If you had to guess, how much do you think the President of the University of Colorado at Boulder makes each year? What about the president of the University of Central Florida? When you think of a President’s salary, do you automatically stop there, or do you consider if they would receive things like car and housing allowances or even bonuses?
Prior to reading the “Compensation of Public-University Chief Executives, 2009-10” article as published in The Chronicle, I will confess that the salaries of University presidents never really crossed my mind much. I was intrigued by the title of the article though, so I opened it…and as I was reviewing the chart of salaries, the words…”really, this I unbelievable” (with a few choice other words to add a little color) actually came out of my mouth.
I know that, as a mere Director, I have no real idea of what it takes to be the president of an institution, especially a Research University, which are the institutions included in the table. But really, does a university actually need to pay a president $500,000+ in a base salary? People who aspire to these levels of leadership likely have a number of skills and qualities that make them sought-after and I do not begrudge anyone for being successful; however, I wonder what the tipping point is. At what point are we paying far more than something is worth, and what is the return on investment for that type of financial outlay?
While I’m not David Letterman, I thought I would pull together a “Top 10” of sorts…well, actually three “Top 5’s” of information from the table in The Chronicle.
Top 5 Total Compensation
5. Michael Young University of Utah $723,595
4. Mary Coleman University of Michigan System $728,504
3. William Powers, Jr. University of Texas at Austin $746,738
2. Francisco Cigarroa University of Texas System $750,000
1. Gordon Gee Ohio State University $1,323,911
Top 5 Base Salary
5. Graham Spanier Pennsylvania State University System $620,000
4. Mark Emmert University of Washington $620,000
3. Elson Floyd Washington State University $625,000
2. Francisco Cigarroa University of Texas System $750,000
1. Gordon Gee Ohio State University $802,125
Top 5 Bonuses
5. Alan Merten George Mason University $135,000
4. Lester Lefton Kent State University $157,470
3. John Hitt University of Central Florida $210,000
2. JoAnn Gora Ball State University $222,750
1. Gordon Gee Ohio State University $296,786
In addition to observing how much Ohio State University enjoys being ranked number one (no offense to any Buckeye fans out there), I thought the following were very interesting:
- 172 of 185 have housing allowance
- 170 of 185 have car allowance
- 83 of 185 have allowance for club dues
- 7 of 185 have tuition assistance
- 3 of 185 provide spousal compensation
After viewing the table, I will admit that I was more than a little disgusted. The amount of money that was laid out before me on the pages was bordering on obscene. All I could think about was an email I received from one of my foster kids today (to clarify…she’s not my actual foster daughter, she is one of a small group of foster youth that I'm working with who are attending our institution on a scholarship) telling me that she was thinking about withdrawing from a class because she needed to find a job (she just aged out of the system and is on her own in her first apartment) and didn’t believe she was going to be able to handle the workload of taking her full-time class load and working part-time. I would love nothing more than to take a fraction of the salary of just one President on that list and use it to provide stable housing for all of the foster youth that I have attending my institution.
Darcy thank you for your post! I had no idea. This is crazy. Like you, I had never really thought about how much the presidents make. Even if I had, I would have NEVER guessed that they were making that kind of money. Perhaps my thoughts on becoming a college president should change (just joking)?
ReplyDeleteYou would think that working at a public institution, there would be some sort of cap on how much presidents can make a year. These findings are quite alarming, especially when you consider the financial "crisis" in higher education. If I were a student attending one of these institutions and there was a 20% increase in my tuition, I would seriously question whether or not I wanted to continue attending that institution. Thank you for the insight into this issue.
Interesting discussion. These didn't surprise me too much. I don't have as much of an issue with President salaries because often they bring an incredible amount of money to the university. The skills required for the job are complex. They must interact with faculty, students, administrators, policy makers, alumni, business owners, community members, potential donors, etc. They need to be able to communicate and produce partnerships with many types of people.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, what about athletic coaches? A lot of them make a lot more than this and it makes no difference if their teams win or lose. The head coach at UC Berkley makes 2.3 million. I'm not sure how much money they bring in, but that seems like a huge salary, given that the average California university salary is $57,000.
http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/
Hey Darcy...I hear you on this one. It is frustrating. I'll tell you what makes me even more frustrated though. The salaries of football coaches. The top 100 list of coaches salaries is nauseating. View at: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/799112-college-football-pre-season-top-25-and-their-respective-coachs-salaries
ReplyDeleteThe top salary for a football coach is 5.1 million dollars a year. And I would argue (and have argued in another blog) that football coaches can be a huge liability for an institution especially if they encourage or are complicit in criminal behavior by their players.
I don't think there are any easy solutions. But I know my frustration is strong and if I can help change that culture, I will try.
Very exciting!What these figures?
ReplyDeleteAll studies, research, and statistics indicate that many of the aid and funds go in expenses for faculty members, administrators, and employees other than maintenance and such expenses. On the other hand we are in the universities suffering from several problems. The most important is the lack of government funding, drop off of students from universities because of high fees and the inability to fulfill the financial requirements of the university, and the shortage of qualified graduates for the labor who can match with marketplace needs.
We are still looking for systems, legislation, and ideas to increase funding for universities and help students to defray the costs of education and graduate the students from majors that are needed by the labor market.
While education has become the most important problem that we are looking for solutions for it, it is unreasonable to pay huge amounts of money to University Presidents, and student cannot able to pay his/her tuition.
WOW! Although, your blog puts this into perspective when you see it in writing, it is amazing that any university feels that their chief executives are really worth this kind of money! I guess that any university that can afford to pay that kind of money should be looking at ways to give back to the communities that they serve. I would like to see programs for the elementary and middle schools that help with underprivileged kids, kids that need additional tutoring and support and so on. Whenever I see salaries of these kinds, it makes me wonder why there aren't salary caps. There is a lot of money that could be used for the funding of other programs that continue to support students, their families and their communities!
ReplyDeleteBoy, this is a tough topic to assess. With the increasing "neo-liberalization" of public universities in the U.S. that trends towards commodifying and attempting to generate profit from more and more of our respective campus operations, it is increasingly difficult to differentiate our public universities/colleges from private corporations. And how are presidents of corporations compensated? Ideally (of course, the reality is usually quite different), based on how much net revenue their companies generate during the term of compensation.
ReplyDeleteLet's take the University of Colorado Boulder as an example. Per their annual statement from 2010, the university generated about $252 MILLION in net revenues during the preceding fiscal year. The estimated value of the university's assets, including land, plant, and equipment, total over $ 3 BILLION. During the previous two years per the report, research funding pouring into the University increased by about a net of $50 MILLION each year. As these humongous numbers make clear, our quasi-private "public" research universities like U Boulder are among the largest business entities in the nation. And given that CEOS of the biggest 299 corporations in America earned 343 TIMES what their typical employees earned in 2010 (see: http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/19/news/economy/ceo_pay/index.htm ), or an average of about $ 11.4 million. This makes the salaries of the presidents mentioned above seem like chump change.
But, shouldn't presidents of tax-payer supported public universities be paid as if they were essentially running non-profit charities? Well, take a look at what the CEOs of our top 25 largest national charities are making (see: http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/Top25.html ), including the American Cancer Society, United Way, Boy Scouts of America, etc. -over $1 million for the year of 2010.
Angry about the millions that football and basketball coaches are making at prominent research one and prestigious private universities are making? Well, consider that those programs tend to generate millions, if not tens of millions, for their particular institutions, and that those salaries are directly or indirectly paid by powerful alumni and business leaders who believe that having a successful football or basketball team is as/or more important than having-say-a first rate career center or dining commons on campus, unfortunately.
There is an old axiom in business, which is to follow the money. Wherever big amounts of money are to be made, there is the correlating possibility of big money to be paid. The market -however nefariously manipulated by various stakeholders- roughly determines how much profit-generators and facilitators make. I too wish that some of these gazillions going to university presidents and football coaches could instead be funneled to important campus social services, for example, but such a change in policy takes uncommon action...for example, when a multi-billionaire like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, or Bill Gates decides to opt out of the economic rat race and unilaterally start giving back to the capitalist system they benefited so much from.
I had no idea that college Presidents made even close to this much money. Thanks for putting it into perspective. This relates in a different way to an article I cam across. President Rubsamen of Sierra Nevada College decided to resign. He acknowledged the fact that his salary was part of the problem. With an increase in economic problems, the college could simply not afford him. He made the noble decision to practice what he preached and "threw in the towel."
ReplyDelete