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USF president's new contract: an outrageous fortune, indeed
© St. Petersburg Times The USF trustees made a mistake when they gave that fat, five-year contract to university president Judy Genshaft Wednesday. They left out the Neiman Marcus credit card with the wardrobe allowance to keep her in St. John Knits. They made another mistake when they picked this week to raise her annual pay from $237,800 to $325,000 with unspecified annual bonuses. Their timing is lousy. In the context of the bloated pay of college football coaches, this is a blip on the screen. But in the context of the state university system, this is a serious chunk of change. The state system is in deep crisis, and students and families will be made to pay, but the USF trustees made sure that the college tuition for Genshaft's two children at a state school will be taken care of. How thoughtful. The trustees raised Genshaft's pay by 37 percent. The faculty and staff get a paltry 2.5 percent. The tuition at USF and other state universities is poised to go up as much as 12.5 percent. Next time the trustees meet, they will declare "Let Them Eat Cake" the new university motto. When they looked at Genshaft's contract, the trustees justified it by comparing her to a CEO in private business. Right on. This deal is reminiscent of the sweet packages top executives get while their employees get peanuts and the company falters. But Genshaft is not the boss of a plastics factory. You don't measure her success by the bottom line, but how she improves the campus climate for students and professors both. On this front she gets an F. Genshaft is being rewarded for threatening academic freedom and for failing to make hard decisions in the case of professor Sami Al-Arian, that alleged fellow traveler of Palestinian terrorists. She is being rewarded not for playing the president, but for playing the chicken. She was too afraid of popular opposition to Al-Arian to stand by him as a teacher and a thinker with a right to his views. And she was too afraid of censure by the American Association of University Professors to fire him. So she kicked the problem to a federal judge, Susan Bucklew, who had the sense this week to rule there was no way for Genshaft to duck. She has to decide. She has to take the lead and the heat. When Genshaft does so, when she acts in a way fitting for a university president, some of that salary increase might be justified. But even then only some. Genshaft's pay went up partly as a result of the free-for-all among state universities that can now set their presidents' salaries by themselves. A race that has nothing to do with education and everything to do with the internal politics of the state university system is on to see which school can pay its president the most. This distorts the salary-setting process and inflates the outcome every time. Genshaft is now second in pay only to the president of the University of Florida. Her standing perk-wise is also pretty respectable. Just like Miss Daisy, Genshaft will get a driver. Although there has been no public showing that Genshaft is in danger, the trustees said they were giving her the driver -- a campus cop -- for her safety. And I just thought she must have hated the drive down bumper-to-bumper Bruce B. Downs Boulevard like everybody else who commutes from Tampa Palms. And what else will the driver be expected to do? Get the groceries? Take her to the manicurist? Even more useful than the driver will be the money man. Genshaft is being awarded $2,500 a year to hire the services of a personal financial adviser. What does that have to do with running a university? If Genshaft can't manage her 401(k) plan, should we be worried about how she handles the university's budget? -- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3402.
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