Yesterday, The New York Times published the findings of a study that showed that the presidents of 36 private colleges in the U.S. received a salary of more than $1 million in 2009, three more colleges than the previous year.
According to the study, President Charles Polk of Mountain State University received a compensation of $1.8 million, which equates to about 3.5 percent of the school’s overall budget, a ridiculous figure in and of itself.
While it may be true that greater pressure is exerted upon university presidents today, their outrageous figures of compensation are undoubtedly disproportionate, especially considering the recent economic recession and rising cost of college tuition.
According to a study published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Boston University President Robert Brown collected more than $1 million in salary in 2008, making him the only college president in Massachusetts to make it to that marker.
While it may seem easy to condemn these presidents for their extravagant salaries the same way Occupy Boston protesters condemn big bonuses for corporate employees, we must step back and examine the whole picture in order to accurately assess the problem.
Higher education at a private institution becomes more expensive every year, largely due to the fact that public education has gone downhill, especially in recent years, due to lack of funds and resources. Additionally, all private institutions are bureaucracies of sorts, and therefore we have no say or control in the salaries of its employees.
These presidents themselves cannot be faulted for their paychecks; rather, their extravagant salaries speak to the larger problem of the broken educational system in the U.S. Public education is in dire need of reform, and until something is done to rectify that, private institutions are going to be in higher demand and therefore will go up in price. It is an unfortunate fact that the college student must face in this day and age while in pursuit of an education. The real question they must now ask themselves is how badly they want that education, and at what cost.
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