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Living high on the hog
At many colleges and universities, these are times of crisis. Endowments have shrunk, fundraising is more difficult, and reductions in state funding have been massive. And the worst is yet to come, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey of chief financial officers.
If times are tough for the university budget, consider how difficult economic times are for students and their families. Two-thirds of today's college graduates took out loans to complete school, accumulating an average debt of more than $23,000.
That's why parents and taxpayers have some legitimate questions to ask in the wake of a report in The Examiner on executive compensation, looking not at corporate CEO's, but at Washington-area college presidents. According to the story, the presidents of Georgetown, George Mason, American University, Gallaudet University, University of Maryland, and University of Virginia are all making more than the President of the United States! Go figure. Meanwhile, there is mounting evidence that a growing percentage of "education and general expenditures" in university budgets is in fact paying for administration.
One can legitimately ask whether our college and university administrators are living high on the hog -- on the backs of students and their parents.
Of course the next important question to ask is: Where are the trustees? At a time of economic challenge, isn't it time that colleges and universities do what families do -- tighten their belts? Trustees and presidents should be looking for ways to refocus university resources on instruction -- not to mention cutting costs, where possible, as the president and trustees at the University of Missouri and MnSCU have done. There is no time to waste.
Posted by Anne D. Neal on July 08, 2010 at July 8, 2010 11:00 AM
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