The Red and Black

Professors at research level universities do not get paid simply for teaching. They must also conduct research and present that research at conferences in order to keep their jobs. If the professor does not do this, then he or she will not continue to be retained (employed) at this university and will find it difficult to gain employment elsewhere as the research component is a major hiring consideration.

If you want to attend a college where the professors do nothing but teach (or primarly teach), then you should enroll in a smaller college instead of a major research level university.

If you believe, as your post may have suggested, that having a professor at every class meeting equals a better quality education, then you may conclude that the smaller venue will provide you with the better education that you seek.

Alternatively, you could complain to the administration of the university that the priorities of the institution are not congruent with it's mission of quality education. Good luck.

Originally posted by

kell

So when my prof doesn't show up for class because they're at an out of country conference giving a speech for which they are paid...who is going to pay me back for that missed learning opportunity?

Michael, I completely agree with you on all points. It is unfair that the adminstration make us pay for their mistakes and financial mismanagements. Why aren't they reducing unneeded expenditures first? I mean, does the ex-golf coach (McCorkle) still need to be paid $94,000 a year when he doesn't even work for the University (See Brian Hughes' 04/18/08 article "Doing Nothing worth $94,000")?!

Also, Why not cut the wages of a few to save the jobs of many?It's much more economical to reduce the salary of upper division staff such as President Adams. They make so much more than us students/low-wage employees and THEY don't have to work two jobs and take out huge loans to be at UGA.

Students have already had to fork out extra tuition money EVERY YEAR, pay a much larger amount for the same parking spots as last year, and have precious educational resources taken away from them. Now this? The BOR should be ashamed of themselves.

Originally posted by

CoastalDawg

The actions of the Board of Regents in suspending their own "rules" is another example of why we on the whole distrust government. Particularly after having stated that there would be no extra fee, why not just be up front and honest and have input from students and explain the need rather than just making the assessment and threatening to cancel a student's schedule if the fee isn't paid by a given date? Our ideal of government of, for, and by the people has been thrown out the window. I agree with one poster who suggested that President Adams, who seems so desperate to leave some kind of good legacy @ UGA after the Vince Dooley debacle, could have just offered to forego a portion of his salary for a given period and the ex-golf coach, as a tribute to his former employer, could do the same. But now it's all about "me" when it comes to executives and CEOs. It's happening everywhere and the lowest on the totem poll have to pay the price. I know when I was at UGA $100 extra dollars would have been a deal breaker - that probably is not the case now, but it's the idea of HOW the fee was imposed. What about all the regents making personal donations to help the shortfall? It's so easy to sit in an ivory tower and dole out someone else's money...

Really? $100 would have been a deal breaker? So you would have forgone a college education at UGA and the lifetime earnings benefit to save $100 a year? Excellent decision that would have been although it would have saved us from hearing your expert point of view on every topic known to man.

Ben The "Most-Wise" wrote: "Really? $100 would have been a deal breaker? So you would have forgone a college education at UGA and the lifetime earnings benefit to save $100 a year? Excellent decision that would have been although it would have saved us from hearing your expert point of view on every topic known to man."

Thank God you and I are not in a position to be scraping for every dollar.

If a cookie costs 2 dollars and you ONLY HAVE 1 dollar you probably wont be getting a cookie will you Ben?

The point is that money IS an object to SOME people, and it seems like an injustice that the University could tell you that something costs one amount and then change the price after you have commited.

This is not a bailout, the university system is not failing. The economy is, and well, believe it or not it does affect even the best education systems in the nation. Our system, along with most state agencies, has been required to cut it's budget by the Governor of the State in order to keep the state functioning.

Keep in mind that the Regent's had already approved this cut in August in order to try to be ahead of the game when the Governor might ask for more cuts. Where were your concerns then? If the governing body of the system, and the administration of the individual institutions take the time to make the plans for 6, 8 and even 10 percent in budget cuts then people should really take those cuts seriously before they are ever implemented.

To those students complaining about the $100 fee, the best advice I can give you is to budget wisely and get a job. When you do get a job, take it seriously and you'll make money. To those complaining about student loans, so what? Big Deal. You knew or should have known that when you signed the promissory notes it meant that you had to pay it back with interest. Stop blaming everyone else for your problems, and possibly your failure to read and comprehend the documents that you signed.

To those "parents" complaining about the $100 fee, stop paying for everything your child does. They need to learn to take the initiative and responsibility for their own actions by trying to help provide for their own education and welfare.

To the people complaining about the construction projects going on. Do you even realize that if the regents froze all of those projects that there would be hundreds if not thousands of people out of work? These projects are predominately funded by bonds, etc., through the foundations of the universities and colleges. Funding typically does not come from the general budget.

Originally posted by

Bee

Yes. This is not about how much money they are charging us.
It is the method in which they implemented it without notifying the students and listening to their feedback.
And looking to the past, I don't believe our money to be in safe hands: They built Tate 2 and renovated multiple buildings, while other departments lacked sufficient faculty (who didn't get paid enough and had to quit), and so the students coudln't take necessary classes to graduate on time.
It seems as though UGA's more interested in drawing in more new/freshman students through improving their image and fancy buildings than improving the quality of education.
I wouldn't mind if what I paid is going towards improving academics; but I'm forced to resupply their funds which were used for extraneous luxuries.

I concur with Bee. UGA has even been calling parents of UGA students for donations. I think that's despicable. A STATE RUN INSTITUTION does not ask it's public for DONATIONS. UGA doesn't want to run up its tuition because it makes less freshman apply and less students transfer. The less people who come, the less monies UGA takes in for deciding whether to let people in. When the price of tuition increases, just watch the students who apply plummet.

It's not the University itself calling. Most calls come from the University foundation. The foundation is one, if not the largest way the university gets funds to fulfill it's mission.

Originally posted by

Bee

Yes. This is not about how much money they are charging us.
It is the method in which they implemented it without notifying the students and listening to their feedback.
And looking to the past, I don't believe our money to be in safe hands: They built Tate 2 and renovated multiple buildings, while other departments lacked sufficient faculty (who didn't get paid enough and had to quit), and so the students coudln't take necessary classes to graduate on time.
It seems as though UGA's more interested in drawing in more new/freshman students through improving their image and fancy buildings than improving the quality of education.
I wouldn't mind if what I paid is going towards improving academics; but I'm forced to resupply their funds which were used for extraneous luxuries.

This would be true if the State covered the full cost fo running UGA. It doesn't. In fact, the State only provides about 40% of teh money required to do so, and tuition covers a little of the rest. Increasingly, it is grants, contracts, and donors who are covering the cost to run UGA. If you don;t like that, then don;t complain about how high your taxes are. This is all related. There is no free lunch.

Originally posted by

parent

UGA would not have to raise student fees if they would regulate the temperature in the dorms better. So much money is wasted there. During the hot months it is muc too cold in dorm rooms. Now that it is cold outside, my student has had to sleep with the window open to get relief from the heat!!!!

Have you bothered to think about the age of these buildings? What about the technology used when these buildings were built? Chances are that the buildings were built with what is known as a two-pipe system which means that the buildings can only be heated or cooled as a whole building at a given time. The two-pipe system is a giant loop of pipe (an in and an out) that carries one temperature of water at a time.

Newer buildings are typically built with a four-pipe system, which means there are two giant loops of pipe (two ins and two outs) that can carry both hot and cold water throughout the buildings for heating and cooling. It is not easy to convert a one-pipe cooling system to a two-pipe system, nor is it cheap)

Want to save money, make the students take timed showers. Make the showers automatically shutoff after a certain amount of time to prevent residents from turning the water on and leaving it running all night long.

I've always been surprised at how people are quick to make universities seem to be the bad guys. Yet they fail to understand, that a lot of the money that is lost in maintaining infrastructure, etc., is because their child goes wild at college because they think they won't be held accountable. Then they get a nice surprise when they actually do have to pay for damages that their precious child did. It's all about your child being accountable for what they do, and in this case you as well.