Paul Campos says that college presidents and varsity coaches "are robbing us blind," and he is right

Paul Campos, a professor at the University of  Colorado Law School, wrote an essay for The Chronicle of Higher Education on the astounding salaries paid to college football and basketball coaches, who are now making far more money than university presidents. 

Campos commented specifically on the salary paid to Louisiana State University's new football coach, Brian Kelly, and Michigan State University's contract with its football coach, Mel Tucker. Tucker and Kelly both got ten-year contracts worth $95 million.

Varsity coaches are paid far more than college presidents, but they too are making out like bandits. As Campos points out:

[T]he outrageous athletic salaries can even seem to justify the administrative overpay. By a kind of perverse psychological effect, paying a college football coach $10 million per year makes paying a university president $1.5 million, a provost $800,000, and various vice provosts and vice chancellors $500,000 each seem positively parsimonious by comparison. 

Campos notes that most universities operate as tax-exempt charitable institutions,  but they have been captured "by the most rapacious forms of contemporary capitalism." Or, as the Campos essay's headline put it, "Coaches and Presidents Are Robbing Us Blind."

Meanwhile, undergraduates are increasingly being taught by graduate students and non-tenured instructors who are paid a mere pittance.  At my former university, some instructors are paid less than $3,000 per course. If they teach five courses per semester (a killing teaching load), they work at the poverty level.

Meanwhile, the football coach makes three-quarters of a million dollars a year.

LSU's new football coach makes $9.5 million a year and gets personal access to private jet

Michigan State prez Lou Anna Simon--charged with lying to police--gets $2.45 million retirement package!

Lou Anna Simon was president of Michigan State University when the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal broke. Nassar, an MSU faculty member and team physician for the Olympics USA gymnastics team, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

There is substantial evidence that several senior MSU administrators were aware of what Nassar was doing to young women and did nothing about it. Lou Anna Simon herself faces felony charges for allegedly lying to police about what she knew about Nassar's shenanigans.

Before police discovered that Larry Nasser had been molesting MSU students, President Simon had a good gig. She made $750,000 a year when she resigned as MSU's president in 2018. MSU allowed her to remain on the MSU faculty at the paltry salary of only half a million.

Now, with criminal charges still hanging over her head, Simon is retiring with a nice little parting gift: $2.45 million!

Obviously, the MSU trustees were aware that Simon might be convicted of a felony when they cut the retirement deal, and the separation agreement makes provision for that possibility. If she is convicted, the trustees will take down her official presidential photo. But of course, she will still get to keep the retirement money.

As for victims of Larry Nassar's sexual assaults, MSU has set aside a half-billion dollars to pay claims to an estimated 332 victims. Hey, that's just pocket change for this mega university.  Moody's Investors Service, a credit rating agency, assured investors that "t]he university has the financial strength to absorb the proposed settlement within its strong credit profile." After all, MSU generates more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year in operating revenue and has "ample ability to absorb debt service related to the settlement amount."

One might think Lou Anna Simon's compensation package is an aberration, but it is not.   Simon ranks 44 among the nation's top-paid university presidents. In fact, 17 university presidents make over $1 million a year in total compensation.

You might imagine college presidents as bookish men and women who spend their days strolling through the groves of academe and thinking noble thoughts about the ancient virtues.  But in fact, they are raking in a lot of cash, and many of them are pretty mediocre individuals.

And some of them are not minding the store. Michigan State, Penn State, Baylor, and the University of Southern California are a few of the once noble universities that have been wracked by sexual abuse scandals, which are costing them billions in settlement payouts and attorney fees.

So think about Lou Anna Simon, boys and girls, when you take out student loans to finance your college education. You may be saddled with student debt for the rest of your lives, but the people who run the universities that are taking your money are making out like bandits.

Lou Anna Simon
Photo credit: Cory Morse, Grand Rapids Press

Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon resigns in wake of Larry Nassar scandal: Perhaps she should go to jail

Larry Nassar, a faculty member at Michigan State University and team physician for two women's varsity teams, was convicted of sexually assaulting seven girls. His sentence: 40 to 175 years in prison.

How many women and girls did Nassar abuse? We will never know, but 150 women spoke at his sentencing hearing.

Responding to mounting pressure, Lou Anna Simon, MSU's president, resigned her post a few days ago. She refused, however, to take any responsibility for Nassar's rampant sexual abuse. In her resignation letter, Simon denied a university cover-up and blamed her resignation on politics. “As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable," she said in her letter. "As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger.”

Simon adamantly denied knowing anything about Nassar's predatory behavior. But how can that be true?

The U.S. Department of Education  conducted a Title IX investigation in 2014, and that investigation centered on Nassar. The Detroit News reported that at least 14 MSU employees knew about allegations against Nassar, which first began surfacing two decades ago.

Is Simon saying she didn't know any of the details about a Title IX investigation that could have led to a massive federal fine and loss of federal funds? Is she saying she knew nothing about accusations against Nassar over a 20-year period while other less senior officials knew Nassar was trouble?

No, it is simply inconceivable that Simon and other top MSU officials were totally in the dark about what Nassar was accused of doing.

In any event, Simon did not resign in disgrace. She was paid $750,000 a year as MSU president, and she will keep that salary for two years. Then she will rejoin the MSU faculty as a tenured professor, when she will begin drawing an annual salary of $563,000--more than three times the average salary of other MSU tenured professors.

Simon's termination agreement also has some great perks. She will get tickets to MSU athletic events, a VIP parking pass, secretarial services, and tech support. Not bad for a a college president who was asleep at the wheel as the Nassar scandal unfolded.

Mark Hollis, MSU's athletic director, also retired from his job. Why? Because, as he said publicly, "I care." But he will keep all his generous retirement benefits, which will probably include some football tickets.

How is MSU as an institution responding to this disgraceful series of events?  The university has been sued by 130 victims, but moved to dismiss the lawsuits on the grounds that it is immune from liability.

Simon said she regretted that the university's get-out-of-jail free-card argument might seem disrespectful to Nassar's victims, for whom she expressed "the utmost respect and sympathy."

On the other hand, Joel Ferguson, a MSU  board member, referred to the victims as ambulance chasers seeking a payday.  He later apologized for that remark, which I am sure was sincere.

According to Associated Press, MSU has set aside $10 million to deal with claims brought by Nassar's victims. This paltry sum shows MSU's leadership still doesn't get it. Penn State and Baylor University each spent a quarter billion dollars dealing with their separate sexual assault scandals. More than a dozen Catholic dioceses have declared bankruptcy to settle hundreds of claims of child rape.

As the Nassar scandal demonstrates, American universities have responded to sexual abuse exactly like the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bernard Law, who covered up sexual abuse by dozens of Catholic priests in the Boston Archdiocese, was buried with papal honors in the Basilica of Saint Maria Maggiori. Lou Anna Simon floats away on a golden parachute in the wake of a shocking scandal involving more than 100 victims. Meanwhile, MSU tells the courts it doesn't owe student sexual abuse victims a goddamn dime.

Sexual abuse scandals at American universities will not stop until senior administrators go to prison. Graham Spanier, Penn State's former president, recently received a two-month jail sentence for child endangerment in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Two senior Penn State administrators pleaded guilty to similar charges to avoid a trial, and then got longer jail sentences than Spanier.  He should have gotten at least 5 years.

Lets' find out what Lou Anna Simon knew about Larry Nassar's criminal behavior before the scandal made the news. If she knew as much about Nassar as Spanier knew about Jerry Sandusky, Simon should go to jail.

MSU President Lou Anna Simon: Should she go to jail?

References

David Eggert and Larry Page. Amid scandal, Mich. St. athletic director retires. The (Baton Rouge) Advocate, January 27, 2018.

Matthew Haag and Marc Tracy. Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon Resigns Amid Nassar Fallout. New York Times, January 24, 2018.

Will Hobson.Former Penn State president Graham Spanier sentenced to jail for child endangerment. Washington post, June 2, 2017.

Rick Seltzer. Outgoing Michigan State president's employment contract draws scrutiny. Inside Higher Ed, January 26, 2018.