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Thursday, June 14, 2007
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Tomorrow Afternoon... ...(look at the time -- make that this afternoon) UD's visiting the offices of Inside Higher Ed, here in DC. She's looking forward to meeting the staff, to seeing the premises, and to getting a sense of the reality of the place. She'll also join some other people there to have lunch with Susan Herbst, appointed interim president of SUNY Albany after the drowning death of Kermit L. Hall (UD reported his death here). Herbst has been handling one particularly sticky problem for a few months -- the insane raise SUNY -- i.e., the taxpayers of New York -- just gave one of Albany's professors. IHE wrote about it: A striking, $140,000+ annual salary increase for the head of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York at Albany has attracted attention as the largest payroll raise in state history, according to The New York Post, which broke the story Monday. He also makes $500,000 more than the governor, an AP article points out. What's he do with all of it? ...Kaloyeros is a colorful figure with a penchant for high-powered sports cars. Several years ago, his stable of vehicles included a Porsche Boxster with a license plate that read “GEEK.” Why is this story attracting - and maintaining - so much attention? After all, Kaloyeros is bringing all kinds of money and investment to the state... He's an enormously valuable commodity who's always fielding job offers and threatening to leave... Every time he threatens, SUNY throws more money at him, Porsche stables being a very expensive hobby... The unease people feel in this situation is rather like the unease many in the Harvard community felt when they realized that their fund managers were getting almost thirty million dollars in salary. Universities are non-profit institutions. When they start acting like for-profits, paying their people at corporate levels, observers wonder whether the designation "university" means anything anymore. And Harvard is private. SUNY as a public institution will attract far more criticism for behaving in this way. For UD, the real problem with the fund managers and with people like Kaloyeros is that they don't belong at universities because they are much more about greed than intellectuality. In fact the fund managers left Harvard as soon as people breathed a word of criticism about their salaries. Their salaries are the most important thing to the fund managers; they'll go where they're paid the highest. Similarly, Kaloyeros, although aware that his outrageous money demands are making trouble for Herbst, for the SUNY system, and for the state, clearly intends to keep shaking everyone down so he can increase his fleet of sports cars. By the way... A recent ex-chancellor of SUNY, Robert King, had a related car problem [for background, go here]. King attracted negative attention to himself and to SUNY because he maintained, at state expense, a team of three chauffeurs, Tom, Ray, and Ed. Tom, Ray, and Ed were there (combined salary, $170,000 plus) at King’s bidding to transport him from place to place in the course of his busy day (UD's quoting here and in what follows from that earlier post). According to one press account at the time, ‘One government reform activist questioned whether SUNY needs a driving staff for officials in light of recent budget cuts and tuition increases. "At a time when so many cuts are being proposed, the question is, is everyone sharing in the sacrifice?" said Rachel Leon of Common Cause New York.' Monetary greed was also a factor in the King case: Having gathered to himself a "$250,000 salary and $90,000 housing allowance [which] already make him the highest-paid official in the state,” Mr. King then asked (this all happened in 2005) “for a six-month paid leave of absence to pursue professional and personal goals. He pulled the request within a week after an outcry.” The main point I wanted to make, though, has to do with the car theme. ‘Some students said the drivers did not seem to be a good use of SUNY's funds. Emily Kern, a senior at the State University College at Purchase in Westchester County, said she has seen student fees go up and the number of full-time professors fall. "The students aren't a priority really at all," said Kern, 22, of Long Island, a senior art and psychology major. ’ UD sees an intriguing boys and their toys angle emerging in the ongoing SUNY saga... |