Press TV – May 19, 2014
American public universities with the highest-paid presidents also have the highest increase in both student debt and the use of low-wage, part-time professors, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning Washington research group, examined the relationship between executive pay, student debt and low-wage faculty labor at 25 public universities with the highest-paid presidents.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, executive pay at “the top 25” has risen dramatically to far exceed pre-recession levels, the study found. Over the same period, low-wage faculty labor and student debt at these colleges rose faster than national averages.
“Like executives in the corporate and banking sectors, public university presidents weathered the immediate aftermath of the fall 2008 financial crisis with minimal or no reductions in total compensation,” the report said.
The study, titled “The One Percent at State U: How University Presidents Profit from Rising Student Debt and Low-Wage Faculty Labor,” found that Ohio State was No. 1 on the list of what it called the most unequal public universities.
The report found that from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2012, Ohio State paid its president, E. Gordon Gee, a total of $5.9 million. During the same period, it said, student debt at Ohio State grew 23 percent faster than the national average.
Others on the “most unequal” list were Pennsylvania State University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and the University of Washington.
Student loan debt is growing public concern for millions of Americans, who currently owe $1.2 trillion, a number that has tripled in the last decade.