Student-loan debt is skyrocketing to unsustainable levels. It is one thing to encourage students to take up higher education in service to society, their nation, and their own wallets; it is another to demand indentured servitude of anyone who obligingly takes up the offer. Want to devote yourself to understanding the causes of violence and their potential solutions? Advance our understanding of the ocean? Help celebrate the rich cultural heritage of our ancestors? Design a highway bridge that doesn't kill the first truck driver to drive across? Teach? You are a bold and noble person—and one who may be paying back student loans until Miami disappears underwater, while struggling with a salary that may barely qualify as survivable.
On the other hand, 61 of our college and university presidents are making seven-figure salaries, and what the hell is that all about?
That figure, from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s ranking of compensation for the heads of U.S. colleges, is up from the previous year’s total of 58 million-dollar winners. Former Baylor University president Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who pursued President Bill Clinton, led the pack for 2016, the latest year for which data are available—but there should be a big asterisk next to his name.
Oh, absolutely. One cannot imagine a Baylor University without the dynamic presence of the now-booted Ken Starr. That severance-boosted $4.9 million is a small price to pay for all Ken Starr did for the students of that particular school; not just anyone can botch campus sexual-assault charges to an extent that makes national news.
But Starr is only one of 60 or so others to gain million-dollar-plus payments in 2016, while universities continue to hike tuition and students drown in debt that previous generations simply didn't have. Most of the others are not so (in)famous. Columbia University's president is probably worth the nearly $4 million the trustees shoveled his way, by virtue of take-your-pick, and Texas Christian University's leader gets nearly three million because that is obviously what Texas Jesus wants. You have to take into account the stress of the position. There are fundraisers to go to, and alumni to shake down, and, in some cases, sexual assault allegations to cover up. You other academics out there don't know stress.
Without getting too far into the cynical weeds, though: Is this OK? Is it a symptom of a tight market for top administrative positions in education? A symptom of profit-taking at student and alumni expense? Is higher education a career that should be amenable to million-dollar salaries at any level, even the top ones?
Not a clue. Apparently, though, our previous assumptions that becoming an educator wasn't generally the path to riches has one very significant loophole, and a very curious one.