NMSU faculty to meet, consider union

College professors should raise their work ethic. Their productivity level isn't 30% of what is delivered by people that report to work each day in the private sector. College professors have the cushiest jobs in the nation. A union? For what? Taxpayers already foot the bill for some of the highest compensation/benefits packages per hours worked. Apparently because there is so much leisure available to him, Professor Pruyn wants to organize profs so the rest of us can pay them even more for even less. Its a sign of the times. NM is short $600 million in the budget. And with unemployment rising, there is a new movement by professors who are looking to drive that number higher. There are hundreds applicants for every prof job opening because it is a ticket to easy street.

If they are looking for support in their efforts, I for one will not be giving it. I've lived in several university towns across the nation, and this group of professors by far is the most needy and unprofessional. With unemployment at 10%, how about acknowledging how fortunate they are to have a job. In fact, a job that let's them often work part time hours. I clock in every morning and work a solid 40 hours a week. I use my own voice to speak with my management and owners about issues. And it works. Speak for yourself. Don't hand over your freedom of speach to a group that truly doesn't have your best interest. It is a profit making machine that will come in and take over your rights. Wake up quickly, profs. You are heading down a very dangerous pathway.

Here we go again. These are the same old reactions I have heard for years: professors have cushy jobs, they should be happy that they have work, etc. And no, they are not true simply because they have been around for years. These ideas are just as wrong now as they were 25 years ago. For faculty who lack tenure, especially, the work and stress are exceptionaly difficult. Not only do we teach (at NMSU, the teaching load is generally 3-3, which is heavy for a research-oriented university), we do research, sit on committees, conduct outreach, work with undergrad and grad students out of the classroom, and contribute to the administrative and oversight of the university. Tenured faculty have additional administrative expectations. Yes, some rest on their laurels. Yes, unemployment rates are high in the country. And yes, many faculty ARE happy to have work. But that does not mean profs have to roll over an accept what the administration, regents, state legislature, or governor say or do regarding pay, etc. This kind of zero sum, be happy and be quiet mentality is based on weak logic and short term thinking.

What is the point of this?
Is it to protect the decisions made by faculty (as to who or who should not receive tenure and promotion) from the upper admins. practice of overriding those decisions based favoritism?
Or is to protect that wholly unqualified lot who was not chosen for tenure and promotion based their qualifications, but based on who they know or (now that some admins. are leaving) knew?
I'm going with the latter. Those who can't work or refuse to, almost always form a united front because they have so much time on their hands.

Just read the headline, no time for the article or the comment of others. College level educators have been educated in the ways of the world and do not need the protection of a union. Unions were designed to protect laborers from being abused by employers providing below a living wage and dangerous work conditions and requiring excessive hours from employees.

Professors already get away with tailoring end of semester reviews that are filled out by students to eliminate critical reviews of how objectives were not covered and weaknesses in presenting material.

There is also reason to believe that these collected reviews which are directed to be sealed together for each class and returned to department secretaries for review after the final exams are infact being intercepted prior to sealing (or being resealed) and the student that is handpicked by the teacher to collect and deliver the information has accepted a higher grade or other favor from the professor.

Unions will not benefit the educational system for the students and has no place at this level.

Faculty are already protected under their "medieval" system of tenure but they need more protections/security? Give me a break!

In the most recent Mercer adjustment, faculty got the money to increase salaries. Guess where staff were left? In the cold. And that's where they will stay with the state budget in its current mess.

Sure, there are good faculty that work hard; but what profession do you know anywhere that grants you permanent status (essentially, that's what tenure does)? They have their sinecure and they need more!?? Boje, Pruyn, and others within their ranks obviously feel that THEY are the reason for the institution. I always thought that position was occupied by STUDENTS.

The IVORY TOWER is alive and well at NMSU.

Professors at NMSU earn a tiny fraction of the average pay in their disciplines across the country, because NM taxpayers don't value education. They have higher course loads than faculty at any of their peer institutions because people don't care that overworked profs can't serve students well. Do you hate NMSU students so much that you want to perpetuate that sort of system? I'm just trying to decide where thus resentment is coming from, against people who continually make sacrifices to provide college students with an education here.

The pay for full professors at similar universities is often 30-40% higher than here. It is a nice job, but it takes pretty talented people to become university professors, and as much or more school than a lawyer of MD. Many salaries for full professors in some departments are $65,000 here.

Its not about protecting poor people, its about getting a fair wage for very good ones.

Jay wrote:

The pay for full professors at similar universities is often 30-40% higher than here. It is a nice job, but it takes pretty talented people to become university professors, and as much or more school than a lawyer of MD. Many salaries for full professors in some departments are $65,000 here.
Its not about protecting poor people, its about getting a fair wage for very good ones.

That's fine, except NMSU has some very bad ones (professors) who were given promotion and tenure based on their relationships with the upper administration.

What about the exempt staff that are not represented by this?

As for those claiming professors are lazy, yadda yadda, I must say the reson I did not become a professor is because of interviewing many in my field, and learning how much time they worked weekly (above 60 hours a week usually, many times up to 80 hours a week) and they had a very rough journey to even try to become tenured. Seldom can they make that journey. More often than not, thye give up and find work in the private sector somewhere.

Is tenure a good idea? Probably not. There is some dead weight in any career field, and higher ed is no different. There needs to be a way to remove the dead weight, regardless the career field for the betterment of the business or public service. If you feel professors are all worthless scumbags however, with an open mind, ask a part time professor how they make ends meet. You would be surprised how many have no idea one semester to the next how many classes they may or may not teach. Often times they work part time at some retail outlet, call center, or as wait staff because of insufficient opportunity to teach full time. This leaves them no ability to plan for a future because really, they are at the mercy of a system that "busts" unions by keeping so many faculty and other staff temporary, or unstable in their employment that they feel no sense of community, or commonality between them and the others trying to feed their families.

They have to frequently teach part time at 2 or 3 different schools, perhaps NMSU and UNM, or NMSU and UTEP just to try to cobble together a living with the classes they get the chance to teach - and all of the gas, etc. comes out of their pocket. Often times their cash flow is akin to those in the construction industry, only with less ability to rake it in during the times when work is plentiful.
Would you want your kids elementary school teachers to have this kind of employment instability? How well would they serve the kiddos when they had to commute between teaching part time gigs in Alamogordo, Las cruces and El Paso just to make ends meet?

I don't like unions but you don't realize how low
the staff's pay is they need a raise. Cut the pay
of the higher ups. They are the ones who don't do
anything.

faye wrote:

I don't like unions but you don't realize how low
the staff's pay is they need a raise. Cut the pay
of the higher ups. They are the ones who don't do
anything.

Good point. How much is Pacheco making for his interim gig? Toss me that kind of coin, I would do the job gladly!!!

How much have past Presidents been paid to leave?

Las Cruces 1977 wrote:

College professors should raise their work ethic. Their productivity level isn't 30% of what is delivered by people that report to work each day in the private sector. College professors have the cushiest jobs in the nation. A union? For what? Taxpayers already foot the bill for some of the highest compensation/benefits packages per hours worked. Apparently because there is so much leisure available to him, Professor Pruyn wants to organize profs so the rest of us can pay them even more for even less. Its a sign of the times. NM is short $600 million in the budget. And with unemployment rising, there is a new movement by professors who are looking to drive that number higher. There are hundreds applicants for every prof job opening because it is a ticket to easy street.

Maybe so. Since our lives is so simple, why not do what we do? Put your life on hold, spend several decades in school, take out 6 figures in students loans and defend a dissertation. I dare you.
By the way I'm not defending these profs at NMSU per se, but I'm tired of hearing how easy our job is.

I belive what the professors are complaining about is a poorly run adminstration. Staff voted in a union a few years ago and now the faculty wants a union, seems theres maybe a problem with the administration.

Bystander & Jay: First,the cost of living in Las Cruces is so much lower than other college towns across the country. If these professors would like more pay, they would be working at those schools but their quality of life would not be so different. Many of them who are complaining about pay wouldn't be hired at many other institutions, so they are here. This brings me to my second point. Retention of students within departments through graduation. The university website should post annual statisics of the number of students entering each major as freshmen and how many graduate from each major. These numbers will show what the college tries to sweep under the rug: Students don't come first at this institution and they sell the idea of programs that they can't deliver results for. Who is watching out for the students? Not professors who are concerned about unionizing.