Staff Editorial: Pay hikes run amok

In Fiscal Year 2001, University President Judith Rodin brought home a very comfortable $826,021, including benefits and expenses. That is a whopping 15 percent increase over last year, a tidy pay raise that almost anyone would be more than happy to accept, particularly during a faltering economy.

James Riepe, who heads the University's Board of Trustees, the body that sets Rodin's salary, believes the amount is justified, saying that Rodin is "one of the outstanding university presidents in the country."

He also cites "an awareness of compensation in the private sector," an indication that, as the best CEO in higher education, Rodin's salary should reflect that.

But chief executives in the private, for-profit sector are paid to accomplish the mission of a for-profit corporation, and that mission is to make the company profitable and to make money for investors.

Rodin is not here to make Penn profitable, but to make it the strongest and best institution of higher education possible. The difference between these two missions could not be more clear, making Riepe's comparison all but useless.

It is difficult to contest the Trustees' assertion that Rodin does an excellent job, and she is certainly one of the best university leaders in the country, if not the best.

But Rodin is not president of the University of Pennsylvania to make money. Whatever reasons she has, love of the institution and personal ambition certainly among them, accepting appointment as president was not a financially-driven decision.

Nor does "retention" need to play a role in setting the president's salary. Rodin is not going to leave Penn for a better paycheck, and certainly not to become president of another college or university. Rodin will remain president of Penn until she gets a better offer. A bigger payday is not what she is looking for.

As the costs of higher education skyrocket for students, the fact that Rodin's total compensation more than doubled in seven years is troubling.

She deserves to be compensated handsomely, but her pay has become excessive.

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