the summer, but I am here working with my students in the lab for about 12 weeks. If you take away two days pay a month will I work less? No! If you are thinking of me as an hourly employee, you don't pay me for half the work I do now.
The two-day furlough for faculty is a pay cut. The State will still get the work out of the professionals, because professionals are not hourly workers attaching widgets. Professionals have a job to do, and they do it without worrying about a time clock. The State has found a near perfect way to cut costs and still get services. Next in No-Cost Service will be the two-day a month furlough of doctor and nurses, which requires them to spend the days in the emergency room or clinic waiting room.
My objection is the dishonesty of the euphemism of calling a pay cut a "Two-Day Furlough". What are they afraid of, scaring people from applying for positions in California public higher education? Does that matter when they may also put a hiring freeze in place?
The people of California voted down the budget proposals on the ballot in May to send a message to the states leaders to "stop playing games and treat us honestly". The State could start by calling a pay cut a pay cut.
T.S. Hall
P.S. Readers Vote: Rant or Observation?
Definitely an honest observation about obvious bullshit. It is the only true term to describe it. (Read "On Bullshit" H.G. Fankfurt, Princeton)I suggest using it to directly describe this euphemism for a paycut.
ReplyDeleteProfessors are already payed very little for the amount of qualifications they must attain. The state really should just say "pay cut" for salaried employees. They can get away with "furlough" for hourly, but it's still BS.
We definitely need to stop spending money somewhere. Bullshiting people is not the way to go. I say stop the drug war first, it is definitely a big pile of BS that costs way to much.
Bureacracy has got to be reduced also, your "University Staff" entry is telling of the sneaky growth of non-instructional staff.
I guess I have to classify this post as a rant since I realized last night why it is actually in the interest of the faculty to use a furlough strategy.
ReplyDeleteA furlough is a temporary event and does not effect base pay. If the universities were to institute pay cuts the only recovery for faculty would be by getting pay raises after things get better.
Those of us in academe know how hard pay raises are to get. For those that are not in academe, faculty pay over the last thirty or forty years has not kept pace with regional inflation, particularly in public institutions and in public institutions in California.
So, perhaps "Temporary Pay Cut" would be the more honest terms to use.
T.S. Hall
P.S. For those who think it is silly to quibble over semantics; "MARRIAGE".
Thanks, for clairfying. I just hope the furlough can be easily removed during the next or other fiscal years.
ReplyDeleteI'm a professor at Cal Poly. This is a pay cut. Make no mistake. If you'd like to continue your research, continue doing it. But please PLEASE cut your class time considerably during the furloughs. Cut your contribution to teaching and service. So long as the state believes that university professors will work for free, they will continue to cut our pay.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with the comment from the prior anonymous poster. (I am a professor at SDSU). Continuing as if it's business as usual - i.e., same productivity for less pay - will only reinforce continued budget reductions and inadequate salaries. Further, there is no way to balance the budget without additional revenue (e.g., tax increases; tuition increases; legalization of marijuana - something!!!), or we'll be facing the same situation for the forseeable future. I, and many of my colleagues who have substantial external funding, are considering going on the job market. This will further degrade the budget/s, and where will that leave us? It's not just the pay cuts - the continued hiring freezes (or slow downs) leave us at a major disadvantage (inadequate personnel and no infusion of new energy or creative thought). The cuts in graduate student funding will encourage the best and brightest to head elsewhere. It's truly bleak.
ReplyDeleteYou knew what the pay was & the hours when you took the job so stop blaming everyone else for your career decision. If you want more money, go get it somewhere else & take some risk
ReplyDeleteAnonymous III,
ReplyDelete1) What the writers here are addressing is the current situation where faculty are looking at having their pay reduced and their workload increased. I don't know of anyone who was promised that when they took the job.
2) The higher education system in the US is set up to make it as difficult as possible to change jobs, particularly after one has tenure. I won't go into the specifics here, but it's not a simple a moving from Starbucks to Seattle's Best.
3) I don't read here where anyone blamed anyone else for their career decisions. People are writing about an untenable situation they find themselves in. I acknowledged that the CSU administration was making a business based decision, which had some merit as a business decision.
Last) Just as you have strongly held opinions that should be respected, the others posting comments here, and I, care very deeply about our profession and about the students and institutions we are associated with. The posters have expressed honest concerns and frustrations here in order to put out in the open their fears about the future of the systems they care about. Your suggestion to just walk away does not respect the CSU faculty's commitment to their students and institutions. Walking away to some is like walking out of a marriage. They would rather fight for it than walk away.
T.S. Hall