One up on CEOs- GEOs or Greedy Education Officials

Interesting stories abound...
Goldman Sachs, in a "credit worthy" statement announced today that "the top executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses." Let' see- "The company’s chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, received a salary and bonus package last year worth $68.5 million. Its two co-presidents, Gary D. Cohn and Jon Winkelried, were paid about $67.5 million each last year" (NYT). In September, Goldman Sachs became a bank holding company, and is getting bail-out money under TARP or some other scheme. UBS also followed suit. These Crooked Executive Officers need to be commended for their extraordinary acts of generosity and for their display of exemplary ethical behavior...

Joining this group is Mark Cuban, who is now charged by the SEC with Insider Trading of Mamma.com stock.

Not to be left behind, Presidents of Colleges and Universities also got top billing in the news today. All major newspapers, including the NYT and the WSJ, reported on an annual survey of College Presidents' pay, conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. According to the NYT, 'Median pay and benefits for presidents of public institutions rose 7.6 percent in 2007-8, to $427,400, The Chronicle said. Over a five-year period, the public universities’ median compensation rose 36 percent, compared with 19 percent at private institutions."
There is a nice graphic in the WSJ..


As I live in Illinois, I pay particular attention to local schools. The Chicago Tribune has an educational piece on this story. In Illinois, three private college presidents crossed the half-million dollar threshold for total compensation, which includes salary and such benefits as housing and car allowances, retirement pay and various kinds of deferred compensation. Besides Bienen, they were the University of Chicago's Robert Zimmer and Columbia College Chicago's Warrick Carter, according to the survey study.

Last week, our College's CFO was making a presentation on our budget when a faculty member asked her if she knew what the interest rates were on student loans. She apparently did not know the data but volunteered to find out. I did not tell her that a student of mine had come to see me the other day and in the course of the conversation, had informed me that her rate went up from 8% last year to 10% this year.
It is rather amazing that College and University Presidents, who are expected to set a stellar example in ethical and modest behavior, are acting just like the Corporate CEOs. Has any College President considered how much he/she is making relative to faculty and staff? Can these people justify making more than the President of the United States? Should these people make obscene amounts of money when students are struggling with aid? Moral of a Good Education- become a GEO.