How much would you be willing to pay to make sure you hired the right candidate for the job? Let us be clear, I am not referring to how much you would be willing to pay someone to do the job, but how much you would be willing to pay just to find someone to do the job. Does $20,000 seem insane? If so, you and Louisiana State University do not share a similar opinion. In fact, your opinions are not even close. LSU has recently stated that they are willing to pay Greenwood/Asher & Associates Inc. as much as $1.5million to find the university a new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. The full article can be found here. I sincerely hope that the university does not spend this much on every hire, as the man being replaced, Jack Hamilton, has only worked for LSU since June, 2010.
The fact that an institution would even consider spending this much on a job search is sickening. In an age when everyone associated with higher education is wondering where the money will come from to continue their programs, and where hiring freezes due to lack of funds are the norm, it is curious that LSU would make this decision so blatantly public. Of course, it is hard to hide these types of decisions when it comes to being a public institution like LSU. In fact, a simple Google search can lead you quickly to salary information for every employee at the university or a revenue and expenditure spreadsheet. Therefore, it would be tough to hide this sort of expenditure from public eyes to begin with.
I have to wonder how many student programs, clubs, organizations, and services could be supported with a chunk of the $1.5 million dollars in question. Or, perhaps someone at the university could make the decision to help out the student body and lower fees. I realize that in the grand scheme of a university’s budget, especially at an institution the size of LSU, $1.5 million is not really that much money. But, if that much can be wasted to pay for a job search, there is probably money being wasted elsewhere as well. If you allow yourself to get creative, you can think of many ways that money could be put to better use.
I am all for making sure the right candidate is chosen to do a job. However, somewhere along the line there has to be ethical or moral implications when a decision like this is made, especially if other areas of the university are suffering. The daily news is filled with stories about the financial crisis in higher education. University officials report on decreasing budgets and the need to increase tuition and fees semester after semester. Yet at the same time entire departments are purchasing new IPADs for every single employee, brand new recreation centers are being built to resemble private resorts and spas, dining halls are serving foods that even upper-middle-class families cannot afford, and athletic coaches are signing multi-million dollar contracts to produce losing season after losing season. Somewhere along the way, an adjustment of priorities may be in line.
Dennis Jones and Jane Wellman present readers with ten myths about higher education in their article “Rethinking Conventional Wisdom about Higher Ed Finance.” One of the conventional wisdoms that they challenge is the statement that higher education is overfunded and reallocating resources could solve some of the problems. I tend to have to disagree with the authors and agree more with the conventional wisdom. When I look around and see the president of a university driving a brand new Mercedes and $1.5 million being spent on a job search, while programs and services are being cut, it becomes obvious that at least some of the money that has gone missing from higher education budgets is not missing at all, it is just hiding in all of the wrong places.
Hiring a search firm and paying up to 1.5 million dollars to find a new executive vice chancellor for the university is outrageous. Especially, when we are talking about a public higher education institution like Lousiana State University.
ReplyDeleteReading the original article one realizes that it is obvious that this decision serves well-established interests. The Board of Regents used this consulting company last year to find a replacement for the Commissioner of Higher Education.
It is inconceivable, however, that in times of so many economic restrictions and budget cutbacks in higher education, decisions such as these are made. I concur with Beau, “an adjustment of priorities may be in line.” I would begin with a comprehensive mandatory auditing of the allocation of funding for all searches.
Even the original article states that there is ambiguity with respect to where this $1.5 million is coming from.
It is clear to me that funding and fiscal accountability should clearly be monitored and transparent processes should be implemented.
I strongly agree with you that instead of wasting that amount of money in finding only one job, they were able to support a lot of the programs and services that may be a benefit for the University and its students. especially that we now are facing a lot of problems in the higher education such as dropping out and the disability to attend to collage because of the tuition, the lack of the government’s financial aids, the lack of supporting the researches.. Etc. I disagree with wasting money on some luxurious places or centers that nobody can afford. One of the solutions can be that the students make a committee to track the performances, the expenditures, and all kind of problems in the university because I think the students are the only victims in this spiral.
ReplyDelete