Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
Keep in mind, a Full professor making more than the median figure is probably funding a decent amount of his paycheck with grant money. That means that tuition money isn't going towards the higher end paychecks.
Grant money or not, half to two-thirds of a typical college's budget is still going to instructional salaries.
That I won't debate. I know the last 2.5 years of budget cuts saw our University trim operation costs right down to the bone in order to avoid laying off teaching positions. We cut administrative jobs, upkeep, lab upkeep, etc. We closed buildings in the summer that weren't in use (which did a lot of damage to the environmental controls), instituted mandatory unpaid overloads, etc.
Net result: The college budget is now well past 70% salaries.
I'm just pointing out: Before folks try to make the argument that student tuition money is going to pay high end salaries, they should actually check to see if that is true. I know that at many insitutions there isn't an ice cube's chance in hell that you're getting a high end salary without bringing in a boat load of grant money to offset that. This is often part of the grant proposal as the professor will want to "buy out" his teaching time in order to focus on the research being funded.
I didn't say anything about high-end. Nor, contrary to some people's perceptions, did I necessarily say any of these things are bad or negative.