[CAUT] Faculty as Colleagues, was Steinway... The "Safe" Piano.

[Ed Sutton]

Fred-

Wait a minute, here! 
Are you trying to say that life is worth living?
Get real! Get miserable!

Ed S.

> 
> Here we are entering the realm of mind reading, of worrying about  
> what people say and think about us behind our backs. And the  
> comparison of amounts of money versus "justice" and "worth."
> I would rather be naive or deluded, and take people at face value  
> (accept their friendly demeanor as real) than be paranoid and spend my  
> time worrying about what they are saying behind my back. Best I can  
> tell, none of our faculty really cares a whole lot about the  
> doctorate. They are far more concerned with musical chops and  
> personality attributes in judging one another (and, I suspect, in  
> judging me - technical chops being substituted for musical).
> The question of money is another can of worms. I have never found  
> that the distribution of wealth in the world had a whole lot to do  
> with merit. One thing for certain, every single faculty member is paid  
> less than his/her worth (at least in their own opinions). The faculty  
> in our college of fine arts is paid significantly less than the  
> faculties in the other colleges (not to mention administrators and  
> athletic coaches). The part time, adjunct, visiting faculty, who carry  
> much of the load, and who all have doctorates, are paid starvation  
> wages ($20-30,000/yr for what amounts to a full time teaching load).  
> Where's the justice? Where do I as piano technician fit into the  
> scale? So what? Who cares? (The faculty, even the part timers, are by  
> and large grateful to have a steady job in their field. There are  
> plenty with doctorates who don't).
> Personally, I am delighted to have a profession in which I do work I  
> enjoy, and am paid well enough to live comfortably. If more money were  
> the driving force in my life, I'd do something else. I can't think of  
> a better recipe for a miserable life than constant worry about  
> "whether I am paid enough or respected enough," obsessing over  
> comparisons, and the accompanying envy and resentment. Life's too  
> short for that stuff.
> 
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
> 
> 
>