2008 Woodie Awards
Higher education must reexamine leaders' pay
Editorial Board
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: OPINION
Many stories about the economic downturn focused on the fat compensation packages of corporate CEOs.
It turns out college presidents aren't exactly pinching pennies.
As tuition rises and financial aid for students declines, salaries of most university officials across the country have only gone up, according to a study done by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
As parents across the country reassess their abilities to finance their children's education, university officials are pumping more money into already well-paid leaders.
At least 59 presidents of public, or state-sponsored universities were paid more than half a million dollars during the 2007-08 academic year, more than twice the number just three years ago.
Of those 59 presidents, nine of them belong to Texas schools.
Given the steady increase of costs to students, especially the tuition increases pushed by the same officials receiving large pay raises, this trend looks unfair and out of place.
As one student told The Dallas Morning News, "Whatever happened to public service? The president of the United States makes less money than the president of the University of Texas."
It's not like high wages for college presidents is a new phenomenon, either.
Most of the presidents at Texas' major public universities earn more than $300,000 each year, yet they continue to collect hefty raises several percentage points above inflation.
Several school presidents either donated their six-figure bonuses to their schools or turned them down altogether. But with the high pay those leaders were already receiving, their decision may be simply generous rather than boldly altruistic.
The governing bodies of a university set the salaries of the presidents and not the other way around.
When some of the very leaders receiving these bonuses don't see the purpose of more perks, we wonder if this trend is related to the juvenile one-upmanship so prevalent in the constant battle for prestige among institutions of higher education.
It turns out college presidents aren't exactly pinching pennies.
As tuition rises and financial aid for students declines, salaries of most university officials across the country have only gone up, according to a study done by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
As parents across the country reassess their abilities to finance their children's education, university officials are pumping more money into already well-paid leaders.
At least 59 presidents of public, or state-sponsored universities were paid more than half a million dollars during the 2007-08 academic year, more than twice the number just three years ago.
Of those 59 presidents, nine of them belong to Texas schools.
Given the steady increase of costs to students, especially the tuition increases pushed by the same officials receiving large pay raises, this trend looks unfair and out of place.
As one student told The Dallas Morning News, "Whatever happened to public service? The president of the United States makes less money than the president of the University of Texas."
It's not like high wages for college presidents is a new phenomenon, either.
Most of the presidents at Texas' major public universities earn more than $300,000 each year, yet they continue to collect hefty raises several percentage points above inflation.
Several school presidents either donated their six-figure bonuses to their schools or turned them down altogether. But with the high pay those leaders were already receiving, their decision may be simply generous rather than boldly altruistic.
The governing bodies of a university set the salaries of the presidents and not the other way around.
When some of the very leaders receiving these bonuses don't see the purpose of more perks, we wonder if this trend is related to the juvenile one-upmanship so prevalent in the constant battle for prestige among institutions of higher education.
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