Susan Herbst just got a BiG time extension

[temery]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

UConn was my first choice in 1985. The school is even better now, but it wasn't the $ you describe.

 

[CTMike]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

You are completely insane.

 

[UConnDan97]

What about her going elsewhere for a $125K pay raise? Like in business if you want to keep the best you pay them.

Yet again, another person addressing me without having read my posts in this very thread.

I'll say it for a third time, so that you cannot miss it: I have no idea where she falls in terms of pay against similarly sized and respected public universities, as I have yet to do that research. If that research shows that she is underpaid, then I would be fine with the increase. If that research shows that she is overpaid, then I wouldn't be fine with it. That is to say that I don't have a strong opinion of the raise yet because I don't have the background for it, other than a comparison against Hogan's 2011 salary.

One thing I will say is this; if she was underpaid against her peers, then the BOT should really make that information public asap. It would put the kabash on any talk or hard feelings about it around the state of Connecticut. The fact that they haven't yet, as well as the fact that they are using UConn donations to cover part of the raise, is somewhat concerning to me...

 

[pnow15]

UConn was my first choice in 1985. The school is even better now, but it wasn't the $ you describe.

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

 

[pnow15]

You are completely insane.

If UConn's big game is against the Maine Brown Bears, I guarantee you will not be on this website.

 

[UConnDan97]

An addendum to my previous post:

I tried to find a list of the highest salaries for public institutions. It's a hard list to come by, oddly enough. All I can do is throw certain pieces together from the web. But it seems at first glance that she is definitely in the top tier in terms of both base pay and total compensation. Those making larger salaries seem to be concentrated in the B1G, where student populations are much larger than ours. Also, the data that I could find about presidents making as much or more than President Herbst all seem to be at schools that rank slightly higher than ours on the USNews list, for whatever that's worth:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/02/eric_barrons_compensation_will.html
http://www.ips-dc.org/one_percent_universities/
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

Her salary now surpasses the University of Washington's president in both base and total compensation:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020974831_universitypayxml.html

Here's an interesting quote from one of the links:

"This argument is also dubious. In FY 2012, for instance, the presidents of some of the nation’s largest, most respected public research universities – the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst – each made less than $500,000 in annual total compensation. Our analysis suggests that executive compensation packages awarded between FY 2006 and FY 2012 in excess of $600,000 per year (nominal or 2012 dollars) were inflated well above “market value.”"

Although all of this data seems to point to President Herbst being in the top tier of the pay scale for public universities nationally, it doesn't seem that her salary is so far outside the average as to be seen as overly excessive. I feel less strongly about the raise today than I did yesterday, that's for sure.

Hopefully, she can help figure out how to mitigate the 6.5% increase in student costs in the very near future...

 

[CTMike]

If UConn's big game is against the Maine Brown Bears, I guarantee you will not be on this website.

Ha! I WOULD still be here!

No but really- your premise is insane.

 

[Excalibur]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money.

Operate a business that way, and watch your best people walk out the door.

 

[Sportsman5]

An addendum to my previous post:

I tried to find a list of the highest salaries for public institutions. It's a hard list to come by, oddly enough. All I can do is throw certain pieces together from the web. But it seems at first glance that she is definitely in the top tier in terms of both base pay and total compensation. Those making larger salaries seem to be concentrated in the B1G, where student populations are much larger than ours. Also, the data that I could find about presidents making as much or more than President Herbst all seem to be at schools that rank slightly higher than ours on the USNews list, for whatever that's worth:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/02/eric_barrons_compensation_will.html
http://www.ips-dc.org/one_percent_universities/
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

Her salary now surpasses the University of Washington's president in both base and total compensation:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020974831_universitypayxml.html


Although all of this data seems to point to President Herbst being in the top tier of the pay scale for public universities nationally, it doesn't seem that her salary is so far outside the average as to be seen as overly excessive. I feel less strongly about the raise today than I did yesterday, that's for sure.

Hopefully, she can help figure out how to mitigate the 6.5% increase in student costs in the very near future...

some things that could help to lower the percent rise in tuition: increasing student enrollment to create economies of scale. UConn is doing this. Another thing is to make more online classes for non-major general education courses during freshman and sophomore years. Economics 101 can be easily taught online to 1,000+ kids in a semester with one professor. Most universities will be migrating to this in the future if they are smart. I have faith susan will optomize this. a third thing is to increase enrollment of international students who pay full out of state tuition. It appears uconn is doing this. If she can be smart about saving money in other ways that are not yet implemented, then that would make her salary more than worth it.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

100% disagree. Just a couple of pointers.

• Yale is a top 5 university globally and its President makes $1.6 million annually. If Herbst got a call from Yale to be its President, she would be gone in a heartbeat and I could not blame her. Who would not take such an opportunity?
• I went to a presentation by Herbst in NYC and spoke to her a bit. While she as a lot of respect for athletics to create a vibrate campus culture and as marketing and fundraising tool, it is not her #1 priority. Her first priority is improving UConn’s academic stature, especially in STEM, in both faculty and facility quality. By all reports, she is doing an excellent job here. Her second is dealing with budget issues in conjunction with the CT legislature. Now that is a job I would not wish on my worst enemy. Athletics maybe third and she said UConn is looking for opportunities to increase UConn’s sports profile.
• Also on sports, during the last expansion. Yes, Herbst and Warde may have been caught unprepared. That said, there was no slot for UConn in the B1G as Rutgers had been looked at for years and Maryland, which was also on their radar, feel into their lap due to the financial incompetence of Maryland’s AD. As for the ACC, UConn got outmauvered before UConn even had a chance by NIMBY BC and the southern/football first schools in Florida St., Clemson, and Miami.

 

[UConnDan97]

some things that could help to lower the percent rise in tuition: increasing student enrollment to create economies of scale. UConn is doing this. Another thing is to make more online classes for non-major general education courses during freshman and sophomore years. Economics 101 can be easily taught online to 1,000+ kids in a semester with one professor. Most universities will be migrating to this in the future if they are smart. I have faith susan will optomize this. a third thing is to increase enrollment of international students who pay full out of state tuition. It appears uconn is doing this. If she can be smart about saving money in other ways that are not yet implemented, then that would make her salary more than worth it.

Agreed that saving money in other ways would make her salary more than worth it.

However, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds, for a few reasons:

1) Housing - You need to house most of those students, since the greater Mansfield area is likely not equipped to take in a lot of "off campus" students. I think that's why the Nathan Hall Inn was purchased by UConn recently, but I'm not positive about that.

2) University Rankings - An increase in student enrollment, for better or for worse, tends to lower your "most competitive status" and / or rankings values nationally. It's ridiculous in many ways to say that, especially if all the students are equally qualified, but unfortunately universities are in the game of rejection instead of acceptance. It's why Harvard and Yale are always on top; they send a lot of applications back home.

3) Faculty Ratio - Increasing student populations necessitates one of the following two things; an increase in faculty members, or a decrease in teacher-to-student ratio. If I'm not mistaken, the latter is also used in school ranking parameters.

So again, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds. It has real ramifications on our university's status and operation. But hey...that's why we're paying her the big bucks and not me...

 

[Huskybite]

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

Totally appreciate your cynicism here, but you're probably already aware that scholarships at the Ivies are strictly need-based, not academic or athletic-- making UConn very attractive in today's world even without their relatively recent successes on the playing fields.

 

[Sportsman5]

Agreed that saving money in other ways would make her salary more than worth it.

However, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds, for a few reasons:

1) Housing - You need to house most of those students, since the greater Mansfield area is likely not equipped to take in a lot of "off campus" students. I think that's why the Nathan Hall Inn was purchased by UConn recently, but I'm not positive about that.

2) University Rankings - An increase in student enrollment, for better or for worse, tends to lower your "most competitive status" and / or rankings values nationally. It's ridiculous in many ways to say that, especially if all the students are equally qualified, but unfortunately universities are in the game of rejection instead of acceptance. It's why Harvard and Yale are always on top; they send a lot of applications back home.

3) Faculty Ratio - Increasing student populations necessitates one of the following two things; an increase in faculty members, or a decrease in teacher-to-student ratio. If I'm not mistaken, the latter is also used in school ranking parameters.

So again, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds. It has real ramifications on our university's status and operation. But hey...that's why we're paying her the big bucks and not me...

I agree with your points, but the university is currently addressing these things or has plans to address them. What affects rankings actually is not intuitive. Things like acceptance rate often times aren't counted very much. Even admission stats like percent of incoming freshman in the top 10% of high school graduating class aren't accounted for that much because the rankings want to avoid using the student profiles as a measure of the quality of the education. So I don't think increasing enrollment will hurt rankings very much at all.

The current student to faculty ratio is 16 to 1 and will become 15 to 1. Increasing enrollment at that rate should yield a net benefit financially to the university when you take into account some of those students are paying full out of state tuition and are paying for meal plans with just marginal cost of food being the universities expense. The university makes a lot on meal plans on a marginal cost basis because it has to pay fixed costs regardless of whether there are 18,000 or 22,000 students at the university. So if there are 15 more students per faculty member, then i'm assuming there will still be quite a bit of money left after paying one more faculty member. Plus those additional students will generate donations from parents and themselves in the future.

 

[UConnDan97]

So if there are 15 more students per faculty member, then i'm assuming there will still be quite a bit of money left after paying one more faculty member.

You would be correct with this last statement if we weren't facing a budget deficit. However, we are. Hence the 6.5% tuition hike...

 

[Sportsman5]

You would be correct with this last statement if we weren't facing a budget deficit. However, we are. Hence the 6.5% tuition hike...

my point is adding students helps to decrease the deficit. It doesn't necessarily eliminate the deficit all together. My original point was that there are multiple things susan can do to save money or generate more revenue. Increasing enrollment generates a net positive in cash flow. The university can either choose to increase spending due to these adjusments and keep tuition increases the same or save money and reduce tuition increases. Right now the university is spending extra money, so tuition keeps going up at the same clip it has been for awhile. the other factor is endowment size. If UConn has a 1.5 billion dollar endowment 15 years from now and invests that at say 5%, then that is 75 million in interest. That money can be used to help offset tuition. Right now Uconn is trying to grow the endowment and doesn't want to spend the money generated from donations or interest accrued on the current amount.

 

[Nostical]

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

Not a scholarship issue, but Nick Williams, who was accepted at Princeton, decided to attend UConn and play Div 1 football instead.

 

[huskymedic]

and she makes quite a bit less than WM even after the raise... enuf said.

? How do you figure ? Manuel's base is @ $450k and even if he hits all "performance" incentives @ $100k and deferred comp after this year - he still doesn't come close to SH new contract.

 

[UCFBfan]

Still very affordable for CT residents. For us out of staters, not so much.

I have to say, I think UConn is raising tuition behind other schools. I don't have the exact numbers but when I was deciding between schools in 1999 I was between UConn and PSU. I was living in NJ so it was out of state for both. I chose UConn and am very glad I did but my extended family lived in State College so I was there frequently during my time at UConn. I vividly remember reading in the local State College paper during my senior year how tuition had risen something like 10-15% or more at PSU during my time in college. Uconn during that time frame wasn't even on the radar in raising tuition. So this increase might just be UConn catching up with everyone else? I don't have numbers so don't kill me on this comparison I just made.

I will say, I'm glad I live in CT now and my daughters will be able to go to UConn on in-state tuition. However, since they'll be getting free rides on athletic scholarships it won't matter (my daughters are 2 and a half and 6 months so clearly I'm half joking on the full rides!)

 

[Gurleyman]

However, since they'll be getting free rides on athletic scholarships it won't matter (my daughters are 2 and a half and 6 months so clearly I'm half joking on the full rides!)

Couldn't find it on line but there's an old ad for Charles Schwab or someone like that where the tag line is "how will you pay for your retirement?" and there's a dad hitting tennis balls at his two-year old daughter who can barely even hold the racket. The shots keep going right by her and he says "ok honey, now let's work on the backhand."

So it's not too soon to get her out there. It may be cold, but it'll toughen her up.

 

[Stainmaster]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

UCONN is an academic institution first and foremost. If you disagree, I feel like pro sports would be a much better fit for you.

 

[pnow15]

Operate a business that way, and watch your best people walk out the door.

This is not a business. We pay the entire bill.

 

[pnow15]

Nobody seems to ask the question: Why are any of these people making this kind of money? Why do we pay Warde half a million?
For what? We could pay an AD $200,000 and still not be in a P5 conference. Paying these outrageous salaries for no risk jobs in just plain stupid. Students are spending half of their lives paying back student loans so that we can over pay these people to do what? In the end the tax payers are footing the bill. We are being scammed. The entire university system is turning to one giant Ponzi scheme. And I'm sure somewhere in the over trillion dollar a year deficit that this country runs, the colleges administrators have their fat fingers in the till.
We have a nation where half the young people are in great debt and living in their mothers' basements while the college administrators are millionaires. And its like this elite club. They got everyone believing that this is the way it should be . They some masters's degree or doctoral degree and they have never made a dime in private business but now they all need a half million to spend our money. Are we nuts?
And if the states wised up and just refused to pay these salaries just where are these people going to go? Who else on this planet is going
to give Warde a half million dollars? Are we nuts?

 

[CTMike]

Are we nuts?

Just you. Maybe you'd enjoy posting in the Cesspool? Lots of irrational ranting there, you'd do great.

 

[HuskyHawk]

UConn was my first choice in 1985. The school is even better now, but it wasn't the $ you describe.

And mine in 1984. Even then it was easily the top public university in New England. It wasn't what it is now, and was behind schools like Rutgers then.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Nobody seems to ask the question: Why are any of these people making this kind of money? Why do we pay Warde half a million?
For what? We could pay an AD $200,000 and still not be in a P5 conference. Paying these outrageous salaries for no risk jobs in just plain stupid. Students are spending half of their lives paying back student loans so that we can over pay these people to do what? In the end the tax payers are footing the bill. We are being scammed. The entire university system is turning to one giant Ponzi scheme. And I'm sure somewhere in the over trillion dollar a year deficit that this country runs, the colleges administrators have their fat fingers in the till.
We have a nation where half the young people are in great debt and living in their mothers' basements while the college administrators are millionaires. And its like this elite club. They got everyone believing that this is the way it should be . They some masters's degree or doctoral degree and they have never made a dime in private business but now they all need a half million to spend our money. Are we nuts?
And if the states wised up and just refused to pay these salaries just where are these people going to go? Who else on this planet is going
to give Warde a half million dollars? Are we nuts?

Look, there is the real world and the ideal world. Right now, the public and private university system are indeed in a massive bubble or artificial economics. It is all propped up by lots of varying government incentives and spending. The result is the ever expanding tuition, student loans and other issues. It will collapse at some point.

But within that system, Susan Herbst has moved UConn ahead faster than many though was possible, and she has an impressive 21st century, STEM focused view of where it can go. If they want to keep her, they need to pay, just as you see in any industry.

 

[temery]

Look, there is the real world and the ideal world. Right now, the public and private university system are indeed in a massive bubble or artificial economics. It is all propped up by lots of varying government incentives and spending. The result is the ever expanding tuition, student loans and other issues. It will collapse at some point.

But within that system, Susan Herbst has moved UConn ahead faster than many though was possible, and she has an impressive 21st century, STEM focused view of where it can go. If they want to keep her, they need to pay, just as you see in any industry.

How long has she been president?

 

[HuskyHawk]

How long has she been president?

2011. Not that long. I am not suggesting that she gets credit for the rise of UConn over the last 20 years, rather that the STEM and research focus has really intensified under her tenure and her vision going forward is a strong one. I think major public universities will need to be STEM focused with public/private partnerships, rather than acting as liberal arts colleges.

 

[temery]

What about her going elsewhere for a $125K pay raise? Like in business if you want to keep the best you pay them.

There are CEO's making millions, and receiving enormous raises, while their companies lose money. The idea getting and keeping the best means paying more ... is bull$hit.

If she wants to go, let her. UConn was great before she arrived, and would do so after she leaves.

 

[UConnDan97]

There are CEO's making millions, and receiving enormous raises, while their companies lose money. The idea getting and keeping the best means paying more ... is bull$hit.

If she wants to go, let her. UConn was great before she arrived, and would do so after she leaves.

In a lot of ways, I agree with this. The real reason that UConn has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last couple of decades is the fact that the state was willing to invest a crap-ton of money into the system. And not just UConn2000, but a host of other times where the state has announced large sums of investment to the university. From Hartley to Austin to Hogan to Herbst.

Susan Herbst is seemingly doing a good job here, and I don't think that many would question it. But I don't think that she is doing such a good job as to suggest that another quality president couldn't match it, given the resources that she has been supplied with. She's being paid in the higher tier of public university presidents already, even prior to the raise. What I would like to see now is some sort of planning around the budget deficit that doesn't involve steep hikes in the tuition. Then, she would REALLY win me over...

 

[Fishy]

You pay good people what they're worth. And good people want to work with other good people - let her walk and you'd find that Josh Newton and Dr. Choi would follow her out in short order.

She's not making millions and there have been long stretches where UConn has been anything but great.