Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Nov. 29, 1990, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of Elon University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Op-Ed November 29,1990 3 Professors' salaries should reflect status Questions raised about threat of war Students and faculty urged to voice opinions To The Editor: The media is full of anxious questions about war with Iraq. Will President Bush send niore troops? continue to freeze military retirements? keep up his n^ilitant rhetoric and refuse to *^egotiate? Will Bush ask the troops sent to defend Saudi Arabia to attack Iraq? What will Bush do? At the recent Phi Alpha Theta P^el on the Gulf Crisis, a sUident added another question to the list. you think the draft will be reinstated?" Some there laughed at the directness of this heartfelt question. The fact is now is the time to ^ even more direct. Each of us needs to ask - Would I be willing to die for this cause? And each of us needs to remember we do have choices. America is not a **^onarchy; we must not wait to see what Bush will do. Now is tiie time to let the President and our representatives know our stand or our questions about war in Iraq. This week, a busy one for all of us, we urge students and faculty, to write Bush telling him to undertake no military action until all possibilities for a peaceful settlement arc exhausted. Ask why he won’t give the economic embargo time, why we can't negotiate with Hussein, and why the U.N. shouldn't handle this conflict? The address is: The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500. It is also very important to send copies to your senators and congresspersons, for Congress alone has Uie constitutional right to declare war. The addresses are: U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515. Capitol switchboard: 202- 224-3121. If we just wait to see what Bush will do, we may find ourselves in a war with thousands of Americans and Iraqi dead and the roots of conflict in the Middle East still untouched. This statement was signed by the following faculty and staff: Anne Cassebaum, James D. Pickens, Janet L. Warman, Lamar Bland, Deborah Welch, Richard McBride, Lela Faye Rich, Plummer Alston Jones, Jr., Margaret Zang, Jeffrey W. Clark. Ann BuUer, Martha Smith, John Herold, James S. Bissett, Thomas K. Tiemann, Chalmers Brumbaugh, Carole Troxler, Nancy Midgette, Susan V, Nicassio, Pam Brumbaugh, Lawrence A. Basirico, Kathryn H. Larson, John G. Sullivan, Brian Digre, Lois C. Cooksey, Terry M. Williams, John Teague, Barbara Gordon. + American Red Cross BE A RED CROSS VOI.UNTEER Recentiy the issue concerning the renewing of faculty contracts has cluttered the Pendulum, while ironically our Honors Social Theory series on the education system has appeared concurrent. Many important questions have been raised on the grading process, the need for free education, the drawbacks of contracts and tenure, and the uniformity to which professors must conform, however the issue of professors' salaries has been overlooked. Not only is this topic overlooked, many regard it as an irrelevant problem in Uie educational system. One professor even noted in a Pendulum article that although the salary of a professor is not desirable, professors know and accept this because to them no aim is higher than that of academia. You have to respect and hold in high regard the college professor. So as a society, we must ask why professors' salaries do not reflect this. Let us compare some basic statistics between a professor and some other members of society which we define as prestigious. The average lawyer spends about four years in undergraduate school, and an additional three in law school after which they must pass the bar exam. The average professor attends four years undergraduate, and an additional four to seven in graduate school. And before receiving their doctorate they must write and defend a dissertation. In 1989 Uie average lawyer earned as a starting salary $44,000, while the private lawyer received sums around $101,000 on average a year. The average professor collects $35,000 a year, while a typical Elon professor can expect to bring home only $30,000 a year. While lawyers may spend on average a little more time working, professors arc unable to advance financially the way lawyers can, or for Uiat matter any otiier occupation of prestige. For example, one lawyer might be paid the average while another may double that. Professors, on the otiier hand, cam salaries in a much smaller range and can never really excel fiijaDcially on UiC. "If wc were to follow the nile of thumb and recognize people's importance by their salaries, we are giving our educa tors a pretty low ranking." basis of their qualifications and performance. Although college professors' salaries have been increasing since 1983, further increases arc necessary to show the respect we have for our professors and the educaticxi system. Our society rewards people who are seen to have prestigious positions with large sums of money, whether they are entertainers or professional sports figures. Jose Canseco, a major league baseball player makes close to $4 million a year (and he still struck out in the Worid Series). There is an inconsistency to this reward system: our teachers and professors. If we were to follow the rule of thumb and recognize people's importance by their salaries, we arc giving our educators a pretty low ranking. Consider what would happen to society if all of the NFL, NBA and other forms of entertainment disappeared. Society would suffer a blow, but it wouldn't collapse completely, as it would if all of our teachers ceased to perform their duties. By keeping salaries low, tiie education system keeps only those professors truly interested in educating. Unfortunately however, our society acknowledges wortii in terms of economic rewards, and seeing tiiat education should be one, if not tiie most important function of our society, shouldn’t we be repaying our mentors publicly in a way suitable to distinguish their worth? Article by Dr. Tom Arcaro's Honors Social Theory Class. Members of the class are Bill Clarke, Gina Finelli, Tracey Helton. Frank Mayfield, Tylar Proveaux, Jessica McCauley and laurel Underwood^. •,. . ,
Elon University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 29, 1990, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75