Headline May 24, 2015/ ''' PLATINUM PAY IN EDUCATION "'

''' PLATINUM PAY IN EDUCATION "'

THE PAKISTANI TEACHERS,  by and large are not well paid. And in many, many cases, if they are paid at all?

This in every likelihood holds good for the whole region, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Siri Lanka, and on and on, we go. I have been personally researching this, in this part of the world.

The world must take heed.

Gregory Fenves recently got a big promotion, from provost to president of the University of Texas at Austin.

A raise came with it. Instead of his current base of about $425,000 he was offered $1 million.

"'And he rejected it............as too much."'

''With many issues and concerns about administrative costs, affordability and tuition , such a salary will affect the ability of the president to work with the Texas legislature," Fenves wrote to university official, in an email obtained by The Austin American-Statesman and published last week.

He suggested and agreed to, $750,000.

That's hardly chump change. But in the context of the shockingly lucrative deals that have become almost commonplace college presidents, the sum   -or, more precisely, the sentiment behind it  -is worthy of note and praise.

Too few presidents give adequate thought to the symbolism and dissonance of extraordinarily generous compensation packages, which are in sync-

With this era of lavish executive pay and glaring income inequality but out of line with the ostensible mission of academia.

Ideally, higher education is dedicated in values different from those that govern Wall Street and corporate America. It supposedly calls students to more soulful concerns, even to sacrifice.

But that message is muddled when some of the people who run-colleges wallow in payment and perks that would once have been considered vulgar.

For E. Gordon Gee's final year as the president of Ohio State University, which he left in 2013, he got a package of more than $6 million, as was widely reported.

It was a one-time bonanza, including deferred payments and severance, but he'd earned roughly $2 million annually over the previous years. 

The  Chronicle of Higher Education analyzed salary information for private colleges from 2012, the most recent year available, and found that Shirley Ann-Jackson, the president of Renaselaer Polytechnic Institute, received a package worth over $7 million.    

John L. Lahey of Quinnipiac University : about $3.75 million, Lee Bollinger of Colimbia University: almost $3.4 million.

Fenves's  salary as the president of the University of Texas puts him well behind that of the counterpart at Texas A&M University, who has an annual base of $1 million plus $400,000 in additional compensation, according to The American Statesman.

Each profligate compensation package breeds more like it, writes one distinguished researcher, as schools' trustees, convince themselves that they must keep pace in order to recruit, retain and receive the precious fairy dust of the heaviest hitters.

They reason that  "this is a winner-take-all society and that people with extremly high levels of talent are richly rewarded," said Richard Vodder, the director of the Center for College Affordibilty and Productivity.

''But I think that  things are out of hand, especially given the tex-exempt nature of universities,'' he stated.

''They're in privileged positions, and they were given these privileged positions not to enrich themselves but to serve society.

These presidents are expected to live quite nicely but not exorbitantly and not extravagantly.''

Their extravagance strikes an especially discordant note in light of the challenges  confronting higher education today, and it undercuts their moral authority.

The Honour and Serving of the ''opertional research'' continues. Thank you for reading, and maybe picking something. And see Ya all on the following one.

With respectful dedication to all the Teachers of the World.See Ya all on  -          !WOW! the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Ivory Towers '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless