4A - Thursday, January 7, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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JACOB SMILOVITZ
EDITOR IN CHIEF
RACHEL VAN GILDER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
MATT AARONSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations representsolely the views oftheir authors.
The real cost of pay raises
'U' should cut salary increases to keep tuition affordable
With state support dwindling, no one expects college
tuition to decrease any time soon. But the faculty
and staff pay raises for 2010 make it seem that the
University isn't doing everything it could to keep college afford-
able. And though University employees are receiving smaller sal-
ary increases this year, students will continue to feel the strain
on their already pinched pocketbooks. With tuition costs on the
rise, the University should be loathe to increase costs that will be
passed on to students. Officials at the University should continue
to give increases back and the University should give fewer raises
to lower the burden on students.
Evaluating mixed messages
In late December, the University released
a report that compared the salaries of its
faculty and staff from this year to last. The
report revealed that faculty and staff earned
smaller pay increases this year. According
to the report, several other highly-paid Uni-
versity employees, including 19 deans, chose
not to receive merit-based salary increases.
Among those declining salary increases was
University President Mary Sue Coleman.
But even smaller raises are still more than
the strapped-for-cash University should
hand out while students continue to be
encumbered with rising tuition. Students
have been forced to accept massive tuition
increases over the past few years - a 5.6
percent increase was announced in the sum-
mer of 2009 alone. Tuition increases, Uni-
versity officials often argue, are the result of
decreasing state funding, and more cuts are
expected for the next fiscal year.
But the way to compensate for less money
from the state isn't to increase students'
tuition. Students already struggle to pay the
University's exorbitant tuition - especially
in light of the current economic climate. As'
atpblic institution of higher education, the
University should be doing everything in its
power to keep college affordable, and that
means shaving costs wherever possible. Pay
increases - even smaller increases than Uni-
versity employees usually receive - are dif-
ficult to accept as an appropriate use of the
University's funding.
University employees certainly contrib-
ute to the college's success and should be
acknowledged, but the primary purpose
of higher education is to provide an educa-
tion to the students. The University needs to
ensure that its funds are being used primari-
ly for what students need. And whatstudents
need in an economy that has state residents
tightening their belts is affordable education.
Faculty members who decided to decline
merit raises demonstrated an understanding
that making education more affordable for
students should bea priority. And Coleman's
decision to forego a pay increase this year -
as well as in past years - is a positive show
of leadership. Butshe must maintain the sup-
port by declining more of the University's
money, something she failed to do in 2008.
It is an unfortunate reality that college
tuition has been increasing throughout the
past severalyears. But for faculty members to
be granted pay increases in correlation with
tuition hikes -is.-counter-intuitive. Instead-
of laying the-financial load on students, the
University should maintain its focus on stu-
dents, and cut costs.
any University teachers,
like me, have a love-hate
relationship with the
teaching evalua-
tions that students
fill out at the end of
each semester: We
love to hate them.
Seriously
though, there is '
helpfulinformation
and suggestions a
teacher can glean
from these evalua- PATRICK
tions, though sort- O'MAHEN
ing through the
contradictory and
sometimes messy
pile can be daunting.
Some professors t know toss their
evaluations in the garbage with nary
a glance. Others claim, with numer-
ous scholarly studies behind them,
that good grades tend to predict good
evaluations. One lecturer I respect
greatly - and whose job depends
heavily on her student evaluations -
once wondered out loud why any lec-
turer would dare give a student any
grade less than an 'A.'
I understand the sentiment. It is
difficult to read through the some-
times inane remarks of an obviously
clueless student. For example, one of
my admirers from last term wrote the
following gem:
"Discussions were pointless. Basi-
cally show up and learn nothing
from class material and readings. We
might have done this in discussion
twice. Otherwise the other discus-
sions were used for our paper which
was already done by the time he
explained to (us) what to do. Clearly
this GSI does not have experience on
being a teacher and therefore was not
ready tobe a GSI for this class."
But despite the semi-literate epis-
tles like this one, I still believe that
evaluations have value. For example,
two years ago, several students sug-
gested thatI put my lesson plan on
the board to help organize class bet-
ter, a tactic which has helped keep me
on track during section and helped
students better organize their notes.
Other times they have reasonable
complaints, like reminding me that
I shouldallow an extra five minutes
to get AV equipment so we can start
class on time (sorry, COMM 484).
However, it's often difficult to
glean consistent feedback from a
batch of student evaluations. One
reason is that individual students are
different people. They come in with
different levels of background knowl-
edge, have different styles of learning
and perceive the classroom atmo-
sphere differently.
For example, I try to run a lively
discussion in class with lots of stu-
dent participation. How did I do?
Here are two comments from stu-
dents in the same section:
"The section only featured discus-
sions, which were always interesting."
"Didn't feel as though there was
class discussion."
Another thing I take seriously is
my availability to students. Was I
reasonably available to students to
help them both through e-mail, office
hours and appointments? Again
here's a representative pair of com-
ments:
"When students ask to meet outside
of class please don't make them feel
like they are inconveniencing you."
"He was always willing to meet
with students to go over test scores/
work on the final term paper and he
definitely was helpful during these
office hours."
Finally, the course I taught had
a final project and several exams.
Before the term, the professor and
I sat down and determined that I
should focus more on preparing stu-
dents for the final project, while he
would focus more on the content of
the readings to prepare students for
the exam. I had specifically asked my
students about what they thought
about the workshops and presenta-
tions I had prepared to help them
develop their projects. Did they want
more help on the project or would
they rather go over readings more
thoroughly?
Inconsistent
course evaluations
can be misleading.
According to the following com-
ments, apparently the answer was
"yes":
"More help on the paper!! Maybe
a workshop outside of class. I've
NEVER done this type of paper so
knowing how to do the math and cor-
relations was impossible."
"A lot of the discussion time
seemed like time wasters, such as
learning how to use excel or watching
clips to learn how to analyze them.
Although these helped with writ-
ing our papers, we did not necessar-
ily have to spend as much time on it.
Learning about material for the tests
would have been more beneficial."
I'm not belittling the feedback
from my students - they were quite
an insightful group as a whole. I had
a really good time teaching them and
the half-dozen comments above are
all legitimate feedback. It's just often
tough as a GSI to filter all the content
to develop coherent take-away lessons.
In the end though, I'll end up doing
what I always do: I'll look for pat-
terns and try to improve one or two
concrete things each term.
And perhaps I'll finally become a
good enough teacher to earn the ulti-
mate commendation: a Chili pepper
on Ratemyprofessors.con.
- Patrick O'Mahen can be
reaphed at porpahen@awichadu.
EMILY ORLEY
Freedom from distribution
WANT TO BE AN OPINION CARTOONIST?
E-MAIL RACHEL VAN GILDER AT RACHELVG@UMICH.EDU
JEREMY LEVY I
Avery commercial Christmas
0
Every semester, when the highly anticipated
course guide goes live online, my first concern
is which classes can I take to fulfill my LSA dis-
tribution requirements. But this doesn't seem
like an appropriate response. College allots the
only four years in your life during which is it
completely acceptable to have absolutely no idea
what interests you. But the University insists
that IStake at least two natural science classes, a
subject that isn't enjoyable for an English major
like me. It doesn't seem fair that students spend
their time worrying about completing require-
ments rather than exploring classes that appeal
to them.
By the time I found classes to fulfill some of
my many LSA requirements and classes to ful-
fill my major distribution, I had no room left in
my schedule for any electives - unless I wanted
to take 19 credits. The University needs to stop
regulating our academic curriculum so strictly.
This control over our class choices inhibits the
chance to explore unique classes. For instance,
the Afro-American and African Studies depart-
ment is offering a class about Michael Jackson
this semester. However, the class doesn't fulfill
any basic breaths and ifa student is not a CAAS
major, one might find it difficult to make time.
Students spend four - or maybe if they're
lucky, five - years as an undergraduate student.
That's about eight semesters. That means that
duringtheir time at the University, moststudents
will take approximately 32 classes. If a student is
in LSA, at least 10 of those classes are comprised
of distribution requirements. Howis it fairtojus-
tify that a third of the classes students take are
because they were forced to do so?
Brown University doesn't have a single
requirement for undergraduate students. Stu-
dents, even incoming freshman, are able to
select any class that interests them and, regard-
less of their major, create a schedule that con-
sists of any array of subjects. This type of setup
permits students to take classes that they enjoy
going to and discussing. In a society where stu-
dents often see their peers skipping classes and
lectures, it is hard for students to self-motivate
themselves to attend a class they are forced to
take.
The current structure the University has isn't
fair to its students. Students pay per credit. Why
should anyone have to pay for something that
they don't want? You wouldn't go see a movie
that doesn't interest you just to pay for a ticket
stub.
Additionally, one might not find the time to
fulfill a second major or minor because they
need to finish their distribution requirements. It
seems unfair to deprive a student of a degree just
because they didn't have time in their schedule
to take the necessary classes.
Let me be clear in stating that I am not advo-
cating for complete curriculum freedom. I think
that, particularly within a major, some breath is
essential to having a rounded education in that
topic. But I do strongly believe that a student
who knows that he or she wants to study Spanish
has no need to take two or three natural science
classes. Every student has specific strengths.
Just because one person is better in calculus than
another doesn't mean they are smarter.
The University needs to relinquish the reins
over requisite classes. The college of LSA, espe-
cially, should diminish distribution require-
ments. While I can appreciate the desire to
encourage students to try a plethora of subjects,
demanding at least two courses in the basic
fields (Natural Science, Humanities and Social
Science) is excessive.
Students should be able to fill their schedules
with classes that they find unique and insight-
ful. The University shouldn't impede. Quite
contrarily, it is the University's responsibility
to ensure that students have the opportunity to
learn about topics that interest them most.
Emily Orley is a senior editorial page editor,
While studying for finals, I came across a Facebook
page called, "It's 'Merry Christmas' NOT 'Happy Holi-
days."' At the time, the page had about 157,000 fans, and
received new posts roughly every ten minutes. Most
notably, it contained a link to an online petition urging
retailers to discontinue the use of the phrase, "Happy
Holidays." A retailer's decision to use such a phrase sig-
nals the predominance of consumer holiday traditions
over religious ones in certain aspects of our society, they
say, and this undoubtedly makes many Christians angry.
Still, it was hard for me to restrain myself from yelling at
my computer screen, "Are these people serious?"
It's not difficult to see that in this country, and proba-
bly many others, that the holiday season has encompassed
an array of secular, market-oriented traditions that are
categorically separate from the religious ones. As a Jew,
I think it's ridiculous that the market-oriented aspect of
the holiday season has to maintain a Christian face. Those
protesting "Happy Holidays" are incorrect when they say
that retailers are ruining their holiday.
Many individuals believe that the use of "Happy Holi-
days" detracts from the significance of Christmas. The
Facebook group's creator says that "Happy Holidays"
makes people "forget what Christmas is all about." The
page also features a link to a "Larry the Cable Guy" video
clip in which he mocks political correctness by reading a
non-denominational winter holiday story as opposed to a
typical Christmas story. Such a notion, that people who
say "Happy Holidays" are trying to change Christmas
traditions, is absurd.
The term "Happy Holidays" has much more to do with
business than with religion. No one says "Happy Holidays"
to their friends, since theyshould know which holidays their
friends celebrate. Perhaps politicians and teachers use the
term so they don't offend their constituents or students. But
the phrase is used most frequently by businesses that want
to make as much money as possible, and therefore want as
large a customer base as possible. Saying "Merry Christ-
mas" could potentially alienate customers who celebrate
other holidays, and for that reason, it's simply bad business.
Those who are opposed to "Happy Holidays" are ignor-
ing that the consumer-based holiday season has become
its own entity, separate from the religious aspects of
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, etc. Every year between
Thanksgiving and New Years, we are bombarded with
endless advertisements for toys, perfumes, jewelry, cook-
ies, clothing and plenty of other holiday accessories. Peo-
ple who think that "Macy's Holiday Sale" is part of a rich
Christian tradition that needs to be protected are just
fooling themselves.
Without a doubt, the commercial holiday season has
a Christian face. It's a tradition that started because of
Christmas, and occurs in a country where Christians are
a majority. During halftime during a Chicago Bulls game
over break, I witnessed the holiday spectacular, which
involved cheerleaders dancing in various skimpy outfits *
accompanied by Santa hats. Wherever I go, Santa Clause
imagery and Christmas songs are nearby. But as much as
I try to accept it, it never slips my mind that most of the
Christmas imagery I see in public is purely intended to
get people to spend money.
As political correctness has become a cultural taboo,
the crowd opposed to "Happy Holidays" has cast it as
a term only used by sissy liberals who should just deal
with Christmas. But it's not like I go out of my way to be
resentful. In general, I enjoy the holiday season, and I
think "Sleigh Ride" is one of the happiest songs ever writ-
ten. What the group against "Happy Holidays" doesn't
understand, though, is that for one month every year,
non-Christians are unavoidably exposed to a barrage of
Christmas imagery, most of which has nothing to do with
Christmas. And, in this light, the acceptance of "Happy
Holidays" is a hollow victory for us, at best. So trust me
when I say that we have no desire to ruin your holiday. I
would just appreciate some recognition of what the holi-
day season has actually become.
Jeremy Levy is an LSA sophomore.
ELAINE MORTON E-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU
q E Q
0 WINTER
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