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Those other highly-paid administrators
While a great deal of attention has been paid of late to the lavish compensation packages of university presidents, there has been less focus on the pay of other officials, including chief financial officers, medical school heads, athletic directors, and coaches. The Chronicle of Higher Education looked through the financial reports that universities filed with the Internal Revenue Service for the 2006-7 fiscal year to find the highest-paid university employees. The resulting report showed that while presidents and chancellors had the highest percentage of $500,000-plus salaries, medical school administrators and research professors, coaches and athletic directors, and investment and financial officials were not far behind.
While one can appreciate the work done by medical school researchers and athletic coaches, it's worth pondering what these statistics say about the institutions' priorities when it comes to the teaching of undergraduates. In ACTA's report cards on state higher education, we evaluate the growth in administrative vs. instructional spending--and suggest that these figures should reflect the supreme importance of giving students a strong liberal education. But quite often, we find administrative spending is outpacing instructional. While ACTA does not presume to say what is an "appropriate" salary, we do believe that institutions have a duty to examine whether or not their spending reflects their core mission--especially in this economy.
Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak on February 24, 2009 at February 24, 2009 04:03 PM
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Comments
Interesting situation in the news...
Posted by: John at February 27, 2009 12:54 PM