UK Trustees give shocking, tone-deaf raise to an already highly paid UK President
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto has been an important change agent at the state’s flagship school, transforming its physical campus, forcing athletics to pay their fair share, and increasing enrollment. It is now a 21st-century school, slick with new buildings and corporate sponsorships, even an e-sports program, to make it competitive for the future.
He has also been amply rewarded for this work. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Capilouto’s total compensation package —which includes deferred compensation and free housing — makes him the highest paid public university president in the country. This has happened over his decade-long tenure without UK being anywhere near the top of national academic rankings. Those belong to many, many other places, such as the University of California system, the University of Michigan or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to U.S. News, UK is 127th for national universities, a far cry from those schools or from the Top 20 status that UK once aspired to.
So Tuesday’s decision by the UK Board of Trustees to give him another, 24 percent raise that pushes his base pay over $1 million a year —when faculty and staff have gotten measly 1 and 2 percent merit raises amidst constant budget cuts — is a shocking dereliction of duty.
To do so four days after Kentucky suffered what may turn out to be its most devastating natural disaster — leaving thousands of people homeless and without any means of support — shows a level of tone-deafness that is astounding even by the standards of the many business titans and political hangers-on that populate the UK Board.
On top of that, the Board sent out a press release that sounded gleefully proud: His new base pay of $1,035,646 “represents publicly available data for the average of the two highest paid SEC public university presidents, plus 10 percent,” the press release announced, as though that is somehow a goal of faculty, staff or students. Capilouto will also receive a retention payment of $125,000 on June 30, 2022, which will increase by $200,000 each year, according to the meeting materials. What does this prove? That one of the poorest states in the country can pay its president a lot of money? Here’s a ranking the Board should strive towards: The highest paid faculty and staff in the SEC and better outcomes for students.
(Yes, football and basketball coaches make even more while working for a public university, but at least they make their own money back through advertising and TV revenues. The money for Capilouto comes from tuition dollars, hospital payments and tax dollars.)
The Board’s press release after Tuesday’s meeting explained the raise as continuity and stability, although at the age of 72, it’s unclear how much more stability Capilouto could or should provide. Capilouto has attracted many highly paid administrators but has completely failed to keep a UK education affordable for Kentuckians. The average UK graduate owes $23,000 by the time they finish. Its graduation rate has improved, but it’s still just at 65 percent for four years, hardly a proud milestone and one that means students must go further into debt to pay for their education. When the trustees congratulate themselves over Capilouto’s big salary, do they think about the fact their schools has a student-run food pantry? That’s the Big Blue Pantry, a literal food pantry for students who don’t have enough money to eat. For those students, $200,000 in scholarships would do far more than the “continuity and stability” the trustees think they have bought in handing Capilouto more money.
The Board’s two faculty trustees opposed this proposal, pointing out a widening gap between top administrators and the rest of campus.
Faculty trustee Lee Blonder noted accurately that the raise would send a poor message. “I think this is a very trying time for our state,” Blonder said. “Our students, faculty and staff have been struggling.”
Academia used to represent what was best about this country, a set of values that prized higher education as a stepping stone to a better world. It was not about getting rich, and for all but a few at the top, it’s not. But for that 1 percent of campus leaders, academic values have disappeared into a corporate mindset and a corporate arms race that judges quality by how much money the top person receives.
Just last year, Capilouto took a 10 percent pay cut, giving that money to an employee assistance fund in the midst of the pandemic. He could do something similar, donating this raise to those struggling in Western Kentucky. This raise sends exactly the wrong message at the wrong time — that presidential salaries are what matter most.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 10:52 AM.
