The higher cost of education

By Charles Sowell  

APRIL 29, 2011 10:25 a.m. (0)

Clemson University and the University of South Carolina handed out more than $4 million in salary supplements last year to their highest-level employees while at the same time raising tuition and cutting staffs, spending documents obtained by the Journal show.

School officials say the salary supplement situation is a reflection of years of state funding cutbacks.

“Two thirds of our senior faculty and staff are being paid at below-market rates,” said Chris Byrd, USC’s vice-president for human resources.

The pay supplements are drawn from department budgets by essentially shuffling money around, said Margaret Lamb, director of media relations at USC.

Retaining top faculty and staff is rapidly reaching a crisis point at Carolina as the school has had an increase at all campuses of about 3,000 students and has fewer faculty members to deal with the increased load, Byrd said.

According to data from Clemson the school made about $1.5 million in salary adjustments for employees making at least $50,000 in the last fiscal year. The largest increase – $102,250 – went to Richard Goodstein, a professor, who was appointed an interim dean and moved from a 9 to a 12 month appointment.

Goodstein’s salary adjustment worked out to a 104.6 percent increase in his $97,750 pay upon becoming interim dean of the College Architecture, Arts and Humanities.

He is chair of the Department of Performing Arts and director of the Symphonic Band.

At USC about $2.7 million in pay supplements were handed out to staff making $100,000 or more in the last year.

The Daily Gamecock, the school’s student-run newspaper, first reported the USC pay supplement story last week.

Lamb said the school had issues with the Gamecock story in that it didn’t explain the entire situation concerning pay supplements.

Byrd said the supplements are designed as short-term items to compensate staff or faculty for taking on additional responsibilities. “When the extra responsibilities stop so do the supplements,” he said.

However, records indicate the school has handed out millions of dollars in supplements in previous years to many of the same deans, administrators and professors.

Information readily available from Clemson through their web site would take days to gather at USC, Lamb and Byrd said.

According to the Gamecock data, confirmed by Byrd, Mitzi and Prakash Nagarkatti of the USC Medical School got the largest pay supplements last year.

Mitzi, a department chair, got $83,816 and Prakash got $86,265 bringing their total compensation to  $312,066 and $317,834, respectively.

Lamb noted that the pair are top researchers and both bring a great deal of money into the university system through grants that they receive from organizations like the National Institutes of Health.

“That money, in turn, goes right back out into the community through hiring of research assistants and the like,” Lamb said.

Cathy Sams, chief public affairs officer for Clemson, said supplements are necessary to maintain the school’s standing.

“As an institution of higher education our people are our greatest asset. These salary adjustments were made because our people took on additional responsibilities, had a change in status, or as a counter offer to another job.”

In the private sector, employees are often asked to take on additional responsibilities without additional compensation.

Clemson got rid of 550 jobs since 2008 through elimination of vacant positions, selective hiring and voluntary retirement, said John Gouch, assistant director of media relations with the university.

Overall there are 400 fewer employees at Clemson now than in the fall of 2008.

Tuition and fees also increased at the school. For the 2010-2011 year in-state tuition increased to $5,927 per semester, or 7 percent. Out-of-state tuition increased 8 percent to $13,710 per semester.

Gouch noted that most in state Clemson students don’t pay the full price due to attend Clemson due to Palmetto Fellows, LIFE or HOPE programs. For the average freshman, that works out to about 32 percent of the full tuition price.

Sams emphasized that, despite the salary supplements, the overall university payroll is smaller now that before the recession.

“Many of the people listed in our online salary adjustment page took reductions because of decreased responsibilities,” she said.

Sean Williams, an English professor took a 33.89 percent reduction from $91,482 to $60,481. The only notation on that reduction was “remove supplement.”

Robert Steele, a football coach, also took a whack in his paycheck, but not as much as indicated in the university document. Steele’s base pay fell $130,000 to $245,000 through a contract agreement whereby his base pay was cut and his athletic supplemental pay increased. The amount of the athletic supplement increase was not noted.

No figures were readily available at USC on pay supplement reductions, Byrd said.

Byrd said USC has cut 163 positions in the last fiscal year. Three student affairs positions were cut earlier this year and the school’s communications department cut three jobs in recent weeks.

In testimony before a state House subcommittee earlier this year, USC President Harris Pastides said, “More than 160 full-time positions have been lost since 2008, and the university currently has more than 800 vacancies, and they are not about to be filled any time soon.”

At USC, trustees voted for a 6.9 percent tuition increase last summer for the current academic year. That worked out to annual tuition and fees of $9,786.

Over the past five years, annual tuition at the school has increased $1,978.

Last year the general assembly cut funding for the school by 21 percent. This year’s budget is being debated in Columbia.

However, over the past two years funding for the school has been reduced by about 47 percent.

Byrd said that projections show that for the coming fiscal year 91 percent of Carolina’s budget will come from sources other than state revenue.