King Obama

Across the land, we now must temper our tongues because King Obama cannot take it.

Obama takes direct aim at anti-government rhetoric BY PETE YOST AND MARK S. SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS (Miami Herald)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In a blunt caution to political friend and foe, President Barack Obama said Saturday that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America's democracy, and may incite "extreme elements" to violence.

Get out of the kitchen, you weak poser. If you can't handle the heat, just get out. If you can't handle free speech, then find a time machine and move back to the Soviet Union.

Governor Light-Fingers cuts water help, fleeces students

As this site has previously mentioned, Florida budget aces and a light-fingered governor have managed to shear the families of students for the high-dollar faculty at state universities and colleges. This week, something really needed, alternate water supply programs, feels the whisper of the blade, viz.

Crist signs $1.1B budget cut plan; OKs tuition increase AP, Florida Times-Union Oct. 27, 2007

Gov. Charlie Crist has made final $1.1 billion in state budget cuts - but he did so grudgingly and without fanfare. Crist fixed his signature Friday to the budget revision bills sent to him two weeks ago by the Legislature. They enact tuition increases at public universities and colleges and cuts to the state's water supply projects, among other things... An alliance of business groups and environmentalists failed to convince Crist to veto a $30 million reduction in the state's alternative water supply programs. "I don't care what you cut in the budget, but it should not be water. We have drought, we have shortages, we have water wars starting," said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland. "This is the very last place we should cut."

Here is an article from the Times-Union about water supply trouble ahead.

Water needs could fog area's growth picture DAVID HUNT, The Times-Union Oct. 27, 2007

Northeast Florida is going to need at least 554 million gallons of fresh water every day to continue growing past 2030. That's 180 million gallons more than the region is using today, according to projections prepared by the St. Johns River Water Management District. The additional need would be enough water to fill more than 270 Olympic swimming pools... Utility managers are keeping watch as their counterparts to the south look for alternative supplies. The Floridan Aquifer as close by as Orlando is not expected to support growth past 2013, which has caused debate throughout Central and Northeast Florida over a controversial plan to draw up to 262 million gallons daily from the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers. "Somewhere down the line, this is going to be a problem in North Florida and we have one of the best water supplies in the world," said Ray Avery, executive director of the Clay County Utility Authority.

It is amazing that Florida sits atop a huge aqifer yet always has a dry season that can go directly to drought if a few months are dryer than usual.

From my experience living out West, the water supply is the main limiting factor for populations of many wild species, and ought to be the limiting factor for "tame" bipedal primate species, as well. Every environmentalist who wants to be environmentally sensitive and move to the Rockies does so at the expense of elk habitat. Humans love to build vacation homes and live where elk live.

A relative of mine wanted to move to the Rockies because she had money and didn't like California. I told her to find a place in California, that the wildlife she reveres would thank her.

Amazingly, Florida sounds like it will soon be getting population pressure on the water supply. But by then the governor will be retired and living by the Potomac River, if his ambitions pan out.

Governor Crist makes it official: pony up time for students and their families.

Tuition goes up to pay for more faculty who probably will not have to teach enough to lighten the teaching load significantly, although that is how the U bigwigs sold it at Wednesday's meeting, no doubt. Students and their families' wallets will be much lighter.

Tuition will jump at 3 universities June 28, 2007, Luis Zaragoza and John Kennedy, Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE - Thousands of new college students will start paying a premium next year to attend a trio of Florida's top-ranked public universities. Gov. Charlie Crist unexpectedly reversed his opposition to legislation that will allow the University of Florida and Florida State University to charge up to 40 percent more than the state's base tuition rate. The University of South Florida will be able to charge a 30 percent premium... Crist had earlier vetoed a 5 percent, across-the-board tuition increase for the state's 11 public universities, saying he opposed hiking costs for students and their parents... Crist huddled behind closed doors Wednesday with Florida's university presidents and told them that he would sign the bill... UCF President John Hitt said after Wednesday's meeting that the loss of the anticipated money for growth translates into dozens of faculty members whom the school won't be able to hire and hundreds of courses that it won't be able to offer.

The way that you can see their nefarious selling strategy is: John Hitt's statement. When he says, "dozens of faculty members whom the school won't be able to hire," it is code for dozens of expensive-to-hire hotshot research faculty who will have light teaching assignments. President Hitt and UCF do not care much about faculty who teach lots of students. Ask any faculty member at his university. These U bigwigs only care about researchers who can give them the reputation of "elite, research-oriented public schools in other states." I wager that the governor got sucked in when they dangled elite in front of the governor's eyes: dollar signs, national recognition, national office, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue etc. etc. Cf., e.g., the 4th chapter of Matthew for an anecdote from the past of an amusingly similar blandishment:

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

And if you want to find the devil here, look in the numbers. We do not know the exact numbers the U bigwigs quoted to the governor, but we can make an estimate.

1. Dozens of faculty ←for a conservative estimate, let's call that 24 faculty.
2. Hundreds of courses ← for a conservative estimate, let's call that 200 classes.

The approximate teaching load for these new faculty would be about 8 classes per year! NOBODY teaches 8 classes per year, not even the lowest ranking lecturer on punishment.

Or put it another way: $70 million annually for this new fee for the three schools, once it is fully in effect. Let's say that they share the money equally, and use it for 24 new faculty at each U. Under this estimate, $70 million between 72 faculty members, comes out to about $97,000 per faculty member. But not all of that goes to salary. Part of that $97,000 goes to benefits like health insurance, some goes to overhead like office and light bill and so on. And that is only if there is ZERO "startup package" for the faculty member. Not many faculty will be happy with salary that far south of $97,000 and no startup. Recruiting will be tough.

So the numbers paint a picture of impending failure. No new faculty will want relatively low pay without startup package for the privilege of teaching 8 sections per year.

But the governor did not catch that, or he ignored it. Or perhaps they gave him different numbers, shorter numbers: some of the science departments across the state can break into the first rank nationally with just a few more research faculty.

But the public purpose, to help the teaching of students, is going to suffer.

They should be building up both kinds of faculty, hotshot researchers and faithful teachers and, best of all, faculty who do both tasks well.

For the reporters and editors of this article, the embarrassment is that the person who pays, the persons who receives this service -- the student and his family -- are left to the last few lines. But I will make them prominent here:

Teri Stonebraker, a Kissimmee resident who will have two children enrolled at FSU this fall, said she understood how the increasing cost of keeping quality staff and programs in place could raise costs for students.

"I just wish the state would find other ways to allow all students to get an education," she said.

Even for the Orlando Sentinel editor, this looks like an afterthought. But the teaching of students should be the priority, top of the article, not at end of page two.

Fewer students so that more faculty can be hired

Apparently, the politicians feel it is better to have fewer students if the savings can guarantee more faculty and staff. And tack on a surcharge at UF, FSU and University of South Florida (Tampa-St. Pete) so that more faculty and staff can be hired.

"FSU will freeze enrollment to curb costs," June 16, 2007, Luis Zaragoza, Orlando Sentinel

Florida State University will freeze enrollment as part of a cost-cutting campaign it blames on years of state under-funding for enrollment growth, the loss of a tuition increase and uncertainty about revenue, officials said Friday... The University of Central Florida and other state universities also are looking at spending cuts for the same reasons, but FSU is first to announce an enrollment freeze.

And here is a comment that is eloquent in its omission: "Other cuts at FSU include putting off repairs and maintenance, reviewing travel and reducing journal subscriptions." The omission → no mention is made of the suits cutting their own salary raises! Ditching journal subscriptions will not save much.

I wager that if the legislators could interview individual faculty members, departmental accountants and other low level staff members, without the deans and provosts around, the legislators would learn that a big part of the under-funding is a result of paying huge startup fees for sexy new research faculty instead of paying for the teaching infrastructure that is now suffering neglect. Ditto for new research "centers of excellence." Each is an example of robbing Peter to pay Paul, because the state wants to push and shove its institutions up into the club of famous top-tier research universities like Harvard and Cal Tech, a good goal and attainable if done carefully.

It was not done carefully.

You can see it was not done carefully because of the current jam they are in, not enough faculty to carry the teaching load.

The danger is that new savings and new fees, if they go through, will be diverted to more startup fees but not help with the teaching load or keeping the universities open to more students.