Editorial: University officials’ pay raises disrespect students

After all that’s happened this year, we thought Pitt couldn’t possibly disrespect its students any more. After all that’s happened this year, we thought Pitt couldn’t possibly disrespect its students any more.

But we were wrong.

The Pitt News reported Monday that Pitt’s Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved pay increases for six University officers. Their salaries will range from $208,000 to $762,000.

In these dire economic times, we fail to understand how these raises benefit the University as a whole. After state appropriation cuts, Pitt hiked in-state tuition by 8.5 percent and staff salaries by 2 percent. And less than one year later, it agreed to pay certain administrators more beyond that hike.

And for what? According to The Pitt News article, “… the salary increases were recommended because of the ‘institutional performance and contributions made by those officers.’”

When compiling a list of Pitt’s best achievements in the past year, we think of Cory Rodgers, who was recently named a 2012 Rhodes Scholar. Rodgers enhanced the reputation and honor of this institution from his own merit. Pitt also received its largest donation — $125 million — to date from the late alumnus William S. Dietrich II.

The quality of a university isn’t determined by its administrators and faculty — and certainly not by administrators and faculty alone. Students are the driving force behind this University and everything it has accomplished.

We think Rodgers’ and Dietrich’s accomplishments alone show the sheer power that students and alumni have over Pitt’s success. When deciding who should get financial breaks, then, shouldn’t Pitt acknowledge the real difference-makers who actually need them? (Hint: They’re not the six people you’ve been hearing about for the past couple of days … for the first time.)

Essentially, these Pitt officials are patting themselves on the back for students’ accomplishments. We make this school the highly regarded institution that it is, and if Pitt doesn’t realize this soon, tuition hikes and faculty raises will ultimately erode all the progress the University has made in the past several years because the quality of students will decrease as the greed of the administration rises.

At first, when we saw that Chancellor Mark Nordenberg asked for a wage freeze, we were elated. With the rate of inflation, a wage freeze is essentially a pay cut nowadays, but Nordenberg has quite a bit of padding in his $561,000 salary.

But why Nordenberg abstained from the money-grubbing is a moot point, after all. The fact is that these six people, as well accomplished and savvy they might be, are being paid a grand total of $3,042,000, which is ridiculous. That’s about 200 students’ term tuition.

Pitt should realize that it needs to put students first in order to remain competitive. Students bring in money, provide large application pools and keep this institution on its feet.

To give raises to officials who are already living more than comfortably is a slap in the face to every hard-working, tuition-paying student on this campus. There are 28,000 of us, by the way.

And we’re not happy.