Inflated college administrator salaries are hurting students

Attending an American college is invariably expensive.

Tuition fees might be high, but after buying course books, accommodation, and food, etc. other costs quickly rack up. And we know about the structural problems at many colleges. Notably, anti-free speech morons and political biases.

Yet, as the Richmond Times reported yesterday, those charged with making things better – senior administrators – are actually making matters worse. Take the President of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Michael Rao. According to the Times, “Rao, in his seventh year as VCU President, received a total compensation package worth $900,940.” But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Other Virginia college administrators also make good money. In the same period, Christopher Newport University President, Paul Trible, made $844,245. University of Virginia President, Teresa Sullivan, made $733,800. Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands made $717,500. George Mason President Angel Cabrera made $644,881.

That’s money redistributed from students and taxpayers.

But get this. Even the President of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), James Peay, made $612,500. For a college so proudly dedicated to a warrior ethos of Spartan rectitude, that’s an extraordinarily high figure. And as a retired four-star general officer, Peay also likely has a pension worth at least $200,000 a year.