Friday, June 18, 2004

The National Law Journal has a great piece on the “star system” at work in the recuiting of top law professors, with reports of free homes, cars, computers and kids’ tuition being used to lure top law faculty (along with salaries that reach 350k!). Any Tax Profs offered such blandishments are encouraged to share their story here. Jim Maule (Villanova) offers some interesting thoughts on his blog:

So where is this heading? Will it be like professional sports, where the top stars make millions and the rest of the roster scrapes by on rookie salaries, veterans’ minimums, and journeyman’s wages? Will it be like corporate America, where the star CEOs pull in tens of millions and the rest of the labor force ekes a living from minimum wages? Will it be like the law firms, where the top partners pull down big bucks, and many of the other lawyers do quite comfortably (financially, that is, for they surely get worked over in terms of hours and stress)?

I fear it is going to go the route of professional sports and corporate America. Already in the undergraduate institutions, schools are cutting costs by shifting teaching loads to adjuncts who do not qualify for most of the non-salary benefits. Many such adjuncts hold four jobs, teaching one course at each of four institutions, racing from one place to another, praying for good weather and no traffic tie-ups, and steaming about the increase in gasoline prices. Colleges and universities are under pressure to reduce the rate of tuition hikes, and if they start shelling out big bucks for the so-called “stars” there will be less for the rest.