The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports about growing public criticism of salaries at The Ohio State University, and other state schools. The first, and most obvious, target of these attacks is Gordon Gee – president of Ohio State. Gee earns north of $800,000 – a huge cut from his alleged $2 million Vandy paycheck, but still the highest salary of a public university president in the nation. He's brought other highly compensated folks aboard. Steven Gabbe, the former dean of the Vanderbilt medical school, earns $750,000 base as OSU's vice president of health sciences. Christine Poon, dean of OSU's Fisher College of Business earns $475,000 a year. And overall, 285 OSU employees earned over $200K in base salary.
It's inevitable, in hard times, that folks would look askance at these highly compensated state university employees. But it's not clear that they're highly compensated, in a comparative – or a value-based – sense. For example, Gee's OSU has 61,000 students and 29,000 employees. And OSU's medical school brings in over $80 million in NIH money each year. (That's still small change, compared to Vandy's $260 million – which is presumably why OSU hired Dr. Gabbe.) OSU is a huge operation, and slight up-ticks or down-ticks in quality and revenue flow can have huge nominal dollar consequences. After all, OSU has a $4.35 billion budget this year!
Then there is the other issue: sports. The Plain Dealer makes no mention of OSU football coach Jim Tressel's $3 million annual salary – or basketball head coach Thad Matta and his $2.5 million draw. I'm not saying that they're overpaid. Their compensation reflects market value, the public's valuation of sporting success, and the revenues and reputation generated by OSU sports. And these positions are probably the least stable of any within the OSU system. But no matter how you slice it, that's a hell of a risk premium!
I expect we'll continue to see scrutiny of state university and college payrolls. Given the relative security of university positions, compared to many other public jobs, highly paid state university officials are a juicy target.