College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Student Debt

Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by geofft on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @10:33AM (#15906265)

... why do presidents have more of a "real job" than football coaches? Having been neither a college administrator nor a football player, I can explain to you exactly what a football coach does and what their work involves and how to evaluate them and how to figure out if they're running a program that's net profitable for the university. I certainly can't tell you what a college president does or how to evaluate them, given how highly abstracted their work is.

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by supplied_demand on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:27AM (#15906803)

Colleges exist in order to educate the populous, per their own mission statements. Take a look at The University of Texas' "Mission and Values" page, note how they don't use the words sports or athletics.

Mission: The mission of The University of Texas at Austin is to achieve excellence in the interrelated areas of undergraduate education, graduate education, research and public service. The university provides superior and comprehensive educational opportunities at the baccalaureate through doctoral and special professional educational levels.

The university contributes to the advancement of society through research, creative activity, scholarly inquiry and the development and dissemination of new knowledge, including the commercialization of University discoveries. The university preserves and promotes the arts, benefits the state’s economy, serves the citizens through public programs and provides other public service.

https://www.utexas.edu/about/mission-and-values

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by paultopia on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @10:54AM (#15906452)

They're responsible for the success or failure of a whole lot of stuff that matters, even though that success or failure is difficult to measure. By contrast, the football coach is responsible for the success or failure of something that is easy to measure, but does not matter at all---at best, and at worst is harmful (at least to the bodies and minds of the players being exploited). That seems like a pretty good standard for "real job" to me.

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by cmiles74 on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:42AM (#15906963)

I think it's important to keep in mind that at these high pay levels, the president is more of a figurehead whose primary role is to fundraise. In light of this, their job does seem similar in that both the president and the coach are there to help the college raise money.

The responsibility you mention is delegated down to the next level.

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by paultopia on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:57AM (#15907090)

I'm not convinced that's true---although I'm not sure how much my perception is reliable given that I've never been inside a president's office. That being said, at least the perception within universities is that presidents are often responsible for some very consequential decisions.

The most obvious example is internal budget allocation, which can make or break entire programs.

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by cmiles74 on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @11:59AM (#15907114)

This article from Bloomberg has lots of good quotes in it, here's one:

"President Hatch's compensation over the course of his tenure reflects his exceptional leadership," trustee chair Donna Boswell said. The school has raised nearly $800 million under Hatch, she said.

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Re:College Presidents Making $1M Rise with Tuition and Stude... by paultopia on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @12:48PM (#15907691)

Right, no question that fundraising is an important, perhaps the most important, part of the job. I'm just saying that making mission-critical decisions about the whole institution is also in there.

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