Face the State Opinion
While the media has eagerly clambered to cover stories chronicling higher education's budget woes, reporters have rarely - if ever - bothered to look closely at the real sources of the problem.
During this year's legislative session, which ended last week, lawmakers worked furiously to close a $604 million budget shortfall. The Denver Post editorial page continuously spoke in favor of the state's public colleges and universities, portraying them as victims of the struggling economy, and proclaiming that they deserve more tax dollars and flexibility to raise tuition. Missing from the Post's analysis, however, was any call to action to cut the fat out of higher ed budgets, including unjustifiable salaries and unnecessary programs. As a Face The State investigation recently revealed, one CU chancellor will take home more than $700,000 this year - making him one of the highest paid university officials in the nation serving a campus of his size.
Recent headlines in the Post include "Colleges need steady income" and "Small colleges don't get tax chance." And when naming the 2009 legislative winners and losers Sunday, the Post said higher education was a "mixed bag" because although the state legislature cut higher ed funding, millions of stimulus dollars are pouring into Colorado to fill state school budget gaps.
The Post editorial board praised University of Colorado President Bruce Benson last week when he announced his plan for cutting the budget at CU, which included eliminating 54 jobs and a 5 percent pay cut for top administrators. But Benson's 5 percent salary reduction saves only $155,000, just a fraction of what the university could cut if it had adopted an alternative plan advocated by Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry and Sen. Bill Cadman. That plan would have imposed a 5 percent cut to all higher ed salaries over $100,000; it could have saved CU $4 million all without eliminating a single job.
During the legislative session, and as Metro State and CSU came forth with funding solutions, CU quietly worked behind the scenes. The Post, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge the duty of CU's leaders to make tough cuts, claiming "Without major changes to the way the state budgets its money, higher education will continue to bear the brunt of state funding cuts."
At no point in the Post's analysis, with the exception of a Vincent Carroll column acknowledging CU's out-of-control six figure salaries, has the paper's editorial board or newsroom ever called on CU to take a tough look in the mirror. Since the closure of the Rocky Mountain News in March, readers are certainly worse off without this type of scrutiny. Partly to blame is the lack of a dedicated higher education reporter at the Post. Reporter Allison Sherry, who previously provided good coverage of Colorado's colleges, has now seen her beat shifted to covering the nation's current economic problems.
As Denver adjusts to being a one-newspaper city, readers will also have to adjust to the editorial tone of a solidly liberal newspaper. Lest we be accused of oversimplifying the issue, we'd be remiss if we didn't also question decisions made by CU President Bruce Benson, a Republican, as well as the Republican members of the CU Board of Regents. The Post didn't get us into this mess, but its editorializing isn't going to get us out of it.
The university intends to
On July 20th, 2009 zombo09 says:
The university intends to start an online publication, done by its public relations mouthpieces, that will "report" "news" of interest to faculty and staff. As in "news" that the administraiton will spin, spin, spin and will not have one ounce of credibility.
Fourier, you're on the right track
On May 12th, 2009 Orly says:
The issue is not payroll so much as it is explosive growth in the number of assistant vice presidents, associate vice presidents, executive assistant vice presidents or vice chancellors or the like. If you look at CU, the growth in the number of six-figure salaries has been as much because of additions in the administrative area than anything else. There is one associate vice president (I think that's the title) who get s a six-figure salary and only works part-time. It's outrageous. Add to that Benson's decision to cut a measly 5 percent when employees are being laid off or having their salaries cut, and you see the greed.
By the way, on the issue of salaries: faculty and staff salaries are generally limited by the limits the state imposes on its classified staff salary increases, which generally keep pace with inflation (no performance pay or merit increases this year, for example). And it's been frequently cited that Colorado state employees make more on average than state employees in other states, which may be true, but the state government has to compete for employees HERE, not in other states, and here state government must compete with the private sector. I GUARANTEE you, as a state employee, I would make a heck of a lot more in the private sector than I do in my current job.
A higher quality education,
On May 12th, 2009 Fourier says:
A higher quality education, which, by the way, is not measured by Nobel prize winners at least for undergraduates, will do nothing to bring in more out-of-state students. The fraction of out-of-state students is limited by law, and CU-Boulder has been at that limit for years.
The real question is whether there should be any limit at all on payroll, which has grown substantially through all the budget crises, or on salaries, which are bumped up because colleges measure themselves relative to other tax supported institutions rather than to private sector jobs.
"unjustifiable salaries"?
On May 11th, 2009 cunninjo says:
Any good conservative should appreciate someone being rewarded for success. Staring in the fall, CU will have 3 Nobel Prize-winning professors. These are men who lead the world in their fields of study. Should they not be rewarded? You can't maake a generalization that all those making more than $100,000 are getting "unjustifiable salaries". That's why an across the board cut makes no sense. It's the same as justifying executive bonuses. If you want to be the best, you have to hire the best.
A higher quality of education at CU will attract more out-of-state students which is what really brings in the money.
CU budget cuts
On May 11th, 2009 Orly says:
Not only are readers worse off without the scrutiny of the Rocky, but at the end of this week CU's faculty and staff are losing their own newspaper, the Silver & Gold Record, which is being shuttered due to the administration not being able to control the content. They sought that control two years ago in a battle with the newspaper and its editorial board, and lost that fight. This is at a minimum retaliation for that loss.
The university intends to start an online publication, done by its public relations mouthpieces, that will "report" "news" of interest to faculty and staff. As in "news" that the administraiton will spin, spin, spin and will not have one ounce of credibility.