PZ Myers. 2005 Feb 18. I need to demand a raise and a vacation. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/i_need_to_demand_a_raise_and_a_vacation/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Friday, February 18, 2005
I need to demand a raise and a vacation
University professors are a privileged elite that work between six to nine hours a week, eight months a year for an annual salary of about $150,000, according to David Horowitz.
Well, you know, when you figure that it was an 8-10 fold underestimate of our hours, and a roughly four-fold overestimate of the pay, it all kind of balances out, in an innumerate sort of way, doesn't it?
This Daily Camera article on Horowitz is a hoot.
He stood by the accusations, but told the crowd of about 100 people gathered for a lecture on academic freedom that a professor would not have grounds to make the same claims in front of a class.
"Everything I said is true. But if I were a professor, I should be fired, because that is not an education," Horowitz said. "I have a responsibility to students—the little followers of Ward Churchill and everyone else. If I were a professor, I would have to lay out all the viewpoints, all the facts, and give them readings."
I wonder how much Horowitz gets paid to travel around the country ranting, and how many hours of research he puts into making stuff up? If I go insane, would it be more profitable than sitting here in Morris doing my job?
(via applecidercheesefudge)
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You may find some answers to your questions at Media Transparency...
http://tinyurl.com/3mnzy
According to their numbers, yes, doing a David Horowitz would be more profitable. (You'd have to work more than six hours a week, though.)#: Posted by on 02/18 at 12:09 PM - Dang. Crazy pays!
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PZ, we are the bogeymen of smart-yet-stupid conservatives. Conservatives who make their living by being smarter than other conservatives, and who therefore cannot stand being shown to be wrong, either factually or morally, by others.
On the other hand, as a step-up from a post-doc (Research Assistant Professor), I can say that I do envy those mythical professors who make $150K for 6-9 hours of work. I haven't met any of them though.
Best and peace.#: Posted by on 02/18 at 12:28 PM -
I think that Horowitz is confusing the time professors lecture per week and the time they work per week. I read somewhere that Noam Chomsky works on average 10-12 hours a day and considers 8 per day to be light - and Chomsky, mind you, is a full professor in his 70s who has god knows how many research assistants.
#: Posted by on 02/18 at 12:59 PM
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It is sad that some segments of society have so much trouble with the idea that we have decided to pay some people to spend their time thinking ....... before talking.
Horowitz seems to feel that the pay should be for talking, without thinking. No doubt it helps him sleep at night.#: Posted by on 02/18 at 01:09 PM - The way I see it, even if professors make $150,000 a year and work 8-9 hours a week it still doesn't make up for what they have to go through as a grad student. I work full time teaching, plus I have research obligations, and I have to work on my thesis. I do all this for less than $20,000 a year. I better get paid for lounging around a bit when I finally finish my PhD.....
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It's pretty much the same trope as "dang, it must be nice to be a public school teacher and get summers off."
Summers "off" or no, none of the people I've heard say that would make it through a month of my wife's workload as a fourth-grade teacher. It's a rare night when she isn't up until two am. And out the door at 6:45 a.m. It takes her a month of that "summer off" just to become human again.#: Posted by Chris Clarke on 02/18 at 01:22 PM -
... not to mention that until they have 15 years of senority so their pay is adequate, many teachers have summer jobs, and they need to continue their education which eats up more time and money.
Yea, it is quite the leisurely gig. Horowitz is an ass.#: Posted by on 02/18 at 01:39 PM -
They don't call him "Il Douche" for nothing.
#: Posted by norbizness on 02/18 at 01:51 PM
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I wonder how much Horowitz gets paid to travel around the country ranting, and how many hours of research he puts into making stuff up?
I'd think this was obvious -- $150,000/ year, and six to nine hours a week, eight months a year. -
He knows that professors' work-weeks include more than just lecture time. He's disingeneously portraying teachers as lazy, mean, liberal hacks to drum up support for legislation like proposed Ohio Senate Bill 24, which would prevent liberal teachers from offending their conservative students. His & his freinds' claims that there's no intention to specifically inhibit liberal speech on campus is belied by the content on his Students for Academic Freedom website.
#: Posted by on 02/18 at 02:31 PM
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Well, obviously he's lying. The point about the confusion was half tongue-in-cheek, but it underlines a more general point about people not realizing how much professors and schoolteachers work outside class hours. The 150,000 per year figure is true for some professors, but these are typically department chairs and Ivy League professors, whose equivalents in business in terms of caliber make many millions per year.
#: Posted by on 02/18 at 02:46 PM
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Yes, and the context of his comments is important, I think. He's exploiting that misperception specifically in service of legislation that would limit speech on campus.
#: Posted by on 02/18 at 02:57 PM
- All I know is, I really, really, really need a raise. Someone out there is making way more than their fair share.
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$150K? You'd think he'd at least be able to come up with a *plausible* lie...
#: Posted by Scott Lemieux on 02/18 at 10:30 PM
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I swear I just wanna cry. I cannot think of a professor I ever studied under that did not work more than a 40 hour week, at odd hours, for poor-to-acceptable pay. My graduate advisor pulls 8am to 10pm shifts all the time...and clearly LOVES it. Sigh.
And yes. What gets me more than anything else is he must know the lie he's selling. The cynicism the...hatred?...that must back that up, and the direction in which it's aimed...#: Posted by on 02/19 at 12:28 AM -
Seems like David Horowitz is guilty of what he'd otherwise call "class envy". Meaning that he ought to move to North Korea before it suffers much more creeping capitalism.
#: Posted by on 02/19 at 03:45 AM
- One of our undergraduates pulled something similar in the campus paper last year--arguing that we should exchange some of the faculty earning "six figure salaries" for new computers. "Both professors?" I wondered, in some puzzlement. (I think we'll have three professors earning in the six figures next year, now that our president has retreated to the philosophy department; the other two are also ex-administrators who have been working here for about three decades.) As I've occasionally pointed out to my students, there's a reason I drive a 1990 Honda. All of our salaries are published every year in the union newsletter, which made the student's suggestion even funnier...
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Isn't this the sort of thing that got the conservative wackoes all wadded-in-their-panties about Dan Rather? Shouldn't we expect Horowitz to resign soon?
If not, why not?#: Posted by on 02/21 at 03:22 PM