Okay, so, was looking at jobs, and I came across some ridiculous numbers. U of CA Northridge wants to pay its non-tenure teachers (remember, this is at the collegiate level!) From $691.60 per course per month for a six-month pay period, to $828.60. Thats $2,700 to $3,300 per course (assuming 4 month duration). Assumedly, you have to do at least two courses to break even, or three to turn a profit. Assuming a course is three semester hours, that three hours of class instruction time and three hours of prep time/paper grading per week. Times two is 12, times three is 18. However, prep time and student interaction (and this isnt even counting mandatory office hours for instructors) is probably closer to double that per class. So: So, 1 class = 6 hr/week (more like 9) = $700/mo = $2700 class total 2 class = 12 hr/week (more like 18) = $1400/mo = $5600 class total 3 class = 18 hr/week (more like 27) = $2100/mo = $8400 class total $2100 a month for half-time work sounds pretty good right? But even doing three classes (which most places would see as a full-time teaching load), you make $17,000/yr before taxes. ($25000 if you teach summer classes.) You have at least a Masters, probably a Ph. D. 6 hours a week for four weeks at $700 makes your hourly pay $29. At 9 hours a week, its only $19. At the collegiate level, secretaries make between $14 and $22 an hour to start. Because they realize that full-time employees who have graduated high school should make at least $30,000 a year AFTER taxes. Okay, so these part-time people are paid low, but theyre part time! Well, theyre part time because the university says theyre part time and doesnt want to pay them an annual salary, not because they want to be part-time. But even working full-time hours, this pay is not reflective of a Masters or Ph. D. level education. If youre working full time, regardless of benefits, you should get a full-time salary. So, heres the really interesting question. Students at this same university pay about $1200 per credit HOUR, which is about $3600 per course. So, you pay the instructor a little less than the cost of the course provided by one student. That sounds reasonable right? Well, maybe if you only had 5 or 6 students. With class sizes an average of 15 to 22 in similar departments, what, honestly, are you spending money on as an institution, that you can only afford to pay the engineers AND salesmen of your product less than 1/15 to 1/20 of the actual, measurable gross income they bring in to the business? And, I might add, this is ONLY factored from students tuition. The university gains further income from government subsidies (Im not sure what its earmarked for specifically, if anything), and does not pay land taxes. Infrastructure? Administrators? Full Faculty? Overhead? Advertising? Conferences hosted? Travel to other conferences? Scholarships? Seriously, you should not be spending 14/15ths and up to 21/22nds of your gross income on the above list, and if you do, you have a problem not only of grossly undervaluing the employees who actually create your product (education), but also of simple economic management. In short: Running schools like businesses has actually made them less efficient with lower return on investment, and succeeded only in undervaluing the people the university is actually there for--teachers and students.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:35:01 +0000
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