Reply #37: I am admin staffer in an academic department at a R1 state university

[SeekerBlue]

If anything, academics are overpaid, compared with the rest of us. They don't even have fixed hours! They come in two hours a week to teach courses and spend the rest of their time doing research and writing at their own convenience. This can hardly be compared to a regular, 8-5 job. I also don't care that they got a PhD. For the most part, PhDs are funded, meaning they graduated with no student debt. I have a BA and an MA and owe $45,000 in student loans, and the best job I can get is as a secretary at the school I got my BA from. I feel incredibly lucky to have this job, and the health insurance and pension that come with it (though I expect to see both these benefits go well before I reach retirement age). I should add I am talking about liberal arts here, and I have less resentment toward professors working in the sciences, since their work has more real-world applications (and I say this as someone with an MA in a humanities field!).

Also, at my university, which has a consistently top-five ranked Division I football team, our athletics department is 100% self-funded. They receive ZERO funding from the university, the university's academic endowments, or the state government (i.e. the taxpayer). They have so successfully managed themselves over the past twenty years that they now bring in millions in revenue, which they continue to recycle through the athletics department, bringing in the best talent the best coaches, and building the best facilities. Do I think this shows misplaced priorities? Yeah, probably. But I just wanted to make it clear that their high level of funding does not DECREASE academic funding. Quite the contrary; the high profile the school receives due to its athletics successes only draws attention and funding for academics.

Also, our football coach makes way more than that.

:P