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LeeedHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:40am
So you are angry that this guy proposed what every what every private sector job does? What exactly is the issue here? Since when are professors entitled to high salaries off the largess of taxpayers, not their merit, just because they exist. This move goes a long way to encouraging productivity instead of tenured professors coasting on their tenure.
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  Scarlett O'HereticLeeed
  10/30/15 9:44am
  Do you really want college professors chosen based on who can afford to work for the least amount of money? Do you really want it to become a profession dominated by people who can afford to take a massive pay cut in order to underbid their colleagues?
  
  If you value education in the least, it should be blindingly obvious why this is a terrible idea.
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  smrknd2Leeed
  10/30/15 9:47am
  Um, no, not every private sector job does this. I have never had to bid with other candidates on which one of us will do the job cheapest.
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ThenSAHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:38am
State College of Florida at Manatee-Sarasota, which last year became “the only one of 28 Florida public colleges” to do away with a tenure system for professors, now has an even brighter idea for academic excellence

I just don’t sea cow this could benefit students.
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  bonerchatThenSA
  10/30/15 9:42am
  it will bring in professors who value teaching more than they value the mighty dollar. it’s a great idea.
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  MattThenSA
  10/30/15 9:45am
  I want to hate you for that pun but damnit, it made me chuckle.
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TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:41am
I am two months from a master’s degree, and I will work for $5 and a toaster oven. If it helps, I’m flexible on the toaster oven.
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  Hip Brooklyn StereotypeTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
  10/30/15 9:42am
  As someone with a blah M.A., I feel you, friend.
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  김치전!TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
  10/30/15 9:44am
  Congratulations! I hope your hooding doesn’t turn into a surprise garrotting!
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benjaminalloverHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:44am
...and said that the U.S. was “based on the freedom of work.”

Uh, not sure if that’s a reference to slavery, but this comes to mind;

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  Deeply Moral Nihilistbenjaminallover
  10/30/15 9:46am
  “Hell yeah! Arby’s!”
  
  -State College of Florida at Manatee-Sarasota student
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  Predatrixbenjaminallover
  10/30/15 9:46am
  That was a typo. It was supposed to read “based on working for free.”
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JustActSurprisedHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:44am
Let’s talk about a few things here, Hamilton.

First is the outdated tenure system and the fact that we’re graduating too many PhDs with not enough academic positions for them. Why are there so many adjuncts? Cheap labor, for one. Second, there just aren’t enough full time positions (or rather, schools don’t want to make them). So, if you get rid of this system and implement something that say, the medical sciences have (Clinical professors) you might be able to higher more PhDs than not (but this is an entirely different argument - I thought I’d put this in here as it’s a nice preface to what I’m about to say).

The system is broken. Yes, I know that a lot of these articles are click bait and teeth gnashing, but schools in Florida cannot compete with folks in Boston, New York, etc. to attract the best talent. They can’t offer the salaries that give private, four year, top tier institutions. Everyone wants to make that money - but they can’t, and they won’t. Again, there aren’t enough positions open for the number of PhDs out there. But how do we attract top talent if we can’t pay them squat, you say? Well we should have a system where we can identify people who we might be able to pay what they’re worth. Granted - it does sound awful, and it is Florida - but the fact that he’s trying to reform a system that has been the 3rd rail of academia is herculean enough.

And if anyone wants a reference, in terms of how much a professor at, say, Stanford Makes ($210,000) versus Florida Keys Community College ($58,977) you might see the disparity first hand here. There are plenty of talented folks, I gather, that have earned their PhD that could gladly do the work for less than the robust 6 figure salary.
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  benjaminalloverJustActSurprised
  10/30/15 9:48am
  I’m sure the housing developer considered all of these factors when writing up his proposal.
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  SlickWilliebenjaminallover
  10/30/15 9:52am
  Probably not, but to be fair, it’s pretty hard to concentrate in a hooters
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NefertittiesHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:45am

Why should our professors be exempt from this time-honored American practice?
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  NefertittiesNefertitties
  10/30/15 9:47am
  
  Also, I know of at least one marriage that could have been saved if only he’d asked for a little bit more and drunk a little bit less.
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  kamla deviNefertitties
  10/30/15 10:09am
  damn you nefertitties you are going to make me audibly guffaw with this shit and then have to talk to my coworkers and expose my extended 10 o’clock banana break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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EatTheCheeseNicholsonHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:43am
Tenure is basically the only reward of getting a PhD (plus knowledge, or whatever). The system is stupid, but getting rid of it at this point is even stupider.
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  Bull MooseEatTheCheeseNicholson
  10/30/15 9:52am
  Tenure isn’t a benefit. It’s a protection against being fired for purely political reasons. Universities are about the free marketplace of ideas and being able to say, teach and discuss controversial and sometimes unpopular ideas. Without tenure, a liberal college president could fire a professor for teaching trickle down economics or a conservative college president could fire a professor for teaching about war crimes committed by American soldiers in World War II. It protects academic freedom and promotes a free and open academic environment without fear of repercussions for sharing ideas.
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  smrknd2Bull Moose
  10/30/15 10:05am
  I think this is also one of those cases where American workers are like, “Someone has a better labor deal than me? Well, their benefits should be cut down to the crumbs I am getting!” rather than “I should fight to get myself that same sweet deal!”
  
  My dad is a tenured college professor. He’s also of a very unpopular-in-academia political and philosophical bent. Tenure has not only protected his freedom of expression, it created a solid, secure middle class life for his family. While my mom, who worked in the banking sector, was constantly under threat of losing her job as the banks she worked for got bought by other banks over and over again, we always knew that there’d be at least one income coming in. Short of legitimate malfeasance and incompetence, every working American should have this same security. The irony of my very anti-union dad to this very day (he retires in 2 years) getting the benefits of what unions used to give workers in this country is not lost on me, but I’m grateful for it.
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Snake LipssynkHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:54am
The only thing surprising about this plan is that the social sciences were not the only target.
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  flamingolingoSnake Lipssynk
  10/30/15 10:30am
  When politicians, etc. began going after humanities departments decades ago, some people in the ‘harder’ disciplines like econ, etc. just shrugged because they didn’t see why fluffy courses about art history and philosophy should be subsidized by taxpayers.
  
  Then the social sciences were targeted for cuts in favor of the hard sciences. And some scientists shrugged because the political science and econ aren’t real sciences.
  
  But funding for certain hard sciences also came under attack by Republicans who want to suppress research into global warming and other inconvenient facts. And higher education funding in general is being slashed by Republicans like Scott Walker.
  
  The aim of all of these efforts is simply to destroy public education in this country. Conservatives have no interest in a well-educated populace.
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  profxanderflamingolingo
  10/30/15 11:32am
  “The aim of all of these efforts is simply to destroy public education in this country. Conservatives have no interest in a well-educated populace.”
  
  Add to that their largely successful campaign to make our culture accept that no one except those at the very, very top deserve a living wage and you get this proposal. The system works!
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cuntybawsHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 9:45am
No way, Carlos: I remember what happened when the medical procedure to get you a neck went to the lowest bidder ...

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  Hip Brooklyn Stereotypecuntybaws
  10/30/15 9:48am
  This just made my Friday.
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  cuntybawsHip Brooklyn Stereotype
  10/30/15 9:50am
  A cheap personal attack that amuses is my absolute pleasure!
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keverdeneHamilton Nolan
10/30/15 10:06am
Because nothing improves the quality of your nursing degree quite like a job reference from a low-bidding faculty member who gets better “results” by inflating grades and lying to accreditors. That won’t kill anybody or anything.

Same goes for law, engineering, education, criminal justice, research sciences, public history, social work, and so on.

Higher ed is where people learn to do high stakes jobs for the common good. Fork over the fucking cash, job security, etc., for the people who teach those professionals.
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