Budget Cuts? Not In Death Valley …
By FITSNews || Clemson handed out $1.4 million in annual pay raises to its football coaches on Wednesday – a day after University President James Barker told the school’s faculty that some academic programs and teaching positions were likely going to be eliminated in the coming months due to budget cuts.
Barker’s administration – which has made out very, very well during the recent recession – wasn’t immediately available to comment on the discrepancy, but a candidate for the school’s Board of Trustees called the situation “appalling.”
“What message is this sending about Clemson University’s priorities?” Clemson professor John C. Bednar told FITS. “All of us in the educational world have struggled to find the proper balance between athletics and academics, but this is going too far in one direction.”
Clemson gave a $900,000 raise to head coach William C. “Dabo” Swinney, who finished his first full season in Tigertown with a 9-5 record. That brings Swinney’s annual salary to $1.75 million. The school also doled out $495,000 in raises to assistant coaches, including a $200,000 raise for second-year defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.
A day before announcing these bonuses, Barker met with faculty leaders and told them that budget cuts were coming – and that those cuts were likely to impact programs and teaching jobs.
According to the Anderson Independent-Mail, Barker said that in managing those cuts that “the university should protect the education of students.”
Hmmmm …
Like other “higher educrats,” Barker’s administration has been bitching and moaning about budget cuts (which his staff has been immune from, incidentally) despite the fact that Clemson’s total budget has been soaring during the ongoing recession.
Clemson has also more than tripled its tuition costs under Barker’s reign.
WEB EXTRAS
Clemson Coaching Raises (AP)
Barker Calls On Clemson Faculty To Help With Budget (Anderson Independent-Mail)
Comments
By really???? on March 10th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Stop hating on Clemson. You know good and well that the football program keeps a lot of other stuff at that school alive and well. It is not like he is the highest paid coach or anything. You start paying pennies to your football coaches and watch the revenue drop like a brick. Then the real cutbacks will begin.
By CNSYD on March 10th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
FITS, as you WELL know, you are comparing apples to oranges…again. Neither tax dollars or tuition pay the salaries of coaches at Clemson (or USC east for that matter). They raise their own revenue from ticket sales and conference payouts. So Bednar (who has as much chance getting elected as you do) either has no clue or is intentionally trying to obfuscate the facts. All this can be settled by a simple experiment. Reserve Death Valley (or Willie Brice) for two days back to back. On Day one Clemson and USC will play each other in football. Tickets will be $50 each. On day two Professor Bednar will lecture on whatever subject he desires. Ticket prices will be $50 each. Whoever puts the most asses in the seats and thus generates the most revenue wins.
By Neverendingsaga on March 10th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
There are many ways to interpret this story. Apart from football, one issue that stands out is the continued employment of Provost Doris Helms, who receives an annual salary of approximately $270k and has been officially retired for several years. The wisdom on campus is that she knows too much about what has transpired in Sikes Hall for the past decade and therefore will never be asked to leave. Does state law not mandate a maximum number of years for retired personnel to hang around?
By FITSNews on March 10th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
CNSYD,
First of all the state salary database clearly shows that coaches are paid with tax dollars. You must be thinking of their lucrative shoe and apparel deals (click clack).
Also, in case anybody forgot how easily these funds are co-mingled by the high-paid higher educrats, check this link out …
http://www.fitsnews.com/2009/06/09/more-higher-ed-scamming/
Also, bowl revenue?
What bowl revenue?
Colleges spend that money just to travel to the game.
-FITS
By CNSYD on March 10th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
FITS, you said bowl revenue, I did not. I said conference payouts like from TV contracts. The database you mentioned may show salaries but does not state the source of the funds that pay those salaries. You ASSUME that all salaries on this list are tied directly to funds raised by taxes, but is that accurate?
By LTC on March 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Hey…we’ve got to pay em’ to keep em’…doesn’t bother me one bit…I don’t pay for IPTAY or my tickets :) GO TIGERS!
By vicupstate on March 10th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
One thing is always certain in SC. Football always comes first. ALWAYS. Nothing is more important, or more protected.
By Go Cocks on March 10th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Could Clemson operate without a football program? – Yes. Could Clemson’s football program operate without the university? – No. The same is true for USC or any other major university. Hence, the argument that the football program is self-supporting is inherently flawed.
By No Name on March 10th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Troutman knows all…. support his suit…. and the broom to sweep these carpetbagging bastards out and return the University to sanity.
Come on David do the right thing before you become Senator.
By CNSYD on March 10th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
No Name, if those you want to remove are life trustees, neither David, you nor I have the power to do that. Please tell me who all would be in charge under your sanity scenario?
By CNSYD on March 10th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Go Cocks, your “argument” is also flawed. Without crime law enforcement and the courts can’t exist. So law enforcement and the courts should be the biggest advocates of crime.
By sorepaw on March 10th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
There is a clear message about priorities here, even though revenue sports at a university like Clemson are meant to be self-supporting.
But John Bednar as a candidate for the Board of Trustees?
This is the guy who once applied to become President of the American University of Paris.
Clemson University needs to get real.
Bednar is constitutionally incapable of getting real.
So an article like this ends up undermining itself.
By CNSYD on March 11th, 2010 at 11:04 am
FITS, I did some checking to refute your statement that coaches salaries are paid by tax dollars because they are on some list. This applies to Clemson but I imagine the same holds true for USC east. Athletics is considered an auxiliary enterprise and therefore must generate its own funding. They do NOT get tax dollars. They have to pay the university for use of facilities such as Littlejohn. Coaches get a salary which comes from ticket revenue, conference payouts, etc. Some coaches get additional income (not considered salary) from deals with companies like Nike, BiLo, etc. Again, not tax dollars. If athletics builds facilities, they get money from private sources which may include booster clubs. Booster clubs do NOT contribute to coaches’ income. If the facility is of such a cost, like stadium expansion, that private funds will not cover it, the school may ask the state for a bond bill. This does NOT mean the state pays any money out. Only that they will back the bond if the school defaults. A charge for the bond is added to every ticket sold to generate the revenue to pay off the bond.
By Andrew on March 11th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Until this week, Coach Swinney & staff were near the bottom, if not the very bottom, of football salary for staff, in the conference.
Clemson has just put them up to average in the conference territory, after a 9-5, ACC Atlantic winning year.
Athletics at Clemson are paid for by tickets, sponsorships, licensed sales, etc., not by tax dollars. The only real tax payer expense here is infrastructure and security on actual game days.
IPTAY itself only pays for scholarships, academic support for athletes, administrative support and some other functions, like a limited marching and pep band expenses. IPTAY does not pay coaches salaries, for instance.
A bigger issue is the academic side of Clemson borrowing or transferring money from athletics to the academic side.
By Amber on March 12th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Well I think it’s ridiculous. I have to pay an extra thousand dollars per semester my jr and senior year just because I am a social science major and yet they pay people that much. I have to get loans like crazy just to pay my tuition. Yes the football team is very important here at Clemson…but this is a SCHOOL which means it is for EDUCATION. I am a hardcore football fan but I don’t think I should be told that my thousands and thousands that I pay for my education are not actually paying for education but for football. Why should I suffer just so the football coach can make a million a year?
By CNSYD on March 12th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Amber. I refer you to my post above. Your tuition does NOT pay salaries of coaches. Athletics generates its own funding from ticket sales, etc. Athletics has to reimburse the university for utilities, use of facilities, etc. If you want to check out pay that you do pay for, then look up some of your professors. Remember this is for two semesters work not a year’s work.