COLUMN: Still no contract?
George Ross, I live in my own apartment and cook myself dinner every night. I pay my own tuition and rent. I'm a grown-up.
And as a registered voter, taxpayer and grown-up, I'm disgusted that much of the faculty here still don't have a contract. What's wrong with this place?
Truth is, my grown-up self doesn't quite understand why half the employees here don't uproot, fly off and find a place where they'll be treated better.
I'm surprised half the professors here have stayed sane during this period of limbo they're in. Truth is, I hope that if they get the chance to strike again mid-semester, they grab it and bolt just because they like to see everybody sweat.
And what about our medical school? Who cares? George Ross cares, and his resume cares. That might be about it.
Of course the country needs more doctors, but is it worth treating the qualified faculty members like expendables?
This war of attrition is ridiculous. But wars of that kind always are. They're brutal and long. But if the administration wants to lay siege to the faculty, I think it's the responsibility of the faculty to hold out, and it's the responsibility of the students to keep the support pumping so the faculty knows someone cares.
It's sort of amusing and it's sort of sad to think about the rift between the administration and the faculty.
It's amusing because without the professors, we couldn't have class, but without the administration, we'd be holding class outside, which sounds kind of fun. It's sad because it seems like a good idea: cutting the fat, the dead weight, the administration.
Of course we can't actually do it.
The school needs people to oversee, people to allocate funds, people to make the budget. Accountants and foremen.
But I came here to learn, and I don't learn anything from the administration. That's why it seems so silly to me that professors who are doing research, teaching and interacting with the paying customer base are being bullied by these bookkeepers and petty overseers.
It's a perfectly plausible assessment that the administration doesn't care about the opinions of the students.
But at that point, we have an obligation to yell, loud. Because if we don't, the faculty might start to do what they should and get up and leave. If that happens, CMU will have to get new professors.
You get what you pay for, so if the university offers a garbage wage, then we'll start seeing bad instruction in class.
And then the students will really be the ones suffering.
