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Monday, November 20, 2006

More on the Latest Survey
of University Presidents'
Pay, from Richard Vedder



Higher education professes to be a higher calling. We subsidize it rather than tax it. The public sacrifices to allow it to exist and flourish beyond what strictly market forces would dictate.

University presidents are perceived by the public that subsidizes schools to be more akin to governors of states or ministers or priests -- performing public services, for which they can expect to be comfortably paid, but not opulently so. I suspect most people believe a good university president of a fairly large institution should have the income of a highly successful doctor or lawyer, perhaps a $250,000 to $300,000 salary, a nice car, and maybe a stately presidential home for use while in office. If the president wants to earn perhaps another $50,000 to $100,000 a year serving on a corporate board, that is okay too.

We want to reward our university presidents reasonably well, but not at the level of corporate executives. When salaries get over, say, $500,000 a year, and, in some cases, over $1 million annually, we have every right to wonder: are the public subsidies we give universities increasingly ending up as "economic rent," payments beyond what is necessary to have the service performed? Are university presidents selfless servants of the public trust, or money-hungry entrepreneurs? Why are we dropping money out of airplanes over college campuses, if the keepers of the purse are increasingly giving the money to themselves?

... The new congressional leadership may ask: why do we keep giving tax subsidies and grants to institutions that seem intent on allocating funds to bigger and bigger rates of compensation increase, even while universities operate in a stealth and inefficient fashion, raising tuition fees double the rate of inflation?