One of the most treasured tenets of the American Dream is that adults will leave to their children a better world than they inherited. The focus was always on the betterment of our children.
Tragically, that aspiration is being assigned to the ash heap of history as instant gratification and greed rise to the fore. Nationally, our adult leaders have not balanced the federal budget in more than 20 years and have been using the tax system to lighten the burden on the affluent while passing on the debt to the young.
Then, of course, our love of sports is so out of control that we use public monies to subsidize billionaire team owners with luxury stadiums while reducing our commitment to education. In Minneapolis, Minnesota taxpayers are still paying off the $150 million of debt plus interest incurred to fund a football stadium for a billionaire owner while imposing draconian cuts to its schools.
Not to be outdone, the regents and presidents of the University of Minnesota have increasingly been moving more and more assets away from struggling students and into the pockets of overpaid administrators. Currently our undergraduates at the University of Minnesota are paying $3,000 a year more in tuition than the national average for public universities, which includes $1,700 more than the national average that universities incur per student in administrative costs.
The university itself reports that student life is becoming increasingly unaffordable with 43.6% of undergraduates worried “about the ability to pay for housing” and another 20% enduring “food insecurity.” Just imagine the stress and poor nutrition this causes.
And all the while, the regents and top administrators are focused on improving their own well-being. This should not surprise us because previous reports have shown that the university pays its administrators far higher salaries than all levels of government from municipal to county to state to federal. For instance, the general counsel for the university makes more than $200,000 more than our state’s attorney general and $100,000 more than the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and some $150,000 more than the United States Secretary of State.
All too typical of this differential was the hiring by the University of Minnesota of Myron Frans, the state’s Commissioner of Management and Budget in August of 2020. Although the positions were comparable, the pay differential was significant. Frans’ compensation moved from $158,000 at the state level to $399,000 plus another $50,000 to $80,000 in deferred compensation along with a far more generous pension. Interestingly, the University of Minnesota was in the midst of a $166 million shortfall at the time.
Since 1991, the school’s president’s salary has soared some 500% from $152,300 to $805,950 not including retirement contributions and other benefits that put the total well over $1 million. Meanwhile, tuition and fees for students has risen from $2,728 to $15,859. Unlike 1991, students can no longer work their way through college and, therefore, many rely on students loans. On the average, this comes to over $25,000 for a four year undergraduate degree.
And, although the university president makes two and a half times more than the President of the United States, that has been deemed insufficient. Now she also serves on the Securian Financial Corporate Board for an additional $130,000 a year. In spite of the fact that Securian manages and oversees the University’s massive multi-billion dollar retirement system, President Joan Gabel and the regents see no conflict of interest. They tell us that university officials who report to Gabel will look after university employee life insurance and retirement accounts with Securian and protect us from any conflicts of interest.
[image_credit]MinnPost file photo by James Nord[/image_credit][image_caption]Former Gov. Arne Carlson[/image_caption]
The Minnesota Legislature should institute an independent commission to investigate the numerous scandals at the university and the enormous costs they impose on the students and public. Currently, the university is “investigating” the allegations of “fraud” that have been brought by the medical/scientific community against the Alzheimer Research Project. The National Institute of Health pegs the costs in the billions of dollars. To assure independence, the Legislature needs to establish guidelines for this investigation and others like it.
[image_caption]Richard Painter[/image_caption]
In essence, the university is paying extraordinary salaries for harmful results.
The governor should create a council of independent experts to work with the regents and university leadership to steadily lower administrative and other overhead costs while lowering student tuition with the goal of making student loans unnecessary. This also means integrating the athletic department into the solution. Nothing should be off the table.
The governor and legislature should set aside $1 billion in a student foundation fund using the annual proceeds from investment (approximately $50 million) for purposes of lowering student tuition at all Minnesota public institutions now. The state currently has a $17.6 billion surplus. This $1 billion investment would be a one-time expenditure. In addition, this same approach ($1 billion set aside in a foundation and invested with the proceeds going to the program) could be utilized to fund innovative programs in K-12.
The overall goal must be to guarantee to our children access to a quality and affordable educational experience so they are properly equipped to guide us through the enormous challenges of climate change and the restoration of a growing middle class democracy.
Arne H. Carlson is a former Governor of Minnesota (1991-1999). Richard Painter is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Law with the University of Minnesota.
I like both Carlson and Painter and agree on education being more about money than educating students. Where I disagree is “draconian cuts” for Minneapolis school district. By far Mpls public schools spend more per student than any other district, the results are terrible. K-12 and college are in the same boat, more money to faculty and facilities with less results. Money is not the issue, where the money goes is the real issue. Not educating our K-12 children with tax dollars is more egregious than college spending waste, you do have a choice not to go to college.
Joe, can you suggest a few things in life where you get more for less? My experience is that when I want more or better it consistently costs more.
The idea that in education you can get more for less is just salve for the cranky right wing mind.
I see Joe Smith’s vendetta against public schools continues into the new year. There’s something to be said for consistency in many circumstances, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out in 1841, in an essay titled “Self-Reliance,” “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines….”
I look forward to Mr. Smith regaling us with stories of his years teaching in a public school classroom, including tales of his innovative teaching techniques, as well as successes in motivating otherwise uninspired children to excel in multiple academic fields.
While we wait for that revelation, I find it impossible to argue with the headline of the piece. I’d argue, in fact, that it should apply to the private/corporate sector of the economy as well. Even if you’re not willing to go that far, no one in a public position – university president, legislator, department head or other administrator, athletic director, head coach, etc., etc., should be paid more than the president of the United States. The only number necessary to support the authors’ point in the headline is the salary of the U’s head football coach, which is, in my view, indefensible, no matter how hard he works at “rowing the boat.” Then we can talk about the cost to taxpayers of the programs and facilities at the U and at other public colleges and universities in the state that are being paid for by students, their parents, and taxpayers who’ve never set foot in those facilities nor taken part in those programs.
Ray, you are correct I never taught in public schools. I do however understand results. The enemy of results is excuses and all I hear from public school backers is excuses. In the real world (one where folks are not paid by other folks tax dollars), results win over excuses every time.
Uh, the real world where quality takes a backseat to cheapness, where nepotism and #&$ kissing take precedence to competence, and where greed rules above all? THAT real world? It’s like you think everyone else exists in the bubble you’ve insulated yourself in, and that our eyes and ears no longer function.
It is extraordinarily disappointing to see Carlson and Painter complain about how–in the past 32 years!–the University’s head administrators salaries have gone up by huge amounts while Carlson and Painter absolutely refuse to mention at all how drastically the state legislature has cut the University’s public funding in those same years.
Tuition is way up because of higher costs, generally and in terms of digital costs. But I remember the hard decision made by President Mark Yudof, in the face of such drastic non-funding by our state, to go to a high-tuition/high scholarships and grants model to enable the University of Minnesota to continue.
The current president has I think made a political mistake in taking a seat on Securian’s board. But that is aside from her salary–and why is it that suddenly, when the U finally has a woman as president, her salary becomes scandalous? It’s only up there in the realm of those of other presidents of public universities, boys.
Good point about “scandalous.” Timing makes a difference. Still, the U – like other “big” state universities – seems to have adopted a corporate model that’s both disappointing to those who value education for its own sake, and “scandalous” in its own right for becoming largely self-serving. The latter wouldn’t be necessary were it not for the point you raised about state support. The legislature has abjectly failed to fund education in Minnesota throughout my tenure here (13 years), and at every level from nonexistent Pre-K to the fiscally-starving MN state system. Funding has actually decreased over that span, a foolhardy policy choice that no one was forced to adopt, but that legislators (and higher administration at the state level) seem to have adopted mostly because they could, and because there are other priorities in the line waiting for funding. While I’d like to blame Republicans exclusively for that foolish policy direction, the blame has to be shared with equally short-sighted DFL legislators
Ray, funding isn’t close to being the major factor in poor performance by public schools here in Minnesota or across the country. HOW that money is spent is the problem. The authors got that right about colleges and the same holds true for public schools. Parents and tax payers would like to see some return on their hard earned tax dollars from public schools before they throw more money at. Results not excuses!!
Demand education be run “like a business”, act surprised when education adopts all the same corruption, incompetence, and greed that business exhibits, “TAXES! mumble mumble”. Conservative educational policy in a nutshell.
You have a good point. From the article the most reasonable scenario would be the University cutting administrative burden back to average and saving $1700 per student. I think that is a worthy goal. I think state funding could incentivize that – for every dollar of decreased admin burden you get a dollar of increased funding. Combined that would save students $3400 per year.
“The regents or the legislature should Set the university president’s salary at a figure that does not exceed that of the President of the United States.”
$400,000 Or so.
Sounds like a good idea. Maybe the Pohlads should cap Twins player salaries at the same amount.
We’ll all feel good about this until it comes to results and then decide: BAD IDEA.
The regents hired Yudof because they were embarrassed about perennially being ranked in the bottom half of public universities while rival Wisconsin was in the top 10. He didn’t really have many ideas besides raise tuition and cut general college.
Despite cuts by the Walker admin, Wisconsin is still in the top 10 public universities with tuition at $10K. Whereas MN has risen up the rankings to 22nd with $16K tuition.
We pay assistant college football coaches nearly a million dollars a year and their main responsibility is to count the towels. When people throw around numbers, my first thought is whether the numbers is a lot or a little. Is 850K the going price for presidents of land grant schools? What is the impact of that salary and others like them on tuition? While it does concern me that the president of the United States gets paid less than the president of the U, the president of U doesn’t have a Boeing 747 at his disposal which he uses to fly to away football games. At least, I hope not.
Her disposal. Joan Gabel is the president of the University of Minnesota. She doesn’t have a 747 but she does have a 20 room mansion she lives in rent free.
For the most part we have collection of non-controversial observations here. We have to take a little issue with Republicans who NOW realize that tuitions are a problem after slashing State funding for decades. However we must also recognize the fact that administrative costs have outpaced budget cuts for the most part, so obviously there’s a private sector corporate model here that’s been promoting “executive” pay and an absurd explosion of executive positions.
I also happen to note that more and more of the U’s budget is devoted to “branding” and “marketing” to out of state and international students. Part of the “administrative” costs that have exploded in the last couple of decades is associated with marketing and branding to a lot of students that a land grant State University isn’t necessarily supposed to recruit.
As for the current president, while it true that previous male presidents tended to escape the same kind of Republican criticism, there is no denying the blunders committed by the regents, nor the corporate greed that has infiltrated the University. Meanwhile, while Gabel has certainly managed to increase her own personal income by $200k to $300k in the last three years, I don’t suppose it’s too much to ask what exactly she’s accomplished for the University… aside from just being there? Now, I’ve asking that question since we put a dunce cap on Ken Keller’s head during a University Student Senate session back in the 1980’s, so I’m not targeting the woman in the room for special attention.