U. of Massachusetts to Review Pay of Former President

December 19, 2011, 11:45 am

The University of Massachusetts is reviewing an agreement that provides for a former system president, Jack Wilson, to receive his presidential salary of $425,000 this year while he is on a sabbatical, The Boston Globe reports. Under the agreement, Mr. Wilson, who left the presidency in June, also could earn close to $317,000, nearly triple the average salary of senior faculty members, when he moves into a teaching position next year, the newspaper says.

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collegeeducator

When will this practice ever end? This is the kind of behaviors by college boards that destroys morale among the institution’s employees and raises the anger of state legislators (who control financial support). And what of the taxpayers. And those laid off. This is the sort of behavior that will encourage local formation of their own OWS chapter. Just wondering, how many adjuncts could be hired for the price of this “gift” by the college board?
wilkenslibrary

> Just wondering, how many adjuncts could be hired for the price of this “gift” by the college board?

Or, perhaps more to the point, how many current contingent faculty could have their precarious positions converted to full-time, tenure-track appointments…

Betsy Smith/Adjunct Professor of ESL/Cape Cod Community College
wclibrary

Boards and presidents share DNA; if a president happened once upon a time to have been a faculty member, he either undergoes a DNA transplant after ascending to a presidency or (more likely) had been hiding board DNA all along. And not only does Board DNA differ from faculty DNA; it’s coded to eat faculty.
Caleb50

This is a glaring example of the corporate University. The Board of Trustees at UMASS who go along with this corruption need to be reminded that they preside over a 2nd tier public university, not a mult-national profit-driven corporation. And the pathetic trustees who agree to this nonsense tell us “we want to make sure this is consistent with university policy”. Policy? Are you kidding me? This should have nothing to do with policy. It has to do with what is fair and just on a campus where students are asked to pay more and more every semester for an education that is becoming less and less valuable. If it is indeed consistent with policy, then change the policy and take back the money. Be a moral leader, not a financial one! And shame on UMass-Lowell for hiring this lug-head to teach with a salary of over $300,000. What a joke. Those hard working kids at Lowell deserve much better.
Unemployed_Northeastern

Yes, but they have to compete with the private sector! Don’t you know that if they didn’t offer Mr. Wilson $317k/year to teach history (or whatever), he would leave UMASS and become the next president of Procter & Gamble?!?!
happyprof

This is sad, but of course not at all surprising to anyone in the higher education field. Administrators who “return to teaching” regularly ensconce themselves in newly renovated offices, take home double or triple the salary of other full professors, and even get lighter teaching loads. Why, I wonder, should someone who hasn’t taught in ten or fifteen years be paid so much?

As bad as it is at public institutions like UMass, it’s worse at private institutions, where salary information is not available through freedom of information requests or required public disclosures. As much as I would dislike having my own salary made public, I would trade that for knowing the details of the administrators’ pay and benefits packages.
hefriend

I know Jack Wilson and he is an excellent professor and a great innovator. Too bad he has been caught in this mess.
It is important for universities to pay competitive salaries that help retain talent but, of course, equity is a paramount requirement. Competitive payment is highly desirable but it must be done across the board, not just in isolated cases.
dale1

hefriend:

I’m fully in favor of competitive pay across the board. So will Prof. Wilson take a 66% pay cut in order to be competitive with his peers? Or did being an administrator for years make him more qualified to teach in his discipline?
Caleb50

Yes. So he should be paid exactly the same as the other excellent professors at Lowell, nothing more, nothing less.
Caleb50

And as far as Wilson “being caught in this mess”, that makes it sound like he is just some innocent bystander. He accepted the cash. He knows full well what the hard working faculty at Lowell make. He knows full well the incredible burden that tuition and fee increases place on students. It would have been a refreshing breath of fresh air if he rejected the sweet sunset deal and stopped getting paid when he stopped working, like the rest of us. But I guess nobody in highly paid leadership positions today wants to be the good guy.