In a society driven by wealth...

The Richer College Presidents Are, the Poorer Teachers and Students Are (Click here to read more)

Hamilton Nolan
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It's widely recognized that the insanely high pay of corporate CEOs is connected to poorly run companies in which executives use shareholder money as their personal ATM. Did you know that public universities are exactly the same? It's true!
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Millions of young people are concerned about their burdensome student debts that could set them behind financially for their decades to come. Instead of attributing this toxic situation to cruel fate, take a moment to connect the dots between your huge student debt, the huge and rising cost of college education, and how much the leaders of universities are paid. This is a great way to put a human face on your own broke ass misery.
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A new report today from the Institute for Policy Studies looks at the salaries of top administrators at public universities, and draws some very interesting conclusions that any graduates of these schools with high debt loads may not be surprised to learn. The most fundamental: high pay of university presidents goes hand in hand with lower pay for faculty members (more adjuncts and less full time faculty) and high student debt. Greed at the top, in other words, is connected to penury among the masses. From the report:
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    The student debt crisis is worse at state schools with the highest-paid presidents. The sharpest rise in student debt at the top 25 occurred when executive compensation soared the highest.
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    As students went deeper in debt, administrative spending outstripped scholarship spending by more than 2 to 1 at state schools with the highest-paid presidents.
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    As presidents' pay at the top 25 skyrocketed after 2008, part-time adjunct faculty increased more than twice as fast as the national average at all universities.