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[johnr]

Was I the only one upset by today's first person article, "Paycheck or Reality Check".  In particular, I take exception to the following quote:

"If you are paid only during the nine months when classes are in session, the message is that you are only doing nine months of work. My university's new paycheck option, I believe, is indicative of how it has embraced a modern identity as a research institution -- one in which faculty members are understood to be doing work even when they are not in the classroom. Paying an academic salary over 12 months underscores the idea that intellectual exploration and inquiry -- the kind, incidentally, that also feeds the best teaching -- can happen in the so-called "off months."

Exactly how is the University embracing the fact that faculty work in the summer? The University is still not paying the author to work in the summer.  The fact is that many, maybe most, nine month faculty work on their research and their teaching in the summer, for free.  If the University really embraced the fact that faculty are expected to work in the summer (if they want to get tenure), then the University would pay 12 full months of salary, not divide our nine month salary into 12 equal parts!

[dr_crankypants]

Overall, the article didn't bother me.  But yes, I don't see how getting a 12-month paycheck affirms that we work over the summer.  Every explanation I've heard of why we get 12-month checks comes down to the difficulty of managing money--not a recognition that we work over the summer.  I would get that money even if I spent the entire summer on the beach.  (Of course, I might not get tenure either.)

My understanding of why we get 9-month salaries is to make us eligible for grants and other sources of summer funding.

[csguy]

I would get that money even if I spent the entire summer on the beach.  (Of course, I might not get tenure either.)

They ain't foolin me. 12 paychecks, 9 month contract and I have tenure. I'm loading up my woody(1) with my Beach Boys and Jan & Dean albums. See you in September(2).


(1) from "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys

(2) from  "See you in September" The Happenings

[acrimone]

I just want to point out that by paying the same amount over 12 months instead of nine, the university is making money from interest.

[dr_crankypants]

I just want to point out that by paying the same amount over 12 months instead of nine, the university is making money from interest.

Exactly.  And then they just pretend that it's for our benefit. 

[dark_globe]

"If you are paid only during the nine months when classes are in session, the message is that you are only doing nine months of work. My university's new paycheck option, I believe, is indicative of how it has embraced a modern identity as a research institution -- one in which faculty members are understood to be doing work even when they are not in the classroom. Paying an academic salary over 12 months underscores the idea that intellectual exploration and inquiry -- the kind, incidentally, that also feeds the best teaching -- can happen in the so-called "off months."

What a load of bulls***.

[adjunk]

I am paid a 10 month salary, but my college gives us the option to be paid over a 12 month period, and I have chosen that option.  That doesn't mean, however, that I'm being paid for the research I'm doing over the summer.
We have an incredibly busy workload throughout the school year--we teach 12 credits per semester, and attend almost endless committee and faculty meetings each month.  The only time when we can reasonably be expected to do research, which is required of us contractually, is during the summer.  I believe that if the college is going to include research (which can only be done over the summer) in its evaluation criteria, then it should pay us a 12 month salary.  This would affirm the fact that we are indeed working, even when we're not in the classroom.

[aardvark]

It seems to me that this is a complicated matter.  Certainly I would take my total annual salary in 9 months if I could, and so I recognize the idea that the university benefits by spreading a 9-month salary over 12 months.  But on the other hand, when I worked in America I had colleagues who would claim that their 9-month contract-- EVEN WITH a 12-month salary-- meant that they university didn't have the right to judge them on research they did between mid-May and mid-August: if it was impossible to publish during the school year then they should be excused from publishing, because their contract didn't call for summer work.

At my current job, my contract is unambiguously year-round:  it is, in fact, a 12-month contract.  Though I don't have any teaching duties during the summer, and there is no problem with traveling when classes aren't in session, there is no question whatsoever that this isn't vacation time.