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College president is essentially a sales job, where fundraising is the primary objective. These salaries, while optically horrible, should reflect the success o

by Cd00d 9y ago

College president is essentially a sales job, where fundraising is the primary objective. These salaries, while optically horrible, should reflect the success of the president at bulking up the endowment. Like in many industries, a great sales person can often become one of the highest compensated employees, because it's still only a portion of what they generated. I think an important conversation to be having is what are the universities doing with the massive endowments they've built up?

fastball 9y ago
This might seem crazy, but I actually think the point of a college president is to ensure that his college is teaching students effectively and for as little expenditure as possible...
- Hooke 9y ago
  The parent comment makes a fair point in my opinion. The job you're describing is done by the #2 at a university (provost or executive vice chancellor or whatever title they want to use). The president's job is to court 7 and 8 figure donations and to be a symbolic figurehead. Not all of this money is wasted; often the donations go toward supporting research or paying grad student stipends. Administrative bloat is a huge problem at universities but I actually no longer see the presidential salaries as being very objectionable relative to other forms of waste I've seen, like the money spent on stadiums or unnecessary luxury amenities.
  - froindt 9y ago
    Of course it varies by university, but in Iowa the state universities (possibly with the exception of UNI) pay for their athletic programs using no tax dollars. Of course there are still millions donated to athletics which doesn't help the greater student body. If schools didn't have athletic programs, would the donations have been made to the university at large?
- mercutio2 9y ago
  President, in US academic nomenclature, equals “chief salesman for soliciting donations from rich alumni.” Provost is the term of art for the person responsible for the academics/culture/safety and happiness of students. I didn’t understand this when I was in college (and I was dating a provost’s daughter!), not sure how it would have helped me as a student to have understood this, though.

by Cd00d 9y ago

fastball 9y ago

This might seem crazy, but I actually think the point of a college president is to ensure that his college is teaching students effectively and for as little expenditure as possible...

Hooke 9y ago
The parent comment makes a fair point in my opinion. The job you're describing is done by the #2 at a university (provost or executive vice chancellor or whatever title they want to use). The president's job is to court 7 and 8 figure donations and to be a symbolic figurehead. Not all of this money is wasted; often the donations go toward supporting research or paying grad student stipends. Administrative bloat is a huge problem at universities but I actually no longer see the presidential salaries as being very objectionable relative to other forms of waste I've seen, like the money spent on stadiums or unnecessary luxury amenities.
- froindt 9y ago
  Of course it varies by university, but in Iowa the state universities (possibly with the exception of UNI) pay for their athletic programs using no tax dollars. Of course there are still millions donated to athletics which doesn't help the greater student body. If schools didn't have athletic programs, would the donations have been made to the university at large?
mercutio2 9y ago
President, in US academic nomenclature, equals “chief salesman for soliciting donations from rich alumni.” Provost is the term of art for the person responsible for the academics/culture/safety and happiness of students. I didn’t understand this when I was in college (and I was dating a provost’s daughter!), not sure how it would have helped me as a student to have understood this, though.