Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Gravy Train Just Pulled Up to Cleveland State

At a time when many public universities, including those in Ohio, are hurting financially, some are willing to open the wallet and pay enormous sums as an enticement to lead them out of the wilderness. Cleveland State University, not exactly the Ivy League, recently hired a new president, Ronald Berkman, to take over the institution. A report in the Plain Dealer lists the perks and costs of the new president's compensation package.


  • $400,000 a year base salary

  • $160,000 in bonuses

  • $60,000 annual retention bonus

  • $1,000-a-month car allowance

  • $70,000 a year in deferred compensation

  • First-class airfare on flights of more than two hours (you wouldn't expect him to fly coach would you?)

At a time when Ohio is struggling to close a $3+ billion budget deficit, students in Ohio are paying record tuition rates, and every public university in Ohio is tightening the budgetary purse strings, CSU trustees hand out this kind of largess: "Berkman's base pay outshines most of his peers at Ohio public colleges. Only the presidents of Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati make more."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So What? Have you ever even been to CSU? I doubt it. That place needs some help - maybe they just hired someone worth the money!

Erick said...

That's a very brave attack "Anonymous." Although, I would be interested to see what compensation packages similarly situated presidents receive. It could be worth it to the institution considering a Presidents job is to bring in funding. Perhaps he will be able to secure a large amount of funding that would make his salary seem like an intelligent investment. Time will tell.

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