I came across this article and thought to myself these numbers cannot be true. How can someone get paid 96,000 dollars for 104 days of work? Is it because they got paid $589,937 for 260 days of work?
The article from The Chronicle brings up a story of Robert M. Berdahl, former president of the Association of American Universities, who has been hired as a consultant to the University of Oregon 2 days a week for $96,000. Richard W. Lariviere, president of UO sees Berdahl as a valuable assest to UO who's role is 'lossley' defined to address efforts of restructuring higher education in the state and to develop a more stable financing model for the university.
I find it interesting that Berdahl is looking at a stable financing model while being paid $96,000 from tuition and state dollars. Why is this not being funded through UO's foundation or state dollars outside of what UO is funded with? I have to say this is pretty bad timing in the nations economic state to pay an adviser with state and tuition dollars. Now, I am not saying UO should not be spending money and if they have it they can but the numbers just do not seem 'right' . Were faculty council, administrative council and students brought in to discuss how state and tuition dollars would be spent or is the president simply deciding how and where this money will go? On the flip side, 1,300 professors and administrators did receive raises as well. But what I am getting at is just the large sum of money for little work that is accountable. With a loosely defined position how can one measure the effectiveness of having Berdahl as an adviser?
The article goes on to state that Berdahl will assist in looking at organizational structure, and strategic planning. I have to ask about UO as an organization...why are they not using their current faculty, staff, and students to review UO's organizational structure and strategic plan?
It seems there is more to this news report and is written. Berdahl does not live in Eugene where UO is but in Portland which is roughly 110miles away. Is UO providing accommodations? Is Berdahl consulting from home? The fact that UO is spending such a large sum of money on one individual for 2 days are again, odd numbers.
Despite my views on the issue of Berdahl's salary I think I am most taken aback by the idea that UO does not have talented faculty, staff, administrators, and students that could serve the role that Berdahl is at UO. Yes, Berdahl has more experience and knowledge than I could probably truly grasp but none the less, there are probably hundreds of folks at UO that would appreciate the time to sit down with Lariviere, president of UO, to address organizational structure, academic and strategic planning, and governance. My guess is that new people around that table could probably provide innovation in regards to those issues that may not otherwise come up in discussion with one adviser.
Yes, it is true institutions of higher education pay extravagant amounts of money with no obvious justification for the work being done. Case in point: the University of Louisiana has hired a consulting firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates to search for the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. This consulting contract will cost LSU system approximately $1.5 million.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lsureveille.com/news/provost-search-to-cost-about-100-000-1.2641227#.TpnEYJz2fLI
I thank Jason Foster for alerting me to this story which I found interesting because in the same search for this story, I also found the story from 4 years ago when this position was filled the last time and none of the candidates are the person they are currently replacing.
http://www.lsu.com/unv002.nsf/(NoteID)/E3DE86992DC26086862572990056CB2D?OpenDocument
After only 4 years, they need to find another person? And there’s a story from January where the former provost stated that cutting the LSU budget would “cripple” the institution.
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/01/more_budget_cuts_could_cripple.html
Funny how, after he made that statement, the school is now searching to fill his position. There’s more going on here than meets the eye.
In my personal experience, I have been witness to a lesser amount of money being tossed away as one facilities office contracted out a position with responsibilities that were already written into another manager position on campus. The argument was the facilities office had much to lose if they were not in the loop on how the responsibilities were completed and documents. Therefore two people were paid to do similar, if not exactly identical, jobs and both were making more than $55,000 a year! Even when it came to light the facilities office had hired the director’s retired friend to perform the duties, this practice did not end until the director had been relocated to another area of the institution.
It goes to show there need to be checks and balances in the budgeting and hiring systems so these sort of “good ole boy” relationships do not continue. It also reminds of that old trick of throwing money at the more public concerns, such as not being able to maintain executive administrators, to whitewash over the real problems.
I commend Karla for astutely noticing this story and the potential waste of state taxpayer dollars it may involve. I agree in principle with Janella that large/huge amounts of financial mismanagement occur at higher education institutions with dismaying regularity. And the only way these abuses can be curtailed is by being vigilant as university and community members and calling out the abusers publically.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in this case, I am not so sure the money is not actually justified. Every case is different, and should be carefully examined by its own merits. According the Chronicle story, Mr. Berdahl is being hired as a consultant by the U.of Oregon to help bring about some major changes in the way the University carries out its mission and functions. Per the article, Mr. Berdahl is apparently being asked to help review and implement an integrated educational system from early childhood through college, and to help push through and oversee a governance restructuring that would entail separating the U.of O from the rest of Oregon's public higher education system. In sum, Berdahl will help the senior administration in re-examining its organizational structure, while also engaging in academic and strategic planning and advising on governance issues.
What this means is that Berdahl is essentially being brought in to advise the U. of Oregon on how to achieve its restructuring and governance planning goals vis a vis not only numerous internal constituencies, but also significantly outside political and state higher ed. players. In order to bring about such major changes, a high degree of both political clout and industry insider knowledge is often required.
That is why Mr. Berdahl is being brought in, I suppose. Because he is one of the nation's most highly respected figures in higher ed. governance. He has political pull and insider knowledge that few if any figures in all of Oregon state, let alone the U. of Oregon, possess. As former chancellor/president of two of the nation's most prestigious public universities (Cal Berkeley and UT Texas Austin) and president of the most elite association of universities in the nation (the Association of American Universities), Berdahl has credentials few other potential consultants in the nation can match with regards to higher ed. governance. Finally, his two days a week salary of $96,000 for the school year is basically in line with or smaller than the going rate at similar high profile, big institutions including the private sector. Let's see how it goes...he may actually end up saving the U.of O money in the long run, or perhaps helping to pave the way towards previously untapped funding sources.
In my program, Counselor Education and Supervision, there is an additional element to our training that doesn't make the title--consultation. One of my professors even said to me last year, "You're not going to get rich being a professor. You want the big bucks? Pick one thing you're good at, get really good at it, and be a consultant." He would know. He gets flown around the country multiple times a year to give presentations on his research and work he has done with resistant clients.
ReplyDeleteHe and I have strong professional relationship, and he happens to be my adviser, but I definitely have not asked about his fee for services. I couldn't imagine it being close to six figures per two days of work!
The largest question that comes up for me with this example at the University of Oregon is what they're looking at achieving as a result of this consultation? Organizational structure and strategic planning? What about it? While my reaction to 96K is very strong and skeptical, what is on the other half of the equal sign? Is Mr. Berdahl assisting the campus in obtaining a million (or multi-million) dollar product or income? It doesn't seem logical to invest such an outstanding amount of money into something (or someone) without an expectation of an even larger sum in the near future. Perhaps sometime soon, we'll tip our hats to UO for a wise investment, who knows!
I find this blog and the discussion that is going on very interesting. Kylie notes a good point that at this time, we don't know what is sitting on the other side of this investment.
ReplyDeleteWhether it is right or wrong, consulting goes on all of the time whether we're talking about higher education or any other industry. I think Kylie's professor describes it perfectly by explaining that you get REALLY good at something and then sell your services. I've got two family members who have been paid to be consultants. While I don't know what one of them is getting paid, I do know that the other one was getting paid more than my monthly salary to barely work at all (my take, not his). My only point is that paying the big bucks for consulting isn't out of the norm in my experience. As we talk about education as a mature industry, is consulting not a fair use of resources to determine what may need changed/improved/created at an institution?
On the other hand, when an institution (whether public university or a corporate entity) is struggling to make ends meet, I do see the question of how money is being spent. I don't know enough about the state of higher education in Oregon to raise too much of a fuss either way. However, I do think that more often than not, there are resources from within that can be used just as someone above mentioned. Just the other day I was having a conversation with a co-worker who eluded to wanting something to change for a program he/she oversees. My peer was explaining what services a specific company would provide consultation for and he/she noted that the company probably wouldn't provide any information that he/she didn't already know but he/she was hoping that his superiors would take the information more seriously coming from the company.
I'm not saying that I think a consultant/consulting company can't bring an objective alternative view to a situation but I think investing trust and power in your employees is also a fabulous opportunity.
Thank you Karla for this post.
ReplyDeleteUse of expertise is important for institutions, companies, and private and public sectors. Usually a lot of these sectors turn to the distinctive members of the universities to use their expertise. Is it possible that the universities use the expertise of outside members? Where are the experiences of faculty members?! Where is their role in solving the university problems?! Or university administrations see that it is easy to outsourcing and the benefit will be for both parties????
Although, those most universities have specialized members in all disciplines of administrative, legal, social, and psychological… etc., whether general or accurate majors. Here, we must stop for a moment and say: who is the beneficiary of such contracts with these amounts?!
Why we cannot add these amounts of money to faculty rewards, who are in such tasks, so we will get the benefit of their experiences. At the same time will increase their income rather than searching for outside experiences for the university. The loyalty of faculty member to his/her place of work will increase and it will become mutual confidence.
I do not mean from what I said above that there is no use of foreign experts, but we must try what we have before taking the easy and expensive way. We may find among the faculty members who are in our universities a higher efficiency than those foreign who we pay them a lot amounts of money. Thus, we can provide the effort and the money, and cultivate the loyalty of the staff of the University. If we did not find anyone in the university who has the ability to do this kind of work, then we can go to such solutions in the use of an expert from outside the university.