October 28, 2011. Florida professors are paid about $6,000 less than the average salary earned at research universities nationwide. Surprise!
By Eric Ernst
Published: Thursday, October 27, 2011
Parade magazine publishes an annual article looking at what people earn in a variety of jobs across the country.
Each entry includes a thumbnail photo, the subject’s yearly pay and a notation of where he or she lives and works.
It’s one of the magazine’s most popular issues, appealing to the voyeur in all of us, but done playfully, in good humor and with the cooperation of the subjects.
That’s not the case with Gov. Rick Scott’s recent publication of the salaries of state university employees. He requested the top 50 from each school.
In and of itself, the request might seem innocuous enough. But, coupled with the governor’s publicized disdain for liberal arts, his request for other performance data, his announced intention to upend the tenure system and his comments about purging unproductive professors (that definition still to be determined), his salary “revelations” come across less as informational and more as mean-spirited and threatening.
Their publication implies that professors and staff at Florida universities get paid too much, and the governor seems to invite the public to rise up in indignation.
That isn’t happening for several reasons.
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