Posted on 11/27/2002 10:39:35 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
George W. Bush, the president of the United States, is paid
$400,000 per year (with a palace and a 747 on the side) to preside
over the federal government, which spends trillions annually. Claire
L. Gaudiani, former president of Connecticut College, was paid
$898,410 in regular salary and deferred compensation in 2001 to stop
presiding over a small school in New London, Conn., with about 1,800
students and a view of the sea. She was one of 27 college presidents
earning more than half a million that year.
Executive pay is a hot topic these days, with big corporate chiefs
pocketing pay packages in the multimillions. But academics jumping
aboard the gravy train? Who knew?
This revelation of wretched excess was spun up by a little
eyebrow-raiser of a news story recently that noted that Kurt Landgraf,
late of the DuPont Co., had been paid $800,000 for his first 10 months
of work for the Educational Testing Service, of SAT fame. He also paid
six-figure bonuses to 15 ETS officers. This, the story implied, was
rather shocking because nonprofit education services tend to pay more
like colleges and universities.
Actually, ETS is paying like its academic customers. The latest
issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that The
Half-Million Club of college prexies has doubled in the past few years
with no end in sight short of a national economic meltdown. Judith
Rodin of University of Pennsylvania makes $808,000, William R. Brody
of Johns Hopkins makes $677,000. Constantine N. Papadakis of
Philadelphia's Drexel University makes $637,839. Steven B. Sample of
the University of California makes $605,000. And Ruth J. Simmons made
$539,000 in her last year at Smith College and hasn't taken a pay cut
to move to Brown University.
Perhaps there is some justice in fat paychecks for academics in an
era when pop stars and athletes are paid millions. But they are
getting a cut of the gate and the question is whether nonprofits, who
pay no taxes, should be allowed to be this generous. (They are even
more generous to physicians at medical schools, some of whom make well
over $1 million per year, and to football and basketball coaches).
The boards of trustees that authorize pay and benefits packages
(almost all college presidents also get free houses) say salaries are
market driven. College presidents have to raise millions of dollars to
keep their institutions afloat, so why not give them a cut?
The IRS, in its wisdom, thought things were getting a little out of
line in the halls of ivy and declared last January that it is going to
start enforcing a 1996 law that penalizes top officials at nonprofits
who receive undue compensation. Salaries must compare favorably with
''peer institutions in similar geographic markets.'' The unintended
consequence may be a salary race upward at colleges everywhere.
Left in the dust are ordinary professors. While some are well paid
(over $100,000 at big colleges), their annual increases have stayed in
the 4.5 percent range compared to their presidents' high double-digit
increases. They are grumbling.
Technically, nonprofits are supposed to plow their excess revenues
back into their missions, which in private colleges should be the
student learning environment. Arguing that good presidents are an
integral part of that easily skirts that one.
But the warning shots have been fired. College board members are on
notice, like their corporate peers, that they may be seen as too
willing to loot the treasury on behalf of favored executives.
Meantime, expect more college tuition increases. And stop that
sniffling.
This is disgusting. All the costs of ETS's services accrue to students during high school, when there's no financial aid to pay for it. Excessive pay levels at ETS will end up being a burden to working class families that have to pay the fees to take the SAT. This is stupid. Running ETS is not like running a real company. They should hire some schmuck who just got his MPA from an unheard of school in the Midwest. He would just as easily be able to run the company, which has guaranteed customer base every year.
OTOH, what people fail to realize is that most of the college presidents you see making Wall Street level incomes have Wall Street level fundraising experience. They effectively cost the schools nothing, as they will bring in more money from alumni/industry/govt research grants than they get paid every year. That is really the only reason you would need someone with much talent to perform what would otherwise by a mostly symbolic job.
True - so true.
I took the trade school route - or for the technology sector - it's equivilent by going to vendor training classes. So I do not have a degree - not even an associates. I'm one of the top people in my field - but no degree.
But here is the real laugh. I could not afford the pay cut to teach at a major college. I guess that's ok, cause most colleges and universities do not think I'm qualified to teach 'cause I dont have a degree.
I recall a time when I went a local university to see what it would cost to return to college and get my degree. The rules required that I sit down with a counseler and discuss my education. The person I was suposed to meet with was sick so the assistand dept head did my "interview"
He went through my history and anounced that in 2 to 3 years I could expect to be making almost has much as he was but that I couldn't expect to be making the "good money" until I had several years of experience.
You should have see the look of shock when I told him that I would have to work 2.5 jobs at the pay level he was recommending in order to break even.
Until I can get someone (employer tuition maybe) to pay for my college, it just does not make sence. Too much cost, too little return.
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