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In his article, Steve White agrees with
me that the administration has an obligation to lead by example, but
then goes on to say that it has by not issuing March 15th notices.
First off, this is factually incorrect. As Nancy Knight reported
during the April Faculty meeting, some in College Services were given
notice. Second, even if his claim were true, it wouldn't merit
some sort of leadership award. Most community colleges in the
state did the same as we did, so the fact that he can point to a few
colleges that did ridiculous things like send March 15th notices to all
full-time faculty (as if anyone believes the vast majority of those
notices won't be rescinded this summer) is hardly relevant. Third,
I was talking about leading by example with regards to the
across-the-board salary cuts the administration has proposed for
full-time faculty, but he introduced a non sequitur and changed the
subject to layoffs. However, if he wants to go there (even if it's
off base), I would be glad to
suggest some administrators we could do without.
Steve
also misrepresents how salaries on campus have changed over the years.
He claims that all sectors have shared the pie proportionally. If
that were true, the principle that a faculty member's earning capacity
not be exceeded by the earning capacity of any administrator (with the
exception of the President and Vice-Presidents) would still hold true.
The fact that this is no longer true is due to frequent management
reclassifications and reorganizations which have violated the
proportionality principle. This has produced the management salary
bloat I originally wrote about, and which our current budget crisis
offers an opportunity to reduce.
I
agree with him that arguing over which cuts to make is distasteful, but
let's at least do it with accurate information. Using rhetorical
sleights-of-hand to defend an overpaid administration will not add to
the "stores of good will" here on campus. If
administrators will not cut their salary before faculty is asked to cut
theirs (now we're back on base), they should expect skepticism,
resistance, and a reduction in morale among the faculty.&
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