Editorial: No private pay at state universities

Friday, Aug. 1, 2003 | 5:06 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: August 3, 2003

The current base salary for the president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is $209,000. The president of the University of Nevada, Reno, earns a base salary of $207,000. Each also receives $31,000 a year to help cover car, housing and other expenses. At first these sound like reasonable, even attractive, compensation packages. But a university system study of presidential salaries at comparable universities in 14 other Western states shows a disparity. At universities in those states, the average base salary was found to be $235,000. Additionally, many of those salaries are bolstered by free cars and houses, golf club memberships and other perks, including bonuses at the end of the contracts.

After comparing the salaries, the compensation for Nevada's two university presidents still sounds reasonable -- but it may not be competitive. A Board of Regents committee reviewing the study will recommend what should be done. Given the financial condition of the state, which cannot provide any more than infrequent, token raises for rank-and-file workers, it seems out of the question to hand the presidents a 12 percent to 15 percent base-salary raise and to increase their perks.

One solution being considered is appealing to private foundations within Nevada. The thought is that they could donate enough money to close the salary gap. This is done in some other states. We strongly oppose this option, however, because presidents of state schools must not be obligated to any master other than the public. Workers, including college presidents, are loyal to whoever signs their paychecks. That loyalty should never stray from the tax-paying public.

The study also showed that Nevada is overpaying its state-college president by about $20,000, and the presidents of its community colleges by about $10,000. If there are going to be salary increases because of the study, then it should follow there should also be decreases where appropriate. Tapping into the overpayments to bridge the underpayments makes more sense to us than inviting foundations to be the presidents' other master.