Klarinet Archive - Posting 000580.txt from 1998/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] The rich get richer
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 23:50:33 -0400

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Daniel A. Paprocki wrote:

> There are full time professors that take part time playing jobs in order
> to make some extra "fun" money above their main income, a job that
> someone else could use to support themselves.
[............]
> There are full time performers who also teach at a college (full time)
> which leaves one less full time job that someone else could live on. So
> we have one musician making two full time incomes - nice, right?

I have an uneasy feeling that I shouldn't jump into this fray, as I
remember only two well a discussion earlier this summer when you had
decided that the musical world was unfair, and you were on that high horse
for quite some time. Perhaps it was a "tempest in a teapot" as I can't
even remember what the topic was. Well, here goes anyway.

A. When you teach at a college or university, it normally is a
requirement or at least a strong expectation that you maintain a certain
amount of outside performance. This is considered a part of your
"professional development." The thinking is that if you are going to
teach students to perform, you need to keep involved in performance
yourself, in part to demonstrate that you have the ability to do what you
"profess."

B. I don't know of any case where a teacher/performer can earn two
"full-time" salaries. In all the situations I have ever heard of, when
you have a full-time university position, you have to put in full-time
hours to draw that full-time salary - even though there are many cases
where what are called full-time salaries in education are hardly much
better than part-time salaries in other fields. It is generally accepted
procedure in most universities that the employing institution has the
right to limit the faculty member's participation in outside activities.
Often, such things as part-time performance in an orchestra has to be
justified and permission received. The university administration feels
that if they are paying that full-time salary, they are entitled to
receive full effort and full expenditure of time and effort from the
teacher. Administrators can generally be convinced that activities such
as performance are important to a faculty member's professional
development, and that having professors do such things is in the long-term
best interest of their students.

However, I teach full-time in a university, and in fact am much more than
full-time there, as I consistently carry a heavy overload. I also play in
a metropolitan class orchestra, with a season of around 85 - 90 services,
where I am principal bassoonist. I have been in that orchestra for 31
years, and can assure you that my salary there would do essentially
nothing to solve the fiduciary problems of a musician looking for a way to
make a living by playing.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************

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