Susan Herbst just got a BiG time extension

[HuskyHawk]

That would be the end of the story if you could actually back that up with figures...

She is responsible for the whole school, all faculty, all students, even the people who cut the grass, plus all physical plant and facilities. Her area of responsibility even includes the entire athletic department, inclusive of the Women's basketball team. So I think the figures are pretty clear.

The simple reality is that we pay Geno because otherwise somebody else would. Susan has done a great job and I have no doubt that there are schools looking at her who would pay her more, probably more than the new salary.

 

[Skiblets]

@uconnndan97, sounds like state politicos agree with you. I tend to think if they don't compensate her they run the real risk of losing her to somewhere else. I've read articles where other school presidents are pointing to UConn as the model going forward as to how get research dollars in the absence of federal money. I think if you want to keep her you have to do this.

http://www.theday.com/article/20141231/NWS12/141239977/1047/rss01

Hating politicians more and more with every passing moment. No mention of her performance in their quotes or how her comp compares to the market. Just a lot of "that seems high" . No sense whatsoever of how to drive excellence - just concerned about what the raise "seems". Makes me nuts. It's that thinking that had Calhoun recruiting in his state issued K Car when he first arrived.

 

[UConnDan97]

She is responsible for the whole school, all faculty, all students, even the people who cut the grass, plus all physical plant and facilities. Her area of responsibility even includes the entire athletic department, inclusive of the Women's basketball team. So I think the figures are pretty clear.

The simple reality is that we pay Geno because otherwise somebody else would. Susan has done a great job and I have no doubt that there are schools looking at her who would pay her more, probably more than the new salary.

We pay Geno the amount that we do because we believe it to be worth the investment. That can be seen not only through attendance dollars but tv contracts as well. We have revenue streams for our women's basketball team that no other school has (I'm referring to women's bball team-specific streams and not conference tv contracts). THAT'S why we pay him what we pay him.

Now, back to the issue at hand; whether or not Susan Herbst is paid an amount commensurate with her position and with her value in her position relative to the market. And I've already said that I haven't done the comparison between her salary and similarly competitive public schools. I think that is what needs to happen to further the discussion...

 

[noeynox]

@Skiblets , instead what you get is a quote saying she is doing a great job, that is what he hired to do and are already paying her for. Small time thinking.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We pay Geno the amount that we do because we believe it to be worth the investment. That can be seen not only through attendance dollars but tv contracts as well. We have revenue streams for our women's basketball team that no other school has (I'm referring to women's bball team-specific streams and not conference tv contracts). THAT'S why we pay him what we pay him.

Now, back to the issue at hand; whether or not Susan Herbst is paid an amount commensurate with her position and with her value in her position relative to the market. And I've already said that I haven't done the comparison between her salary and similarly competitive public schools. I think that is what needs to happen to further the discussion...

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

 

[UConnDan97]

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

So if it's good advertising and brings in students, that has no economic value??? Stick with your "large company deals", okay...

 

[huskypantz]

Geno is paid more than the women's team brings in from TV money. I am constantly amazed that people here think these are significant, material revenue numbers. The entire athletic dept. revenue is a pittance compared to the whole operation of the school. Maybe it is because I work for a large company on deals that are much bigger, but I think we overstate the economic importance of these athletic programs. UConn loses money on sports...but is is good advertising and brings in students.

You're underestimating donations. Just look at the WBB donors for the practice facility.

 

[Sea Goat]

She makes a lot less than Geno and is far more valuable to the school. End of story.

and she makes quite a bit less than WM even after the raise... enuf said...


But additionally, she has been a real leader - a breath of fresh air after Hogan.
At our most critical time regarding the CR mess, she keeps the academic ship stable and heading in the right direction. Ultimately that is what makes UConn a great university.

 

[Sky ball]

Symbolic gestures are often good business, in fact.

But I'm not asking Susan Herbst to make a symbolic gesture. What I'm wondering is why the board felt the timing was right for a 20% increase, on the heels of such marked increases for tuition across our campuses. I suppose the one fact that keeps me from posing a stronger opposition is the fact that she was making 25k less base pay than Pres. Hogan was in 2011 prior to the raise. She is now making 35k more base pay after the raise becomes effective. But let's all be honest; a 60k base pay increase, a year after someone received a 25k base pay increase, is excessive.

Well, at least I'll take solace in the fact that she seems to be doing a very good job. I would like to see continued measures taken in the near future to ensure that UConn remains affordable for the people of Connecticut...

What about her going elsewhere for a $125K pay raise? Like in business if you want to keep the best you pay them......

 

[pnow15]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

 

[temery]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

UConn was my first choice in 1985. The school is even better now, but it wasn't the $ you describe.

 

[CTMike]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

You are completely insane.

 

[UConnDan97]

What about her going elsewhere for a $125K pay raise? Like in business if you want to keep the best you pay them.

Yet again, another person addressing me without having read my posts in this very thread.

I'll say it for a third time, so that you cannot miss it: I have no idea where she falls in terms of pay against similarly sized and respected public universities, as I have yet to do that research. If that research shows that she is underpaid, then I would be fine with the increase. If that research shows that she is overpaid, then I wouldn't be fine with it. That is to say that I don't have a strong opinion of the raise yet because I don't have the background for it, other than a comparison against Hogan's 2011 salary.

One thing I will say is this; if she was underpaid against her peers, then the BOT should really make that information public asap. It would put the kabash on any talk or hard feelings about it around the state of Connecticut. The fact that they haven't yet, as well as the fact that they are using UConn donations to cover part of the raise, is somewhat concerning to me...

 

[pnow15]

UConn was my first choice in 1985. The school is even better now, but it wasn't the $ you describe.

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

 

[pnow15]

You are completely insane.

If UConn's big game is against the Maine Brown Bears, I guarantee you will not be on this website.

 

[UConnDan97]

An addendum to my previous post:

I tried to find a list of the highest salaries for public institutions. It's a hard list to come by, oddly enough. All I can do is throw certain pieces together from the web. But it seems at first glance that she is definitely in the top tier in terms of both base pay and total compensation. Those making larger salaries seem to be concentrated in the B1G, where student populations are much larger than ours. Also, the data that I could find about presidents making as much or more than President Herbst all seem to be at schools that rank slightly higher than ours on the USNews list, for whatever that's worth:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/02/eric_barrons_compensation_will.html
http://www.ips-dc.org/one_percent_universities/
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

Her salary now surpasses the University of Washington's president in both base and total compensation:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020974831_universitypayxml.html

Here's an interesting quote from one of the links:

"This argument is also dubious. In FY 2012, for instance, the presidents of some of the nation’s largest, most respected public research universities – the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst – each made less than $500,000 in annual total compensation. Our analysis suggests that executive compensation packages awarded between FY 2006 and FY 2012 in excess of $600,000 per year (nominal or 2012 dollars) were inflated well above “market value.”"

Although all of this data seems to point to President Herbst being in the top tier of the pay scale for public universities nationally, it doesn't seem that her salary is so far outside the average as to be seen as overly excessive. I feel less strongly about the raise today than I did yesterday, that's for sure.

Hopefully, she can help figure out how to mitigate the 6.5% increase in student costs in the very near future...

 

[CTMike]

If UConn's big game is against the Maine Brown Bears, I guarantee you will not be on this website.

Ha! I WOULD still be here!

No but really- your premise is insane.

 

[Excalibur]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money.

Operate a business that way, and watch your best people walk out the door.

 

[Sportsman5]

An addendum to my previous post:

I tried to find a list of the highest salaries for public institutions. It's a hard list to come by, oddly enough. All I can do is throw certain pieces together from the web. But it seems at first glance that she is definitely in the top tier in terms of both base pay and total compensation. Those making larger salaries seem to be concentrated in the B1G, where student populations are much larger than ours. Also, the data that I could find about presidents making as much or more than President Herbst all seem to be at schools that rank slightly higher than ours on the USNews list, for whatever that's worth:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/02/eric_barrons_compensation_will.html
http://www.ips-dc.org/one_percent_universities/
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

Her salary now surpasses the University of Washington's president in both base and total compensation:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020974831_universitypayxml.html


Although all of this data seems to point to President Herbst being in the top tier of the pay scale for public universities nationally, it doesn't seem that her salary is so far outside the average as to be seen as overly excessive. I feel less strongly about the raise today than I did yesterday, that's for sure.

Hopefully, she can help figure out how to mitigate the 6.5% increase in student costs in the very near future...

some things that could help to lower the percent rise in tuition: increasing student enrollment to create economies of scale. UConn is doing this. Another thing is to make more online classes for non-major general education courses during freshman and sophomore years. Economics 101 can be easily taught online to 1,000+ kids in a semester with one professor. Most universities will be migrating to this in the future if they are smart. I have faith susan will optomize this. a third thing is to increase enrollment of international students who pay full out of state tuition. It appears uconn is doing this. If she can be smart about saving money in other ways that are not yet implemented, then that would make her salary more than worth it.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

This is how the state works. By giving her a raise, they congratulate themselves on their great hire. She should have been given "not one dime" more until she produced an offer from a better school for more money. Was she on the phone with Yale?
Keeping her job should have been depended on entrance to a P-5 conference. Who is kidding who here? Pre-Calhoun
UConn was the school you picked because you either couldn't get into a better school or you didn't have the money to pay for a better school.
UConn was no one's first choice. Now it is. And that is because of BB. BB bought in the money and interest. If she fails to get us into a power conference, her term will be a failure when and if UConn slides back in to NCAA insignificance. This talk about great academics is nice but do you cheer for Wesleyan. The state already has Yale. If we become lousy in BB and other sports, no one will care about UConn's academics.

100% disagree. Just a couple of pointers.

• Yale is a top 5 university globally and its President makes $1.6 million annually. If Herbst got a call from Yale to be its President, she would be gone in a heartbeat and I could not blame her. Who would not take such an opportunity?
• I went to a presentation by Herbst in NYC and spoke to her a bit. While she as a lot of respect for athletics to create a vibrate campus culture and as marketing and fundraising tool, it is not her #1 priority. Her first priority is improving UConn’s academic stature, especially in STEM, in both faculty and facility quality. By all reports, she is doing an excellent job here. Her second is dealing with budget issues in conjunction with the CT legislature. Now that is a job I would not wish on my worst enemy. Athletics maybe third and she said UConn is looking for opportunities to increase UConn’s sports profile.
• Also on sports, during the last expansion. Yes, Herbst and Warde may have been caught unprepared. That said, there was no slot for UConn in the B1G as Rutgers had been looked at for years and Maryland, which was also on their radar, feel into their lap due to the financial incompetence of Maryland’s AD. As for the ACC, UConn got outmauvered before UConn even had a chance by NIMBY BC and the southern/football first schools in Florida St., Clemson, and Miami.

 

[UConnDan97]

some things that could help to lower the percent rise in tuition: increasing student enrollment to create economies of scale. UConn is doing this. Another thing is to make more online classes for non-major general education courses during freshman and sophomore years. Economics 101 can be easily taught online to 1,000+ kids in a semester with one professor. Most universities will be migrating to this in the future if they are smart. I have faith susan will optomize this. a third thing is to increase enrollment of international students who pay full out of state tuition. It appears uconn is doing this. If she can be smart about saving money in other ways that are not yet implemented, then that would make her salary more than worth it.

Agreed that saving money in other ways would make her salary more than worth it.

However, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds, for a few reasons:

1) Housing - You need to house most of those students, since the greater Mansfield area is likely not equipped to take in a lot of "off campus" students. I think that's why the Nathan Hall Inn was purchased by UConn recently, but I'm not positive about that.

2) University Rankings - An increase in student enrollment, for better or for worse, tends to lower your "most competitive status" and / or rankings values nationally. It's ridiculous in many ways to say that, especially if all the students are equally qualified, but unfortunately universities are in the game of rejection instead of acceptance. It's why Harvard and Yale are always on top; they send a lot of applications back home.

3) Faculty Ratio - Increasing student populations necessitates one of the following two things; an increase in faculty members, or a decrease in teacher-to-student ratio. If I'm not mistaken, the latter is also used in school ranking parameters.

So again, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds. It has real ramifications on our university's status and operation. But hey...that's why we're paying her the big bucks and not me...

 

[Huskybite]

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

Totally appreciate your cynicism here, but you're probably already aware that scholarships at the Ivies are strictly need-based, not academic or athletic-- making UConn very attractive in today's world even without their relatively recent successes on the playing fields.

 

[Sportsman5]

Agreed that saving money in other ways would make her salary more than worth it.

However, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds, for a few reasons:

1) Housing - You need to house most of those students, since the greater Mansfield area is likely not equipped to take in a lot of "off campus" students. I think that's why the Nathan Hall Inn was purchased by UConn recently, but I'm not positive about that.

2) University Rankings - An increase in student enrollment, for better or for worse, tends to lower your "most competitive status" and / or rankings values nationally. It's ridiculous in many ways to say that, especially if all the students are equally qualified, but unfortunately universities are in the game of rejection instead of acceptance. It's why Harvard and Yale are always on top; they send a lot of applications back home.

3) Faculty Ratio - Increasing student populations necessitates one of the following two things; an increase in faculty members, or a decrease in teacher-to-student ratio. If I'm not mistaken, the latter is also used in school ranking parameters.

So again, increasing student enrollment is not as easy as it sounds. It has real ramifications on our university's status and operation. But hey...that's why we're paying her the big bucks and not me...

I agree with your points, but the university is currently addressing these things or has plans to address them. What affects rankings actually is not intuitive. Things like acceptance rate often times aren't counted very much. Even admission stats like percent of incoming freshman in the top 10% of high school graduating class aren't accounted for that much because the rankings want to avoid using the student profiles as a measure of the quality of the education. So I don't think increasing enrollment will hurt rankings very much at all.

The current student to faculty ratio is 16 to 1 and will become 15 to 1. Increasing enrollment at that rate should yield a net benefit financially to the university when you take into account some of those students are paying full out of state tuition and are paying for meal plans with just marginal cost of food being the universities expense. The university makes a lot on meal plans on a marginal cost basis because it has to pay fixed costs regardless of whether there are 18,000 or 22,000 students at the university. So if there are 15 more students per faculty member, then i'm assuming there will still be quite a bit of money left after paying one more faculty member. Plus those additional students will generate donations from parents and themselves in the future.

 

[UConnDan97]

So if there are 15 more students per faculty member, then i'm assuming there will still be quite a bit of money left after paying one more faculty member.

You would be correct with this last statement if we weren't facing a budget deficit. However, we are. Hence the 6.5% tuition hike...

 

[Sportsman5]

You would be correct with this last statement if we weren't facing a budget deficit. However, we are. Hence the 6.5% tuition hike...

my point is adding students helps to decrease the deficit. It doesn't necessarily eliminate the deficit all together. My original point was that there are multiple things susan can do to save money or generate more revenue. Increasing enrollment generates a net positive in cash flow. The university can either choose to increase spending due to these adjusments and keep tuition increases the same or save money and reduce tuition increases. Right now the university is spending extra money, so tuition keeps going up at the same clip it has been for awhile. the other factor is endowment size. If UConn has a 1.5 billion dollar endowment 15 years from now and invests that at say 5%, then that is 75 million in interest. That money can be used to help offset tuition. Right now Uconn is trying to grow the endowment and doesn't want to spend the money generated from donations or interest accrued on the current amount.