Response: Regent Robert Downer

Thur. May 22, I posted a long blog criticizing University of Iowa President Sally Mason, but unsure that I have any Board of Regents blog readers,, I sent them it. (They make the decision.)

From Regent Robert Downer I received the following:“Whoever coined the phrase 'Lies, damned lies and statistics' must have had in mind the "analysis" that determined that Sally Mason had the fifth highest compensation of any U.S. public university president.  She was given this ranking only because a 5-year deferred compensation agreement vested in 2013, which required that she serve in the position for five years to be able to receive anything.  Had she voluntarily left the position even one day early she would have received nothing.  I am certainly not arguing that President Mason is not well paid, but this ranking is a snapshot and is not indicative of her compensation since she became President of the University of Iowa on August 1, 2007.”

I wrote back, thanked Downer sincerely for his response observing that such chunk payments should probably NEVER be made to public officials precisely because they  might lead to misinterpretation.  One-time payment or no, I have long objected to the disparity between university remuneration and difficulty of affording college as an imitation of the American CEO model, which has been a major factor in the demise of the American Middle Class. In some cases, CEOs make hundreds of times what their workers do.

Of course, business is business, primarily responsible to the bottom line, and despite what the Supreme Court would have us believe, not persons capable of moral choices, especially requiring self-sacrifice.  However, by its very nature, one expects more responsible, intellectually defensible behavior from the university.

A critical eye tries to interrelate current trends and ideas.