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Police: female faculty member kills three on UA-Huntsville campus
WLBT ^ | 2-12-2010 | WLBT

Posted on 02/12/2010 3:31:27 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo

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To: SaraJohnson
The professor’s salary is covered in part or in whole by grants. A professor’s grants provide jobs for grad students. Also the grant covers some of the costs of overhead.

The extent to which grants are 'profitable' for the university is greatly exagerated. In most cases, the salary money from grants goes to pay extra compensation for faculty members (such as summer salary), rather than to replace the salary dollars contributed by the state. Almost never does a tenure track faculty member cover more than a tiny fraction of their regular salary (5-15%) with grant money. However, roughly half of the time of every fauclty member at major universities is devoted to 'research'. The money that pays faculty to conduct often meaningless research comes directly from the pockets of state taxpayers at most public institutions. At private institutions, the money comes indirectly from taxpayers through student loans/aid to cover the enormous tuition costs, which are then used to pay faculty salaries for faculty members that spend only a fraction of their time teaching.

Don't get me wrong. I've built and run successful research laboratories, and all faculty members should be engaged in some research to keep current. However, there are huge cross-subidies in the system where state taxpayers are paying faculty to write meaningless papers that are read by a half dozen people worldwide, when they think they are paying faculty salaries to educate their children.

261 posted on 02/13/2010 4:12:44 AM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: Brilliant

Women faculty members feel like they are entitled to tenure. They think they are akin to blacks under Jim Crow.


262 posted on 02/13/2010 4:24:01 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Oztrich Boy
see now, when it's YOUR quote, inside YOUR quotation marks, it's something YOU'RE saying, which is the VERY DEFINITION of a straw man argument.



I suppose when everything's just chemical chance etc., facts are meaningless, and setting up straw men is as good a way to win arguments as any? It's like "why bother", right?
263 posted on 02/13/2010 4:33:43 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: Doomonyou

Ahhh, she’ll go to jail, write of her experiences, convert to Islam. Then she’ll get published, become famous, then get paroled. She’ll get a job in a womyn’s studies literature section at some university, get tenured and she’ll be set for life!(sarcasm on).


264 posted on 02/13/2010 4:35:26 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: Star Traveler

“You would have to get that confirmed that it was premeditated”

True, and equally anyone would have to get it confirmed that it was not. Someone arbitrarily stated that it was not, so I responded by arbitrarily stating that it was!

It probably was though. Lib college woman - not your standard concealed carry to-keep-people-safe type. Most likely premeditated murder.


265 posted on 02/13/2010 4:37:04 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: chuck_the_tv_out
You were asking ...

True, and equally anyone would have to get it confirmed that it was not. Someone arbitrarily stated that it was not, so I responded by arbitrarily stating that it was!

I'm sure the DA is going to be "proving his case" on the matter... and a jury will consider that one. But, it's as likely that it was premeditated as much as it might not be... at this point, one can't tell.

But, then again, that's why we have trials... doncha know... :-)

266 posted on 02/13/2010 4:43:53 AM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: garbanzo
For researchers, the main point of the job is to do research. Teaching students is kind of a sideline in most cases.

If someone is being paid from research funds, then their job is absolutely to do research. For tenure-track faculty members, the salary of their job for life is paid directly from the taxpapers (at a public institution) or indirectly through government student aid for high tuitions (at private institutions). These faculty positions are sold to taxpayers on the premise that the facutly are engaged in educating students, so if they are engaged in mostly 'research' and little teaching, there is a problem.

267 posted on 02/13/2010 4:44:20 AM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: chuck_the_tv_out
She went to the meeting knowing the meeting was about tenure. Most likely, rumors had been spreading throughout the faculty, as they do in any company, corporation, or educational facility, etc., and she had heard she would not be given tenure. She did bring a gun with her and as soon as the announcements were made, she pulled her gun and started shooting. Naturally, a lot of information will be withheld until this goes to court, “if” this goes to court.
Once this has been proved, this will be considered premeditated murder with the “Intent” to do bodily harm to others.
From all the information obtained at this time, she did plan this....this biology professor came to the meeting with the "INTENT" to kill as many people as possible because she was not given tenure. This is truly a sad sad situation. God be with those families who have lost their loved ones.
268 posted on 02/13/2010 5:04:18 AM PST by Paige ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," Edmund Burke)
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To: grey_whiskers

Actually, at a lot of schools, their main job is to pull in grant money.

The extent to which these research programs are 'profitable' to university is greatly exagerated. Yes, they increase overall revenues, but they are heavily supported by cross-subsidies.

A university may make a big deal in a press release about a new $1 million dollar grant where five faculty are going to work on a project for 3 years. However, little or none of that grant will support the basic salary of the faculty members who are working on it. The money will be spent on graduate students salaries, lab equipment, travel, and extra summer salary for the faculty members. If the five faculty members are earning $100,000 annually with 30% fring benefits and they are spending 1/3 of their time on this project, then the university is spending about $650,000 on faculty time which isn't charged to the project. That's before factoring in the lab space, secretary time and other factors needed to support the projects.

Yes, the university is increasing it's overall revenue by winning that grant. But they are accomplishing it by diverting resources that were originally intended for teaching. If Wal-Mart was evaluating a new revenue producing idea, and it turned out that it required keeping the customers waiting in line with the cashiers left their cash registers to do something else, their accountants would factor in that cost. Universities don't.

269 posted on 02/13/2010 5:04:34 AM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: Screaming_Gerbil

Oh there is mania in those eyes. People have got to learn not to try to finesse and play mind games with unbalanced people. Crazy folks OFTEN DO know what other folks are thinking about them and are often sensitive to subtle speech nuances used to try to pacify them while at the same time criticize or exclude them. She took the denial of tenure as a total rejection of her as a person. I’m not sympathizing with her nor am I blaiming the folks she killed. As I understand the story, she was up for tenure consideration which meant the committee involved was in a position to offer tenure. If tenure was not to be available because of budget issues, they should have never started the process to consider her.

My guess, and I have seen this type of thing happen by experience, they went thru a shuck and jive exercise just so they could get rid of a person that most in that department found distasteful. They learned their lesson the hard way. Many crazy people define themselves by their own perceived jobs and the inflated value they place on their job. They have no strong internal compass so they use external structure to help them maintain some semblance of meaning and order in their lives. Threaten those structures and they will fight to the death to maintain those structures; to do otherwise means that the paranoid individual has no more being and is dissolved into nothingness.

Hence the psychology you find in Islamic extremist Jihadi movements!


270 posted on 02/13/2010 5:06:47 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: dragnet2
I could care less if private companies or private schools have tenure. They do not confiscate my money to operate.

In fact, private universities do confiscate your money to operate. Most good private schools charge outrageously high tuition ($30-40K per year is not uncommon), which few students could afford, unless they were heavily subsidized by government student aid (Pell grants, etc) or government guarantteed student loans. So you're paying for the private school too.

271 posted on 02/13/2010 5:10:02 AM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: Star Traveler

“that’s why we have trials”

Sure, thankfully we can’t incarcerate on the basis of what we instinctively know to be true, because people would inevitably abuse that. But truth is not determined by trials, only the most just outcome, ie. just-ice. We know OJ killed his wife, despite the courts, for example.


272 posted on 02/13/2010 5:14:32 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: EDINVA
The demise of tenure has been greatly exaggerated. The vast majority (I'm willing to guess >98%) of 4-year colleges and universities still have tenure systems (maybe some community/technical colleges do not).

Two small changes to tenure systems have been widely reported in recent years.

Some universities have made more use of non-tenure-track instructors, especially for introductory freshmen/sophomore level classes. These instructor positions are largely dead-end jobs, with little opportunity for advancement, but at most universities, the vast majority of instructional positions are still tenure-track faculty members.

Second, many universities now have some form of post-tenure review available in theory. So if a tenured faculty member is truly non-productive in every aspect of their work, such a review can be used as a threat to pressure that faculty member to improve or retire. However, these review processes which theoretically allow a tenured faculty member to fired usually take 2-3 years of detailed evaluations, with the strong presumption in favor of the faculty member at every step of the way. Post-tenure review is seldom, if ever, invoked as more than a threat.

273 posted on 02/13/2010 5:24:43 AM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: john in springfield
I'd hit it, though... ...with a two by four.

You get splinters that way. Baseball bat is better. Or a sword.

274 posted on 02/13/2010 5:25:44 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: Lazamataz
No I wouldn't. I wouldn't hit Helen Thomas. Oh wait, I would.

Laz, Laz. Here is hitable material:


275 posted on 02/13/2010 5:30:37 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: BabaOreally

No still no lady with green sweater and high heels...wonder if the photo was an early mistake and they took it out.


276 posted on 02/13/2010 5:38:50 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: Man from Oz
Thanks for explaining how it works.

Question for you: I get the impression that a major factor in whether somebody gets tenure is how much grant money that person brings in as a result of his research. Do you find that to be true?

277 posted on 02/13/2010 5:40:48 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: Screaming_Gerbil
It would explain things a bit if her husband dressed as lived as a woman... In this day and age , it would not surprise me in the least if he did.
278 posted on 02/13/2010 5:55:06 AM PST by sport
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To: mdmathis6
Oh there is mania in those eyes. People have got to learn not to try to finesse and play mind games with unbalanced people. Crazy folks OFTEN DO know what other folks are thinking about them and are often sensitive to subtle speech nuances used to try to pacify them while at the same time criticize or exclude them. She took the denial of tenure as a total rejection of her as a person. I’m not sympathizing with her nor am I blaiming the folks she killed. As I understand the story, she was up for tenure consideration which meant the committee involved was in a position to offer tenure. If tenure was not to be available because of budget issues, they should have never started the process to consider her.

My guess, and I have seen this type of thing happen by experience, they went thru a shuck and jive exercise just so they could get rid of a person that most in that department found distasteful. They learned their lesson the hard way. Many crazy people define themselves by their own perceived jobs and the inflated value they place on their job. They have no strong internal compass so they use external structure to help them maintain some semblance of meaning and order in their lives. Threaten those structures and they will fight to the death to maintain those structures; to do otherwise means that the paranoid individual has no more being and is dissolved into nothingness.

I think you've explained it.

279 posted on 02/13/2010 6:15:44 AM PST by Screaming_Gerbil (Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them...he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.")
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To: mdmathis6
No still no lady with green sweater and high heels...wonder if the photo was an early mistake and they took it out.

It could be a lady who they initially thought was the shooter, or connected with the shooter.

Or it could be the husband, who was reported as also arrested. Haven't seen a picture of him yet, though I've been looking...

280 posted on 02/13/2010 6:19:41 AM PST by Screaming_Gerbil (Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them...he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.")
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