These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For . . .

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Credit to Burlington Social Media Day King Shay Totten for being on top of the story regarding outgoing UVM President Fogel – http://bit.ly/qJxyzW A number of folks have questioned whether the events involving Mr. Fogel’s wife Rachel Kahn-Fogel are even newsworthy.  The answer to the question is that whatever went on with Ms. Kahn-Fogel just doesn’t matter.  All that matters for the time being is that Mr. Fogel is evidently being given a package deal (for resigning a year early, for reasons that will never be truly clear to the public) that can best be described as a golden handshake, parachute and handcuffs all rolled into one.  

I have to agree with sometimes blogger, sometimes state senator, sometimes professor and always-great guy, Philip Baruth’s observation in  the Free Press the other day http://bit.ly/qApvyM


He soured on Fogel’s performance, though, when the economy tanked and the president authorized fat performance bonuses for top administrators while laying off people at the lower end of the pay scale. “In bad times, that really makes people indignant, and it should,” said Baruth, a Democratic state senator.

The next president should bring more equity to the pay structure and move away from the corporate-style leadership that Fogel displays, Baruth suggested. Fogel’s $300,000-plus salary, and the similar amount being paid to the newly hired dean of the UVM School of Business Administration, Sanjay Sharma, are understandably upsetting to people in this economy, he said.

Now United Academics, the union representing the UVM faculty is finally weighing in saying that the UVM Board should be “ashamed and embarrassed” over Fogel’s compensation package and that the union is “dismayed and profoundly disappointed” with the package. http://bit.ly/qTaY42 Those are some pretty poignant words in the mostly staid game of intra-university diplomacy.  A number of my Burlington constituents are UVM professors and for the most part they have not been shy about decrying the inequity of this deal.

The real question that folks here should be asking is how is it that the 9 (yes that’s right nine http://bit.ly/pAui07 ) members of the Vermont Legislature who sit on UVM’s Board of Trustees (composed of 25 members in total) aren’t raising questions about the renegotiated compensation package?  Can you imagine how this would be handled if we were talking about the Governor (who makes far, far less in salary and perks) instead of the UVM President?

And what about the argument that if we don’t move on and we don’t offer a “competitive” compensation package, we will never get a leader/fundraiser who has the ability to run the University?  Hogwash.  The same again could be said about leaders and fundraisers who wanted to run for Governor and there was no dearth of qualified candidates, who also happened to know how to raise money.  Can you imagine if the UVM Board, just once stepped up to the plate and said hey, we are going to try to do something different here, we are going to pay the incoming UVM President the EXACT compensation package that we currently pay the Governor (this salary in itself when compared to other states is quite generous (10th)  http://bit.ly/qJGuun)  

Look, I’m not saying that people at the top levels of business, non-profits and government should not be compensated generously . . . they should.  They take more risks by accepting such positions and with few exceptions, work far longer hours then those in positions of less responsibility.  But there are limits and paying someone $195K to teach English, after having a year and a half highly paid vacation with full benefits, is grossly unfair to the rest of the English faculty.  Even more importantly, it is a smack in the face of every state and municipal employee in the State of Vermont, none of whom, from the Governor on down make anywhere close to that amount and likely have nowhere near the work schedule flexibility that a tenured, full professor enjoys.  

The Jedi Council has spoken.  What has been done has been done for the good of the Empire . . . or if you prefer a different epic “for the greater good”.  Move along now, move along . . .  

14 thoughts on “These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For . . .”

  3. UVM Faculty Union Frustrated By Fogel’s Pay Package

    Wednesday, 07/27/11 3:07pm and Thursday, 07/28/11 6:34am

    “Fogel will also get a benefit package – including a housing and car allowance – that totals almost $55,000 dollars. The faculty union says that money could be used instead to hire a researcher or an assistant professor at UVM.”

    http://www.vpr.net/news_detail…

  4. “His salary will be $80,000 more than the best-paid faculty member in his future department, English, and $60,000 more than the highest-paid humanities faculty member, someone who has taught at UVM for over 40 years,” the union noted in its letter.

    “In the letter to the trustees, the union added, “It is disrespectful of UVM’s non-represented staff, who have been told they will receive no salary increase next year, as well as UVM’s service and maintenance staff represented by UE, who have gone to impasse over the administration’s paltry [one half of one percent increase in] salary offering.” The letter was signed by David Shiman, president of United Academics.

    “Before he announced his retirement earlier this year, Fogel came under fire for hiring a new dean for the UVM business school at a salary of more than $300,000 a year. UVM is also hiring the dean’s wife. Combined,  the couple will receive more than $500,000 in compensation.”

    http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011…

  5. Funny thing about this “competitive pay” argument for top administrators: generally speaking, UVM’s pay sucks. They count on the fact that Vermont is an attractive place to live and there aren’t any other universities nearby. Therefore, even if the compensation isn’t great, some people will choose UVM simply for the lifestyle. Somehow this works for faculty but not for administrators.

    (And before you say “What about Dartmouth?” Well, Dartmouth does the same thing: pay and benefits aren’t great, especially compared to other Ivies. Except for top brass, of course.)  

  6. Why don’t they use the same procedure for the rest? The bigger boys (and girls) don’t need a better quality-of-life? This ‘talent’ balony is wearing thin. Is there any way to get rid of the bunch that’s pouring money out of a spigot? Hey come on where’s the outrage…nearly everyone who remarks couches their language or defends the actions, even supposed strongly worded comments fall flat. Work & get paid obscene amounts of money, don’t work, more obscene???

    “Fogel’s 17-month leave of absence alone will cost the university more than $600,000. However, it’s worth noting that UVM had agreed – as part of Fogel’s original contract – to fully pay him for a one-year leave of absence whenever he stepped down. The added cost due to his early retirement is an additional five months of salary and benefits, which includes an $1800-per-month housing allowance, a car allowance, deferred compensation and health care benefits.”

    http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011…

  7. an analysis of the dollar-for-dollar “value” of Fogel’s presidency.  If the argument for his compensation (much like that of the Wall Street CEO’s) is the amount of income  he draws to the University strictly based on his own personal prestige and marketing skills, lets see that broken down and analyzed realistically.

    For instance: I think we can assume that alumi contributors are nearly as likely to contribute no matter who occupies the presidency.  Taking into consideration contribution patterns from the past and factoring-in appropriate economic indicators, incentives and disincentives, the additional value of contributions under Fogel must be exponentially greater than those under previous presidents even after fundraising expenses, his salary and benefits are deducted in order to come close to justifying the scale of his compensation.  

    Furthermore, it must be determined if the value being returned to students in the face of ever increasing tuition costs is proportionate to investment in the president’s salary.

  8. in comment sections of a few stories made by students & others, although he accomplished some things, his career seemed somewhat unremarkable & reviews were mixed on the same items reviewed. So, over ten years, at that salary, no one could accomplish this for less? A few said that ‘UVM had a rep as a party school’, so what? Did this keep anyone from attending except Vermonters who cannot afford the tuition? Did the wealthy out-of-staters turn their noses up & take their millions elsewhere? A school reputation is only as good as the education & future of the students & quality of life while enrolled as well as its accessibility to all qualified Vermont students & I’m unsure how this could be guaged.

    House on the lake too-how lovely. I’m appalled that the trustees would allow this & hopefully present & future donors will also.

  9. But the big question for me (and the reason I posted it here) is why didn’t the 8 of the 9 Dem legislative reps on the UVM Board of Trustees vigorously question this package?  Heck why didn’t the sole Republican question it?

    Here are the UVM trustees – http://www.uvm.edu/trustees/?P…

    Best,

    Ed

  10. but I don’t really know much about this sort of thing or have a reason to. Someone has to put it right in front of me. The wierd details surrounding this were oddly in all VT media after Shay Totten broke the story which is how it caught my eye.

    Shame on them all. I wonder if donors know this, or think they are benefitting the university or even some students who otherwise would not have had an opportunity. It will be interesting to hear the rationales of this seemingly disproportionate windfall when quizzed. The sound of ching dropping like a pile of coins from a slot machine is difficult to miss. Followed by the mindnumbing defenses it’s getting old.

    The so-called ‘talent’ should be running out of options soon since our economy must be bottoming out about now.  

  11. I remember seeing some figures about UVM staffing years ago.

    During the previous ten years the student population had gone up 13%.

    Faculty count had gone up by 7%.

    Administration count had gone up by 21%.

    The administrators make the decisions and they think they need more administrators.

    There is a hallway in the Waterman building that is commonly called “Vice Row” because there seems to be a Vice President for every purpose along there. Every VP needs a staff, and some of those staffers need support staff. No wonder UVM is so well run.

    I’d love to see a graph of student count, faculty count, and administrator count over the years.

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