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Monday, May 3, 2010 | 5:10 p.m.
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Sun Archives
Educational leadership, recreation sports management and informatics are among the departments recommended for elimination at UNLV, according to a new in-house review committee that will present its findings to the Faculty Senate on Tuesday.
The Presidential Review Committee, made up of five members appointed by UNLV President Neal Smatresk and six members chosen by the Faculty Senate, took into account recommendations for cuts made by academic deans, vice presidents and Provost Michael Bowers.
Smatresk is expected to bring a final list of recommendations to the Board of Regents next month. During the recent special session the Legislature cut education funding by 6.9 percent. To meet that shortfall, Smatresk set a goal of cutting academic affairs spending by $4 million and trimming another $5.7 million from support areas.
Among the committee’s first-tier recommendations for programs to be discontinued to meet the targeted cut of $4 million:
• Educational leadership ($1,529,000)
• Sports education leadership ($645,000)
• Recreation sports management ($633,000)
• Informatics ($472,000)
• Marriage and family therapy ($360,000)
• Teaching-Learning Center ($353,000)
More than 14 hours were spent hearing from department chairs, program directors and key faculty. However, "no one aspect, such as program enrollment or costs, was determinative," according to an executive summary of the committee report provided to the Sun Monday. The Presidential Review Committee members "readily agreed that all programs considered demonstrated significant merits in terms of instructional and research quality, and no one doubted the validity or merit of the disciplines. The decisions made were guided primarily by a concern to preserve those programs considered essential to the curricular and research mission of the university and to reduce or eliminate duplications."
The committee did not endorse the provost’s recommendations to discontinue six programs:
• Clinical lab sciences
• The English Language Center
• Entertainment Engineering
• Management Information Systems
• Women’s Studies
• Urban Affairs Academic Advising Center
Also not endorsed by the committee was the provost’s recommendation to put the School of Nursing on a two-semester schedule and combine the journalism/media studies and communication studies programs.
The Faculty Senate will meet at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Student Union at UNLV.
I am wondering how many graduates does the women's studies program bring to UNLV on a yearly basis. My guess is not many...
Not sure if they ever did that (but I think UNLV did) but there were talks a while ago to make some of these courses mandatory for some degrees because classes would not fill otherwise.
Seems like a waste of money to me (although politically speaking, these kinds of programs are difficult to eliminate...).
greg, I was looking for Womens studies to be cut as well......oh well, pandering for PC is alive and well.
Only in Las Vegas!!!! Cut education programs and KEEP Entertainment Engineering...I suppose they see a need to keep a steady supply of pole dancers in the queue. I suppose the folks in Mississippi and Alabama will start saying "Thank God for Nevada!"
1. My guess is that Women's Studies isn't expensive, and because they do have lots of undergraduate majors it wasn't very practical to cut them.
2. Informatics is a very important discipline (my job benefits from it). My guess is that the tenured people in the department will be moved to other places and will continue the basic curriculum. The same will also probably happen with the tenured faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy.
I don't know why the provost would even consider discontinuing the Management Information Systems program.
The program ranks 20th worldwide in research productivity.
http://business.unlv.edu/files/deans/MIS...
What I think is sad is that students from UNLV hear this news from the Las Vegas Sun first, rather than on the UNLV website. Why they can't post this pertinent information there first, before publicizing in the local news, it just boggles my mind. Shows little if NO respect for the students who are in these programs, and are worried about their futures. I being one of those students.
The choices the committee made were tough, and some people are going to be hurt by the decisions made, but at least show the students some respect and post this information on the UNLV website where the students can access it. Not every student is going to read the Las Vegas Sun.
Educational leadership is an oxymoron.
@bremskraft
I agree that the Women's Studies is probably a cheap program to run. It also counts as a multicultural credit in the general requirements and there are a lot of students that would prefer those courses to the other choices, namely women.
Informatics had only been a degree choice at UNLV for a year or two, and I'm not sure they even graduated anyone from the program. That is probably why it was axed.
As an alumni, I support the recommendations. I'd like to see the university refocus on creating strong traditional programs (Education, History, English, Engineering, Business, Biology, etc.) rather than variety. A lot of the programs do not serve the students in life after school.
In my opinion, Informatics was a silly waste of money and should have been the #1 obvious program to cut. However, Family therapy is something that our community needs, especially with all of the dysfunctional, low income families that need free counseling.
The Board of Regents and the UNLV administration have sold the students down the river big time.
Wait until you see the 20% increase in tuition and fees they vote for at the June meeting which was conveniently arranged so most students would not be on campus or finished for the semester.
But you have to understand how these so-called shared governance committees work. First you identify a non-problem, then you have a meeting to discuss it, then you make recommendations, then the administration does exactly what they wanted to in the first place. But hey they listened.
The real problems thruout Nevada higher education are three:
1. Incompent administration from the BOR to each individual school administration. There are NO goals set for the admin to achieve. There are NO priorities for anything at all except keep your overpaid job. There are NO consequences for failure.
2. The faculty live in NEVER-NEVER Land. They have ZERO street sense. Most have no idea that having the job they have is based on luck more than anything else.
NO one in business would ever pay most faculty more than they get get for being faculty and for one reason - they do not produce results.
But on this point they have a real excuse - the administration has NO idea about what are the exact results they want to achieve.
As Yogi Berra said: "If you don't know where you are going, you might just get there."
3. The tail wags the dog. The schools tell the BOR what they want and the BOR sucks up to them so they can get elected to a worthless political job that the BOR can list on their resume.
If there is anything in Nevada that is totally irrelevant it's the Board of Regents.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest.com
The present problem is NO MONEY.
Solution: Cap all Admin and faculty salaries at $100K. Make all Admin punch a time clock or document the time they spend on their job. Make ALL faculty at all schools teach 4 classes a semester - no exceptions for any reason.
Lower tuition so you get more students.
The idiots running NSHE can't understand that every day they get older and some day there will be no one to take care of them. EVERYONES future depends on the next generation.
You all do know that UNLV and UNR faculty only teach two classes per semester and a few teach 3 in one of the semesters for $135K per year don't you? It's a really not funny joke.
Even funnier is that they do research. But in the hard core world of business, no one would call what most of them do by the rubric research. It would be called wasting time.
Now the counter argument to this solution would be you would not get quality. But that is total BS. Quality has nothing to do with wages. It has to do with performance.
In any case we need to completely re-organize higher education and k-12.
We need to make it all WORLD CLASS because education is the only thing other than gold mining we can do that has relevance in a globalized world.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest.com
@crooksncastles
I thought the same thing. My husband's major is MIS. So they're going to cut a program that is so well ranked, but keep things like mechanical engineering which is so sub-standard it's laughable. I took a couple of classes at UNLV to finish my mech engineering degree from another school, and the 400 level classes I was taking were equivalent to a 100-200 level class at my previous university.
In response to FredConquest's ideas, capping salaries is a ridiculous idea; do you think good professors who are capped in Nevada won't have other options outside of our state? Capping salaries is one way to make sure the best talent leaves our state.
As for reducing tuition to allow more students in to the universities, here's a problem: you can't make up for a negative profit margin by increasing your volume.
Also, the current budget cuts are already leading to exploding class sizes; what will the universities do with less money per student (if you reduce tuition) and more students?
Finally, meaningful academic research does inform the "real world" all the time. Good professors bring cutting edge research into the classrooms and educate the next generation with newly-created knowledge. Much of what the private sector in any industry creates or adopts is either initiated by or supported by academic research. (...and where do all of these corporate R&D folks learn their skills, by watching YouTube?)
You say we need to make higher education world class, but then you propose to cap salaries, lower tuition, and force professors to teach at least 4 classes per semester (and toss out research agendas). It sounds like a path to third-world class education to me.
Fred Conquest is a funny guy. First he says he will require all faculty to teach four classes per semester and then he says he will turn UNR and UNLV into world class universities.
Then he has the nerve to say that it's the faculty members who are cut off from reality.
Go to:
http://sysapps.unlv.edu/positionlist/
to see a list of all amployee salaries at UNLV. They're a matter of public record. A little more than half of the 1,016 professional employees at UNLV make over $100,000 per year. It's all on an Excel spreadsheet. If you go to the last column on the right and filter A-Z you can see the list ordered by salary.
Now take a look at the job titles associated with the $100,000 salaries. How many of us could qualify for any of those jobs? Do you think they couldn't make good salaries in the private sector? I picked one at random. Richard Walker, for instance, is on the faculty at the school of dentistry making about $135,000. What do you think a top notch dentist makes in private practice? I say we're getting a bargain.
Now you might want to ask yourself what Fred Conquest does for a living. I'll tell you: he teaches anthropology at CSN where, presumably, he makes substantially less money than his academic peers at UNLV.
I think what is at play here is that Fred Conquest has a PhD in anthropology, just like the members of the faculty at UNLV. Unlike them, however, Fred has to teach four classes per semester while making only about two-thirds of what the UNLV faculty make. Add to that Fred's having to teach only 100 and 200 level courses while the UNLV faculty get to teach all the really cool upper division courses, plus they all get to work with grad students. The research Fred decries is also a lot more fun than teaching the same intro course every semester all your life.
Some bitterness at play here, perhaps?
Check him out at ratemyprofessor.com:
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRati...
dandlhill,
It looks as though MIS is going to stay, which pleases me greatly. Like your husband, I have a degree (MS) from that program. The faculty are uniformly excellent and their research is extremely well regarded by both academia and industry.
There's another one for Mr. Conquest. Check out the salaries of the MIS faculty and then ask yourself what top notch researchers in information systems management (with PhDs) make in the private sector. What do you think the average corporate CIO makes? When I was a student in MIS these people were available to me whenever I needed them (they still are, even though I graduated three years ago). Their knowledge and expertise are of great value. The people of Nevada are getting a good deal.
I am Spartacus.
I teach at UNLV and, after 22 years of formal education, working for a state supreme court judge and a federal court of appeals judge, practicing in the private sector for five years, and twelve years as a full-time teacher, my annual salary exceeds $133,000. Had I stayed in private practice, I would be making between $400,000 and $800,000 per year, maybe more. Granted, during the average week, I do not spend as much time in the office or the classroom as I did in the office or the courthouse when I worked in the private sector. I would guess that, in the typical week, I log about two-thirds the hours that I would in private practice -- for one-third the salary or less.
On average, I teach the equivalent of two graduate-level courses per semester, which is a normal or heavier-than-normal load for graduate-school teaching at U.S. universities. Having previously taught undergraduate courses before going to law school, I can confidently say that I spend more time during the average week preparing for and teaching my two law school courses per semester, meeting with my current and former students outside of class, and otherwise contributing to our law school and to working on, and engaging in discourse about, important matters at the local, state, national, and occasionally international levels, than I ever did before I joined the UNLV faculty -- and I am able to do so unfettered by possible conflicts with present or future clients' interests.
It's very scary indeed when you look at the list of programs to be eliminated and see the one you've just been admitted to. But, I haven't been living in a bubble and knew this was a possibility.
The reality is that there isn't enough money to pay for education in Nevada anymore. It's affecting everyone and education at every level. It's very sad because it comes at a time when more people are returning to school because of the economic downturn and a lack of available jobs.
The elimination of my program - Marriage and Family Therapy - will not only have a negative effect on the students and faculty at UNLV, but will deliver a harsh blow to the state of Las Vegas' mental health as a whole. Our students and faculty provide low-cost/free therapy for people in the Las Vegas community. If our program disappears, so does this service. For people who don't have any other options for therapy, we have taken away even this.
Very sad on every level...
@gaskin Entertainment engineering is related to large stage productions - set designs, mechanics, etc. The degree actually makes sense in Vegas with shows like O, Phantom, Blue Man Group, etc. http://www.eed.egr.unlv.edu/undergraduat...
Be serious...you don't need a college degree to pole dance. Just great legs and, well, other assets.
Yeah, we don't need no "education" ...
Nor do we need to understand what to do with "information" in an "information economy" (informatics). For example, we don't need to find better ways to uncover terrorist threats in the sea of electronic communication INFORMATION that's out there. We don't need to study ways to help people find the information they need, such as senior citizens finding medical information (doctors, policies, research, etc.).
@StaceySm34 There are lots of professions that provide mental health services to Las Vegans: mental health counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists etc. MFTs don't have a monopoly on mental health.
John F,
He has a point. Research university professors provide very little bang for the buck value to undergraduate education. Having professors teach 4 classes instead of 2 will substantially reduce costs without harming the quality of the undergraduate education. Willy research suffer? Maybe, but that isn't exactly a driving economic force, nor does it tend to benefit undergraduates, the bulk of UNLV and UNRs student population. Btw, adding personal attacks and ratemyprofessor links is no way to make your counterpoint.
My opinions: Computer Science is capable of filling the needs of the information age. many other CS department have professors who focus in the area of informatics. in my opinion, an entire department of informatics at unlv was never needed and I could do "informatics" on my own with a solid CS degree and a minor in an area of my choice. I must say that personally agree with the recommendations, with the exception that I think that Family Therapy is sorely needed in our community.
To Newcomer and John F: Thanks for the comments
I appreciate them. And BTW, I teach 5 classes not 4 per semester.
Here is my take on them:
To both. You asked "do you think good professors who are capped in Nevada won't have other options outside of our state? Capping salaries is one way to make sure the best talent leaves our state."
Try this out: At CSN, all month, we have been hiring to replace faculty who took a buyout, died or retired. In my department, Human Behavior, we had 5 openings. We got over 250 official applications. About 70% had a PH'D and considerable chops.
Overall, I am pretty sure there were over 100 applicants on average for every opening if you totaled it for all the discipline.
There were 1,000 application just to be a mail person to carry mail from campus to campus. So, if you think we would lose the best if we capped salaries WHILE we are broke, tell them to call Revenue Neutral Rory to say thanks but no thanks and for the Gold in California or any place else.
More to come.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest.com
Dr. Conquest,
I certainly didn't intend to demean what you do. CSN is probably the best educational instituion of any kind in Nevada. I most certainly didn't mean to suggest you don't work hard. And I would never suggest that anyone on the faculty at UNLV is better qualified to teach anthropology than you are. Anyone who's earned a doctorate has my respect.
To. Mr. Gibbons and Dr. Conquest,
UNLV isn't only about undergraduate education; it's also about graduate education, and graduate education means research. I'm working on my doctorate at UNLV; if there wasn't any research activity here I would not be able to complete my degree. I can't imagine Dr. Conquest was able to complete his PhD without conducting a major research project.
I will agree that much of the research activity that goes on at UNLV - or any four-year research university - is of questionable value, but a good deal of it is truly outstanding.
The gaming industry has been the beneficiary of a great deal of research being done at the International Gaming Institute. The business community is behind the Harrah Hotel College; the former president of Boyd Gaming just agreed to be the next dean. A UNLV grad student just helped to identify a new element. The telecommunications industry and the medical insurance industry have both realized great benefits from the research being done in information systems management at UNLV.
I'm sure there are many more examples. Academic research not only helps graduate students learn, it benefits local industry.
BTW, I checked out Dr. Conquest's web site. He has some very interesting ideas and certainly merits consideration as a Democratic alternative to Reid the Younger.
I particularly like, "there is a fundamental difference between citizens as people, business owners and corporations. Corporations are creations of the state. People are not."
nevadaappleslices,
The fact that informatics was cut and MIS was saved is most likely an admission of duplication of effort. Informatics is defined loosely as "the study and application of information technology to the arts, science and professions, and to its use in organizations and society at large." It is therefore more about the strategic application of IT. Computer science is more tactical; it's about how to get computers to do what you want them to do. MIS is more strategic; it concentrates on how you can use IT capabilities to create value for business and other entities. In that sense it seems much closer to informatics than computer science is.
Let's continue ... Expanding class size has it's plusses in terms of money and it's minuses in terms of student interaction and such. So let's look at the situation as it is, not how you want it to be.
Presently UNLV & UNR faculty teach 2 classes one semester and 3 in one. Law school is all graduate so you have to compare apples to apples, not throw in a banana to the mix.
So if you cap the student ratio at 1 faculty to 30 students per class which is a fair number, then 5 classes times 30 students is 150 students. If tuition is $2K per class (just a round number to make the math easier), then each faculty member is worth can generate $300K in revenue per year.
But if we keep the class size the same and up the class count per faculty to 8 classes from 5, then each faculty teaches 240 students per year.
The gross revenue/faculty goes up to $480,000 per faculty. We get $180K greater bang for the same buck.
If you do the math, you get 90 more students educated plus $180K more money. If you remember how to do algebra, you could lower the tuition to $1,200 and make the same $300,000 you were making at 150 students or you could lower it to $1500 and make $90K more. It's not rocket science.
As for differential pay. If you want a good CIO, you go to India, get a MA guy from there and pay them half what you think a CIO should make in the world of academic mythology.
You want your MIS stuff to work as close to 100% in the real world, so you probably would not hire a PHD to do that job.
For a top notch dentist to take home $135K he needs to generate close to $1 million in gross revenue.
Once again thanks for the comments.
Fred
"As for reducing tuition to allow more students in to the universities, here's a problem: you can't make up for a negative profit margin by increasing your volume." says newcomer who is, obviously, not a graduate of UNLV. A public institution doesn't have a "profit margin", just a lot of bloated salaries paid to the privileged few, without regard to their ability or contribution, "delivering" a product that has very few takers at any cost.
The fact that the rest of us are fed up with financing this waste isn't a business decision, but a matter of public policy. Perhaps, it's time we started the conversation about privatizing education, the arts, and public TV and radio and other screwed up government programs. As Walmart and others demonstrate daily, delivering a desirable product at a reasonable price benefits everyone.
What's your point? That we should rely on India to provide us with educated individuals? What should American higher education be for if not for grooming future CIOs? What do you think universities do?
Your description of what higher ed should be describes CSN. Are you suggesting that American universities should no longer conduct research? If so, then should they also do away with graduate education? With no research there will be no graduate education. Didn't you do a dissertation?
In the classes I teach at UNLV I have up to forty students. Upper division and graduate courses have fewer than that, especially when they become more specialized. Do you really think you could fill a class in information systems project management with 30 students?
A dentist working 22 days per month has to generate only about $3,800 per day to reach $1 million in gross revenue. A good practice does much better than that.
Honestly I have to say your notion of what higher education should be makes me wonder about the advisability of putting you n the governor's mansion.
Nevada ranks #1 in deaths from child abuse and has more than 10,000 cases of child abuse and neglect reported annually
Nevada also has the highest teen-pregnancy rate in the U.S.
Nevada has one of the highest abortion rates in the U.S.
Nevada has the highest rate of completed adult suicides
Nevada's rape rate is twice that of New York and 25% higher than the United States average
Nevada consistently ranks in the top 10 states in the country for female homicides, with 77% of women murdered by their husbands or intimate others
Nevada has the highest divorce rate in the U.S.
Nevada has the highest national rate for female suicide and very high rates of prostitution and trafficking, which often result in extreme mental distress and/or trauma, and
Nevada already has a documented grossly inadequate mental health system with an overall grade of D- on a national report on America's Health Care System for Serious Mental Health,
A conservative estimate is that more than 650,000 Nevadans or about 25% of our population need mental health care, and
Nevada has the highest drug abuse in the nation ranking #1 in the use of methamphetamine and other drugs over the age of 12 (including marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, and "any illicit drug")
At least 20% of prison inmates in Nevada suffer from serious mental illness
Nevada has far fewer than the national average and the lowest number of mental health providers per 100,000 in the region (CA 87; CO 77; AZ 41; UT 36; and NV 29)
UNLV's Marriage and Family Therapy program is the ONLY program in the state and one of only 70 in the U.S. with top tier accreditation, and the Department's Clinic already has about a six-month waiting list and provided more than 4,000 hours of therapy in 2009 to a diverse population that could not afford services elsewhere
.... SO CLEARLY, WE DO NOT NEED A MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY PROGRAM IN SOUTHERN NEVADA, RIGHT???
Jeff, I agree with you that Nevada NEEDS the marriage and family therapy program!
To John F and such.
I am not against research but when you have a 'money problem' then the teaching part of the equation should be the first priority.
On the otherhand we have DRI which is almost pure research. Those who want to do only research should work there, which is just another option.
There is no law that you cannot do research if you teach 4 classes per semester.
As for India and the like ... it's an alternative option ... not writ in concrete.
In your analysis you seem to judge the outcomes by only the top tiers as your proof of argument. You leave out the alternatives; What is known as the 'silent evidence.'
What defines a 'good' dental practice? I do not know too many dentists that work 22 days a month. There may be some who do, but given the vagaries of life, it's more likely 18 to 20 days on average.
As for class size, 40 students is not a big deal but 30 is probably a better number in terms of quality. It's not writ in stone. A great teacher with 40 students is better than a bad teacher with 30 students from a student learning POV.
You could easily fill a MIS class with 30 students IF the class was relevant to the real world job market and students knew that fact.
Also, size is as much a function of cost as anything. Demand expands or contracts based more on perceptions more than on hardcore numbers. Why do more people apply to Harvard than UNLV? Perception of quality is one explanation.
Plus, a class size has alot to do with IF it is required or not for a degree or certificate.
In the age of computers, MIS is important, but it is not very good at managing cats, which for all practical measures is an adequate way to describe the behavior of large human populations.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fred.conquest.com
OK. Now I'm convinced. You sir, are a loony. Where did you get your doctorate? I will avoid that university like the plague.
"In the age of computers, MIS is important, but it is not very good at managing cats, which for all practical measures is an adequate way to describe the behavior of large human populations."
That is perhaps the most ignorant statement I have ever read, especially coming from someone who purports to be an anthropologist. Ask WalMart if they've had any success in describing the behaviors of large groups of people through the proper management of information systems.
Your use of Harvard to make a point defeats your own argument. Harvard does more research than just about any other university. It's one of the reasons its perceived value is so high. As an anthropologist, by the way, you should know that for societies perceptions are reality.
You teach anthropology and you have the nerve to criticize MIS courses as being irrelevant in today's job market? There are two main reasons why students sign up for your anthro course as opposed to MIS. First, introductory anthropology is required (as it should be). Second, anthro courses are easy. You can bull**** your way through an anthro course. MIS courses, on the other hand, are difficult and bull**** won't cut it. You try normalizing a twenty table data base. You try writing a complex Java program. Heck, forget writing the code, just try figuring out the algorithm.
I'm voting for Rory in the primary.
If we increase the number of Anthropology majors, what do they all do for a job when they graduate?
@obamarocks No, I certainly wasn't suggesting that MFT's are the only providers of mental health services in Nevada because clearly that is not the case. What I am saying is that the MFT graduate program at UNLV has its own counseling center which provides essential services to the community for minimal costs to the client as compared with other mental health providers. See Jeff's comment above about the MFT program @ UNLV.
If our program disappears, so does this counseling center and the services we provide to the community through this center. The people who currently use this service may not have other options for therapy because of financial constraints, etc.
Well Nevadaslices, an accounting major doesn't guarantee you a job either. It's like majoring in graphic design--there are a lot fewer jobs in those fields than people think. BTW did you see that Frontline last night about for profit schools?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...
Has anyone noticed that the head of the program in Clinical Lab Science was on the committee that voted not to eliminate that program? Talk about a conflict of interest. Also, has anyone noticed that this is an underachieving program that has been on lists for over a decade for termination. Why is it being saved? Touro University could handle the Clinical Lab Science training needs of the community. UNLV's program hasn't been able to do that and the only way it survives is by the political activity of its director.
Well, the list is what it is people. How about some comments that are on topic instead of off-topic things that are not being considered this late in the decision making process
@StaceySM34 The clinic you refer to is also utilized by other programs (like psychology) which are not on the chopping block. The clinic will still provide mental health services if the MFT department is eliminated.
If you are in education at any capacity a vote for "Revenue Neutral" Rory Reid is akin to signing your own financial and maybe real death warrant.
Remember you just might have to go to UMC one day the victim of a drive by shooting and other potential disasters that are endemic to Roryland.
People should vote for whomever they feel will do the best job given the circumstance and situation. "Best Job" can only be determined after the fact.
But more often than not the past is prologue.
Win or lose, I have more than a few contingency plans worked out. Do you? If you lose your job what will you do next?
Note that 145,000 out of 185,000 AFL-CIO Rory supporters are unemployed in Nevada. UMC is a disaster. The CCSD is a basket case. The County is broke, just to point out a few Rory Reid guided outcomes.
But don't forget, it was your choice. If you want poverty for yourself and for everyone else, go for Rory. However, if you don't, then am the only other choice in Democrat land.
To paraphrase a famous Roman senator who once said in regards to Rome versus Carthage: "Peace or War. It matters not to Rome."
Poverty or Prosperity. It's Your Choice. It Matters Not To Me. I Know How To Win In Either Case.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest.com
"Poverty or Prosperity. It's Your Choice. It Matters Not To Me. I Know How To Win In Either Case."
Said the guy with the taxpayer-funded salary.
What a schmuck.
Yes, I have the same tax funded salary as you do.
But the difference is I do not need it to survive very well thank you.
On the other hand I like to teach so one of the requirements is to be paid for it. Plus, I do not work for free.
We shall see how you do when you have to stand on the freeway entrance begging for dimes because, no one wants to hire an overpriced MIS person because there is nothing to manage.
Vote for Rory if you wish. But, I gather from your ad hominum attack you have no more ammunition to fight with.
Let's see how your boy Rory is going to solve the problems. 'Revenue Neutral' Rory has not said one SPECIFIC thing. But he has had visions of sugarplums dancing in his head.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest
You have to be kidding.
Why is it that I lost my job because I was not able to keep up with production levels? I have a nerve issue in my right-hand and was unable to keep pace. Instead of being offered another job I was let go. If a teacher or professor does not meet up with standards they are not terminated from their position, they are given a 4% yearly increase to their salary.
That is why I am moving before the start of the next school year for the sake of my children. There is no accountability for teaching professionals.
I will be voting for Mr. Conquest only because he seems to have the smarts enough to change a failed system.
In my opinion, being able to criticize is a different skill than being able to "do"
Actually, my taxpayer-funded salary is for the one class I teach at UNLV as an adjunct professor. The money I receive from the state is only a small portion of my income. If it went away I would hardly notice it. And it is going away; UNLV is dumping all their adjuncts as a result of budget cuts.
I survive on my salary as the operations manager for a local restaurant company. My master's degree is in MIS, but my MIS responsibilities are only part of what I do for a living and, like you, I make quite a good living, thank you very much. You'll be standing at freeway entrances long before me.
By the way, it's "ad hominem." If you somehow end up becoming governor, "schmuck" is hardly the worst thing you can expect to be called. Get used to it. In any event, the use of the word was warranted, given the sentiment expressed.
It seemed to me the sentiment behind your statement, "Poverty or Prosperity. It's Your Choice. It Matters Not To Me. I Know How To Win In Either Case." was abhorrent prima facie.
But if you prefer that I spell it out for everyone.....
1. If it doesn't matter to you what happens to other people, why are you running for governor? It certainly isn't from a sense of service.
2. Your statement reeks of noblesse oblige and a sense of arrogant superiority. Is everyone who doesn't buy into your vision for higher education doomed to poverty?
3. Your contention that you are one of life's winners means that you believe there are losers, as well. Your subsequent comment about standing at freeway ramps would lead me to believe you think those people are losers. Do you know them?
You should try working for free sometime. It's enlightening. I have employees in some of my restaurants making $9 an hour who work two jobs to feed their families. Are they your losers? Many of them give a day of their time each week to work for free at soup kitchens, local churches, and other such places for the benefit of those who aren't as well off. They see it simply as something decent people do. They don't strut or take on airs because of it. I am truly humbled by them.
I know a guy who stands at the top of a freeway off ramp from time to time asking for money. One of your losers. He stops by one of our restaurants every now and again. We give him a little work to do and feed him a first-rate meal or two in exchange. This guy has a couple of homeless friends who are too old to perform any real physical labor. When he's done doing what we ask him to he shares his meal with these other two.
Losers, indeed. These are the people you would like to lead. Try having a little respect; none of us is any better than they are.
I cannot make anyone vote or vote for any one candidate. So it's not my call as to if you win or lose.
I win either way. I may lose the election, but I win the experience of running. Rory may win the election but you will lose afterwards. I will just adapt to the circumstances.
You are totally responsible for your vote. And you have to live with the consequences and so do I. That does not mean I do not care. But it does mean that I have the skill sets to survive should Rory win.
But lets see how well you do as a 'part time' state employee when the Regents raise UNLV tuition 100% to 200%, which is what I just learned, this afternoon, was in the cards for the June BOR meeting. It's hard to get paid for teaching when you have no students and the students don't have any money to eat at your restaurant.
As for the less fortunate, the idea is to make them more prosperous ... but it's easy for you to expand what I said that was specific to you to others. So vote for Rory then and reap the reward of poverty, pestilence, famine and plague. But remember you did have a choice.
Fred