It appears that our own Boyd School of Law may be hit pretty hard if Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed budget is passed. From Law.com:While some schools are just starting to deal with the ramifications of smaller budgets, others have been in cutting mode for some time.The Governor's move even sparked a rally at UNLV (don't be too impressed, you can get thousands of college students to show up and rally against democracy if you hand out enough flyers). Thomas Mitchell put the "rally" in perspective calling it: "as persuasive as a temper tantrum." Students showed both their intelligence level and seriousness concerning the matter by holding up signs that read: "Kiss My Butt, Budget Cuts," "Please wear 2 condoms when U screw our education," and "We Are Your Future." There's a scary thought.
The William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has seen its state funding shrink by 9% through two cuts since December 2007, said Dean John Valery White. The housing crisis hit Nevada earlier than many other states, prompting legislators to cut higher education spending sooner.
"You have to cut a little bit of everything in order to get up to a pretty big number," White said. The law school has left some positions empty, cancelled some staff training and faculty travel, decreased its library staff, reduced the number of course sections and switched to more electronic publications to reduce library costs, he said.
The law school also is using some donation money to cover a portion of operational costs, such as staff salaries. In better times, that donation money would go to things such as capital projects or student travel.
"It's really just a stop-gap," White said.
We were feeling pretty bad for the law school (which we hoped was not involved in the rally shenanigans) ... until we came across this website that lists Boyd faculty salaries and realized they are making more than most actual lawyers in this town.
For instance, the aforementioned dean, John Valery White, is currently pulling in $339,560.00. The dean's "Executive Assistant" (read: secretary) is making $100,848.00. The next four highest paid law professors are making $184,203.00, $183,755.00, $182,413.00, and $180,733.00, respectively. Any of you associates out there pull in $180 G's last year? We didn't think so.
We're no socialists, and we have no problem with people making money (even in these "troubling times"). However, it seems to us that before higher education starts pointing the finger at the Governor, they need to look in the mirror ... and remove some of that "bling" they see.
It seems that the "temper tantrum" served its purpose, which was not to persuade but to publicize Gibbons proposed cuts to education which have been estimated at 50% of UNLV's current budget. Kudos to all students, faculty, and alums who gave enough of a shit to show up.
ReplyDeleteWWL, are you really using a guy who dresses like Hey Reb as your source?
As for DW and DF salaries, I do not believe anyone will be having a rally anytime soon to defend those.
You're comparing the salaries of young associates who know relatively little about their professions and who have relatively limited skills, with seasoned professors who have spent years learning, publishing, researching and improving their skills as educators. Top professors earn little in comparison to top attorneys, but new graduates should have no expectation that they will earn more than fully tenured professors.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 8:35
ReplyDeleteFirst, it is due to the overpaid, academic, right-of-passage law school environment that those "young associates" know "relatively little about their professions." If law school taught students what BigLaw actually had in store for them upon graduation, I imagine the majority of law students would run the other direction.
Second, I'm not so sure that WWL was "comparing salaries" so much as they were pointing out the hypocrisy of crying wolf about the budget crisis affecting tuition when it appears that "educators" could readily survive a bit of a pay cut themselves.
Finally, as far as the dean's salary is concerned, I think $300+ for a law school dean who has yet to prove himself is ridiculous ... no matter how many "years" he has under his belt. His secretary's salary is just the icing on the cake. I believe Dean Morgan was making $280 when he left ... and he earned it.
I also take issue with 8:35's comment. Professors may be "seasoned" in the art of producing academic pablum that is mostly disregarded by the courts and wholly ignored by the general public.
ReplyDeletehttp://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/us/19bar.html?_r=1
Further, a position in academia is supposed to come with a significantly reduced salary compared to what one could command in the private sector. Here, we have professors who produce little of value, probably could not command a private sector salary anywhere near what they receive at the public trough, and yet still earn more than probably 95% of their graduating students ever will.
I think law profs are, by and large, pointy-headed hacks who couldn't handle billable hours or the fact that Critical Legal Studies doesn't have a lot to do with day-to-day litigation. That said, I think a little perspective (besides 2L snottiness or R-J editorial page dumbassery) is in order. To wit:
ReplyDelete1. Academics churn out crap. We all know this. It's part of their job. However, the "pablum" churned out by law school profs is also known as "scholarship," which is how academics know each other. This, in turn, is known as "reputation," which is a criteria by which USN&WR ranks schools.
No pablum = no rep = crappy ranking for your school.
2. Re: "...yet still earn more than probably 95% of their graduating students ever will."
Where did you go to school? If you really do not see yourself making as much or more than your profs after the same amount of time post-graduation (or less) then you either a) have a gov't./public interest job
Boyd, admittedly, churns out lots of both (I know; I went there), but I don't think it's anywhere near the 95% mark you claim. Are you really making that little? That's very sad...
re: 9:26 am comment. In Paragraph 4, I inadvertently deleted
ReplyDelete"and/or b) are an idiot"
I'm just curious - wth some exceptions, the highest paid professors at Boyd are those with outside supplemental funding named positions. i.e. 'E.L. Cord foundation', 'Lee Professor of Law', 'Weigand Professor of Law', 'Lehman Professor of law', 'Coeaga Tomlinson Professor of law'. Does the base salary at the UNLV HR website include that extra funding for that position?
ReplyDeleteAs to those that say the Profs generate crap that nobody cares about or reads - my past firm used Prof. Stempel for an expert opinion on some insurance matters, and Prof Rapoport garners a lot of press locally and nationally and always drops UNLV's name every article I read about her. They're just two examples.
As to other associates not pulling $180K - I'm only a year out and I don't make nearly that much but senior associates here do (after a few years). It should take you less time to make that much as an associate than it would as a professor. And I agree with Anon @ 9:26am - if you're not making that much by the time you have as much experience as those professors have, then either you're not trying or you don't want to.
Notice how the newest professors with 4-5 or so years of teaching experience (ex: Samahon) are making around the high market for a 1st year associate in Vegas with NO experience. Tell me if you would want to work for 4-5 years out of law school to only make $112k/yr?
@ Anon 2:25
ReplyDeleteRe: Your last paragraph:
There are plenty of attorneys making less than $112,000 with 5+ years experience. They are called DAs, PDs, and public interest lawyers. That is to say, the lawyers being paid by the same people paying these professor's salaries.
Re: Anon at 4:06PM
ReplyDeleteI understand that the government attorneys and public interest attorneys might make less than $112k/yr after 4-5 years on the taxpayer's teat. But as I said in my next to last paragraph - that means they're just not trying - i.e. not wanting to work outside of the government.
I know a lot of attorneys that are PDs in Clark County & Federal, Deputy DAs, Deputy AGs, and a few Public Interest attorneys (ACLU, old CCLS, etc). Other than some of the public interest ones, every other one of them I know works less hours than I do (only billing 1900hrs/yr), takes more days off than I do, and tells me that they don't know how they're going to make it "in the real world" when they leave government.
They know they'll have to leave within 3-4 years or they can be branded slackers and will have a hard time getting a great job outside of government. Excepting, of course, the one or two who want to get into politics, of which those jobs are good feeder positions.
"Dean" Christine Smith is making $147k. The secret is, she's not even a lawyer. She has a masters degree in education or something.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the posting ...........
ReplyDelete___________________
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