<p>"The chancellor of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities on Monday defended raises for about 1,500 non-union administrators, including himself, even as state officials predicted a difficult budget year.</p>
<p>Chancellor John Cavanaugh told a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in downtown Harrisburg that university administrators hadn’t had a raise in two-and-a-half years. The average 3 percent merit raise went into effect Jan. 1 at a cost of about $6 million a year out of a $1.4 billion system budget, a system spokesman said.</p>
<p>Asked if he would return his raise or ask other administrators to do so, Cavanaugh said the system board of governors sets compensation levels. He also noted that the system’s unionized work force of about 12,000 received raises last year…"</p>
<p>Wow, just wow. Not only the raises, but 1400 administration? </p>
<p>Today’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on college costs, and one thing it called for was accreditation bodies should look at percent of expenses spent on admin v. (I am paraphrasing) research plus teaching (imo, their exempt purposes).</p>
<p>That’s ironic, because one of the things that you need administrators to deal with, because faculty engaged in teaching or research can’t or won’t, is meeting the demands of accreditation bodies. And legislatures. And research funders. And bureaucrats. And parents. And local governments. And insurance companies. . . . . </p>
<p>These are large institutions that educate a wide range of students – some who may have gotten into Harvard, and some who maybe shouldn’t have gotten out of high school. 1,500 administrators for the system seems like a lot, but not by that much.</p>
<p>Here’s a cute factoid I heard a few years ago from someone in a position to know: The number of administrators engaged in running the Roman Empire at its height, when it stretched from Britain to Palestine, and surrounded the Mediterranean, approximately equals the number of administrative staff employed by the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Are you seriously telling me that insitutions like PSU or UofM have to do much more than collect data for accreditation? Becuase that is truly scary. or annoying. That places like UPhoneix get accredited, and others have to work at. Who the heck controls these accreditation bodies?</p>
<p>Remember that the category of “administrators” includes counselors, residential directors, the registrar’s office, and others who provide direct student services. These aren’t just fat cats who sit in offices and make plans. When students bemoan the lack of good advising, misbehavior in the dorms, inability to register, etc…maybe the school cut back on “administrators.”</p>
<p>JHS is right - the total sum of all these colleges:
14 State Universities, PSU, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln educate over 250,000 students. There is a lot of infrastructure out there.</p>
<p>That said - I cannot stand arrogant adminsitrators (meaning the Chancellor). They come up with the budget and then ask the rank and file to take a freeze. Seriously, how about leading by example?</p>
<p>Not having had a raise in 2 and a half years is in no way a rationale for a raise now. Inflation over that period was minimal, so that’s not an issue. Unless the system is having a hard time holding on to qualified personnel (highly unlikely in the current economic environment, where there are people who have been without work at all for 2 and a half years, much less without a raise), there is no justification for spending money this way when state revenues are plummeting. And I love how it’s called a 3% “merit” raise. Apparently every administrator across the board was equally meritorious!</p>
<p>In my local school district several of the highest paid administrators turned down raises without anyone asking them to do so, and none of them are elected officials.</p>
<p>State revenues are falling,no question…and the smart move by ese administrators would have been to decline the salary increase…that said,tuitions NEED to increase at state schools,they are taxpayer supported,and taxpayers are hurting,so if administrators should forgo increases,students and their families should pay more also</p>
That is amazing. Really.<br>
Last year our Superintendent said she would ‘give back’ her raise. Of course, that means the salary with the raise is the one that counts towards PSERS so she would still continue to get her retirement bump.
This year, they asked support staff to take a 5% pay cut in the final year of the contract but none of the administrators would take a pay cut.</p>
<p>qdogpa - increasing tuition serves to increase brain drain. Two of my kids got better deals at out of state privates with merit and need based aid than they would have gotten at a state univeristy. We already have one of the highest in-state tuition levels in the country. Ever notice that when the state coffers fill up in good economic times tuition never decreases?</p>
<p>MommaJ - the “3% merit raise” is the sum of all the merit raises. It’s a sly trick - when administrators retire and are replaced with lower paying ones that leaves $$$ for some to get higher than 3%. Presumably some admins who ‘need improvement’ don’t get a ‘merit raise’ - LOL.</p>