I guess what surprises and bothers me most about our current situation is the anti-faculty sentiment we see in the general public and among USM “supporters.”  Yes, SFT has been bad for the university, but we on campus pretty much knew what we were getting as president from the get-go.  I think the anti-faculty letters and the negative posts on eagletalk have done the most to damage the university.  (yes, I know I shouldn’t go to eagletalk, but sometimes I can’t help it).  There is a recent ET post about faculty playing golf all day that has me all worked up.

I’m a faculty member.  I get to work at 7:00/7:15 every morning. I stay all day. Sometimes I am in the office at night and on weekends.  I take work home.  I can’t log on to email without getting assignments and email from students.  My advisees email me.  My dean emails me. I answer all of them, whether I’m in the office, at home, at a conference, or whether it is Tuesday morning or Saturday evening. 

I haven’t had a raise in 4 years.  My health insurance and other expenses have increased.  I’m not part of the SFT favored few, so I probably won’t get a “merit” increase this year.  Or next.  My friends and colleagues are leaving.  I can’t, because I’m tied here by family obligations. 

And then I read letters in the paper saying that all we need is a “day’s pay for a day’s work.”  I hear our esteemed president and IHL board president talking about the need to clean house and it makes me so angry I could explode.  I see letters in the paper from alumni with USM degrees circa 1950s and I wonder where this crap comes from.  They repeat the same phrases: days work…clean house…  It makes me believe that there really are talking points out there, that there really is a faculty-smear campaign, and I am ashamed that anyone connected with my university would have any part of a plan to trash the university by attacking its faculty.

Our summer enrollment is down almost 16%.  This is true—I’ve seen the data.  Alumni Association renewals are way down.  I’ve heard football season ticket sales are down.  I talk to current students and prospective students.  This university is hurting badly.

I’ve been up since 4 o’clock this morning trying to work through my anger on this.  Part of that time I’ve spent on the IHL web site looking for information that would prove we give a days pay for a days work.  I’ve pulled out a few stats (this is from the IHL Management Report, January 2003, so most of the data is 2000/2001).  I’m not sure why there’s not more current data available here.  I’m too tired to analyze it, so somebody else may want to comment:

USM 3rd in state in average faculty salary (behind MSU and UM)

USM average salary $53,992; Southern Universities Group comparison $71,916

USM 2nd in enrollment behind MSU

USM 7th in appropriations per student ($5,802; MSU highest at $10,275)

USM 5th in instructional expenditures per student

USM highest ratios of students/employees at 1:8 (system ratio is 1:5; all others are 1:5 and lower)

USM 4th in cost of attendance

USM 3rd in credit hours taught by full time faculty (USM=212.8; UM=221.2; MVSU=267.5)

Projections are that in 2006 USM credit hours per faculty will be 230; all others project 225 or less