He’s here because the money isn’t.
Tough fiscal times have forced the University of Memphis to invest more in part-time educators. Educators who now fill many of the teaching positions once up for grabs, due to side effects of the statewide cash shortage.
He was the 1981 U of M journalism student of the year, and he has 20 years of experience behind him working at The Commercial Appeal.
But David Waters, a columnist, writer, and father of three, seems to relish his new role as a part-time journalism instructor.
You don’t need a four-year degree to get the message.
“Tennessee is 50th for funding for higher education in the United States,” said Marcia Taylor, U of M Staff Senate President.
The University continues to look for alternative solutions to the shortage of funds. For now, hiring part-time instructors, like Waters, is one of them.
Waters teaches news feature writing at the U of M. He’s also a columnist for The Commercial Appeal, where he won the “Distinguished Writer’s Award” from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1997 and also subsequently made his way into the Scripps Howard Editorial Hall of Fame.
So what would make a former student want to come back and teach?
“I have a few motivations for being here,” he told a class recently. “Mainly, I think it’s important for students to have contact with people in their profession, and not just academics. You can learn a lot from people in the field.”
And Waters certainly has a lot to teach his students.
He writes a column on religion, “Faith Matters,” for a city that could be considered the buckle on the Bible Belt. The column got started in 1998 and came out once a week.
It went out twice a week in ‘99, and today, Waters’ column appears every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.
He’ll be 44 in June, and he’s been married to the same woman, a girl he spied singing in the choir loft one Sunday at church, for almost 23 years.
The purpose he has in mind for his class, he says, is for his students to be able to go on to any newspaper or magazine and tackle any assignment they are handed.
Although Waters is a part-time educator, he has the attitude of a full-time teacher.
