Spring Break
We hope
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
10/10/08 - In order to make up for slashed funding, last year the university introduced a retirement incentive program that moved out senior faculty and replaced them with younger, less experienced faculty.
This is only a band-aid. Looking toward the future, what will happen when these new faculty are up for tenure and supposed to get the same pay as those we just forced to retire?
Are we going to continue to cycle through professors, until they become a migrant worker group that has to change cities every few years to get the same pay and job? Are we going to retrofit teachers into the traveling bards of ancient times - going town to town, disseminating the knowledge they can remember in the form of elaborate epics and stories, in exchange for food and traveling money?
This is a symptom of a continuing trend in America, where education has apparently taken a backseat position to more important issues. No one is emphasizing the active search for knowledge just for the sake of knowing and improving upon oneself.
Younger and inexperienced faculty, with a master's degree in education, at least, will never equal the quality of education one would receive from a tenured professor.
Tenured professors understand not only the material they are teaching, but more importantly, the age group they are educating.
I know, I know - no generation is the same, but who could argue that college students have had similar basic interests throughout the years?
A tenured professor usually knows how to get their students immediately interested in their classes, for one very good reason: it makes their job easier. Admittedly, some have been teaching the same material for 20 years, and are just going through the motions, but the good ones will make you love what you learn…or else.
So now we're looking for "qualified but affordable" staff. This is total malarkey unless we're planning on paying them under the table, or in milk from Peckham Farm. Mmm mmm good, right?
Apparently, construction is continuing to blossom at URI. Obviously the new pharmacy building is important and will bring a lot of revenue to the university, but if there are no good teachers how is anybody supposed to become successful enough to put back any significant donations to the university?
Yes, we're in a financial crisis at URI, but teachers are the bread and butter of our institution, the mortar on the bricks, and everything depends on them - not on the decrepit look of our buildings.
Our message then, is of hope. Like most of the country, we are putting our hope into the future generations. We hope that they'll like our company enough to bail us out of this financial hullabaloo we got ourselves into. We hope.
This is only a band-aid. Looking toward the future, what will happen when these new faculty are up for tenure and supposed to get the same pay as those we just forced to retire?
Are we going to continue to cycle through professors, until they become a migrant worker group that has to change cities every few years to get the same pay and job? Are we going to retrofit teachers into the traveling bards of ancient times - going town to town, disseminating the knowledge they can remember in the form of elaborate epics and stories, in exchange for food and traveling money?
This is a symptom of a continuing trend in America, where education has apparently taken a backseat position to more important issues. No one is emphasizing the active search for knowledge just for the sake of knowing and improving upon oneself.
Younger and inexperienced faculty, with a master's degree in education, at least, will never equal the quality of education one would receive from a tenured professor.
Tenured professors understand not only the material they are teaching, but more importantly, the age group they are educating.
I know, I know - no generation is the same, but who could argue that college students have had similar basic interests throughout the years?
A tenured professor usually knows how to get their students immediately interested in their classes, for one very good reason: it makes their job easier. Admittedly, some have been teaching the same material for 20 years, and are just going through the motions, but the good ones will make you love what you learn…or else.
So now we're looking for "qualified but affordable" staff. This is total malarkey unless we're planning on paying them under the table, or in milk from Peckham Farm. Mmm mmm good, right?
Apparently, construction is continuing to blossom at URI. Obviously the new pharmacy building is important and will bring a lot of revenue to the university, but if there are no good teachers how is anybody supposed to become successful enough to put back any significant donations to the university?
Yes, we're in a financial crisis at URI, but teachers are the bread and butter of our institution, the mortar on the bricks, and everything depends on them - not on the decrepit look of our buildings.
Our message then, is of hope. Like most of the country, we are putting our hope into the future generations. We hope that they'll like our company enough to bail us out of this financial hullabaloo we got ourselves into. We hope.
