U.S. professors upset with low pay9 funding-survey
By Gail Stork
Professors all over America are doing it,
according to a recent survey of 161 cam
puses. They are complaining about the
lack of money, advancement opportunities
and quality education. And UNL profes
sors agree. '
"Money, said Richard Boohar, life
sciences associate professor, summing up
the problem. "Inflation is eating up every
body, including us.'
Jim Lake, Faculty Senate president,
agreed and said teachers are concerned
about the same thing as farmers-their
paycheck.
According to Gene Harding, journalism
professor, salaries that hang behind the
cost of living are problems faced by many
workers, not just professors. But there are
complications that apply only to univer
sities. He said the public has stopped looking
at the university as the answer to their
problems and have quit investing in them.
The bucket-sized donations he recalled
during the last decade's "golden age" of
university research, have dried up, he said.
The funds are gone and the chance for
research and publication, vital to av
teacher's promotion, hive gone with them,
he added.
"If you chop down money, you're going
to get frustration," Boohar said.
He said the administrators' job of redu
cing the budget deficit this year pulled
promotion standards even tighter.
'They have to be able to justify you as
a drain on the budget," he said. "They are
doing their best, but that doesn't help the
frustration."
Harding said the large number of
middle-aged professors in universities also
prevents promotion for the younger
teachers.
'They (young teachers) all want to be
full professors, but what are they supposed
to do? Wait until someone dies?"
Plus, he said colleges have been turning
out a surplus of PhDs and all of them can
not get the job for which they are trained.
He said with promotion standards
emphasizing research and publication,
there are not enough places for them to
publish something, even if they could do
the research.
. "It's really a trap," he said.
Allan Dittmer, UNL ombudsman, said
universities harbor some teachers who do
not like to teach, but stay because it's a
job. He said the increase in this type of
faculty member, because of increasingly
scarce teaching positions, may contribute
to the survey's negative results.
The survey cites professor disapproval
of grade inflation and students who are
increasingly unprepared, overly grade con
scious and eventually overtrained for the
available jobs.
ndaikj
Wednesday, february 1, 197? vol. 101 no. 67' lincoln, nebraska
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Something grandma knitted for me? A cashmere sweater on-the-hoof is taken
for a brisk stroll about campus by two pals, Mark OresJow and Bryan Wolfe.
Professors disagree on the charges f
decreasing student quality, as one of their
gripes but all realize a change in student
attitude toward grades.
Dittmer said according to tentative
results of his offlcc's survey, students are
much more job conscious than , ever.
They (students) downgrade education ibr
its own sake and use it as a commodity,"
Dittmer said.
'This upsets teachers who view educa
tion as an intangible commodity that may
be valuable for its own sake, Jie said.
Harding said full professors have a
different problem, but one that causes
restlessness in any occupation-middle-age.
He said when people get around 50
years old they start to wonder if they
could do anything else or if what they are
doing is worthwhile.
He said since a large group of professors
are in that age bracket, this attitude may
have reflected what the survey called
"a pervasive mood of pessimism."
) Despite this campus mood, the survey
found onlyJ4 percent said they would be
happier somewhere else.
Harding said this could be because of
the security older professors feel in their
positions or because the tight job market,
keeps teachers where they nave work.
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uuunai saiu aiiyune wno reauy UK.es
teaching, not just as a job, but as a way to
reach people, would not quit unless things -
get a lot worse. ;
Professional cut-up considers
woodchoppirig a sexy business
ByToddHeiert I T
, - ! ;.. ii. . I ..0"'K
' "You mieht say im m tne sex
business," he says, but a glance at his clo- -thingtells
one the reference is"obscure:?
Tne connection between sex and selling
wood probably is not obvious to anyone
but a professional woodcutter, like Steve n
Johnson.' i "-V 'v5:-?'!
-'Teople bttyHvood-asan ornamenti" he--
said "They burn it on Christmas morning :
as the kids gather, around." Or some guy; ,
burns it ' because " he figures you - are ' f
guaranteed "sex with a romantic flame in
the fireplace. - ' y
B Y6u might say tm in the sex business'
Oddly enough, people do not buy wood
to save money pr fuel, Johnson said:
The price of wood has increased more
Aan 100 percertt in ; the last two years, ,
more than any other form of heating fuel," ; ;
he said. Wood just, isn't competitive as a
heating fuel." " ' ' ' "i :
"Yet people" have been buying, more
wood, Johnson said.
f Standing in front of a dented and .
corroded 19S5 CMC pickup .filled with:
wood; smiling through a - dirty-brown x.
bristle of whiskers, Johnson looks the part ' -of
a woodcutter. He wears faded jeans and ' '
a- work-worn jacket with his ? fcsavily '
insulated boots. His short, !'redneck hair-V-cut"
(by his own admission) is shaded by a
brown hunting cap.- His entire outfit is
covered with a slight veneer of dirt, and
'grease.'."- . . -,
: He does not always' look like this, he '
said," explaining it is his business suit. And
although the whiskers have a dirt-on-. .
, flesh look they are well trimmed.
Johnson graduated from UNL in 1976
f '
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4
NU Regents assestuaent
fee dilemma
. Roto by Tim Ford
'with a Bachelor of. Arts in English. He
laughs about the . woodcutting business
which he calls, among other things, ridicu
lous, depressing, uneconomical and cor
rupt... . He said he considers most of the people
who buy wood from him foolish because
they do not realize what they are buying.
; The average price of a load of wood,
called a cord, is $55, Johnson said. For
that price the wood is usually red elm or
nackoerry, ne saia.
Oak and ash are the best woods growing
in this area because they burn the longest,
he said. They sell for $60 to $70 a cord.
But Johnson said there is corruption in.
the business and most people are riot
getting what they think they are buying.
"Nobody knows what a cord is or what
the different kinds of wood look like?'
Johnson said. They jire out of luck if
someone sells them half a cord of red elra
as a cord of ash." ., .
vcnii:;uea on t z 'z o
By Rod Murphy
Mandatory student .fees 'tot' campus
speakers, a topic to be discussed at the
next NU Board -of Regents meeting, re-;
mains an open issue with many Board ',
members.. ,
Fees for speakers constitute a small per
centage of total fee money, many regents
have stressed. Most fee money presently is
committed to pay Various debts, including
those for the University Health Center and
Nebraska Union costs.
Board chairman , Ed Schwartzkopf of
Lincoln said there is no choice about how
most of the money is allocated since it is
committed to pay continuing costs.
Hie remaining fee money should' be ,
spent as the students see fit, Schwartzkopf
said. Campus speakers fall into this cate
gory, he added. , , -
Regents delayed a decision on the fees
issue at their Jan. 7 meeting to determine a '
student opinion, he said.!.): ; . -
-'Schwartzkopf. said- campus speakers
"serve a great part of the educational pro
cess'; as long as aIT viewpoints are- pre- ;
.sented." .o-, j';
If the regents voted, today Schwartz
"kdpf said, he would vote to continue fund
ing "speakers from student fees.;, -
, ' However, - Regent Robert Koefoot of :
Grand Island said he opposes the measure.
Koefoot said lie supports the idea that
campus speakers should charge admission
. to pay for visits.- -". ...
1 ' don't believed that every ' student
should be obligated to pay for speakers,' .
Koefoot said. ' . : .
, At the next regents meeting, Koefoot
said', he plans to vote against using manda
. tory student fe for speakers.
. Two other regents contacted said they v
would not commeni until the February .
meeting. ..
Robert Simmons of Scottsbluff said he
was "deliberately keeping an open mind
" on the matter. .
iWile he said he has read a lot on the .
subject, he said he has not formed an
opinion. '
"I still could be influenced by
students," he said. -
Regent Kermit Hansen' of Omaha said
,hs thought the projects funded by student
fees were adequate.
However, Koefoot wcMld not comment
on student fee funding of speakers.
inside i
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EIcss hh pobtcd little cr,rs: A
resurrected Star Trek would be
Spock-lcss and less "cnterpris-
Tlr.c dr.'bbbs by - for lcodcni'Js: '
former - 'L. women's basketbs!!
coach waits." to get-. his job
"' b-irk " B-)rt in
r--. c. r ... it t i
ben. Larry Stoney lntdu-ees a.
bill to ban ' child pornography
before it reaches Nebraska, .pa.cs 6