Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-02-15
To TEACHERS
AND The CEN.
ERAL PUBLIC

teachers.
2. Because a large amount Of
building is in progress,-eight build
ings including annexes are now under
construction.
3. Because Of expensive purchases
of land. One Of these purchases was
made by special appropriation OF
the last legislature and comprised
some 156 acres Of farm land on the
ridge two miles west of the uniYer
sity at something over $500 an acre
including interest, a total Of 1926, 900,
-$47 900 of which is to be paid every
year for five years.
4 Because the administration, in
Gliding officers, clerks, stenOgraph-
ers, and other employees not engaged
in teaching, costs a large sum, ap-
preaching $25O,OOO, while $75O,OOO is
paid for teachers salaries.
>. Because of miscellaneous ex-
penses.
6. Because of a goodly sum for
travelling expenses, say 100000 a yeal
including extension.
Why is it not more efficient?
The faculty of the university is
large. T he hours a week devoted to
teaching on the part of the faculty
members range from, say, to IA.
The average number of hours taught
per day is approximately 2, or 10
! hours a week. Those who teach the
larger number of hours per week, eX-
Guiding student teachers, are usual
! ly those receiving the lower salaries.
have figured out as nearly as 1
could from the time table of the Sc
cond semester and the budget the
facts concerning one department in
which there are II teachers. The
total number of recitations per week
is LA. Of these recitations, IS are
| conducted by the seven men who re-
ceive oyer $500 a year; Sc recita-
tions are conducted by the four men
who receive salaries from $1100 up
to $14OO year, and so recitations are
conducted by the six men who reveiV
$500 a year or less. Those who re
ceive $500 a year or less are grad
uate students, that is, students who
have credit for four years of college
work and are carrying on advanced
studies.
1t will be observed that between
a quarter and a third of the teaching
in this department is done by men
who are graduates of colleges and
are here in this university for the
purpose of carrying on advanced study
incidentally teaching for the purpose
of earning money to pay their way.
The highest salary paid in this depart
ment is $500, and the man who re
ceives it teaches nine hours a week.
In another department there are tWC
men who receive $500 each Last
semester one of them had a total OF
20 pupils and the other 40, making a
total for the two of IS; thus these rs
students were taught last semester a
a cost of $500, at the rate of about
S45 a piece for the semester, or $50
a year each in this one subject. Two
other men who were students in the
department, young and inexperienced
taught some 81 pupils at a cost Of a.
bout 81 each. 1t will be thus observed
that the cost per student, over which
there was a good deal of controversy
last year, is an elusive sort of thing,
but it probably Increases rapidly in
amount as students go forward from
freshmen to graduate classes. It is
generally conceded, however, that
freshmen need more care and atten-
ton than advanced students.
A large share of the teaching in
the university is done by men who
get scarcely a living salary. Leaving
out the two lowest $500 EACH and
the two highest $500 each) in one
department, I find that there remain
twelve men, and these men average
SASS. In another department out of
twenty-four teachers, four get over
$4,000, fourteen get $500 or less, while
six get salaries somewhere between
$500 and $4,000
There are some excellent teachers
in the university who receive low
salaries, but as a, rule it is probably
true that the Iow-priced men are not
| highly satisfactory. The students who
are teaching are not supposed to be
deyoting full time to instruction; their
studies get half their time, and pro-
badly for most of them, four-fifths of
their interest and enthusiasm Teach
ing is likely to be merely an I'm
| pleasant interruption in the days
work. The men who are getting the
larger salaries are supposed to be
deeply interested in research work,
that is, a diligent and persistent eff
fort to find out something that nobody
ever knew beofre. Their regulations
among their equals, their salaries
and the standing of the university
with which they are connected, IN
fortunately depend almost wholly up
on their zeal and success in turning
out learned articles and monographs.
In the midst Of all this, the student
gets on as best he can, and there is
little wonder that students complain
of scant attention and poor instruc-
ton, Notwithstanding the large cost
of the university. Sometimes the stu
| dents come IN contact with splendid
self-sacrificing men who give the best
of themselves to their students and
| are Jealous first of all for their vel
fare. Not infrequently such men lose
caste with their fellow-workers not
to mention university officials, and
are looked upon as merely teach