Due to the rough economy, Texas Tech University froze $3 million in faculty salary for the year 2011, and naturally, it is the perfect time for its administration to raise the salary of Tommy Tuberville, the head football coach, by 1/6th of that amount, guaranteeing him at least $2 million a year till the year 2015.
For the record, Texas Tech’s football went 8-5 last year.
But who knows? Maybe the man’s family is starving with his measly $1.5 million salary from last year. Don’t worry though, both Coach Tuberville and the athletic director declined to comment when inquired by the press.
The university president Bailey says he is “sympathetic,” but they are keeping a promise they made last year (what a man of his word! but don’t they have contracts for professors to honor as well?).
To expand more on the topic, here’s an interesting video featuring Coach Calhoun, the head basketball coach of the University of Connecticut, if you haven’t seen it yet:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokthY5zuPU]
He did bring up a good point though: the UConn basketball program does bring in lots of revenue and I’m sure, good images for the university. But should an academic institution really decide that an athletic program is worth more for the university? What message does that send to its students? Who gets to decide that? I’m not a big fan of picking quality of instructions on the field over quality of instructions in classrooms. Besides, who is it to say that a presentation made by a professor in an academia conference is less important than a win on a football field, and how do you measure that? Yes, athletic programs generate much more money for the university, but a university is not a for-profit, and I’m sure the majority of the profit generated doesn’t go to academic programs but stay in the athletic departments.
So should the university honor Tuberville’s contract? Is it unethical for Tuberville to accept the raise? Should we really take this kind of utilitarianism approach when it comes to deciding where funding goes in a university?
Here are two links that have some stats about average college professor and football coach salaries.
P.S. For those wondering what my “sports loyalty bias” is, I am a die-hard Duke and Auburn fan (my school and my hometown), who I am happy and proud to say are the reigning champions in men’s basketball and football. I know I have some questions to answer as well, and I am very well aware of the fact that Tommy Tuberville coached my beloved Auburn football team just three years ago.
Interesting post that raises questions. You make note that the Texas Tech team went 8-5 last year. Does that make a difference on the ethical dimension? If they had gone undefeated and/or won a national championship, would the discrepancy between faculty treatment and coaching staff treatment be OK?
Related to this, and to your question about how to measure faculty impact, should faculty who published a certain number of papers have been granted a raise while others weren’t (based on performance)? Or should it be, as the argument with coaches usually is, a more market-based approach – faculty who had outside offers were granted raises (and possibly other percs) while those who didn’t pursue or receive such offers were not? In this kind of approach (which is quite common), loyalty doesn’t get rewarded, but shopping oneself, or, as coaches tend to do, threatening to do so or being blessed by having the media do it for them, is rewarded. No one to whom pay matters would state, as soon as they are given a contract or granted tenure – “I’m where I’ve always wanted to be and I intend to stay for life.” And anyone who does say that is not believed. (Recall Roy Williams holding the pep rally at Kansas when he decided to turn down UNC the first time…)
So, just to help you on the local angle, Duke also froze faculty and staff salaries for the past two years. And Coach K has received pay raises during at least part of that time. Here’s a quote from the newsandobserver.com blog post posted June 8, 2010:
“Submitted by andycurliss on 06/08/2010 – 09:25
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski’s pay nearly tripled over four recent seasons — rising from about $1.3 million to more than $4 million, new records show.
And that was before Duke won this year’s national title.
With total compensation topping $4.19 million, the pay appears to make him the top-paid college basketball coach in the nation for the 2008-09 fiscal year and clearly puts him among the highest-paid of all college officials, according to various surveys and analyses, studies and reviews, of pay in higher education and athletics.
Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/iteam/coach-ks-pay-from-duke-topped-41m#ixzz1EnHy95Sj”
You can also note that Jim Calhoun was just suspended for three games next season for NCAA rules violations (something that oddly did not happen at Auburn this year…).
Duke Blue –
I am more of a fan on the productiveness approach (which isn’t mutually exclusive with the marketable approach you brought up), and that is why I don’t think Tuberville should be getting a raise. Texas Tech went 11-2 in 2008, 9-4 in 2009, and now that Tuberville is the coach, 8-5. I do not see an improvement in the performance and that’s why I don’t believe he deserves the raise when the university is freezing faculty’s salaries.
I disagree with Texas Tech’s decision to favor the athletic department over the academics in terms of salaries. To answer your question on whether it’s ok to raise the salary if Texas Tech had won the championship, I believe that would be a judgment call for the university based on their financial situation and has to be done very carefully so the wrong message isn’t sent to the students.
For the question on the ethical dimension on faculty discrepancy, I believe that performance is the most important factor. I disagree with the raise for Coach K during the faculty and staff wage freeze, but Coach K has year in and year out bring excellence to the Duke basketball program, and to me, that makes it more OK than Tuberville’s raise, who hasn’t shown to done much to the Texas Tech program. As for the professors, I think better professors should be paid more (in fact, I think professors should be paid more in general), and I think many universities should put a heavier emphasis on academics.
About 1950, on his radio program, the late sports commentator Bill Stern addressed the question of football coaches salaries and professors salaries. He concluded that no one has ever stopped Notre Dame on the one-yard line with a slide rule. Does anyone remember the slide rule?