Hi Emma wrote:

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Emma wrote: My official first day is tomorrow. Is it the same at USM?  We have a university faculty meeting and then a departmental one in the afternoon.  Our students start class on Wed.  I know that some area univ. differ with students coming back on Jan. 17th and faculty reporting on the 11th or 12th. (That's the way it is at my daughters' university.) Just curious. We have MLK Day off on the 16th too. Here's hoping that all faculty members (wherever you might be) have a great semester in Spring 2006, and the Bud Ginn thread hitting page 9! Emma with the long legs. How astute you are.

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I know of at least one department (in the CoEP) that reports back uh . . . tomorrow . . . I think. They aren't the only ones though - Can anyone help me with who else reports back (as in has to be officially back on campus) tomorrow?

Answering Emma wrote:

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 I know of at least one department (in the CoEP) that reports back uh . . . tomorrow . . . I think. They aren't the only ones though - Can anyone help me with who else reports back (as in has to be officially back on campus) tomorrow?

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Are you trying to "out" somebody?

That's right. Remember, they're not allowed to have normal lives. If you see one in the grocery store, report it immediately.

Old Dog wrote:

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There are way too many professors who push the limits of good taste; not enough remember that just because you have the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do.

There are way too many professors' wives who run around in the country club, garden club, Oak Grove soccer mom circles.

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As the wise mother says to "Everyone is doing it," name five.

Apparently, you can think of five persons. Fair enough. But your complaint is still problematic.

For starters, faculty aren't administrators.

In addition, some few faculty members may have additional means. That doesn't make the vast majority any the less underpaid. It also doesn't mean that the ones putatively doing better aren't sacrificing something.

Finally, you're blaming the victims. If all faculty lived in single-wide trailers, that fact would not end the poor administration at USM. The poor administration is the issue, not whether somebody you may know stumbles out to his mailbox at noon in his pajamas. That person might work from 6 p.m. to noon, or 18 hours a day. You don't need to be insisting that faculty, on top of all their other burdens, now need to follow a checklist to please Mrs. Grundy.

I've been in the home of a faculty member in Timberton. It was a pleasant, attractive, comfortable house, but not a mansion, and not out of keeping with that person's age and status.
I know a clergy member who lives in one of the named neighborhoods. Is that inappropriate? The spouse has a good income, so why shouldn't they have a nice home?

Like Stephen, the faculty members I know personally do live in modest homes.

And this is such a strange conversation. People handle their money differently. The person with a big house and non-employed spouse may have good investments, inherited money, or may be in debt to the eyeballs. The person in the modest house may have a safe-deposit box full of securities, or may travel, or may have fabulous antiques, or like most faculty, may have a zillion books.

It's really no one's business where a professor lives or choses to spend his/her paycheck.

It's really no one's business where a professor lives or choses to spend his/her paycheck.

Technically, this is true.  However, a sense of propriety from an older, more civil society is now in hiding.  Once upon a time, people who lived off the taxpayers money (civil servants, including college profs) would have had the sense to not live conspicuously, even if they had "other means".  The taxpayers might naturally mistake the source of income.  Ditto for those such as ministers, rabbis, and social service bureaucrats who live off the donations of others.  In the private sector, doctors, lawyers, and morticians understood you didn't make a show as your income came from the troubles of others.  Doctors used to have enough sense to drive Buicks or pickups (see Invictus on another thread).  Even highly paid managers had enough sense to be discreet.  Whatever you think of H. Ross Perot he at least has enough sense to buy suits off the rack and drive an Oldsmobile. 

Things go in cycles and the old ways will return.  A quick read of "The Millionaire Next Door" shows that the old common sense is alive and well.  LBYM is a good idea that won't go away.  It's particularly a good idea in a poor state with small towns.  If you choose to live in Canebrake and drive a $60k car, that's your right.  Just don't bitch about the resentment of the taxpayers and for God's sake don't give a damn about  how this resentment adversely affects those in our profession less fortunate than you.

While I actually sympathize with much of what you say, I am uncomfortable with the phrase "live off of" taxpayer money or donations. I've been a public employee much of my life, and always thought I EARNED a salary for WORKING. And usually harder than the salary warranted.
It's just semantics, possibly, but most people who work for USM probably think they EARN a salary, not that they live off anyone.

LVN wrote:

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While I actually sympathize with much of what you say, I am uncomfortable with the phrase "live off of" taxpayer money or donations. I've been a public employee much of my life, and always thought I EARNED a salary for WORKING. And usually harder than the salary warranted.
It's just semantics, possibly, but most people who work for USM probably think they EARN a salary, not that they live off anyone.

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Actually, LVN, this is not quite right, and "old and tired" makes some good points that are in the exact vein as mine. Public servants' salaries or wages are paid by taxes. These taxes are not voluntary, and many middle-class Mississippians who pay taxes resent the fact that they are taxed at what they consider to be a high rate. What they see is a lot of tax money in and few amenities out. For the average Mississippian, there are few shining examples of tax dollars at work...the average Mississippian drives on substandard roads, gets little or no government assistance, has children who attend substandard (nationally) schools, and can't even get FEMA assistance when they have substantial damage due to Katrina.

The average Mississippian goes to work 40 or more hours per week (on someone else's schedule), works, tries to save money, tries to better his or her family, and, at the end of the day, is frustrated by lack of progress. These individuals start to ask themselves "Where does my tax money go? I don't get any benefit from all that I pay in." Then they look around and see newspaper articles about MIDAS checks. They see professors living in upscale neighborhoods...neighborhoods they could never afford to live in. They see professors working on their own schedules...while the average Mississippian punches that clock daily. They (as waitresses or waiters) serve some professors at lunch 3-4 times per week after a round of golf...when the average Mississippian can't afford to play golf 3-4 times per year...and when USM shut down the only real cheap public golf course in Hattiesburg. They see professors driving BMWs, Lexuses, Mercedes, high-end Acuras, sporty little convertibles, or fancy pickup trucks with all the bells and whistles...when the average Mississippian hasn't bought a new, fancy car ever. Then they say "My tax money pays their salaries. Why do they live so much better than I do?" Then they hear that professors are complaining about no raises, no cost of living adjustments, about being underpaid and overworked. For the average Mississippian, this is just too much to bear.

Do you have a right to be paid for work you do? Obviously. Do you have a right to live in the neighborhood you choose? Certainly. Can you drive a fancy car if you want? Yes. Can you sleep til noon on weekdays and do all your research at home? If you choose.

What you should also expect is NO sympathy from the community. You should expect NO support. You should expect backs to turn when you start the "overworked and underpaid" rant. On your midday, midweek jaunts you should expect cross looks in the grocery store, at the mall, or in an upscale restaurant because you are rubbing your good fortune (to be able to take the jaunt at all) in the faces of those whose taxes pay your salary.

Like the analogy of the undertaker...how would you feel if you saw your local mortician wearing Armani and driving a top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz? Would you think about that suit or that car being paid for by the money from your loved one's funeral?

I agree with "old and tired" that it is a simple issue of civility, and too many USM profs have too little REAL civility and too much ACADEMIC civility. It's a matter of choice, really, and too few have the common sense to make the truly intelligent choice.

LVN and Stephen,

I'll happily accept the semantic change.  I've just been around too long and have become wary of the sins of the few bringing woe on the many.  Just a "few" profs using the classroom as a pulpit for pet "whatevers";  just a "few" abusing travel funds;  just a "few" that don't meet their classes; just a "few" who cannot have a modicum of respect for students;  just a "few" who are in a hot field and can't bother to not flaunt it.  Add the "just a fews" to the money-crazed administrators who view teaching and scholarship as activities for suckers and you end up on the wrong side of what we all hope is not a slippery slope.

If the public turns on universities because of the sins of the managers and the "few", the real losers won't be us.  There are many more students than us.

My apologies for the rant.  I'll leave now.

I wondered when the golf thing was going to appear. Sorry, not going there again.

For what it's worth, I'm not a professor. I've mostly worked 8-5, except when in graduate school. I used to work 8-5 and then teach in the evenings. I've also been a small business owner. I come from a working class family, and the only relatives with money earned it the hard way.

I think I understand the average 40-hr a week taxpayer as well as you do, and frankly, I've never heard these sentiments expressed, nor seen the cross looks, nor the hostility.

We will never agree on this topic.

Good evening.

Old Dog wrote:

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...if professor Z makes enough money that his wife can . . . .  run around with the Garden Club then he's overpaid.

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A professor's wife shouldn't attend Garden Club meetings? Would it be O.K. with you if she attended Sunday School?

Old Dog wrote:
if professor Z makes enough money that his wife can have . . . daycare, then he's overpaid.

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Would you prefer that she leave her young children "HOME ALONE?"

Old Dog wrote:

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when John Q. Public sees an academic walking out to his or her mailbox in his or her pajamas at noon every day of the week

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OD, do you stand across the street and watch?