Quote:
The median salary for a full-time college educator is $46,300, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The picture is brighter for those who have tenure: Full professors make an average $76,200, according to the American Association of University Professors.
The tenure system and the lack of mandatory retirement can make it tough to oust high-earning but less productive employees.
On the other hand, colleges are holding costs down by using a lot of non-tenured teachers: graduate students, instructors and lecturers. In fact, only 55% to 60% of the typical colleges staff is tenured or tenure-track.
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In our department $76,200 would be a starting salary for an assistant professor. At UCLA, full professors in technical fields would probably average twice the $76,200 number.
Tenure isn't what it used to be. Non-productive faculty with tenure are being flushed from our college. It may take a while, but it happens.
Faculty that get tenured are generally working 60 or more hours per week.
About 70% of our non-laboratory under-gradate teaching is done by tenure or tenure-track faculty. That number has decreased in recent years.
You may be surprised to know that a productive tenure/tenure track faculty member at a research university will spend 30 to 50% of their time teaching and the rest doing research, writing proposals, writing papers, professional service or doing university administration.
UCLA students will pay a little over $10K per year for their tuition with the increase. That is still a pretty good bargain considering the reputation of the school. If you consider the subsidies form the state tax payers and large portion of the school's reputation that comes from outside-funded research, it is a real bargain. They are paying a small fraction of the cost of their education. In terms of the budget of UCLA, I bet tuition makes up less than 25% of it's income.