College students across the nation paying for a public education are being asked to pay more and sacrifice in these hard economic times to keep the same quality of education, or worse. But when a reporter asked Connecticut’s highest paid employee and University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball head coach Jim Calhoun if he would sacrifice any of his salary when the state is in a $2 billion budget deficit, he was quick to answer, “not one dime back.”
Not one dime of Calhoun’s $1.6 million salary will go back towards hiring new or even keeping the current faculty at UConn.
He pointed out that his high salary is in part because the basketball program “turn(s) over $12 million to the University of Connecticut,” and that he “would like to retire some day, I’m getting tired.”
When the reporter asked if the amount wasn’t enough for him to retire on, he was quick to point out “I make more than that,” meaning that the salary from the university isn’t the only monetary reward the position provides him.
I’m pretty sure the president of the University of Connecticut, Michael Hogan, is getting tired and would like to retire too but he was willing to scrap his $100,000 performance bonus to fund ailing graduate programs. The combined salaries of the state’s governor and Hogan amount to less of that of Calhoun’s.
There are two issues here:
1) We are paying these coaches way too much. I don’t care how much money they make for the school.
2) Calhoun is not only a basketball coach for the University of Connecticut, he’s also a representative of the university who embarrassed the school in his reaction to the question.
Let’s remember, while they bring in revenue for the university, these coaches are not working for private franchises like the NFL, NBA, MLB or even private universities like USC where they’re in the business of making money. Those organizations aren’t in the business of higher learning (except for USC), but public universities are and can’t afford to deal out millions to one person.
Universities should be seeking to get more from these coaches, because as of now, it appears the coaches have the upper hand at the negotiation table. Why wouldn’t they? At many universities, coaches like Calhoun, Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, Ben Howland, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski are seen as gods.
You can take the average salaries of half of the United States’ governors and it would still fall short of USC’s Pete Carroll’s $4.4 million paycheck.
While winning coaches deserve salaries that reward them for their success, it is fair to question how much these coaches are actually worth and how much the university administration is willing to pay.
In times of financial crisis, Calhoun is not alone in being a state’s highest paid employee as a university coach. It’s a trend seen across the nation at sports-crazed public universities.
Boise State’s head football coach Chris Petersen’s $800,000 salary dwarfs that of governors and the university president. In January, the University of Tennessee dished out more than $5 million dollars to hire a new coaching staff.
Is there a fault in our priorities? Is the logic behind paying a large sum to hire successful coaches warranted? Do we want winning seasons, or do we want to graduate on time? The ball really is in our court.
Omar Sanchez is a journalism senior, Mustang Daily reporter and news page designer.