To say that many of us on the academic side of the University feel
demoralized or devalued this morning is probably the understatement of the
year.  Of course, most of us knew already that things were badly out of
sync.  But when we full professors and academic directors and department
heads who are making below $55,000 (even below $50,000!!) read in the
morning paper of staff members (already receiving better salaries than many
of us) getting raises to the upper 50's, 60's, even 70's, it's a bit hard
to swallow.  Of course, we can comfort ourselves by acknowledging that
there are others even worse off than we are.   For example, we hired
fulltime faculty in the English Department at $25,000 each to teach four
sections of composition and then loaded them down with more than 26
students per class (count the papers they'll be grading this semester) and
still left many students unserved because no money was available to hire
additional faculty even at that poor salary.  Yes, times are tough, but
apparently not for all of us.
Verbie Prevost


Verbie Lovorn Prevost
Katharine Pryor Professor of English
Director of English Graduate Studies
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Ave
Chattanooga, TN  37403
Phone: 423-425-4627
Fax: 423-425-2282
email: [log in to unmask]