Re: “Professors who make money outside the classroom: Why should public schools pay a guy to do research and then allow that professor to make money off of that research by writing books, getting speaking fees, and running outside businesses. We wouldn’t let anyone in corporate America do that.”
Actually, the commentor has a point. Prior folks bring up activites more in line with discoveries than writing textbooks and garnering speaking fees.
In my field, the true researchers (working on the school’s dime) disparage those who are “textbook writers” and are contributing more to their own wealth than to the university’s. First, we knock down their salaries as low as we can, and don’t give them merit raises (as they merit none). Researchers are generally paid a lot more than textbook-writers because we contribute a lot more to the school’s mission. Second, we give them crappy teaching loads to try to discourage their behaviour. For example, we won’t let them stack all their classes in one term (like the researchers are allowed to do); give them multiple class perperations, etc. They’re also given a lot more service in general. All this because others at the universities realize they’re just trying to line their own pockets. Oh, and if we see any of this textbook-writing behaviour prior to tenure, we make sure they don’t get tenure.
