Thank you Verbie for your Raven post.  I commend you for being able to write
cogently to an issue that leaves many choking with disbelief and then
frustration.  Well over 1mil has been wasted in the UT Presidency debacle in
not much more than a year.  Over the past several years, the art department
has lost administrative support (funding) for lab assistants and other vital
staff positions.  In the last ten years many if not most have lost income
relative to inflation and "are doing the jobs of at least two people". The
chancellor's last raise was more than my annual salary. The formula for
parity faculty salaries with peer instructions is a joke.  Administrators
rate 100% parity while the people who do the teaching and advising should
"understand" that times are tough. Why has Raven been so quiet?
My colleagues at UTK and MTSU do not share my exhibition record, years of
tenure or rank, yet earn more.
I encourage all tenured faculty to use the Raven forum to publicly log their
oft privately stated frustration. If there were ever a time to step up to
the plate folks, it's now.
Maggie McMahon
UC Foundation Professor
Art Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga