Salaries of public college chiefs rise, median tops $400,000

Parents Forum
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<p>"Salaries of presidents of U.S. public universities rose almost 5 percent in the last fiscal year, even as tuition rose and student debt soared, with the median pay package topping $400,000, according to a report released on Sunday ... Penn State's Graham Spanier was the top earner last year at the time he was fired over the Jerry Sandusky scandal, according to the study by the Chronicle of Higher Education, though his compensation was inflated by $2.4 million in severance pay and deferred compensation." ...</p>

<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/12/us-usa-colleges-salaries-idUSBRE94B0EJ20130512?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/12/us-usa-colleges-salaries-idUSBRE94B0EJ20130512?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>And most also get free housing, great benefits. No one is looking at this. Disgraceful</p>

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<p>I think that the pay packages have some correlation to the amount of money presidents bring in. If a University President is making $380K and bringing in $50 million in donations and doing a good job running the university, is that a problem?</p>

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<p>College presidents, as a group, earn every last dollar they get paid.</p>

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<p>I agree and what do you think are the media salary of the football coaches at public universities?</p>

<p>I just saw a map of the U.S. that listed the state univ. football coach as the highest paid public employee in a huge majority of the states…unfortunately, I can’t get my hands on it know to link and/or cite the source.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228[/url]”>http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Just because coaches are overpaid, doesn’t mean university presidents should be. If university presidents were earning their money, maybe they would take control of sports. Maybe they would eliminate the over-proliferation of the number of deans and administration positions.</p>

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<p>Spanier’s situation is a nauseating example of what’s wrong with these packages. If I were fired, I would lose any right to severance or “deferred compensation” which is fancy language for a tax sheltered bonus upon leaving the U. He was FIRED. Terminated. Let go. Shown the door… </p>

<p>It’s not really much different than corporate salaries being really high at the top. And that’s okay and fine and not morally reprehensible. But getting to keep $2.4mill when you were fired? I want that job :/</p>

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<p>As a PSU student/alumni during the Spanier era, it is clear to me that President Spanier had two jobs.</p>

<p>Obtaining donors (sales) and then engaging in massive expansion programs to get more donors (sales).</p>

<p>Everything else was irrelevant to him.</p>

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<p>Wow, the governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, is a bargain!!! His 2013 salary is only $187,256, and he is the HIGHEST paid governor. He overseas a state budget of $27 billion and a payroll of thousands of public employees. Corbett should try to move up the food chain and land Graham Spanier’s Penn State job.</p>

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<p>Here are other other examples of college bureaucracy bloat:
[Multiculti</a> U. by Heather Mac Donald, City Journal Spring 2013](<a href=“http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_2_multiculti-university.html]Multiculti”>http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_2_multiculti-university.html)

</p>

<p>California’s governor, Jerry Brown, is a bargain at only $173,000!!!</p>

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<p>I think that you’ll find NH legislators to be a big bargain too. They get paid $100/year and free trips through the toll booths. The latter perk may be worth a lot more than the $100/year for some legislators.</p>

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<p>I wanna be the guvna too!</p>

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<p>I don’t mind a hefty salary for excellent performance, but the golden parachutes some of these guys get is unbelievable. They resign or are shown the door but their contract provides for generous compensation ($1.3 million over 2 years, in the case of UC’s president who resigned last year.)</p>

<p>You’d think somebody could make sure the contract was written more in the university’s favor.</p>

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<p>Are these college presidents also overseeing state flagship medical schools / centers and / or state flagship law schools? Because those are quite huge tasks and certainly pay well in the private sector.</p>

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<p>@BCEagle91 - It is a problem. Why would the amount of money donated to the university be a primary metric with which to compensate the president? These are public universities of which the main revenue sources are state funding and tuition.</p>

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<p>@Pizza,</p>

<p>Penn State’s College of Medicine is in Hershey, PA, a 101 mile drive from the flagship campus’ location at State College, PA. </p>

<p>The College of Medicine is run by Harold L. Paz, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Senior Vice President, and Dean:
[Harold</a> L. Paz, M.D., M.S. - Penn State Hershey](<a href=“http://www.pennstatehershey.org/web/guest/home/aboutus/leadership/paz]Harold”>http://www.pennstatehershey.org/web/guest/home/aboutus/leadership/paz)</p>

<p>So I guess the answer to your question is, NO, Spanier does not manage the medical school/hospital.</p>

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<p>“Are these college presidents also overseeing state flagship medical schools / centers and / or state flagship law schools? Because those are quite huge tasks and certainly pay well in the private sector.”</p>

<p>Oh, yes.</p>

<p>Graham Spanier in particular has overseen the acquisition and subsequent fiasco of the failed partial absorption of Dickinson, now Penn State, law school.</p>

<p>Because the first thing that you do is move the law school as far away from the state capitol as you can and alienate the old alumni as best you can.</p>

<p>I also note that “overseeing” a law school is the closest thing to a sinecure as you can get in higher education these days.</p>

<p>I can’t bring myself to even pursue being a part-time law professor given the fact that it has evolved into a way to lard up young people with non-dischargable debt.</p>

<p>At least the medical establishment is only about 50% sinecure, so I am in agreement with you, pizzagirl, that at least the medical school people <em>do</em> something that is net positive.</p>

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<p>If I could hire someone and pay them one one-hundredth of the income that they produce, I would do so in an instant and get as many of them as I could. It’s free money to the institution.</p>

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<p>I’m certain that Spanier wanted to box up and ship the medical school to State College.</p>

<p>He was also instrumental in the Geisinger fiasco, which I was present to also witness.</p>

<p>“A milestone in the history of Geisinger Health System includes a failed merger with Penn State/Hershey Medical Center from July 1997 to November 1999. The merger of the two large health care organizations and subsequent failure has provided a valuable reference for other systems with similar plans. The ultimate collapse of the merger has been attributed to the leadership’s failure to recognize challenges of cultural differences between the institutions and community acceptance. e.g. Academic physicians at the Hershey Medical Center were resistant to the delegation of practice management to which the Geisinger physicians had become accustomed.[1]”</p>

<p>[Geisinger</a> Health System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisinger_Health_System]Geisinger”>Geisinger Health System - Wikipedia)</p>