For some reason I've never thought of Spaghetti Works as Italian?
Weird.
But I do remember a work event where we sat by the front window when a big snow storm was happening. It felt like we were sitting in a big city.
Iowa Wesleyan closing its doors
- Thread starter 4cy16
- Start date
For some reason I've never thought of Spaghetti Works as Italian?
Weird.
But I do remember a work event where we sat by the front window when a big snow storm was happening. It felt like we were sitting in a big city.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't. Salaries have been under attack for a long time.
They won't pay a full-timer 100k when they can get a part-timer for 3k per course (which is the high end outside of ISU).
Let me know what industries are going to replace this college in that community.
HS teachers at small schools make 70 without advanced degrees. With the online courses, many schools are losing the room and board income and are taking a hit there.
Hmm I'm not sure about your number there. My sister was a teacher at a small school and didn't make that much. Of course, maybe she was just getting screwed over. Do you have a link with salaries?
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I'm aware. The situation in colleges is worse than the situation in public schools.
I know what my wife’s school pays and they are right there. I’m not going to dox myself so I will see if I can find some others since it’s public record.
Population will be fine. Wal-Mart distribution center, health facility,strong professional community plus commuters to Burlington. Also young professionals from U of I find their way there. Small towns can rule. Strong schools. Okay,I’m off social media for a time….
Yeah, I don't think most people realize how little folks get paid at private higher ed institutions. Granted, I'm currently staff and not faculty, but I technically make less than what I made when I started in my field 10 years ago when you factor in inflation. But I stay because 1) I like what I do, 2) I have some flexibility that I need since we have small kids, and most importantly 3) my husband makes significantly more than me.
Have a 60 plus year affiliation with that town. It will survive. Hate to see Wesleyan potentially go.
I posted this in the Reynolds thread:
My wife worked in college admissions for a lot of years. She knew people that worked at Iowa Wesleyan. Ten years ago those folks were all looking to leave because they knew then there was no saving the school.
Twenty-five years ago I was working at a small private school here in Iowa. One day one of the VPs called a meeting. In summary he said in 10 years one-half of the private schools in Iowa will close because of enrollment declines and outstanding debt. Well, that hasn't happened...yet. Maybe that time is now. I spoke with a college classmate a few months back who is a VP at a small Iowa college. He was throwing out enrollment numbers of well known schools and how badly enrollment has declined. He said COVID funding was just delaying the inevitable and now with those funds gone there will be some colleges in Iowa shuttering. It is coming. I hate to say this, especially since I did graduate from a small Iowa college, but that could be a good thing in the long run for the Regents.
My wife worked in college admissions for a lot of years. She knew people that worked at Iowa Wesleyan. Ten years ago those folks were all looking to leave because they knew then there was no saving the school.
Twenty-five years ago I was working at a small private school here in Iowa. One day one of the VPs called a meeting. In summary he said in 10 years one-half of the private schools in Iowa will close because of enrollment declines and outstanding debt. Well, that hasn't happened...yet. Maybe that time is now. I spoke with a college classmate a few months back who is a VP at a small Iowa college. He was throwing out enrollment numbers of well known schools and how badly enrollment has declined. He said COVID funding was just delaying the inevitable and now with those funds gone there will be some colleges in Iowa shuttering. It is coming. I hate to say this, especially since I did graduate from a small Iowa college, but that could be a good thing in the long run for the Regents.
A teacher with +20-30 at Gilbert 7-8 years in has a base of 55ish.
Roland story wages for similar experience is around 60k.
These are last year and many saw a 2-3% bump for this year and 3-4% for next year. So add 6% to the 60 and you get 63-64. Have a 15 year teacher with basic continueing Ed credits and no extra curricular or mentoring and they are at 70 to 70+ at these schools without graduate degrees.
It's not just small private schools. In Dubuque paper they had an article about enrollment trends at the small colleges in the area. I expected that schools like Loras, UD and Clarke probably took a dip because of high tuition costs and post-Covid impacts.
But was surprised that UW-Plattville had lost about 25% of its students over the last decade- going from 8700 students to 6500 students.
But was surprised that UW-Plattville had lost about 25% of its students over the last decade- going from 8700 students to 6500 students.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
No doubt.
If people want a list of what Central Iowa schools pay per course for the part-timers who do the work:
1. ISU: $7200 per course, unless they come up with a creative way to short that, which they certainly will.
2. Drake: $3000 per course. They are the best of all the local schools to work with as well. They inform you and pretend you're there. Nobody else does that.
3. DMACC: $984 per credit hour, 3 credit course. They just changed that from 4, which was a much better deal on the teaching side.
4. Simpson: $2705 per course.
5. William Penn: $2450 per course. They did "dig deep" and find an extra $65 for my trouble, so huzzah.
Schools aren't paying full-timers to come in and teach courses. They're eliminating those positions left and right, and if they see a need for a course to be taught (i.e. they can't wiggle out of a requirement they set for themselves), then they're reaching out for part-timers to work cheap without notice.
This is huge. I stopped my teaching side-gig because the place I worked notified me of textbook changes two weeks out twice within a year. Everything was last-minute and it was more headache than it was worth, money-wise when I didn't need it.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Yeah. I mean, I've never figured to be part of decision-making, and I'm glad not to go to meetings, but if something big is happening, I probably need to know. For example:
I was teaching a course for ISU in Spring 2020. When the COVID news started breaking, I started making tentative plans. Then a prof friend posted something somewhere about departmental e-mails concerning COVID, and I found out that the department was racing through planning and never bothering to talk to me.
So I made my plans, did an announcement of what I thought was coming at the last class before break, and sent off an "apology" and request to get on that list.
Strangely enough, I then found that some schools were finding nice sums of money to help instructors buy equipment and transition to online learning. I had to wing that myself, both financially and self-training. That wasn't ideal.
Way back in the day I was recruited to play ball at a few of the D-III schools. Will never forget one person saying "You'll only need to come up with $18,000/yr to attend!"
That was a **** ton of money in the 80s. Juco was almost free by comparison.
Decisions, along with virtual classes, that make the student experience worse… while tuition increases continue to heartily outpace inflation. I did an Econ report (20+ years ago) on whether it was more beneficial to get an MBA immediately after competing undergrad or to wait. Much to the professors chagrin, it was clear that, unless you could get an employer to subsidize it, it was generally a better financial decision to skip the post-grad work entirely. I wonder if that’s starting to be the case with undergrad degrees, too.
