Invisible Adjunct

Excellent! I simply cannot wait to employ such modest and appropriate tactics myself! Upon entering the job market in a few short years, I shall engage the services of the local barrister, who I am sure will secure a modest and appropriate contractual obligation.... Even better, I shall use this information upon receiving the flood of acceptance letters sure to come my way in the spring. Ingenious! My thanks to Mr. Cotton for providing this eminently useful template....

"Today, the following bonuses have been brought into higher education primarily by the businesspeople who now serve on most boards: performance bonuses, retention bonuses, and signing bonuses."

Let's see, what was that about the university system becoming a corporate entity based on 1)the credentialing of paying consumers, and 2)the exploitation of a cheap, transient, and disposable workforce? I can't for the life of me remember.....

This Associated Press article dovetails nicely into this discussion . . .

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031110/ap_on_re_us/college_presidents

Aha. Now I know what will be the very first thing to do when I get my PhD - find myself an agent.

Why wait? After 5 years in grad school, isn't one eligible for a "retention bonus"?

I say hire Scott Boras, the sports agent who procured Alex Rodriguez's highest contract in the history of professional sports -- $25.2m over ten years, or Jeff Moorad, who negotiated Manny Ramirez's 8 year $160m contract.

To be perfectly clear, Boras negotiated a quarter-billion for A-Rod.

That's a lot of money...too bad it can't buy the Rangers out of last place.

Actually, U. Presidents have been leveraging their pay against football coach's pay. Can't have the subordinate paid more than his boss, can you?

Ah, once again Joe Pa sets the standard.

Will you promise not to laugh at me if I admit I have no idea what you guys are talking about?

No, it's okay: go ahead and laugh :)

These guys are professional baseball and football people. Football and baseball are sports -- sort of like curling, except that there's a lot more money involved, and a few other things.

I'm sure that university Presidents and other administrators look longingly at the corporate sector, and seek to use corporate compensation packages as an indicator of what they should be paid. But it seems to me that the role of a university President is in no way comparably to the role of a corporate CEO. (Indeed, the term "administrator," as used in education, is rarely used in the corporate world, except for certain low-level positions).

In the university, the primary role (teaching) could be carried out just fine, for the most part, even if the university administration did not exist..yeah, you might have to teach in your living room instead of a classroom, but the class content and delivery would be the same. You don't need any university administrators to tell you how to teach. In many cases, they really *are* just keeping the lights on and the grass trimmed.

This is far from true in the corporate world. Consider a manufacturer like Boeing. The organization of the work *is* the essence of the work. No one could build a large commercial airplane by himself. The work is, moreover, highly dependent on expensive capital equipment. Management makes the enterprise possible, in a way that is not true of management and the university.

These are somewhat half-formed ideas and probably not too well-stated, but I do believe that there are tremendous differences in the nature of "management" across the sectors, which need to be explored. Comments are welcome.

I'm not really suprised that he didn't make the list but Constantine Papadakis of Drexel University actually falls pretty close behind Penn's president and most def. beats out Unv of Delaware and Rutgers. Its still suprising to consider how much he's getting payed, especially when you listen to current students complain about the job he's doing.

However, one only has to look at how Drexels turned around in just about every sense from five or six years ago and I can't say he doesn't deserve it.

It was enscribed:

I say hire Scott Boras, the sports agent who procured Alex Rodriguez's highest contract in the history of professional sports -- $25.2m over ten years, or Jeff Moorad, who negotiated Manny Ramirez's 8 year $160m contract.

If you can get either one to return your phone calls...

Um ... is there ANY reason that, especially at public universities, we taxpayers are wiling to shell out more for coaches and U presidents than we do for the President of the USA? He's still at $400k per annum, plus expenses, right? And he has access to WMDs, veto power, etc.? How truly weird is that?

A.D.M.: The POTUS is able to distribute favors hand over fist for four years. Once he's out of office he can get paid a million dollars for a fifteen-minute speech (Reagan in Japan). We don't need to pay them; they'll succeed in feathering their nests anyway.

If you want an interesting exploration of the executive pay issue, read Rakesh Khurana's great book, "Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charistmatic CEOs"