>Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 16:29:47
>To: Raven
>From: Richard Rice
>Subject: Confusion on campus
>
It has come to my attention that several messages this week I sent on Raven
have not been posted due to an error in my email address. Since I cannot
tell which ones you did not receive, please forgive me if you have already
read any of the messages I post today (Thursday, March 25 at 11:42).

>I may be guilty of causing considerable confusion on this campus, but
sometimes confusion can be constructive.  Yes, a resolution is not an
implementation, that needs pointing out and affirming, as Verbie Prevost has
done.
>
>But in the UTK case it has formed a useful framework and addressed
long-standing issues.  Verbie Prevost is right to ask you to look at Mark
Miller's column, which confirms a number of my suppositions, including the
fact that "Chancellor William Snyder has allocated $320,000 in next year's
budget for faculty raises based on the review process.  He also has
committed to adding similar amounts to future budgets for this purpose..." I
think this is FANTASTIC for the Knoxville faculty and only strengthens our
arguments for better pay.  After all, we at UTC have been doing a detailed
annual EDO for years without substantial financial reward.
>
>By the way, to access Miller's column, there is a small error in Verbie's
message: instead of the / sign before the final "html" please use a period.
Simply highlight the address (this goes for the resolution text as well) in
her message, hit copy, go to netscape and click on the box next to location
(it will have our address) and then paste and enter. You might to download
the resolution if you haven't already made a copy to bring to the meeting
Friday.
>
>I thank Jim Hiestand for his keen observations and insights, and I stand
corrected on a number of points. I agree that we should not seek enemies
here at UTC, and in fact need to act cooperatively more than ever.
>
>Finally, I went to hear Joe Johnson's comments today (most of them; I had a
12:00 class), and was interested to learn that at one point a committee or
board or somebody was actually considering selling us down the river to the
Regent's System, since we are tagged as a "teaching" institution, and he
also mentioned Georgia's better funding of higher education (30 per cent
increase over the last five years opposed to Tennessee's lack of an increase).
>
>Although I meant it as a joke, maybe we should think about becoming the
University of Almost Georgia. After all, the UT system bought the campus in
1969, why not sell it to Georgia and save them the expense of building their
Dalton university? After all, there are town leaders that want the airport
to be an extension of Hartfield via a high speed train. Georgia probably
would be willing to give in-state rates to our current students in Hamilton
and surrounding counties.  After all, we buy lottery tickets and groceries
in Georgia, as Johnson pointed out. Think about the injection of cash into
the UT system if Georgia goes for the idea: it would fund those salary
increases Knoxville is demanding.
>