Billionaire's gift eliminates student loan debt for 396 students.

[Ethan N]

In the age-old battle between faculty and administration, I fall firmly in support of faculty. They’re mostly good people doing good work earning an honest income. And it’s often the ones doing the best work with students whose value is least recognized. Yes, there are some lazy professors who don’t earn what they receive. Anyone who has worked closely with higher ed faculty, even just as a student worker, like I was, knows that. But I’ve seen no evidence that that’s the norm.

 

[druryj]

There are lazy people who don't earn what they receive in many businesses and professions. In fact, most businesses and professions, probably.

 

[Aries]

Our CEO used to say there are those who pull the wagon, those who push the wagon, and those who ride on the wagon. He was okay with either pushing or pulling. LOL!

 

[Fredkrueger100]

College is just a huge scam. They make you take a bunch of crap you just got done taking in high school. It’s all about money. The longer your there the more they make. They don’t care if a student gets into a ton of debt. You should only have to take classes that directly relate to the field you are going into. Like what trade schools do. But instead colleges continue to charge more and more.

 

[DavidMcmillan]

That's an interesting view.

 

[JD8]

Great post. The number of admin positions in OK schools and all colleges across the country is ridiculous. Most professors have 1 class a week, if that. The number of superintendents in public school systems is a joke.
As for the money, it was his to give as he saw fit. I do find it amusing that many of those allegedly principled students with loans don’t care how he got the money he gave them.


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So when and where did you graduate? I'll give you that the Public School system is bloated, but that has literally nothing to do with higher education, but the whole "most professors have 1 class a week" theory seems to be coming from the wrong end.

 

[Pstmstr]

I have a PHD from USMC. I lived with an OU Professor for 9 years and she never taught more than 1 class per week. She has a research lab, grants, and goes to lots of meetings. I socialized with her and several other Professors that didn’t either. The only thing coming out the wrong end is the pile of debt students are racking up getting indoctrinated by liberal colleges that are heavily staffed with high paid people calling each other doctor this and doctor that. Someone ask Yukon Glocker how many he teaches a week at UT, he doesn’t talk to me anymore.


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[inactive]

So my wife has taught and been in administrative rules for well over a decade at 4 different universities, including OU, OSU, and TU.

Most who don't have a research burden teach upwards of 5-6 sections each semester. That's 3 hours of class time per week per section, so you can extrapolate the hours teaching + office hours + other ancillary work from there. Those with research obligations in their contracts are on a reduced schedule, typically around 2 sections at a time. Though sometimes 1, and sometimes 0 if the research is prioritized by their departments that highly.

Remember that teachers - even tenured - are on a 9 month contract for what they work and what they get paid for that term. Pay differs by the field taught (i.e. Law professors make more than Athletic Training, for example), amount of research, the funding grants if research is in the contracts, and sections taught. Tenured professors can take a sabbatical even, but they don't get paid for their doing nothing. Non-tenured lecturers can make make decent money just by teaching 7 sections of a high-enrollment class (think College Algebra or something).

There's definitely the old, lazy tenured professors still out there phoning it in and milking the university teat. But it's a bit unfair to paint all in academia with the same brush, as their employment circumstances are VERY different across fields and institutions. Especially given the budgets being squeezed across all institutions, and many faculty are being pushed to teach more and more sections that before (which IMHO is a generally good thing, for the record). And no small reason is that students are wising up and passing on the debt and time burden of college to seek out more vocational or applied science type careers (particularly 2 year medical tech programs at vo-techs and community colleges)

 

[JD8]

I have a PHD from USMC. I lived with an OU Professor for 9 years and she never taught more than 1 class per week. She has a research lab, grants, and goes to lots of meetings. I socialized with her and several other Professors that didn’t either. The only thing coming out the wrong end is the pile of debt students are racking up getting indoctrinated by liberal colleges that are heavily staffed with high paid people calling each other doctor this and doctor that. Someone ask Yukon Glocker how many he teaches a week at UT, he doesn’t talk to me anymore.


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So you lived with a Professor and you're an expert of all education? THAT'S your experience?

 

[druryj]

College is just a huge scam. They make you take a bunch of crap you just got done taking in high school. It’s all about money. The longer your there the more they make. They don’t care if a student gets into a ton of debt. You should only have to take classes that directly relate to the field you are going into. Like what trade schools do. But instead colleges continue to charge more and more.

Which college did you attend that was this bad? Like I think I’ve said, I’ve been a student at a few, graduated from two of them, and worked at four of them. The ones I’m familiar with really weren’t that bad, and honestly, they actually struggled to keep tuition and fees low. When you’ve got required courses, especially at the graduate level, it actually costs the institution more often than not when you’ve got a class with say 12-14 or in it. Tony, if it weren’t for college educated people there would be no Doctors, Dentists, Teachers, CPAs, Lawyers, (okay I know I know), etc. Just think, you could get your tooth pulled at the barbershop, like back in the Wild West days. And if you got a cut or bullet in your leg, why just take a shot of whisky while the local sawbones hacked your leg off. Or if you got a toothache, you might die from infection because nobody was around to do viable research on such things as antibiotics. Not all college is a scam, in fact, I must defend it a bit here and say very few are. This that are are more than likely private, for profit schools that are really more a form of business than a legitimate education institution. But hey, again, share your college experience with us please, since you take the position that it’s just a scam.


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