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> “Any Temple employee that decides to strike forfeits their pay and complete benefits package,” explained Temple University senior vice president and chief ope

> “Any Temple employee that decides to strike forfeits their pay and complete benefits package,” explained Temple University senior vice president and chief operating officer Ken Kaiser. Here's the problem -- that's a business solution. This decision is intended to benefit Temple the business, not the Temple the university. The administration is too busy filing TPS reports to realize that they're curating something actually important -- the future of this country's youth. In other ways it's just cookie-cutter union-busting from coal-mining days, 120 years ago, and I expect in the long term it will work just as well (i.e., not).

calvinmorrison 4y ago
My Alma-Mater, more interested in hiring administrators than new professors, or even retaining full time professors. Schools a joke, especially this one.
- munk-a 4y ago
  Yup - a relative of mine has been an associate professor there for fourteen years. Giving out tenure is something I'm pretty sure they'll only do if they're backed into a corner.
  - hackyhacky 4y ago
    Associate professors are typically tenured. Did you mean assistant professor?
    - thwayunion 4y ago
      Typically. Not always. Some institutions/departments will promote to associate without tenure. At those same places, they'll typically let you stick around for quite a while as long as you keep bringing in the money. In every field there are at least a few departments that are notoriously stingy with tenure.
    - munk-a 4y ago
      No, they are an associate professor - although I may have misspoken about tenure, I am not certain about their status. I was under the assumption that associate professors weren't covered to the same extent.
- janalsncm 4y ago
  The president and dean of my school both made $2 million each last year. I have no idea what they do. They definitely aren’t teaching any students. The school emailed me to ask for a donation, and I said they should ask the dean.
draw_down 4y ago
[dead]
gitfan86 4y ago
But it is a business. We are not talking about a YouTube channel of lecturers, we are talking about an organization with 2.7 billion dollars of annual revenue.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  Businesses have public relations. This is a bad look.
  - throwawaysleep 4y ago
    Given the high cost of tuition, are people really going to want to pay grad students higher salaries? A lot of nice things in life require that someone make a low wage so they are affordable to you.
    - JKCalhoun 4y ago
      Yes, I think that tuitions need to come down as well.
    - komali2 4y ago
      Require? Genuinely require? It seems to me the high cost comes from attempting to create profit margin. If the profit is basically eliminated, the person can have the high wage, and we can have the nice things.
      - WalterBright 4y ago
        > If the profit is basically eliminated, the person can have the high wage, and we can have the nice things. Somehow, however, such Marxist implementations never deliver those nice things.
        komali2 4y ago
        Co-ops are Marxist? If so, wow, Marxist businesses are remarkably profitable, productive [1], and resilient [2]! [1] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worker-cooperative... [2] https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/2020-10/co-operative_survival_1.pdf https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/2020-10/co-operative...
HillRat 4y ago
Well, they hired a university president out of Goldman Sachs and consulting, who wrote a book that basically argues that universities need to base their curriculum on what corporations tell them to do, so I'm not terribly surprised at the path they're taking.
BitwiseFool 4y ago
>"This decision is intended to benefit Temple the business, not the Temple the university." More and more it seems like academics are just a front for running a hedge fund - one that gets very favorite tax treatment. Growing the endowment is the most important thing in the minds of the leadership.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  Any activity that gets preferential tax treatment is going to be used as a pretext for otherwise low margin business activity because if you can run the pretext part at a break-even you can do the other activity and have an edge over everyone else. Follow the incentives...
- charlieflowers 4y ago
  Yep. After all, where on Earth does all the tuition money actually go? The buildings are nice and there are way too many overpaid administrators, but even still that can't possibly account for all the $$$ flowing in.
  - klyrs 4y ago
    The whole idea behind endowments used to be that they could maintain the institution through tough times. But nowadays, there's an expectation that endowments should continue to grow during a recession, even if that means cutting the institution to the bone. And administration hierarchies keep getting deeper; they're never on the chopping block.
    - grubbs 4y ago
      Working at a pretty famous institution with a 6+ billion endowment...in June 2020 the president basically said "we're performing layoffs, stopping all retirement contributions, hiring freeze, and no raises for anyone." Then gave some additional reasons as to why they couldn't dip into the endowment to save jobs/help those laid off. So I guess it wasn't for tough times after all?
- epgui 4y ago

calvinmorrison 4y ago

My Alma-Mater, more interested in hiring administrators than new professors, or even retaining full time professors. Schools a joke, especially this one.

munk-a 4y ago
Yup - a relative of mine has been an associate professor there for fourteen years. Giving out tenure is something I'm pretty sure they'll only do if they're backed into a corner.
- hackyhacky 4y ago
  Associate professors are typically tenured. Did you mean assistant professor?
  - thwayunion 4y ago
    Typically. Not always. Some institutions/departments will promote to associate without tenure. At those same places, they'll typically let you stick around for quite a while as long as you keep bringing in the money. In every field there are at least a few departments that are notoriously stingy with tenure.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    No, they are an associate professor - although I may have misspoken about tenure, I am not certain about their status. I was under the assumption that associate professors weren't covered to the same extent.
janalsncm 4y ago
The president and dean of my school both made $2 million each last year. I have no idea what they do. They definitely aren’t teaching any students. The school emailed me to ask for a donation, and I said they should ask the dean.

draw_down 4y ago

[dead]

gitfan86 4y ago

But it is a business. We are not talking about a YouTube channel of lecturers, we are talking about an organization with 2.7 billion dollars of annual revenue.

JKCalhoun 4y ago
Businesses have public relations. This is a bad look.
- throwawaysleep 4y ago
  Given the high cost of tuition, are people really going to want to pay grad students higher salaries? A lot of nice things in life require that someone make a low wage so they are affordable to you.
  - JKCalhoun 4y ago
    Yes, I think that tuitions need to come down as well.
  - komali2 4y ago
    Require? Genuinely require? It seems to me the high cost comes from attempting to create profit margin. If the profit is basically eliminated, the person can have the high wage, and we can have the nice things.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      > If the profit is basically eliminated, the person can have the high wage, and we can have the nice things. Somehow, however, such Marxist implementations never deliver those nice things.
      - komali2 4y ago
        Co-ops are Marxist? If so, wow, Marxist businesses are remarkably profitable, productive [1], and resilient [2]! [1] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worker-cooperatives-are-more-productive-than-normal-companies/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worker-cooperative... [2] https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/2020-10/co-operative_survival_1.pdf https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/2020-10/co-operative...

HillRat 4y ago

Well, they hired a university president out of Goldman Sachs and consulting, who wrote a book that basically argues that universities need to base their curriculum on what corporations tell them to do, so I'm not terribly surprised at the path they're taking.

BitwiseFool 4y ago

>"This decision is intended to benefit Temple the business, not the Temple the university." More and more it seems like academics are just a front for running a hedge fund - one that gets very favorite tax treatment. Growing the endowment is the most important thing in the minds of the leadership.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
Any activity that gets preferential tax treatment is going to be used as a pretext for otherwise low margin business activity because if you can run the pretext part at a break-even you can do the other activity and have an edge over everyone else. Follow the incentives...
charlieflowers 4y ago
Yep. After all, where on Earth does all the tuition money actually go? The buildings are nice and there are way too many overpaid administrators, but even still that can't possibly account for all the $$$ flowing in.
- klyrs 4y ago
  The whole idea behind endowments used to be that they could maintain the institution through tough times. But nowadays, there's an expectation that endowments should continue to grow during a recession, even if that means cutting the institution to the bone. And administration hierarchies keep getting deeper; they're never on the chopping block.
  - grubbs 4y ago
    Working at a pretty famous institution with a 6+ billion endowment...in June 2020 the president basically said "we're performing layoffs, stopping all retirement contributions, hiring freeze, and no raises for anyone." Then gave some additional reasons as to why they couldn't dip into the endowment to save jobs/help those laid off. So I guess it wasn't for tough times after all?
epgui 4y ago