Johnson was making $325,000 in salary so I'm guessing with his 12 years of previous employment at UA plus his five years as president he'll get an annual retirement of somewhere between $70,000 and $110,000. (It says he's retiring on July 1 and his appointment was announced July 28, 2015, which is just short of five years. I'm not sure if his pay is based on highest 3 years or highest 5 years. He first worked at UA in 1996 and July 1, 1996 appears to be the cutoff for counting 3 years of 5 years. But I'm sure the Regents could give him credit for the missing month if they chose to.) And I'm not even considering bonus pay which he appears to have received. While he says he donated that back to the University, it would still count (at least it used to) toward his highest salaries. (Calculating pensions is relatively straight forward, but there are some variables you have to know and I haven't been involved for 14 years now.)
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Why Not Leave Position Unfilled?
It had occurred to me when he was the finalist for the University of Wisconsin statewide presidency that it would be a good time to rethink whether we even need a statewide president.
Better Yet, Why Not Cut Out Statewide Altogether?
I also wondered why we couldn't just cut back on most of the positions in Statewide and use that money for faculty who actually teach students and do research and service?
The 2020 Alaska State Budget says , if I'm reading it right, that Statewide had 142 employees making a total of $16,385,300 in salary and benefits. (That's an average of $115,389 per person).
Instead of having a backup bureaucracy in Fairbanks for every administrative function, they could cut back to just do the things that need to be done to coordinate the three campuses as a whole? Oregon has already done this.
"Established in 2011 and vested with its current authorities in 2013, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission is a 14-member volunteer commission appointed by the Oregon Governor, with nine voting members confirmed by the State Senate. The Higher Education Coordinating Commission is supported by the state agency by the same name, comprised of eight distinct offices led by Executive Director Ben Cannon.So there's a volunteer commission and a state agency with 8 offices, each of which presumably has a few staff members.
The HECC develops and implements policies and programs to ensure that Oregon’s network of colleges, universities, workforce development initiatives and pre-college outreach programs are well-coordinated to foster student success. It also advises the Oregon Legislature, the Governor, and the Chief Education Office on policy and funding to meet state postsecondary goals.
Agency Mission and Values
Agency Mission Statement
By promoting collaboration and coordination between Oregon’s education and workforce partners, as well as through our own programs and policy leadership, HECC staff ensure that Oregonians experience increased access, equity, and success in completing their higher education, training, and career goals.
Agency Values
Transparency, Equity, Integrity, Trust, Collaboration, Accountability, Lifelong Learning"
Growth in higher education administration and administrative salaries is a key factor that many people point to as the reason for the increase in college tuition. Here are just a few references:
The Reason Behind Colleges' Ballooning Bureaucracies
Universities’ executive, administrative, and managerial offices grew 15 percent during the recession, even as budgets were cut and tuition was increased.
Colleges Must Cut Administrative Costs to Survive This Crisis
There are other articles that say the cost has gone up because of student loan programs or that for public universities the biggest factor is legislatures cutting budgets. I'd note that Johnson's here - the UA president he wrote his doctoral dissertation on - was known for going down to Juneau and convincing Republican legislators that money spent on the University was an investment rather than an expenditure, and he reversed cuts. Johnson was never able to do that.
However, it would appear among the costs universities have direct control over, the biggest factor is administrative costs. The $16 million figure is just salaries, not any other expenses like upkeep for the buildings they occupy or travel to see what's happening on the various campuses.
If the Board decides to keep the president position, I hope they make fund raising the primary job and let the campuses run themselves with minimum interference.
Steve, I have always admired your straight talk. More power to your pen. I did tell my colleagues about your blog post back in 2015. I also wrote to UNAC. Unfortunately most faculty preferred to kiss ass (witness the Prioritzation) and ultimately it came back to bite them in the ass. I fully agree with you. I had also suggested similar measures in an op-ed I wrote for the Juneau Empire. See “How to organize higher education in Alaska” by Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya. Published in the Juneau Empire dated January 19, 2015.
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