Susan Herbst just got a BiG time extension

[pj]

What I'm wondering is why the board felt the timing was right for a 20% increase, on the heels of such marked increases for tuition across our campuses.

Budget time is budget time. You look at both revenue and expenses. President's salary is a significant expense. If you're going to spend more you need to show where the revenue will come to make the books balance. So the raise happens at the same time as the revenue increases.

 

[UConnDan97]

Budget time is budget time. You look at both revenue and expenses. President's salary is a significant expense. If you're going to spend more you need to show where the revenue will come to make the books balance. So the raise happens at the same time as the revenue increases.

When I said "timing", I wasn't literally saying, "Why this week?" Budget time is indeed budget time. I was saying, "Why, during this period when tuition hikes are some of the greatest they have ever been at UConn?" Revenue increases clearly haven't been enough to offset that, otherwise, we wouldn't be having a tuition hike...

 

[CL82]

Symbolic gestures are often good business, in fact.

But I'm not asking Susan Herbst to make a symbolic gesture. What I'm wondering is why the board felt the timing was right for a 20% increase, on the heels of such marked increases for tuition across our campuses. I suppose the one fact that keeps me from posing a stronger opposition is the fact that she was making 25k less base pay than Pres. Hogan was in 2011 prior to the raise. She is now making 35k more base pay after the raise becomes effective. But let's all be honest; a 60k base pay increase, a year after someone received a 25k base pay increase, is excessive.

Well, at least I'll take solace in the fact that she seems to be doing a very good job. I would like to see continued measures taken in the near future to ensure that UConn remains affordable for the people of Connecticut...

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

 

[UConnDan97]

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

I really do feel for the out-of-staters. UConn has become extremely expensive to those outside of the state borders. But "very affordable" is not a description I would use for UConn today. It has been 17 years since my graduation, and the cost has more than doubled. Is it still much cheaper than most private schools? Yes. Is it a high quality education? Yes. Is it very affordable? At 28k in-state, unfortunately not...

http://financialaid.uconn.edu/cost/

 

[CL82]

I really do feel for the out-of-staters. UConn has become extremely expensive to those outside of the state borders. But "very affordable" is not a description I would use for UConn today. It has been 17 years since my graduation, and the cost has more than doubled. Is it still much cheaper than most private schools? Yes. Is it a high quality education? Yes. Is it very affordable? At 28k in-state, unfortunately not...

http://financialaid.uconn.edu/cost/

Fair enough. Compared to shelling out$60k for a private, it looks good though.

 

[Nostical]

I don't buy that current higher student tuition and fees should govern whether the Board of Trustees recognizes the significant accomplishments of Susan Herbst and the competitive realities of higher education. Consider this--John Lahey is paid $3.7 million as President of Quinnipiac! I realize they are a private school but please. Actually, Herbst's raise should have been even larger---to put her and UConn among the bigger players in public academia, where they belong. Besides, she's earned it. She's one of the best in the nation. Take away behemoths like Ohio St. and Michigan, the presidents of schools like Iowa and Indiana make over $1M in salary, before all the perks. She's the best President UConn has had since Homer Babbidge. We need to make sure she stays. There's lots to accomplish. I want her strong, smart, steady and impatient hand at the helm of UConn for years to come.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I'll be the contrarian on this thread.

I've pondered it a little bit, and I think it was the wrong thing for the BOT to do. I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve a raise. From most reports that I've seen, she's making a lot of the right moves for our university, from a science and business standpoint, from a university collaboration standpoint, etc. But a raise of 20%, on the heels of the announcement of tuition increases of 6.5% at Storrs and 4% for medical / dental schools, indeed sends the wrong message. Especially after receiving a 5% increase last year.

If the increase was something like a 5% increase, or maybe even 10%, I don't think you would hear anyone complain. But I do believe that a 20% raise is excessive at a time where UConn is asking much more from the families of students and taxpayers. I will now accept a rain of hellfire from the BY members...

That's reasonable and it could create some bad PR for UConn. But, what I do not have on-hand is what the median salary is for a top 20 public research university. Prior to this raise, if she was in the bottom quartile, which is common for a new hire, and after several years of good performance, this raise pushed into the top half or even top quartile, it's a sound business decision even if it looks questionable to outsiders.

 

[Kolumbo]

I don't care about her percentage increase. How does her salary compare to her peers? She is much more visible than previous presidents and sure, much of that is due to social media. But she seems to be doing a fine job and if she guides UCONN to AAU and the B1G, she deserves much much more, and not a dime back.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I really do feel for the out-of-staters. UConn has become extremely expensive to those outside of the state borders. But "very affordable" is not a description I would use for UConn today. It has been 17 years since my graduation, and the cost has more than doubled. Is it still much cheaper than most private schools? Yes. Is it a high quality education? Yes. Is it very affordable? At 28k in-state, unfortunately not...

http://financialaid.uconn.edu/cost/

For better or worse, UConn exists in a very expensive part of the county and thus the tuition costs are going to be higher than most other state universities outside of the region. Connecticut's overall financial issues are not helping either.

In addition, outside of the Northeast, most state U's are not also competing with top tier, neighboring private universities. As CT is very small for a state in terms of landmass compared to everywhere else outside of the Northeast, I'll look at New England as a whole and assume UConn is the leading state flagship university for the region. In Illinois, which is about equal to New England's population (NE 14.6 million to IL 12.8 million) and is somewhat smaller geographically (NE 71K sq miles v IL 58K sq miles), US News (2014), lists U Illinois as the 42nd best national university. Within Illinois, Illinois is the 3rd best national university after just U Chicago and Northwestern. In New England, UConn, which is ranked #58 nationally, there are 10 national universities ranked ahead of UConn and they are all private (Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Tufts, BC, Brandeis, Boston U, Northeastern). Plus, UConn from an undergraduate academic recruiting perspective also has to deal with 13 of the top 50 nationally ranked liberal arts colleges also located in New England. Illinois has none. That is the market that UConn is dealing with in terms of students and faculty costs.

 

[SubbaBub]

Michigan just agreed to pay their FB coach roughly 50M. Why? because the market demanded it. If you think Susan is worth keeping, then it is worth paying what it takes to keep her. This isn't a difficult concept. The timing is to fend off other suitors or preempt the expiration of her current contract.

Conspiracy Kitty might say that her B1G friends might want to know she be around for a bit longer, but I think he's started NYE a bit early.

 

[auggie22]

I really do feel for the out-of-staters. UConn has become extremely expensive to those outside of the state borders. But "very affordable" is not a description I would use for UConn today. It has been 17 years since my graduation, and the cost has more than doubled. Is it still much cheaper than most private schools? Yes. Is it a high quality education? Yes. Is it very affordable? At 28k in-state, unfortunately not...

http://financialaid.uconn.edu/cost/

Doing the math in my head so I may have the numbers slightly off, but I believe that is comfortably less than a 25 percent increase in real dollars. When you factor in the increase in financial aid over that same period, and with currency depreciation, I am not so sure that uconn is really any more expensive to the average student today than it was when you were in school.

 

[UConnDan97]

Doing the math in my head so I may have the numbers slightly off, but I believe that is comfortably less than a 25 percent increase in real dollars. When you factor in the increase in financial aid over that same period, and with currency depreciation, I am not so sure that uconn is really any more expensive to the average student today than it was when you were in school.

I'm not sure at all where you're coming from on this comment.

There is no way on earth that the "real cost" is that much less than the mathematical cost. The reason I can safely say that is because wages have been relatively stagnant over that time period. Couple that with a diminished purchasing power, and you are going to need a LOT of help in the financial aid arena to make up the difference. Keep in mind that I was no stranger to financial aid either. Some of my best friends in college were named Pell, Stafford, and Sallie Mae...

 

[UConnDan97]

Michigan just agreed to pay their FB coach roughly 50M. Why? because the market demanded it.

Your point needs to be qualified.

Michigan just agreed to pay their FB coach roughly 50M (over the course of his contract) because they believe that his ability to generate revenue will be much greater than his predecessor. Are they right? We'll see. But if you are trying to apply that argument to Susan Herbst and her role, then one would have to argue that her ability to generate money for the university is greater than her peers. Is UConn right? We'll see. But what is known at this current time is that we were running a deficit earlier in the year that sparked cutbacks in certain areas and an increase in tuition of 6.5% to cover.

Others have mentioned that she may or may not be properly compensated against her peers prior to the raise. I think that is a fair point. I haven't done the research on what other similarly sized or similarly respected public institutions are paying. It's probably something I'll try to do over the next few days in my spare time instead of playing Chessmaster on the computer. All I currently have to compare her with was the salary of President Hogan from 3 years ago, which she will surpass...

 

[auggie22]

sloppy math on my part. 31% of the increase is not explained by inflation ( if you assume 1.025 ^ 17 ). So the real cost increase is about 31%, in today dollars if tuition just doubled in the last 17 years. No idea if financial aid has grown at the same rate as tuition. Tried searching for the data but ran out of steam.

 

[Kolumbo]

1 quick google search for comparison: http://www.nj.com/education/2014/05...ake_list_of_highest-paid_college_leaders.html
In addition to Gee, the top five highest-paid college leaders were: R. Bowen Loftin, of Texas A&M University at College Station ($1,636,274); Hamid A. Shirvani, of the North Dakota University system ($1,311,095); Renu Khator, of the University of Houston main campus ($1,266,000); and Sally K. Mason, of the University of Iowa (Iowa), $1,139,705. Loftin and Shirvani have since left office.

Ranking No. 6 through No. 10 were: Michael A. McRobbie, of Indiana University at Bloomington ($1,111,924); Michael F. Adams, of the University of Georgia ($1,074,869); V. Gordon Moulton, of the University of South Alabama ($1,072,121); Mary Sue Coleman, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ($1,037,357) and Mark G. Yudof, of the University of California system ($857,085). Adams, Moulton and Yudof recently stepped down.

Two New Jersey college leaders made the top 100 list: New Jersey Institute of Technology President Joel Bloom ranked 67th with a total compensation of $566,280 and Rutgers University President Robert Barchi ranked 72nd with a total compensation of $551,669. However, Barchi's ranking was based on a portion of his yearly salary because he took office in September, 2012.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Symbolic gestures are often good business, in fact.

But I'm not asking Susan Herbst to make a symbolic gesture. What I'm wondering is why the board felt the timing was right for a 20% increase, on the heels of such marked increases for tuition across our campuses. I suppose the one fact that keeps me from posing a stronger opposition is the fact that she was making 25k less base pay than Pres. Hogan was in 2011 prior to the raise. She is now making 35k more base pay after the raise becomes effective. But let's all be honest; a 60k base pay increase, a year after someone received a 25k base pay increase, is excessive.

Well, at least I'll take solace in the fact that she seems to be doing a very good job. I would like to see continued measures taken in the near future to ensure that UConn remains affordable for the people of Connecticut...

She makes a lot less than Geno and is far more valuable to the school. End of story.

 

[noeynox]

@uconnndan97, sounds like state politicos agree with you. I tend to think if they don't compensate her they run the real risk of losing her to somewhere else. I've read articles where other school presidents are pointing to UConn as the model going forward as to how get research dollars in the absence of federal money. I think if you want to keep her you have to do this.

http://www.theday.com/article/20141231/NWS12/141239977/1047/rss01

 

[UConnDan97]

sloppy math on my part. 31% of the increase is not explained by inflation ( if you assume 1.025 ^ 17 ). So the real cost increase is about 31%, in today dollars if tuition just doubled in the last 17 years. No idea if financial aid has grown at the same rate as tuition. Tried searching for the data but ran out of steam.

You are trying to correct for inflation, but you have not corrected for the fact that wages have been stagnant over the same period. In other words, people's salaries as a whole have not kept up with inflation. Therefore you cannot use a correction (or you have to at least "correct" the correction). The vast majority of the cost increase is real...

 

[UConnDan97]

She makes a lot less than Geno and is far more valuable to the school. End of story.

That would be the end of the story if you could actually back that up with figures...

 

[UConnDan97]

@uconnndan97, sounds like state politicos agree with you. I tend to think if they don't compensate her they run the real risk of losing her to somewhere else. I've read articles where other school presidents are pointing to UConn as the model going forward as to how get research dollars in the absence of federal money. I think if you want to keep her you have to do this.

http://www.theday.com/article/20141231/NWS12/141239977/1047/rss01

So state Republicans and Democrats are both agreeing with me??? Well, that pretty much convinces me that I'm wrong...

 

[HuskyHawk]

That would be the end of the story if you could actually back that up with figures...

She is responsible for the whole school, all faculty, all students, even the people who cut the grass, plus all physical plant and facilities. Her area of responsibility even includes the entire athletic department, inclusive of the Women's basketball team. So I think the figures are pretty clear.

The simple reality is that we pay Geno because otherwise somebody else would. Susan has done a great job and I have no doubt that there are schools looking at her who would pay her more, probably more than the new salary.

 

[Skiblets]

@uconnndan97, sounds like state politicos agree with you. I tend to think if they don't compensate her they run the real risk of losing her to somewhere else. I've read articles where other school presidents are pointing to UConn as the model going forward as to how get research dollars in the absence of federal money. I think if you want to keep her you have to do this.

http://www.theday.com/article/20141231/NWS12/141239977/1047/rss01

Hating politicians more and more with every passing moment. No mention of her performance in their quotes or how her comp compares to the market. Just a lot of "that seems high" . No sense whatsoever of how to drive excellence - just concerned about what the raise "seems". Makes me nuts. It's that thinking that had Calhoun recruiting in his state issued K Car when he first arrived.

 

[UConnDan97]

She is responsible for the whole school, all faculty, all students, even the people who cut the grass, plus all physical plant and facilities. Her area of responsibility even includes the entire athletic department, inclusive of the Women's basketball team. So I think the figures are pretty clear.

The simple reality is that we pay Geno because otherwise somebody else would. Susan has done a great job and I have no doubt that there are schools looking at her who would pay her more, probably more than the new salary.

We pay Geno the amount that we do because we believe it to be worth the investment. That can be seen not only through attendance dollars but tv contracts as well. We have revenue streams for our women's basketball team that no other school has (I'm referring to women's bball team-specific streams and not conference tv contracts). THAT'S why we pay him what we pay him.

Now, back to the issue at hand; whether or not Susan Herbst is paid an amount commensurate with her position and with her value in her position relative to the market. And I've already said that I haven't done the comparison between her salary and similarly competitive public schools. I think that is what needs to happen to further the discussion...

 

[noeynox]

@Skiblets , instead what you get is a quote saying she is doing a great job, that is what he hired to do and are already paying her for. Small time thinking.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We pay Geno the amount that we do because we believe it to be worth the investment. That can be seen not only through attendance dollars but tv contracts as well. We have revenue streams for our women's basketball team that no other school has (I'm referring to women's bball team-specific streams and not conference tv contracts). THAT'S why we pay him what we pay him.

Now, back to the issue at hand; whether or not Susan Herbst is paid an amount commensurate with her position and with her value in her position relative to the market. And I've already said that I haven't done the comparison between her salary and similarly competitive public schools. I think that is what needs to happen to further the discussion...

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

 

[UConnDan97]

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

So if it's good advertising and brings in students, that has no economic value??? Stick with your "large company deals", okay...

 

[huskypantz]

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

You're underestimating donations. Just look at the WBB donors for the practice facility.

 

[Sea Goat]

She makes a lot less than Geno and is far more valuable to the school. End of story.

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


But additionally, she has been a real leader - a breath of fresh air after Hogan.
At our most critical time regarding the CR mess, she keeps the academic ship stable and heading in the right direction. Ultimately that is what makes UConn a great university.

 

[Sky ball]

Symbolic gestures are often good business, in fact.

But I'm not asking Susan Herbst to make a symbolic gesture. What I'm wondering is why the board felt the timing was right for a 20% increase, on the heels of such marked increases for tuition across our campuses. I suppose the one fact that keeps me from posing a stronger opposition is the fact that she was making 25k less base pay than Pres. Hogan was in 2011 prior to the raise. She is now making 35k more base pay after the raise becomes effective. But let's all be honest; a 60k base pay increase, a year after someone received a 25k base pay increase, is excessive.

Well, at least I'll take solace in the fact that she seems to be doing a very good job. I would like to see continued measures taken in the near future to ensure that UConn remains affordable for the people of Connecticut...

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

 

[pnow15]

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.