Susan Herbst just got a BiG time extension

[Nostical]

So, you turned down a scholarship to Princeton?

Not a scholarship issue, but Nick Williams, who was accepted at Princeton, decided to attend UConn and play Div 1 football instead.

 

[huskymedic]

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

? How do you figure ? Manuel's base is @ $450k and even if he hits all "performance" incentives @ $100k and deferred comp after this year - he still doesn't come close to SH new contract.

 

[UCFBfan]

Still very affordable for CT residents. For us out of staters, not so much.

I have to say, I think UConn is raising tuition behind other schools. I don't have the exact numbers but when I was deciding between schools in 1999 I was between UConn and PSU. I was living in NJ so it was out of state for both. I chose UConn and am very glad I did but my extended family lived in State College so I was there frequently during my time at UConn. I vividly remember reading in the local State College paper during my senior year how tuition had risen something like 10-15% or more at PSU during my time in college. Uconn during that time frame wasn't even on the radar in raising tuition. So this increase might just be UConn catching up with everyone else? I don't have numbers so don't kill me on this comparison I just made.

I will say, I'm glad I live in CT now and my daughters will be able to go to UConn on in-state tuition. However, since they'll be getting free rides on athletic scholarships it won't matter (my daughters are 2 and a half and 6 months so clearly I'm half joking on the full rides!)

 

[Gurleyman]

However, since they'll be getting free rides on athletic scholarships it won't matter (my daughters are 2 and a half and 6 months so clearly I'm half joking on the full rides!)

Couldn't find it on line but there's an old ad for Charles Schwab or someone like that where the tag line is "how will you pay for your retirement?" and there's a dad hitting tennis balls at his two-year old daughter who can barely even hold the racket. The shots keep going right by her and he says "ok honey, now let's work on the backhand."

So it's not too soon to get her out there. It may be cold, but it'll toughen her up.

 

[Stainmaster]

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 is an academic institution first and foremost. If you disagree, I feel like pro sports would be a much better fit for you.

 

[pnow15]

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

This is not a business. We pay the entire bill.

 

[pnow15]

Nobody seems to ask the question: Why are any of these people making this kind of money? Why do we pay Warde half a million?
For what? We could pay an AD $200,000 and still not be in a P5 conference. Paying these outrageous salaries for no risk jobs in just plain stupid. Students are spending half of their lives paying back student loans so that we can over pay these people to do what? In the end the tax payers are footing the bill. We are being scammed. The entire university system is turning to one giant Ponzi scheme. And I'm sure somewhere in the over trillion dollar a year deficit that this country runs, the colleges administrators have their fat fingers in the till.
We have a nation where half the young people are in great debt and living in their mothers' basements while the college administrators are millionaires. And its like this elite club. They got everyone believing that this is the way it should be . They some masters's degree or doctoral degree and they have never made a dime in private business but now they all need a half million to spend our money. Are we nuts?
And if the states wised up and just refused to pay these salaries just where are these people going to go? Who else on this planet is going
to give Warde a half million dollars? Are we nuts?

 

[CTMike]

Are we nuts?

Just you. Maybe you'd enjoy posting in the Cesspool? Lots of irrational ranting there, you'd do great.

 

[HuskyHawk]

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

And mine in 1984. Even then it was easily the top public university in New England. It wasn't what it is now, and was behind schools like Rutgers then.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Nobody seems to ask the question: Why are any of these people making this kind of money? Why do we pay Warde half a million?
For what? We could pay an AD $200,000 and still not be in a P5 conference. Paying these outrageous salaries for no risk jobs in just plain stupid. Students are spending half of their lives paying back student loans so that we can over pay these people to do what? In the end the tax payers are footing the bill. We are being scammed. The entire university system is turning to one giant Ponzi scheme. And I'm sure somewhere in the over trillion dollar a year deficit that this country runs, the colleges administrators have their fat fingers in the till.
We have a nation where half the young people are in great debt and living in their mothers' basements while the college administrators are millionaires. And its like this elite club. They got everyone believing that this is the way it should be . They some masters's degree or doctoral degree and they have never made a dime in private business but now they all need a half million to spend our money. Are we nuts?
And if the states wised up and just refused to pay these salaries just where are these people going to go? Who else on this planet is going
to give Warde a half million dollars? Are we nuts?

Look, there is the real world and the ideal world. Right now, the public and private university system are indeed in a massive bubble or artificial economics. It is all propped up by lots of varying government incentives and spending. The result is the ever expanding tuition, student loans and other issues. It will collapse at some point.

But within that system, Susan Herbst has moved UConn ahead faster than many though was possible, and she has an impressive 21st century, STEM focused view of where it can go. If they want to keep her, they need to pay, just as you see in any industry.

 

[temery]

Look, there is the real world and the ideal world. Right now, the public and private university system are indeed in a massive bubble or artificial economics. It is all propped up by lots of varying government incentives and spending. The result is the ever expanding tuition, student loans and other issues. It will collapse at some point.

But within that system, Susan Herbst has moved UConn ahead faster than many though was possible, and she has an impressive 21st century, STEM focused view of where it can go. If they want to keep her, they need to pay, just as you see in any industry.

How long has she been president?

 

[HuskyHawk]

How long has she been president?

2011. Not that long. I am not suggesting that she gets credit for the rise of UConn over the last 20 years, rather that the STEM and research focus has really intensified under her tenure and her vision going forward is a strong one. I think major public universities will need to be STEM focused with public/private partnerships, rather than acting as liberal arts colleges.

 

[temery]

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

There are CEO's making millions, and receiving enormous raises, while their companies lose money. The idea getting and keeping the best means paying more ... is bull$hit.

If she wants to go, let her. UConn was great before she arrived, and would do so after she leaves.

 

[UConnDan97]

There are CEO's making millions, and receiving enormous raises, while their companies lose money. The idea getting and keeping the best means paying more ... is bull$hit.

If she wants to go, let her. UConn was great before she arrived, and would do so after she leaves.

In a lot of ways, I agree with this. The real reason that UConn has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last couple of decades is the fact that the state was willing to invest a crap-ton of money into the system. And not just UConn2000, but a host of other times where the state has announced large sums of investment to the university. From Hartley to Austin to Hogan to Herbst.

Susan Herbst is seemingly doing a good job here, and I don't think that many would question it. But I don't think that she is doing such a good job as to suggest that another quality president couldn't match it, given the resources that she has been supplied with. She's being paid in the higher tier of public university presidents already, even prior to the raise. What I would like to see now is some sort of planning around the budget deficit that doesn't involve steep hikes in the tuition. Then, she would REALLY win me over...

 

[Fishy]

You pay good people what they're worth. And good people want to work with other good people - let her walk and you'd find that Josh Newton and Dr. Choi would follow her out in short order.

She's not making millions and there have been long stretches where UConn has been anything but great.

 

[noeynox]

Its just the way politicians view state employees. I think they're unable to view president Herbst differently than any other state employee who they don't ever want to see get a cent more than the negotiated contract and in fact always are asking them to make concessions but that's a different story.

 

[UConnDan97]

...and there have been long stretches where UConn has been anything but great.

Surely you are not talking about recent history, Fishy. (this should precipitate a response of, "Yes I am, and don't call me Shirley.")

I have 4.4 billion reasons to suggest that it isn't true:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Connecticut

In 1995, a state-funded program called UConn 2000 was passed by the Connecticut General Assembly and signed into law by then-Gov. John G. Rowland. This 10-year program set aside $1 billion to upgrade campus facilities, add faculty, and otherwise improve the university. An additional $1.3 billion was pledged by the State of Connecticut in 2002 as part of a new 10-year improvement plan known as 21st Century UConn.

http://ctmirror.org/21-billion-plan-uconn-moves-forward/

"A $2.1 billion plan for UConn moves forward"
“This is one of the largest investments any of us are ever going to vote on in our entire legislative careers,” Sen. Gary LeBeau, the chairman of the legislature’s Commerce Committee, said before the Senate voted on the initiative earlier this week. “It’s about providing the future for the state of Connecticut… This is going to transform us.”

 

[Fishy]

Google is a piss-poor replacement for insight, my boy.

I've met every president UConn's had since Harry Hartley - Herbst is the best we've had in a very long time. The people around her are the best we've had in a very long time.

Long story made short and at the risk of sounding overly harsh - basically, I don't the have the patience to endure your ignorance on the matter.

 

[UConnDan97]

Google is a piss-poor replacement for insight, my boy.

I've met every president UConn's had since Harry Hartley - Herbst is the best we've had in a very long time. The people around her are the best we've had in a very long time.

Long story made short and at the risk of sounding overly harsh - basically, I don't the have the patience to endure your ignorance on the matter.

Long story short, I don't have the patience to endure your anecdotes over data. I don't do well with the "just trust me" angle. Forgive me if I'm looking for something a little more concrete, which you clearly are either not willing or capable of providing...

 

[UConn9604]

Google is a piss-poor replacement for insight, my boy.

I've met every president UConn's had since Harry Hartley - Herbst is the best we've had in a very long time. The people around her are the best we've had in a very long time.

Long story made short and at the risk of sounding overly harsh - basically, I don't the have the patience to endure your ignorance on the matter.

This is truth. Hartley did the best he could and Austin started us thinking like a national university, Hogan had a cup of coffee and took off, but Herbst is the first President we've had who has had a take-no-prisoners approach to taking the University from very good to great.

Add in people like Josh Newton (and we've hung onto Mun Choi somehow), and who knows, maybe we talk about Warde someday in the same vein? Either way, the future is bright, and not to be obscured by a pesky annoyance like conference realignment.

 

[temery]

This is truth. Hartley did the best he could and Austin started us thinking like a national university, Hogan had a cup of coffee and took off, but Herbst is the first President we've had who has had a take-no-prisoners approach to taking the University from very good to great.

Add in people like Josh Newton (and we've hung onto Mun Choi somehow), and who knows, maybe we talk about Warde someday in the same vein? Either way, the future is bright, and not to be obscured by a pesky annoyance like conference realignment.

What did she do to take us from good to great?

And why were we good when she took over but great now?

 

[UConnDan97]

What did she do to take us from good to great?

Can't you read??? She "took no prisoners"...

In all seriousness, everyone, I believe she's doing a good job. But like Temery, I'm just looking for some examples of things that have impressed some on the board. And keep in mind that I've never advocated against her getting a raise. But I think some examples would certainly help me understand the timing and size of this latest one...

 

[DarthGrumpy]

This is truth. Hartley did the best he could and Austin started us thinking like a national university, Hogan had a cup of coffee and took off, but Herbst is the first President we've had who has had a take-no-prisoners approach to taking the University from very good to great.

Add in people like Josh Newton (and we've hung onto Mun Choi somehow), and who knows, maybe we talk about Warde someday in the same vein? Either way, the future is bright, and not to be obscured by a pesky annoyance like conference realignment.

I liked Hartley and even met him a dozen times as he handed out hot chocolate to us fools who cramped in front of Gample overnight for front row student seats. Also had lunch with him and Dean Gutteridge (business school) one day my senior year at the old Mansfield Depot to discuss ideas for the study abroad program. I give him credit for seizing the momentum from the basketball teams to address the biggest issue at UConn in the early and mid 1990's - the infrastructure and facilities were horrible. He is the one who got UConn 2000 off the ground. AD Lewis deserves some of that credit, too. Austin kept the momentum going. of course they both made one big mistake , hiring and keeping Mark Emmert on board as provost and UConn 2000 program director. That mistake still haunts UConn. Logan and Hathaway were big time mistakes.

 

[Fishy]

Hartley was a very good president for much of his tenure - probably the most student-friendly of the bunch.

He deserves credit for UConn 2000, among others, which didn't advance the university as much as bring up to at least a modern standard - anyone who was on campus in the early 90s knows that the infrastructure was simply breaking down. Unfortunately, he was not terribly successful in dealing with the state on other matters and the U lost a lot of staff to budget cuts over the last half of his tenure. I think he spent the last three years at UConn wanting to resign and eventually the BOT began to agree - I think he just got worn down.

In terms of athletics, I think the administration and the university worked as well during that period as they did in any until recent times - far, far better than the acrimony that developed in Austin's later years and carried into Hogan and Austin II. (Hartley and JC used to jog together, if you can picture that.)

Austin was very good - if there was a failing, it was in the people he kept on. There's no excuse for delegating so much to Emmert, retaining Hathaway - the capital campaign of the time could have been considered a success, but there's no question that the people we have in that area now are so, so, so much better. I think the construction on campus was so fast and furious that we were bound to have issues, but there were too many - examples like having Emmert in an oversight position, some of the change orders that were simply improperly approved, etc. That speaks to the people he had around him.

But he did have a national vision for the university - we'd always talked about being Michigan or Virginia, but he was the first to actually believe it and start to successfully push for the money to do it. He was also very good in bringing Mansfield on board with some of the campus improvements and there was a working relationship there that was previously too strained to be productive. He started the push to expand the med center that was ultimately implemented under Hogan and he planted the first seed of what ultimately became NextGen and perhaps even Bioscience. (There is rightfully a building on campus named for Austin - he earned that and he is truly a UConn man.)

Hogan was a train wreck. He started off complaining about the president's house and it got no better from there - how he managed to get Illinois to hire him after UConn is a minor miracle. He impressed no one, accomplished relatively nothing and there was no shortage of people willing to drive him to the airport when he quit to take a pay cut at Illinois. (They've already shoved him out, too.) He was a failure and we lost those years. Period. We didn't go from "good to great" under Herbst - Hogan was plain bad. (He can take credit for the med center expansion, but really, not sure he did much there.)

Herbst has been the best of the bunch. She was on-campus for about half an hour before she put out the four-year plan that, unlike most public universities these days, called for UConn to hire about 300 additional faculty. She helped sell NextGen and then Bioscience. It goes less pub than NextGen, but Bioscience ultimately helped bring in Jackson Labs which you might remember if you followed the Nobel prizes earlier this year - between STEM, Bioscience and JL, UConn is incredibly well-positioned in biomedical as a research hub.

The STEM plan including math/science dorms, public/private lab space to allow start-ups and private researchers to work with our students, the relocation of UConn's Hartford campus, the development of the new master plan and thank God, finally a president who is committed to the endowment. Hiring Josh Newman was brilliant - we were $15M over the fundraising target in '14 and Newman/Herbst have started to build a donor network outside of the state - one of our issues previously is that we kept mining the same territory over and over and over. We're not getting to a billion dollars dialing just 203 and 860.

Athletically, you can sort that out for yourselves. Hockey East, the commitment to the new barn, firing Hathaway, the new soccer facility plans, opening the hoop building, etc. Realignment is what it is, but whatever fuel this board has for its Big Ten day dreams happened on her watch.

So there.

 

[UConnDan97]

Hartley was a very good president for much of his tenure - probably the most student-friendly of the bunch.

He deserves credit for UConn 2000, among others, which didn't advance the university as much as bring up to at least a modern standard - anyone who was on campus in the early 90s knows that the infrastructure was simply breaking down. Unfortunately, he was not terribly successful in dealing with the state on other matters and the U lost a lot of staff to budget cuts over the last half of his tenure. I think he spent the last three years at UConn wanting to resign and eventually the BOT began to agree - I think he just got worn down.

In terms of athletics, I think the administration and the university worked as well during that period as they did in any until recent times - far, far better than the acrimony that developed in Austin's later years and carried into Hogan and Austin II. (Hartley and JC used to jog together, if you can picture that.)

Austin was very good - if there was a failing, it was in the people he kept on. There's no excuse for delegating so much to Emmert, retaining Hathaway - the capital campaign of the time could have been considered a success, but there's no question that the people we have in that area now are so, so, so much better. I think the construction on campus was so fast and furious that we were bound to have issues, but there were too many - examples like having Emmert in an oversight position, some of the change orders that were simply improperly approved, etc. That speaks to the people he had around him.

But he did have a national vision for the university - we'd always talked about being Michigan or Virginia, but he was the first to actually believe it and start to successfully push for the money to do it. He was also very good in bringing Mansfield on board with some of the campus improvements and there was a working relationship there that was previously too strained to be productive. He started the push to expand the med center that was ultimately implemented under Hogan and he planted the first seed of what ultimately became NextGen and perhaps even Bioscience. (There is rightfully a building on campus named for Austin - he earned that and he is truly a UConn man.)

Hogan was a train wreck. He started off complaining about the president's house and it got no better from there - how he managed to get Illinois to hire him after UConn is a minor miracle. He impressed no one, accomplished relatively nothing and there was no shortage of people willing to drive him to the airport when he quit to take a pay cut at Illinois. (They've already shoved him out, too.) He was a failure and we lost those years. Period. We didn't go from "good to great" under Herbst - Hogan was plain bad. (He can take credit for the med center expansion, but really, not sure he did much there.)

Herbst has been the best of the bunch. She was on-campus for about half an hour before she put out the four-year plan that, unlike most public universities these days, called for UConn to hire about 300 additional faculty. She helped sell NextGen and then Bioscience. It goes less pub than NextGen, but Bioscience ultimately helped bring in Jackson Labs which you might remember if you followed the Nobel prizes earlier this year - between STEM, Bioscience and JL, UConn is incredibly well-positioned in biomedical as a research hub.

The STEM plan including math/science dorms, public/private lab space to allow start-ups and private researchers to work with our students, the relocation of UConn's Hartford campus, the development of the new master plan and thank God, finally a president who is committed to the endowment. Hiring Josh Newman was brilliant - we were $15M over the fundraising target in '14 and Newman/Herbst have started to build a donor network outside of the state - one of our issues previously is that we kept mining the same territory over and over and over. We're not getting to a billion dollars dialing just 203 and 860.

Athletically, you can sort that out for yourselves. Hockey East, the commitment to the new barn, firing Hathaway, the new soccer facility plans, opening the hoop building, etc. Realignment is what it is, but whatever fuel this board has for its Big Ten day dreams happened on her watch.

So there.

The only thing I'll add is that Philip Austin was also involved in the Jackson Labs deal, on the UConn Health Center side of things. And If I'm not mistaken, he was on the board of CURE at the time (no longer), which certainly didn't hurt. I'd still say that Austin was the most important figure of the bunch. But that doesn't mean that Herbst isn't doing a very good job, because she is.

As far as the athletics goes, it's hard to top Perkins. But that's a matter for another day...