I just gotta shout "Amen!" to Bill Friday's letter to the editor about the million dollar salary of UNC's new football coach.
I believe that those of us who are college sports fans, who believe in and respect the great value of team competition, must look ourselves in the mirror and ask what we are willing to do to "win." Are these the priorities our university should have in investing its resources? Where is this race "to win" taking us?
- chapelhillnews.com | Your Letters
WCHL interviewed Dr. Friday and you can listen to it here: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=2347
How they can do this while raising tuitions and denying professors' requests for better salaries is beyond me.
Issues:
Comments
Terri, The existence of many
Terri,
The existence of many disparities do not justify particular disparities nor remove them from our concern. To the contrary, as this thread demonstrates, discussion of particular disparities opens the door to consideration of the broader, endemic problem.
Hey Will, Where did you get
Hey Will, Where did you get the figure of $69,000 as the current average regional salary? And what constitutes the region?
James, as quoted from the
James, as quoted from the Town's vital stats page:
When I wrote that I was working from memory, so please note I was inaccurate in saying it was the average - it's actually the median.
A breakdown of regional salaries by occupation is available here and here [NC Employ. Sec. Comm].
Small breakdown of 2006 Q1 stats for the OC:
Total Federal Government 21 260 256 264 260 $3,100,864 $917.00 $0 .00000
Total State Government 23 21,434 22,014 22,384 21,945 $274,240,784 $961.00 $0 .00000
Total Local Government 44 5,721 5,829 5,869 5,806 $50,865,440 $674.00 $63,993 .03240
Total Private Industry 3,332 29,963 30,201 30,392 30,182 $252,123,319 $643.00 $193,995,168 .01671
Total All Industries 3,420 57,378 58,300 58,909 58,193 $580,330,407 $767.00 $194,059,161 .01672
BTW, found this interesting analysis of UNC salaries over at Payscale.
Terri raises the question of
Terri raises the question of Carrboro's pay scales. I would like to see the town move toward a standard of paying a minimum of the housing wage (currently around $15/hour) to all employees. I plan to ask the BoA to join me in asking the town manager to provide a report on the implications of that standard.
Currently, Carrboro has around 30 employees in pay grades whose starting point is below the housing wage. However, only one, the custodian Terri mentions, is in a pay grade whose midpoint is below the housing wage. (I do not know where within grade the particular employees fall.)
BTW, in October I suggested at the LAC that the university establish a baseline of the housing wage as one aspect of its response to the affordable housing question. It is only right that local governments adopt that standard as well.
The 'housing wage' than Dan
The 'housing wage' than Dan refers to is the income required to rent a 2-BR apartment at fair market value in this community. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's assessment that is $14.52 in Orange County ($12.94 for 1-BR).
Terri, to be clear, I was
Terri, to be clear, I was working off the number cited in several papers that the Coach will be paid $1.7 Million per year - about 90 times the figure you quote for housekeepers. I'm not sure it is relevant that only 15% of this money from state funds. The rest comes from money donated for this purpose (versus something else). I suppose you could take the view that the money would not be donated for any other purpose.
I think that many of those
I think that many of those who earn or have plentiful resources are some of the same people who generously share their resources with others. Look at all of the great causes in this community that are the beneficiaries. Being the vice-chair of the current Habitat captital campaign, I see it personally.
This afternoon after the game, I watched two jets, a Raytheon Premier 1 (twin-jet) and a Cessna Citation CJ1 (twin-jet), leave from Horace Williams. “Flight Aware" said that they were returning to Lexington, KY. Now we might not agree with how some are using their resources, flying a jet roundtrip to a UNC-KY basketball game, but I accept that it is their right. I'm also willing to hope that they also use some portion of their resources to the benefits of others. Try as we might, we are not about to change this aspect of our economic model, but let's acknowledge that there's a lot of generous people in our community, including some of the people being discussed here.
This is an arms race,
This is an arms race, nothing more, nothing less. There will be constant escalation, interspersed with the occasional plateau.
The only way this stops will be if Americans decide to kill their televisions. Cars, technogoodies, TV sports; we are a nation of addicts.
Hand me the syringe.
But can no one stop the
But can no one stop the italics tag? It's a pressing issue.
Mark Chilton started it. Bad
Mark Chilton started it. Bad Mark, bad.
Fixed. :-)
Fixed. :-)
My bad.
My bad.
I know a guy that worked for
I know a guy that worked for the University of Michigan Ann Arbor as a fund-raiser for the school of literature,science and the arts (LSA). He also worked in the athletic department after that in a similar fund-raising capacity.
What he told me long ago clarified in a sentence why esteemed colleges/universities care about athletics:
"Strong sports keeps alumni giving back money year after year."
You name the best academic PUBLIC universities in the land today and you'll see just as solid of an athletic program that encompasses bigtime football and basketball for men, which in general fund sports for the women. This is the fact of college athletics. At UM in particular, what I'm most familiar with, football serves the financial needs of the entire remaining athletic programs...which in turn results in MORE money for the president and regents to dole out to academic programs and students in need.
The bottom line is...when you're 60 and grey and see your alma mater crush the school rival, you just might be more likely to give that $100 bucks when the fundraisers call...it's that simple. It's a formula that works, ask Michigan, ask Cal Berkeley, ask Stanford, ask UCLA, ask UNC.
Sorry, had to add another
Sorry, had to add another couple points:
My ex-fundraiser friend in Michigan also said that the BIG donors will give regardless...they want their name on a building, or whatever...but the mom-and-pop donors give because they feel good about their school...sports helps them do that immensely. he said on a good "big program" sports year, that mom-and-pop alumni donations increase by 20-30%. At a school like Michigan that sets donation campaign targets in the BILLIONS...that's a mighty amount of money...
60% of collected donations go to supporting the academic elements of the university, 40% go to supporting students through scholarships and grants.
SOURCE: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?BG/endowment_QA
1.7 mil a year is NOTHING considering the amount of money it potentially brings to the table...in town at restuarants and hotels, in the donation coffers for the endowment, and in helping give the librarians and janitors a raise.
The head football coach that earns that much is expected to WIN and do so quickly. If he doesn't, he's fired. His job is risky because it's recognized that his pay is part of an overall economic equation that drives the local business health and helps sustain the high status of the university. The librarians on the other hand has essentially no risk, which is why they are correspondingly paid less. You are paid commensurate with the risk you are assuming. If you are easily replaceable, you get paid less...fact of life.
People don't goto UNC because the librarians and janitors are paid well. They goto UNC because it's an excellent school who's president and leadership understand that there are DRIVING elements necessary to sustain the schools goals...and those must be maximized (like getting top talent in basketball, football, and womens soccer.)...secondarily, they also understand that the positions that are OPERATIONAL elements (or needs) must be minimized...or handled "just well enough"...and those are sadly the librarians, janitors, bricklayers, maintenance, etc. Paying those operational positions more means that the academic faculty get less or research gets less, or students get less...or tuition increases.
Librarians and Janitors don't impel alumni to give millions of dollars of year nor do they put people in restuarants, hotels, or buying TarHeel sweatshirts...
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