When faculty and college administrators talk, but don't listen....

Quite a few faculty members I have encountered love to hear themselves talk, and have no desire to listen. No wonder the education system is in dire straits. Recently a new group formed on our campus that is focused on sustainable living. A couple of students from this group wanted to introduce their organization at the Faculty Meeting and solicit faculty support for their efforts. Students are often criticised for their apathy, and on our campus, student apathy runs deep. The one time students take enough interest to ask for permission to present to faculty, the "wise heads" of our Faculty Council refused. The reason given was "A majority of Council members felt that it opened the door for multiple requests from student groups..."

The NYT also reports that "The presidents of the nation’s major private research universities were paid a median compensation of $627,750 in the 2007-8 fiscal year — a 5.5 percent increase from the previous year — according to The Chronicle of Higher Education annual executive compensation survey. The highest paid private university executive was Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., with a pay package totaling $1,598,247 in fiscal 2008. Ms. Jackson, a physicist and former chairwoman of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been at Rensselaer since 1999, and first became the highest-paid university president just two years later. In this year’s survey, she was followed by David J. Sargent of Suffolk University in Boston, the top earner in last year’s survey, who took in $1,496,593 in fiscal 2008, and Steadman Upham of the University of Tulsa, whose pay package was $1,485,275. According to the survey, published in Monday’s edition, 23 private college presidents made over $1 million in total compensation, and 110 made more than $500,000. Such large pay packages are still relatively new in higher education: as recently as 2002, there were no million-dollar presidents, only four earning more than $800,000, and 27 earning more than $500,000..."

It is a shame that the people at the top of the educational institutions, folks who are supposed to set the highest example in simple living and deep thinking, take the loot while putting ever higher burdens on students.