Comments about ‘Regents raise Utah college presidents' salaries; lawmakers question the action’

Again I find it ironic the article would say, "Officials said Utah's school presidents are between 20 to 30 percent behind the national salary averages. Regents Chairman David Jordan said president salaries will become an issue in retaining school presidents." when many articles in the DN say just the opposite about teacher's salaries. Lol.

OUTRAGEOUS!

Students are doing everything from selling their blood to collecting soda cans to make tuition and they RAISE their already very lucrative salaries!

For the last 3 yrs. virtually no one (especially college employees) have gotten so much as a cost of living raise.

The national salary averages are deceiving. It costs more to live in certain parts of this country so you should expect them to pay more to cover cost of living. Why are they getting raises to compare themselves to presidents who live in expensive areas?

Lets see which Presidents will do the right thing and turn down the increase or donate it back to their institution for scholarships- my bet is none but I hope I am wrong- kinda like Congress cutting its salary- good idea for others but not for me

I see that their housing is paid for, do they?

Where are these people coming from? I know they listen to the news and are aware of the financial straits we're in and yet they can rationalize raising salaries of individuals who do not even need the money (unless they are unable to even balance their own budgets). It will affect the students, teachers and the taxpayers.
They treat the public like we are ignorant. I believe colleges are judged by their achievements not their presidents. I bet there are a number of people who are qualified to replace these presidents and work for half the pay check.
Shame on them. Their rationale is pathetic.

I am confident that the State of Utah has many good and great leaders more than happy to accept the current salary. As mentioned previously, the cost of living plays a big part in the salary provided. I would rather see the salaries of Administration held in check and take care of the other employees as well as keeping the cost of education down for the students. This is the same problem we have with School Districts in this state. We pay big salaries to administration as well as raises and then we have nothing left for raises to the teachers and staff. We need to clean-up the Administrations at the University level as well as the School Districts.

$348,403 plus incentives, compensations, free housing, and a side budget.

This is unreasonable, unethical, and like many other college-related money concerns... this is robbing students and the families helping them. Wright's third grade comment sums this up pretty nicely. It's amazing to watch the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and then to hear all the sleazy justifications that come from anyone on the side of the benefactors. This is outrageous!

The most over-rated people in the world are college Presidents. Bad message being sent here. Government always gets it wrong.

"Gotta compete for the most talented people." Same old justification for giving the in-crowd and the well-connected their goodies at the expense of the rest of us. These people are basically glorified fund raisers and speech givers, and there are hundreds of very qualified people who would do it for a fifth of what they get, even if they didn't quite fit in the fraternity of the arrogant. But again, it pays to be connected.

They aren't really doing e very good job. Let them go and find someone who will do a better job and actually care about students and faculty and the state.

No problem, my son can pick up a THIRD job to help support he and his wife.

We are eating our own and damaging the future of our country.

How/why should we accept skyrocketing tuition increases accompanied by salary increases for college/university presidents? Is it because college and university salaries need to keep pace with the highly compensated corporate world?

Now, perhaps UT underpays their presidents. Tutition in UT is lower than in many other states. Cost-of-living should, of course, be taken into account.

But this I know. College students are graduating deeply in debt. For those of you who think it's because students don't know how to live frugally or they are lazy you are wrong.
College is becoming out of reach for many. If a student had a full-time minimum wage job it still wouldn't cover the cost of tuition, books, and living expenses at many institutions.

I don't see anyone complaining about the salary of the football coach. U of U coach salary about 3X that of the president's salary.

University presidents may not be as generously compensated as their corporate counterparts, but their pay has been rising steeply over the past 15 years, especially compared with what college professors earn. The median income for public-university presidents in the 2007-08 academic year was $427,400. The average head of a private university* took home about $100,000 more.

With base salaries well into the six figures, the administrators' total compensation is rounded out by perks such as retirement payouts, retention bonuses, performance awards, expense accounts and the use of well-appointed homes and cars. For instance, E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State University, took home a total of $1,346,225 last year, including a $310,000 performance bonus.
The total does not include money earned from serving on corporate boards. Gee is on the boards of Massey Energy, Gaylord Entertainment, Hasbro and Dollar General, while Bienen, a former director of Bear Stearns, serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Steppenwolf Theatre.
(money central/msn 2009)

Lets see, no raises for teachers or money to reduce class sizes; no adjustment for tuition; professors not getting salary increases. Yeah, great time for this. Bottom line, if your teaching a class at the public or at the university level, go find another job. Teachers, your not respected, your not listened to, and bottom line, Utah doesn't value its teachers and professors. Other universities have opportunities and Wyoming pays and treats teachers well.

The fact that some other universities overpay their presidents does not make it reasonable for Utah to do the same. These presidents are allready overpaid. Time to cut back, start with the presidents. If they don't give up some of their pay, fire them. Universities seem to run just fine for months when they are seeking to hire a new president. Let's try running for five years without one. I think the universities will do just fine without them. How about we give it a try. What do you think?

The Regents are playing politics. Those presidents don't need pay raises. But maybe the Regents want a pay raise too so they have got to buy support from the colledge presidents. The school teachers that we have lost from bedget cutbacks are worth far more than all the colledge presidents put together. This is one time the legislature can and shopuld say now loud and clear. We should put most spare money into the public school system and the rest into medicaid and into welfare needs. I think we need to replace this board of Regents now.

Now this story has a great headline.

Not that I agree to the action, but isn't it ironic that the Legislature "Questions" the Regents when no one is ever supposed to "Question" the Legislature? Anyone remember HB477 last session? My, I'm laughing myself sick over this..........someone did something with which the Legislature doesn't agree......really......too funny!

If government was not in the education business then we would not have this problem. It could be handled by private education and the people could vote with their tuition as to which college they think is performing best, including the presidents.

Letting the government run things really doesn't work very well in many cases.