Building Trust Between Colleges and Parents
We’ve learned many things during the course of our work at Explore Colleges, and one of them is that presidents of colleges and universities love to talk.
They love to talk about the schools they lead, and why they are great. They love to talk about problems facing America and the world, and how U.S. higher education is producing the next generation of leaders to solve those problems. And they love to talk about the federal government, and how it is not spending enough money in support of colleges and universities.
We should qualify my statement, however, and say that college presidents love to talk most of the time. When it comes to certain subjects, they grow quiet.
Unfortunately, among the silence-inducing topics for many college presidents happen to be two issues that many parents care most deeply about: pay and price. Let’s take them on, one “p” at a time. Today’s column is on pay, a future one will focus on price.
Simply put, some people think that college presidents are paid too much. There is no doubt, of course, that some college presidents are paid an awful lot of money, with salary packages ranging from a quarter of a million to well over a million dollars a year.
However, many college presidents are leading billion dollar enterprises, with budgets equal to some of America’s largest corporations, so certainly an argument can be made that their be pay might be commensurate with private-sector peers who have significant profit and loss responsibility.
After all, unless they are members of the clergy (who do, in fact, run some of America’s colleges), college presidents have not taken a vow of poverty, nor should they.
But neither should they take a vow of silence. We encourage all college presidents, public and private, to make their salaries and the entire budget of their universities open for all to see. This transparency is expected of corporate America and it should also be expected of higher education in America.
With greater transparency will come a greater ability for various constituencies to assess performance. And, in the end, performance should be the standard that drives pay.
Kathie Boozer is the founder and president of Explore Colleges, a premier college group tour operator. Explore Colleges’ customized tours help students experience the unique cultures, environments, and opportunities on each campus and inspire them to follow their dreams. Contact Kathie at kboozer@explorecolleges.org
