Today’s second hour looks at how the financial crisis is hitting higher education. And as belts tighten, it’s perhaps inevitable that executive compensation – the big payouts to people at the top – will come under scrutiny in academia as it has on Wall Street and in Detroit. In fact, officials at Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University in St. Louis have reportedly already taken voluntary pay cuts or given compensation back.
Paul Fain, a guest on today’s show, covers college presidents and educational leaders for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He wrote recently on rising presidential paychecks: “The growing demands of the job of college president, as well as the corporate culture that has started to take root among governing boards and college administrators, have contributed to an industrywide ratcheting up of presidential salaries.”
No doubt, the pay checks have grown in recent years. At public universities, executive pay has gone up 36 percent over the past five years; at liberal arts schools it’s gone up 18 percent over the same time period. The president of Suffolk University, David Sargent, recently made $2.8 million in total. He’s the nation’s top paid university executive; but he’s not alone in that high-earning tier.
Here are some stats from a report issued by The Chronicle on Nov. 21:
Topping the $1 million mark for 2006-07 are the presidents of Columbia, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, New York University, Drexel, Johns Hopkins, Emory, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Many of the presidents at large public schools also draw salaries of more than half a million dollars. The top ten for 2007-08, all over the $500,000 mark, included the University of Delaware, Ohio State University, the University of Washington, Washington State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University at Tempe, the University of Connecticut, the Michigan State University system, and the Louisiana State University system.
The same goes for private liberal arts colleges. For the 2006-07 school year, the top ten all had executives making more than half a million dollars. That includes Swarthmore, Carleton, Williams, Franklin & Marshall, Allegheny, Antioch, Grinnell, Bucknell, Ursinus, and Hillsdale.
It’s all part of a pattern of rising costs across higher education. The Chronicle’s Fain says it raises serious questions for the leaders themselves. “As pay continues to rise,” he writes, “and colleges increasingly engage in bidding wars to land top candidates, a frequent question is: How much should money matter to a college president?”
Tags: colleges, funding, salary
Toni Murdock, Chancellor of Antioch University, does indeed receive an obscene amount of compensation. It could be argued that her oversized recompense, and that of Antioch University’s top-heavy administration, was one of the central imbalances that led to the closure of Antioch College. Thankfully, the alumni, students, faculty and staff of Antioch College have put in place a strong counter-example: The Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute. In which, pay and (more importantly) authority/responsibility are much more horizontally distributed. Essentially Antioch College in Exile, Nonstop is in effect a lab for the reinvention of the liberal arts college. nonstopinstitute.org has more information
Posted by tim noble, on December 8th, 2008 at 10:57 PMAre there serious studies of the real reasons for college costs going up to much faster than everything else? Higher education is probably the most unregulated industry in the nation except the religion business. And like medical care, the colleges are rationing service through pricing. There should be more transparency in all these basic services. Furthermore, none are doing such a great job.
Posted by Paul R. Cooper, on December 8th, 2008 at 11:57 PMI wonder and would like to know how much Australian, British and Canandian Universities and Colleges charge their kids for the same education we give our kids here.
Any comments?
Posted by Wilson Samuel, on December 10th, 2008 at 9:59 AMYea….Sister is doing well …
Posted by john, on December 16th, 2008 at 11:42 AMas an Irish emmigrant i was glad to vote for Obama …
but now instead of the lip service of anger and outrage to deal with the horrific history of African American …how about Sister setting up a FOUNDATION to help people to help themselves ,
The cost of a college education is obscene. Summer workshops are planned at resort areas where presidents can take their families attend a breakfast meeting, a lecture and spend the day in workshops that may or may not exist. I liked the workshop on rafting when I was a Chancellor. The evening cookouts were prepared by the finest chefs in the area and all meals were included in the registration fees because our per diem would have never covered the food costs. When our organizations arranged for large food functions with the meeting site, the resort reduced the room cost with no limit on the numbers in the room. There were special events for spouses but for the most part it was party time for everyone. I took some photos of a pominent president in shorts and cowboy boots and was told that photos, other than those of one’s family, were prohibited by tradition. All of this was “covered” by a fantastic program that made it appear as though the chancellor or president would be on task for three or four days. There was a day when this was a “calling” but all of this has changed. Today it is a matter of fund raising, international travel and perks for cars, housing, housekeepers and the life of a true capitalist.
Posted by DR. ROBERT G. CULBERTSON, on December 20th, 2008 at 7:06 PMTo Wilson Samuel,
I know that Canadian Universities charge fees similar to in-state tuition in the US. There are no private universities in Canada. Even the foriegn student fees in Canada are much less that private schools in the US. That puts some excellent education opportunities available to US students at a fraction of private school fees. Sadly, few Americans take advantage of this.
Posted by Blair Madore, on January 8th, 2009 at 12:00 PM