Comments about ‘Utah Board of Regents rolls back salary increases after governor's reaction’

This board of Regents are dumber than dumb. Why should the public education be cut back on budget and the college level not? Public schools are the foundation of our education programs. Have this Republican Congress realign their thinking on education to where public education is the top priority item in the budget and allow for all the schools needs then consider the colleges.

"... in order for Utah to recruit the best and most talented college leaders, the state needs to be competitive."

That same line of logic has been used to justify paying outrageous salaries to individuals nationwide.

Though from what I've seen the "best and brightest" in their respective fields haven't been any more capable than the "average" folks who make less. In fact, the folks making less might be smarter... because every dollar they leave on the table is a dollar that institution could put to use elsewhere.

The rich keep getting richer at the expense of the middle class, which is rapidly losing ground. Class warfare is coming and it's not going to be pretty.

Tone deaf is correct. What is the Board of Regents thinking? Most of us are in a big hole economically, and they do this. I have had up to 5 jobs trying to keep up with the economy as I was layed-off from my job. For them to pass out raises because they are not paid like others in the field? Then we hear about the schools not being able to make ends meet and have to raise tuition, fees and all other costs to make up for it? Board of Regents: we as normal folks are not stupid. We see what you are doing. Your actions are despicable. We poor people down here are disgusted with your actions. DR Hall has it correct. They need to cut down just like public education schools. Then filter some of those gigantic funds to our kids that need it more (not the upper level management where is normally goes).

Why would anyone even think that Utah could recruit "the best and most talented college leaders". From a national perspective, Utah and its colleges are small town and not much more than that. That works for Utah! Accept it. Most of the most talented students in the country have little interest in being educated in Utah when they intent to live and work elsewhere.

Utahns should be outraged at this political process!

The governor appoints the Board of Regents to be an independent body to oversee higher education within the state of Utah. The Regents are free to act autonomously to fulfill their duties. Then, the governor decides that he does not like a decision made by Regents (whom he appointed) and publicly pressures them to rescind their decision. Regardless your opinion on this issue, this is a classic case of the executive branch (the governor) inappropriately overstepping its bounds to attempt to control an independent body.

Can you imagine the public outcry if the governor had appointed a judge and then attempted to overturn the judge's ruling simply because the governor did not like it?

Utahns should be very, very concerned about the autocratic nature of this move by Governor Herbert and Senator Waddoups!!!

@Cambrai:

Que? What are you trying (and failing) to articulate? You're correct that the governor appoints the regents, and that the regents are supposed to - by mandate - act autonomously and independently. But to accuse Gov. Herbert (who I am not necessarily a huge fan of politically - despite knowing him personally) of overstepping his bounds by sending a letter to the Board asking (not telling) them to hold off on the raises is blatantly ludicrous.

He is not pressuring anybody; he is making a suggestion, one that has wide-spread support from the state legislature - not to mention the public. He was merely articulating, as Utah's Chief Executive, what the prevailing reaction has been to the news of this raise. And what Sen. Waddoups (again, not a fan of his) - who is not seeking re-election next year - is questioning is the value we're getting out from the college/university presidents for what we pay them; I don't see anything wrong with that - it's a simple cost-benefit analysis.

And ClarkKent has it right, anyway: this is Utah; we don't have top wages in any industry - yet we still live here. You want higher wages? Move to someplace that pays them.

Many of us were upset when we learned of the approved raise. We wrote about it. The Govenor and the Board of Regents listened to upset taxpaying citizens. This doesn't happen very often these days. I'm glad they did listen and that did correct the mistake that they made.

Good for the Governer halting this pathetic raise. Benchmarking is part of the problem with public sector wages and benefits all over the country. Government A gives a raise to it's employees to attract the "best and brightest", so Governent B then raises it's wages to the level of Government A. Then, not to be left behind, Government C raises it's wages to match the rate increase by A and B. Then the cycle starts all over again. The process then continues for decades until government employees are getting better pay and better benefits than similarly qualified people in the private sector.

All it takes in this scenario are a couple of leading states to be bad apples (e.g. California, Illinois, Michigan, new Jersey, etc.), and benchmarking as a common practice, and pretty soon, most of the country is in trouble.

That's pretty much how we got here folks...

I'd like to see the governor and the legislators do more with less. How about a 10% pay cut across the board for these yahoos?

It's time to start taking it out of football and basketball programs.

Utah schools and government are not in the business of competing with anyone, they are regulated and deserve no better than any other government employee. If these presidents can't work for fair wages and services then we don't need them. And why do schools need a CEO? Our schools are not a corporation and there is no competition with any other private or public entity so why such extravagant waste in salaries? Policies, spending, and education are established by others and that's their only job, enforce the policies and services to educate young adults. Why do the Board of Regents think Utah needs multimillion dollar business tycoons in education when all authority and spending comes from our elected government?

Government services have too much competition and its all against the tax payers to see how much this board can bleed us for. Meeting our needs and standards is the only criteria for any employment, and employment, pay, and benefits should be regulated by state payroll system. The state should stop this contract style CEO contracting, they are government workers and government does not have that authority. Million dollar one man contracts do not belong in government jobs.

To Hutterite:

Football and basketball are money-makers. Your proposal wouldn't work.

I can't even imagine what it would be like to earn $300,000 a year! I should think that would be plenty for anyone to live on. We make about 1/5 that amount, and even though $60,000 a year is a great salary, it is hard to meet all of our obligations, especially by the time it is reduced by taxes and insurance, etc., to about $38,000 or so net income. And there are many people trying to live on a lot less. Granted, college presidents do have a lot of responsibilities, and they have worked to get the education required to be in that position, it is still rather out of balance to have such a high salary compared with the teachers who are in the trenches daily with the students, particularly in the elementary, middle school and high school settings.

Please compare the awesome responsibilities and workload of running a liberal indoctrination center, aks "University" with that of running an entire state.

At $109,900 per year, the salary of Utah's governor ranks 37th among U.S. governors' salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. governors is $128,735. The median salary earned by U.S. governors is $129,962.

I think that University Presidents are vastly overpaid, regardless of the scam where they keep arguing "well, the other guys get paid more...."

If the Regents were listening, they would CUT the U of U advertised salary by 10-20% and they can still fill the job with a capable indvidual.

If they cannot hire "academics" at that rate, offer the job to the outgoing Governors at their old salary, and I bet they would take the job, and save taxpayers a bundle slashing the wasteful excesses to which the liberal academics have become accustomed.

Hutterite:

"It's time to start taking it out of football and basketball programs."

Those programs are generally self-sustaining for the most part, if not fully then substantially; as such, as far as I am aware, very little - if any - funds allocated to colleges and universities by the state legislatures goes to those programs.

And Carman is right: those are usually revenue-generating operations that bring money into the school. Why would a college cut a program that brought in more than it's costing them? That's like a corporation deciding to discontinue a successful product even though it makes money. Not wise business sense. It's Business 101: if a product's cost/benefit ratio puts it "in the black", it's generally a good idea to keep it on the market.......