I can let an extraordinarily poor headline slip past, but there has been a stunning revelation in this article that I just have to point out. The Tampa Tribune has this unfortunate habit of running with statistics that look to have been sexed up by a 4th grader with a calculator. That is saying that our friends at the Tribune will run an article about a shocking statistic such as "USF received more earmarks than all but 9 universities" without taking into consideration that USF also happens to be the ninth largest university in the country by student population. Just take a look at this handy reference from UF.
Looking at how the 9th largest university is the 9th highest recipient of Congressional earmarks is nice, but we should really be asking what the heck the University of South Alabama did to get its $33.4 million in 2008. Never mind that we're talking about a total of approximately $477 million here in a federal budget of about $7 trillion (with a 't'). Are there better things that we could be spending this money on? More than likely. Does it bother me that Congress is allocating money for academic research, capital projects, and other money to benefit universities that are already strapped for cash? Not a bit.
As a quick sidebar, the last time the Tribune went crazy with inconsequential statistics was during their expose of personal day abuse at HARTline. Apparently 42% of sick days happened to be either a Monday or a Friday. That sounds like a lot until you realize that, out of a five day work week, one day represents 20% of the week and combining two days would be 40% of the work week. Since HARTline runs seven days a week (much to the writer's chagrin when he's navigating South Tampa on a Saturday), we'll say that one day is 14.3% of their work week. With that in mind, the expected number should be 28.6% of days off on Mondays and Fridays. So there is an increased likelihood that drivers will take off either Monday or Friday, but it is hardly a panic situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment