Initially this seems outrageous, but a little perspective helps.

CEOs of some corporations are making 100s of millions of dollars a year despite a weak economy, 40 million w/o health care, and tons of unemployment.

The President of a University is like the CEO of a corporation. These are generally intelligent people that could probably be making millions in the private sector, but want to help education instead. I say that's a positive thing.

count my president in on that one!

and you know what? when you are cutting out teams and academic programs and laying off janitors who make 30 grand a year, no, no you're NOT work 500+k a year.

Americans believe 'you get what you pay for' but insist on the cheapest possible education systems...which proves they're right.

I'd say 500k is fair...sorta...

cheshirecatsmileyface

and you know what? when you are cutting out teams and academic programs and laying off janitors who make 30 grand a year, no, no you're NOT work 500+k a year.

The President's primary responsibility is fundraising/gift soliciting. A good one can raise millions of dollars for the school, money that goes to directly support the things you say are cut solely because one person makes 500k.

BlueMcPoo, but when you dont put it into perspective and take it as-is, you see overpayed heads of schools making money that should probably be going into the school. I would rather see more of the actual teachers receiving that money, but hey, that's just me.

BlueMcPoo
i did NOT say things were being cut soley to pay for the president's salary. i SAID if the school is having to cut things like programs and teams and lower paying jobs, then maybe the president should take a small pay cut for the good of the university. i think it's safe to say that a small pay cut when you already make 500 grand is not life-changing.

chesirecatsmileyface

i think it's safe to say that a small pay cut when you already make 500 grand is not life-changing.

So let's say the President takes a 10 percent pay cut, which is huge in the business world. That's enough to pay one janitor (maybe two, if you really stretch it). In the meantime, this president that has raised millions of dollars for the University decides to move to a different University or into the private sector to make more money, and the University gets less money as a result.

It just seems like a waste of time to fight against these modest salaries when there are people who make hundreds of millions of dollars for being the CEO of a corporation.

Yes, but the Presidents supposedly aren't "doing it for the money." They "love the school."

Excuse me if I find it hard to sympathize with some poor person making $500,000 a year who complains that they can't take a short-term pay cut when their university is in economic trouble because then they can't afford....what? it's not like my president has housing payments. most likely no car payments either. so what is she paying for? kids are grown and out of the house. so...what? a new boat?

i mean, it's not like it'd be the end of the world if they took a pay cut until their universities are in the black again. and if they can't get their universities in the black again, then wouldn't you say they're not a very effective president anyway?

what kind of animal lives on $500,000 a year?

/TDS

From the article, emphasis added:

"The median salary for presidents at public institutions was $328,400. This is the first year the Chronicle has computed a median salary for those presidents, so it can't say for sure whether the median increased.

But it has tracked median salaries at private schools, which last year rose 19 percent to $459,643 at private research universities."

I just don't see how this is a giant drain on society. If you completely eliminated the salary of the president at UM (I don't know the exact number, so I will say 600k), you could only reduce tuition by 27 dollars per undergraduate student.

labman

That's not assinine. check out how much the coaches make if they are a big sports school. Some of the highest paid people here are the coaches.

Good point. In fact, here is an article directly comparing a football head coach's salary to a President's salary at a prominent state school.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/college/news/2002/07/24/iowa_ferentz _ap/

labman
That's not assinine. check out how much the coaches make if they are a big sports school. Some of the highest paid people here are the coaches.

You're right. The next coach for the Florida Gators will be making upwards of 1mil a year, easy.

BlueMcPoo
i wouldn't just reduce the president's salary. the dean of the medical school makes more money than she does. he can take a small cut too. so can the rest of the higher ups making more than, say, 250,000. not LONG TERM. but if we're so crunched for money that they are firing people and reducing programs...every little bit would be appreciated.

The majority of my tuition at The Ohio State University went to keeping the giant tOSU sign on the West side of the hospital parking garage lit, I am sure of it.

Who farking cares

At most universities, the football and basketball coaches make more money than the President. Coaches and Presidents are responsible for bringing money into the college, so what's the big deal?

Reducing salaries after the fact, for whatever reason, is just plain wrong.

I'm sure Billy Bulger made a lot more in his day.

Wow, only 17?

"It just seems like a waste of time to fight against these modest salaries when there are people who make hundreds of millions of dollars for being the CEO of a corporation."


When did making half a million dollars a year become a "modest" salary?

I can't speak for anyone else's university, but here at EMU our president last year was hired on with numerous promises, none of which he fulfilled. He started construction of a $39 million dollar new Student Center (which was totally unnecessary as the old one is fine), his staffers embezzled money, a large mansion was constructed for him costing millions of dollars, and we still don't know where the vending machine money went (hint, it didn't go to the school). He then raised tuition and the cost of living on campus to compensate for these massive budget shortfalls.

Same old story, the rich get richer.

I actually work in higher ed. fundraising, so permit me to hold forth. The fact of the matter is that fundraising has become more important as public support for education has lagged. Fundraising is now a necessity, and takes up a good portion of university presidents' time. I therefore think it's a bit specious to argue that presidents deserve higher pay because of their fundraising. On the other hand, there is a lot of financial pressure there, and universities are forced into paying presidents that are good fundraisers high salaries to keep them.

The bottom line is that education is insufficiently funded in this country, and it's becoming moreso. Overpaying administrators makes a small difference in the budget, but it's the lack of public funding that causes the real shortfall.

they're worth whatever people are willing to pay for them. that's capitalism. if a state's taxpayers don't like it, they should do something about it. if not, then STFU.

The presidency of an institution with thousands of employees, tens of thousands of students and untold thousands of alumni contributors, that contributes significantly to the research, innovation and general knowledge-base that our society is built upon?

Yeah, that's worth about the same as a typical sit-com actor. In a supporting role.

Remember, people...denigrating our institutions of higher learning is essential to homeland security. Pass it on!

dear flucto, i know it sounds like a curse word but the word "asinine" is spelled thus.

additionally, I would like to point out the asinine part is that these are public universities.

you know, the kind that exist due to our taxes in order to provide education to the public for the purpose of having a skilled workforce.

/not that universities aren't wasteful with money in other ways (I'm looking at Bussiness majors here)

I do know that being the president of a university is one of the most thankless jobs there is. Tuition goes up? The president's fault. Budget cuts? President's fault.

These people have to live eat and breate their university while they are serving in this position. I would estimate that if you calculated the actual hourly rate these guys are making it doesn't look that spectacular.

The president at my university worked 14 hour days and was one of the least paid presidents ($400k). Stunning for a school with a 2.5 Billion dollar annual budget

BlueMcPoo is a frood who knows where his towel is.

/higher ed wage slave.

2004-11-16 09:31:42 AM Dr.Fey
Four people just attempted to prove (or called it a good point or right) that it's not asinine based upon the fact that coaches get paid more.

I'm not saying it *is* asinine, I'm just missing the logical correlation there...

How would you propose to assess the fairness of salary valuation for a position within an organization or an entire industry, if not by drawing comparisons to other management-level positions within the same organization and/or industry?

Again, 500k is not surprising for that type of position. Indeed, I'm surprised as hell it's only 17!

Actually, I am kind of glad that you can earn money in what I consider a more meaningfull position than linebacker or actor.

"Universities are just mini-corporations run by big businesses that take over any discoveries made by the students or professors and claim them as their own."

Remember this the next time discussion of public research money comes up.

And these salaries are nothing compared to what the folks at the hospital make.

The head of a university is also a lobbiest to keep the
money coming in from the state and private companies to keep tuition down. 500k for a leading public institution seems fair in comparison to the private market.

You could cut the salary. Of course, you get what you pay for, and you'll be out millions due to bad management.

The University of Washington's Mark Emmert is the top earner among public presidents, with a package that will total $762,000 in pay and benefits.

Never want to see your alma mater in a list like this, but if he can turn the 'U' around, with all of the problems we've had recently, it will be well worth it.

my previous chancellor(what we call them in the south) did a hella lot of work, but to say she's worth 6 times as much as than the man who invented plasma screen TV's and developed the first distance education course is a outright lie.

/let the professors run the schools!

Funny, I bet the submitter doesn't have a problems with CEOs making 600 times the level of their employees.

You can't spell administrative issues without "ASININE."

As someone in academics who has dealt with overpaid administrators many, many times--you could fire them all, hire a new secretary for each one you fire, pay 1/4th the salary, and be 10 x more efficient.

They just send you to their secretary anyway. There are so many "Vice Deans of Academic Butt Scratchings" and "Director of Diversity Issues because we thought We'd Get Sued if we didn't Give this Minority Woman A Job" that it nearly makes my head asplode. For instance, when you go to hire a new professor, you have to submit your "list" to some diversity group to approve it, even if all the applicants were white men or all the people you are considering are minorities. Sickening. And to get certain things done you have to go through like 7 layers of administration just so they get their checks. And sadly, the majority of these people are less educated than the lowliest professor in the university.

2004-11-16 11:45:03 AM haplo53

I'm as capitalist as the next guy. Actually, probably more so. Go corporations :)

I see nothing wrong with people who are extremely good at extremely tough jobs making extreme salaries.

But I have the strong sense that capitalism stops at the board room doors.

When salaries are constantly compared and made "competitive", but people's performace are not, that's not capitalism... that's socialism.

When corporate leaders are recruited from a small pool of external elites and not from the high performers within a company, that's not capitalism... that's fachism.

Let's get the socialist faschists out of the boardrooms and into the Democratic party where they belong :P

This is not an assinine article by any means. Mark Emmert, who part of the article talks about, just started at Washington. He took the job there at the beggining of this fall after leaving LSU.

While at LSU he was in the top 5 best paid Presidents of public Universities (he was actually Chancellor, not President), and he was worth every penny. Sure there was criticism, but he earned every single dollar he made, and he was quite good. He did wonders for LSU in many areas, including academics, and of course, he hired Nick Saban, who if I understand it correctly, is the highest paid college football coach in the nation, and also worth every penny. Emmert brought in millions of dollars to LSU and changed the image that the school had (this is coming from someone who actually got to experience the before and after first hand), though LSU is still nowhere near the top of public schools in the nation.

Anyway, Emmert deserved everything he got, and I'm sure the state of Washington knows that or they wouldn't be paying it.

Ohio University is a publicly funded state university.They had a private 2 jets for the president and all his cronies. Sold both of them to get a new private jet. I recall it cost something like $1,000-$5,000 per round trip for them to take it anywhere. Make matters worse they would take said jet only on short distances most of the time that would only take an hour or two to get there by car.

Cleveland State University is a publicly funded state university. The president insisted that he is chauffeured a limousine back and fourth from his appartment in downtown to the university maybe two/three miles tops.

This is why univerisity tutition goes up

What I find truly asinine is the number of people who type "assinine" instead of "asinine."

For you communists out there.....It is called supply and demand.

Note to self: Might regret comment when $100 million student loan bill comes due.

Wait wait....Ohio University...or Ohio STATE University?

I don't think there's even an airport in Athens county.

While at LSU he was in the top 5 best paid Presidents of public Universities (he was actually Chancellor, not President), and he was worth every penny. Sure there was criticism, but he earned every single dollar he made, and he was quite good. He did wonders for LSU in many areas, including academics, and of course, he hired Nick Saban, who if I understand it correctly, is the highest paid college football coach in the nation, and also worth every penny. Emmert brought in millions of dollars to LSU and changed the image that the school had (this is coming from someone who actually got to experience the before and after first hand), though LSU is still nowhere near the top of public schools in the nation.

Anyway, Emmert deserved everything he got, and I'm sure the state of Washington knows that or they wouldn't be paying it.

I guess we may have to agree to disagree on this one. I endured Emmert while at LSU and was so happy to get out of there. I mean, thought it wasn't totally his fault, you are talking about an era where some students had to take TESTS ON OVERHEADS, people were no longer allowed to make copies (which slowed research), phones were pulled from professors' offices, etc. It was a fiasco, and he still pulled more money than a Bunny Ranch hooker.

Now, Texas once had a system president who refused a raise until his teachers got one. That guy is rare. No clue what happened to him.