More higher ed scandal
February 24, 2009
So, I’m going to defend UT president John Petersen only partially.
If the University of Tennessee wants to attract university officials, who are by now not much more than principal fundraisers for a school system, and financial officers who would can be competitive agents in the private and/or non-academic sector, then I could easily understand a generous salary and benefits package.
But if the guy was most likely going to get axed, then why offer him sixteen months of pay? So that he can lounge around in his underwear searching careerbuilder between intermittent stages of Rock Band and Guitar Hero? No, he receives nearly half a million dollars so that the university can save face with future, prospective university presidents. I get that, but I don’t see why Tennessee’s Board of Regents and our noble legislators allow the university to hire president’s who consistently engage in patterns of excess and sexism.
