Coming Soon to a Streetcorner in My Neighborhood

Inside Higher Ed has a story this week about the declining value of faculty salaries this year:

Faculty members are getting slightly larger raises this year than last year, but the raises have less buying power.

The average salary increased by 2.8 percent in 2004-5 — weighted across all types of institutions and all faculty ranks — according to data released last week by the American Association of University Professors. That’s better than last year’s increases of 2.1 percent, which was a 30-year low. But inflation was extremely low last year, and rose to 3.3 percent this year. That means average increases lagged behind inflation for the first time in eight years.

Yep, this about describes it. We got a 2.7% raise this year, and we've fallen farther into debt than ever. And with our 9-month contract ending soon, I'll have to break out my...uh...entrepreneurial skills...to get through the summer. My only solace is that come October 15, high oil prices over the past year will likely result in a larger Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (the wad of blood money Alaska residents "earn" each year from pillaging our environment, bowing to our corporate masters, and hastening the extinction of life on this planet).