The news this week from the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual report is that the huge pay raises doled out to college presidents are beginning to level off -- at least for now. Still, in an age where parents take out second mortgages and raid their retirement accounts to come up with tuition money, it's hard to justify the top guy bringing home enough cash to cover the tuitions of a whole classroom full of students.
The job descriptions of college presidents show they have very little to do with learning, running the college or setting priorities. Those jobs all fall to vice presidents. What college presidents do can be summed up in two words: raise money.
They spend a lot of their time hobnobbing with the rich and famous on golf courses and fancy parties and make deals like promising to name a campus building after a local tycoon if he will take a moment to sign a million-dollar check. For this, presidents get to live in a college-owned mansion, often with a corps of servants. The college buys them a car and in some cases even provides an airplane. They get golden parachute plans when they leave.
Presidents justify these luxuries by producing a bottom line sheet showing that for the $436,000 they bring in ten times that much in donations and there is no denying that. But why can't these expensive executives take a lead in fixing the serious problems in higher education that this blog has described?
College presidents could be powerful voices against the relentless dumbing down of classes and grade inflation. They could overhaul campus justice systems that refuse to deal honestly and openly with the campus crime wave. They could be leaders for the reforms necessary to restore rigor and professionalism to campus life. It's hard to believe they are not aware of these things, yet they do nothing. Why is that? I can only suppose that calling any kind of attention to campus problems would reduce their effectiveness in raising cash. Who would want to give money to a dysfunctional institution?
The way this could be done, however, is for presidents to start a fund raising effort specifically to address campus problems. Why not start the "Program to Restore Credibility to College Degrees" or the "Campaign to Eliminate Grade Inflation" or "Project to Protect Students from Rape"?
I don't really expect that to happen, but as the public becomes aware of how dysfunctional and dishonest colleges have become, it might be possible in the future.
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