New hire as president of the University of Minnesota, Rebecca Cunningham, has been given an employment contract of $975,000 in annual salary with a provision of at least a 3.5% raise annually plus retirement benefits of $120,000 each year. One couldn't expect someone receiving a salary of a million dollars a year to squirrel away some of that for their golden years.
The lady has been a fixture in various administrative positions at the University of Michigan and now receives a salary that eclipses that of the state governor and all but a handful of local business titans.
twincitiespioneerpress
Perhaps "fixture" is the best term for the new president, whose actual duties are similar to that of a chrome female statuette on the hood of a '50s sedan. Many smaller, dirtier parts allow the car to function as designed but the most obvious part is the first thing seen, which has no effect on the car's operation.
goodspeedusa.com
This isn't an isolated incident. University presidents all receive huge compensation packages, ostensibly because they're able to cajole wealthy alumni into donating vast sums to the school or local business nabobs into financing esoteric research programs. This may or may not be true but aren't potential donors already inclined to contribute to a certain school with which they have some familiarity? Would they be less likely to make a significant gift to a school with a less well-paid boss?
What are their actual day-to-day duties? Do they roam the campus, auditing classes to see if the profs, or more likely TAs, are arriving for class on time and delivering a lecture that can be easily understood by English-speaking students whose tuition has risen steeply through the years. The president probably won't run onto the field leading the Gopher football squad into battle against the hated Wisconsin Badgers since she makes only a fraction of the $6 million dollars a year that football coach PJ Fleck does.
No comments:
Post a Comment