Eclectic Arcania: The Mustang Has Lost Its Way!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

The Mustang Has Lost Its Way!

Today on the campus of Cal Poly there was the largest protest in recent memory. It featured faculty and supportive students to go along with some union reps to properly stir the pot. The details of this dispute I shall refrain from getting into here in too much depth. However, believe you me that the instructors have a valid complaint to make as administrators have been increased dramatically (in both pay and new hires) during a de facto pay freeze for faculty the past several years. At the same time student fees have increased 41%. Students are essentially paying for administrative hires and raises while faculty fall behind when inflation is taken into account.

I know a professor on campus who is the world expert in his particular field. Despite this, he is not even placed on tenure-track and is kept on as a mere "lecturer" which saves the school boatloads of money for admins at the expense of this man's two children. He pulls in somewhere in the $30,000's a year despite his heavy class load responsibility and continued need to be published (publish or perish). Janitors on campus make similar wages which is perhaps appropriate but PhD professors should make more than janitors. The following images I captured as I attended in support of my instructors. My wingman Blake likewise attended in support and appears in some of these images as well as some of my instructors.