Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-27
x7 ASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. pa col
" lege professor rang for an elevator

wv ASHlNGION, II. u, Dec lo-A COL
| w lege professor rang for an elevator
W ina lecture building the other day.
After five minutes wait the elevator came
up. The operator apologized profusely for
the delay, but he felt that he had a good
excuse
"The electricians are working here today, "
he explained, land one of them wanted to
go TO the basement-and you know their
time costs a lot"
What the COLLEGE professor said about his
wasted time is not recorded. AS a matter of
fact, the electrician probably did cost the
college more per hour than it's teachers do.
The elevator mans idea that professors
rank very low in the scale of earning ahil-
ity has long been the popular attitude. But
colleges are beginning to crusade for the
rights of their instructors. They realize that
a low Salary scale for college professors is
boomerang that strikes back at the col
lege in one of two ways. Either the college
can obtain only inexperienced or inferior
teachers, or else it holds the self-sacrificing
experts who stay on and divide their ener-
gies between their classes and some outside
work to make ends meet.
Either way, the college with underpaid
instructors is not getting efficient teaching.
Lately, several women's colleges have
been campaigning to make it possible for
their professors to earn suitable salaries. A
goal is set, and students and alumni go out
and try all the ways of earning money that
have been tested during the past few years
of innumerable drives.
Each student pledges a sum, generally a
large sum for a girl still getting an educa-
tion. And she promises to pay this pledge
by her own efforts during the time allow
ed-perhaps two or three years.
Vassar is now conducting such campaign.
Her salary scale IS lower than that of any
other woman's college Of similar standards.
Vassar shows that she has been able to keep
capable teachers only because they resorted
to outside employment, as college teachers
everywhere are doing.
Practically every member CT the faculty at
this college who has house takes in room
may liven things up for the professor,
though faculty members, no doubt, would
prefer more peaceful atmosphere at home.
How Teachers Make Living
Some instructors write articles for news
papers and magazines. Numbers of them
teach at summer schools in different parts
of the country, when they need to be rest
ing or studying for the next years work.
At Vassar there are 1902 women teachers
and % men. The wives of these men help
too. No longer is the rofessors wife salts
fed to sit at home and turn her husbands
coat and think of new ways to make bread
pudding. One, at this college, runs shop
where she sells baskets and other craft
work done by mountaineers. Another writes
| children's books, and third is a photog-
| rapher.
But even these devices do not always
stretch a salary that was meager in 1913
over 1921 expense account. Except where
| colleges have conducted drives and raised
| salaries, instructors have scarcely received
any material increases in pay during the
| boom of salaries in most lines of work.
It is figured now that the cost of living
| is still roughly IS per cent higher than in
1913 1t was 10S per cent higher in 1919,
and it is still dropping little. But the dol