Higher Education

                                

After reading an article titled: “Well, Naturally We’re Liberal,” by Jere P. Surber, he goes on to explain why liberal arts professors are, well, liberal. His first point goes into an explanation of the correlation between professor’s level of education and their income. He claims that liberal arts instructors are paid the lowest despite their more advanced study in their subject than their science and business counter parts. He also states “there are few opportunities for liberal-arts scholars to supplement their incomes by serving on government and corporate boards, filing patents and licenses, and, of course, obtaining generous research grants.” He summarizes his argument by saying that “Those who have less and want more will tend to support social changes that promise to accomplish that; those who are already economic winners will want to conserve their status.

I found this argument quite entertaining because I found a counterargument from Professor David Rubinstein from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In his argument he states “The life of a professor is far more attractive than that of most government employees.”  He emphasizes on the fact that his life as a professor has worked to his benefit because what others deem as “work” he sees as something he had been doing since grad school that interested him. He also continues to explain that his “benefits nearly doubled his salary,” which include a paid semester off to conduct research, 3 months of summer off, holding his classes on his own schedule, being able to show up in jeans, and seminar lectures where he can kick back and let grad students do the talking.

When speaking in terms of the pay rate, Professor Rubinstein found that “compared with professionals in the private sector, college professors are underpaid, though according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “by rank, the average [salary] was $108,749 for full professors.” I don’t know about you, but making over $100,000 average to do what I love sounds like a win to me.

I would say the latter of the two seems to be headed more in my direction. Although not every University professor has the exact same benefits and pay rate across the board, the benefits of becoming a teacher/professor are about the same, especially when talking about vacation time.

Professor Rubenstein also included a statistic in his findings that I thought was interesting. He found “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the quit rate for government workers is less than one-third that of the private sector. Applications for federal jobs exceed those for the private sector by at least 25 percent, and when workers move from private to federal employment their earnings, according to Princeton’s Alan Krueger, increase by 12 percent.” It seems to me that working for the government does actually pay off. As my great grandfather said, “always try to find a job within the government because they will take care of you.” I think the reason why quit rate is so high in the private sector is because there are less opportunities as well as benefits to keep individuals happy and families fed.

Because I am one of the brave souls determined to become a high school and some day higher education professor, I think that reading both views on the point lead me to the direction of the conservative side yet again. It is so easy to blame the government for not getting enough out of the system, but I think if more people were educated and knowledgeable on educational views and the actual facts, then more people would see the government is actually taking care of higher education professors.

Articles: http://chronicle.com/article/Well-Naturally-Were-Liberal/63870/
          
              http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/fat-city_567621.html?page=1