[Leica] Re: Higher education - was unsubscribe

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Feb 11, 2009, at 1:56 PM, Sonny wrote:

> Sorry to hear about your situation.  Here at NSU, they cut most  
> adjuncts,
> and are not hiring anyone to replace retirees or folks leaving for  
> other
> reasons, like death do us part.
>
> If the stimulus doesn't pass with aid to higher education, then the  
> cuts
> will be even more dire.

--------
>
> Anyhow, at least your environment is become\ing more target rich  
> for the
> kind of photography you like to do.  Good luck to all of us in higher
> education, and everyone else too.


Sonny,

I feel your pain. But the Federal government funds less than 10% of  
public higher education except for work on direct government  
contracts. Most of the cost is borne by states and municipalities.  
The decline in funding is caused because most states have had their  
income sharply reduced and have set their priorities elsewhere. Too  
bad since most colleges will soon need to replace a large portion of  
the senior teaching staff - i.e. those who started teaching during  
the Vietnam era. I have been through funding crises a couple of  
times. The usual procedure is for the college to offer early  
retirement to high paid senior staff in order to offer teaching and  
staff jobs to younger people at half the salary. But in one case  
during the Ford presidency my employer, the City University of New  
York, totally shut down during the Spring semester, forcing all the  
professors into the unemployment line. You may recall that this was  
during New York's financial crisis, locally similar to what the  
entire country is going through today. The newspaper headlines read,  
"Ford to NY - Drop Dead!" The pressure from the families of students  
denied graduation or advanced degrees was so great that the state  
legislature was induced to restore funds the following year, forcing  
a marriage between the City and State universities. Still professors  
were required to defer a portion of their salaries for several years.

If it makes you feel better, Harvard has lost nearly 40% of their  
multibillion dollar endowment during the crisis. Even top notch  
endowment managers make stupid mistakes. I wonder if they got bonuses.

Larry Z  (Professor Emeritus, Graduate Center, CUNY)