Need for Faculty

* Re “Wasting a Top Asset,” editorial, June 24: You ask where the wave of students who will descend upon our state universities will sit. I’m just as concerned with who will teach these students. The combination of uncompetitive pay, high housing costs and a teaching load heavier than any other comparable schools have made it increasingly difficult to attract good faculty to the Cal State University system. In my discipline we try to hire faculty with PhDs for less than what a good student with a bachelor’s degree can command.

With regard to year-around operation, many of our faculty members do not want to teach during the summer, both because they will burn out on teaching if they do so and because they need that time to engage in professional development in order to earn tenure, be promoted and receive merit salary increases. And at Cal Poly we have a regular summer quarter with the same fee structure as in other quarters. We have tried offering more classes during the summer but students don’t appear to be interested--I had to cancel several classes because of low enrollments.

I see little evidence that the CSU administration or the politicians in California are attempting to address these problems.

JAY DEVORE, Chair

Department of Statistics

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo