Sunday, November 29, 2009

Background Information

In case anyone didn't already know, we at RPI are in the midst of the greatest college president, ever.

I mean, she has to be, right?

President Shirley Ann Jackson is the highest-paid college president in the country, receiving 1.6 million dollars in total compensation.

She did give 5% of her base salary (which is around 1 million not including other forms of compensation) to go toward student scholarships this past year. So that's only about 1 student's yearly cost of attendance ($50,000).

RPI has one of the highest costs of attendance in the country.

1.6 million is about a million more than the average college president salary at similar universities.

This should be pretty alarming, considering the state of the economy.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1029_college_costs/28.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/education/02college.html?_r=1

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2009/01/15/news/doc496ebfe6012b6731487152.txt


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jmPScsuz7zCFAOOK5zjempnTRLzQD9BNC39G0

2 comments:

  1. great piece, and good thing you got the documentation. you should consider sending this to http://www.rpinsider.com/

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  2. Just got an email from RPI. Apparently the Board of Trustees has agreed to buil Shirley Ann Jackson a house! Talk about corruption:
    -----
    The members of the Rensselaer Board of Trustees have made a commitment
    of their personal resources to construct a new building that will serve
    as a space for entertaining visitors to the university, and as a
    residence for the president.

    "The Trustees have decided to make a unanimous collective gift to
    Rensselaer in anticipation of our future fund-raising efforts," said
    Samuel F. Heffner '56, chairman of the Board of Trustees. "The new
    facility will be an important tool for use in our ongoing advancement
    programs."

    The building will be located on the same Tibbits Avenue parcel of land
    as the current president's house, which was constructed in the early
    20th century. The existing building has only limited space for
    university events, and is no longer suitable for the types of uses
    demanded by the burgeoning programs of the Institute, Heffner said.

    Rensselaer recently completed the Renaissance at Rensselaer: The
    Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a $1.4 billion capital
    campaign that funded many of the priorities of The Rensselaer Plan. The
    plan included the construction of four major academic and student life
    platforms that have contributed to the transformation of Rensselaer as a
    fully realized technological research university. The Trustee gift of
    the new building lays the groundwork for an even more ambitious
    fund-raising effort that is in the early planning stages.

    "The success of The Rensselaer Plan under President Jackson's leadership
    has positioned the Institute for future advancement efforts to realize
    the next phases of the plan," Heffner said. "The Trustees see the
    commitment to this new facility as a long-term investment in those
    efforts."

    The addition of the building will augment other programs, adding to the
    suite of facilities created in the Center for Biotechnology and
    Interdisciplinary Studies, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology
    Innovations, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts
    Center, and the East Campus Athletic Village.

    "Those facilities gave us spaces we needed for the enhancement of
    academic, research, and student life programs," Heffner said. "A new
    building, that enables the president to receive and entertain,
    appropriately, Rensselaer constituents, donors, and other high-level
    visitors, will enhance our ability to raise funds to support those
    programs and anticipated new ones."

    "The transformation of Rensselaer has brought the university onto the
    world stage," Heffner said. "Every major university must have physical
    facilities appropriate to its goals. This gift will provide a place that
    enables President Jackson and her successors to greet high-level
    constituents in a manner that demonstrates the status of Rensselaer as a
    major research university."

    A previous private funding effort, with contributions by Rensselaer
    alumni and alumnae, supported the construction of the Heffner Alumni
    House, which opened in 1989. Since then, the house has become the center
    of alumni activity on campus, and has played a role in hosting events
    under the capital campaign.

    The funds for this new project would not have been available for any
    other purpose, Heffner said. "The Trustees have been very generous in
    their philanthropic support of the Rensselaer students and faculty. The
    gifts the Trustees are making for this new facility are over and above
    their other commitments, and represent a unanimous personal investment
    by them in the long-term future of Rensselaer," he said.
    ----

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