debs

Ask the average American if he or she recognizes the name Vanderbilt, Astor, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Sinclair, and Ford, to name a few of the more common entrepreneurs of U.S. history. Like as not they do. They know that these folks made millions of dollars; that their offspring still live in comfort, that products and institutions bear their names, and that their ingenuity and entrepreneurship helped make America what it once was, until our country's leaders lost their sense of direction and led the nation into its second Great Depression.

Granted these pioneers have been branded by some as robber barons, cut throats, and exploiters, but where would America be, for example, had the Vanderbilts not built the railroads that allowed this country to expand from a few colonies to 50 states?

Then ask how many can recall the name: Eugene Victor Debs. Unless they're students of American history, like as not you'll draw a blank. Mr. Debs was a union organizer back in the early years of the 20th Century. (Community organizers hadn't been invented then.) He also ran for president in 1912, and lost miserably. And his socialist activities landed him in prison in 1918. That should tell you something. Unlike the movers and shakers mentioned above, Mr. Debs today is but a footnote in American history texts.

Mirroring the spirit that drove America in its formative years Calvin Coolidge once remarked that "The business of America is business."

Unfortunately, our nation got a bit off track in the early 1900s, and in 1929, was plunged into the Great Depression. But along came the government. Under Mr. Roosevelt's watch the New Deal came into being and with it the Reconstruction Finance Corp., or as some called it, the "Millionaire's Dole." During this time the federal government became the largest single business on Earth, and bureaucratic meddling ran rampant. Sound familiar?

Had World War II not erupted there's no telling what might have become of the United States.

But, American business and the innate ingenuity of the American people emerged and the United States truly emerged as "The Greatest Nation on Earth," and the "Leader of the free world."

Today, unfortunately, America resembles post-war France and Charles De Gaulle who still thought they were living in the age of Napoleon. Our national treasure has been squandered by the foxes we put in charge of guarding the hen house and the socialist lion is licking its chops in anticipation of devouring us.

As we can see from Vietnam and the Mideast, war will not be our salvation this time, only our destruction.

The Faculty

Budget offers MU faculty a gloomy outlook

University of Missouri faculty members are going to need some tough talks about how the system should boost salaries to a level comparable with peer universities.

That was the take-away message of a more than hourlong meeting yesterday between Betsy Rodriguez, vice president of human resources, and about 40 MU faculty members on campus. The presentation was a scaled-down version of the five-hour presentation Rodriguez gave the UM Board of Curators in August.

“I don’t want you to leave depressed, I want you to leave with a lot of questions” and things to discuss, Rodriguez said at the end of the program.

The facts aren’t encouraging. MU ranks at or near the bottom of every salary list when compared to peer universities, even when colleges on the coasts are taken out of the mix.

And a salary gap between new employees entering at market value and their more experienced counterparts creates a systematic salary problem, she said.

In some cases, new hires end up with higher salaries than veteran faculty members.

And that can be awkward, said Greg Alexander, a School of Nursing assistant professor. He said he has noticed when filling out grant forms with co-investigators that he makes more than veteran colleagues. Although no one talks about it, “there’s definitely a morale issue,” he said.

Boosting salaries requires money the system doesn’t have. Rodriguez said it would cost $8 million to increase salaries by 1 percent.

A $32 million increase in state funding would allow the university to give a 4 percent raise, roughly a cost-of-living increase, Rodriguez said. But if current trends continue, the state won’t have that kind of extra money to spend. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Missouri tax revenues plunged 10 percent in the first quarter of this budget year.

Another option to give a 4 percent raise would be to raise tuition 8 percent. That’s also unlikely because state law limits how much a public university can raise tuition in a year without special permission. Plus, that increase would be a hard sale to the public and students, Rodriguez said.

She challenged employees to consider whether they’d want to reduce some benefits — such as a better-than-average early retirement health plan — in exchange for higher take-home pay. She also questioned whether employees would want to look at doing away with systemwide tuition and salary increases and instead base those increases on individual campuses.

“These are tough discussions,” Rodriguez said. “We can no longer afford not to” increase salaries, “so how are we going to pay for it?”

Although there are no current answers, MU Faculty Council Chairwoman Leona Rubin said there are places to consider. For instance, she questioned whether duplicate programs are needed on each of the four UM campuses.

Mainly, she said, faculty needs to have a seat at the discussion table.

“Whatever the solutions are, they need to be coming from the bottom up as well as the top down,” Rubin said. The decisions “are not going to be easy.”