Public college payrolls should be studied as thoroughly as government payrolls

Tuesday's USA Today ran a story: Who's Making $180,000+? as an analysis of the highest paid positions within the federal government. A similar story ran on Sunday about employees in New Jersey state government. I have no doubt that reporters are making requests for information from publicly supported colleges and universities. They employ similar personnel.

For example, according to the USA Today story, eight of ten federal employees earning in excess of $180,000 are physicians; the vast majority, nearly 13,000, are employed by the Veterans Health Administration. Other agencies that employ physicians include the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Indian Health Service and the U.S. Army Medical Command. The highest paid employee in a New Jersey state agency is also a physician; the medical director of the state's Department of Human Services earns just under $217,000.

The American people, including New Jersey's citizens, should not be upset about the wages paid to physicians, especially those who treat those who have served our country at war. They risked their lives in battle and a nation that values its military highly must make the expense to restore its former soldiers to good health so that they may become working citizens. The thought of cutting veterans medical care is ridiculous since the nation is at war and veteran's advocates are very well organized.

If public agencies, even those known to do good, can be placed under such scrutiny by reporters and politicians, then so can the payrolls of publicly supported colleges. And maybe they should. It is not unusual for a university president or even a campus provost to earn more than the governor of the state where his university is located. It is probably impossible to find a state where a football coach does not earn more than the governor or the university president.

However, football coaches can justify their salaries through their record, the graduation rates of their players and their ability to work with an athletic director, who raises the money to pay their salary. University presidents are becoming more subject to performance standards, though the academic portion of their work may be protected through tenure. Their direct reports, who may also earn more than the governor of their state, are not always so fortunate.

The larger colleges and universities, especially those that have medical schools, also employ high-salaried physicians. They also employ tenured faculty whose longevity has been rewarded by high salaries. Those schools that manage campuses must provide services commonly found in cities, including security, property maintenance and information technology that are not practical to outsource.

If the news media continue to investigate public payrolls it is only logical that they look at faculty salaries. Untenured faculty are, of course, quite vulnerable to termination, and so are adjuncts who are hired to teach when resources are pinched. However, tenured faculty who do not teach many students and/or receive little in the way of grants or outside support for their research should also fall under greater scrutiny.

A college exists first to provide an education to students and second to facilitate breakthrough research in various fields. Faculty who contribute to neither mission are a cost center. At least a football program has fans and donors to help pay its bills.