What’s 4’11,” has two thumbs, and will cost us $520,000 per year?
Answer: THIS WOMAN. Carol Folt, acting president of Darthmouth College, was named this week as the first female chancellor of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
We’ve written previously about all of the capitalism-hating lefties making a KILLING while on the public payroll at UNC-CH. The powers-that-be are adhering to that tradition by agreeing to shell out $520,000 per year for Ms. Folt.
Again, for the sake of comparison, North Carolina’s median income is $43,319. Barack Hussein Obama makes $400,000 per year. North Carolina’s lieutenant governor makes $123,198 per year. So the new boss lady in Blue Heaven will be pulling down roughly FIVE TIMES as much as the lieutenant governor and roughly 133 PERCENT of what Big Barry bags each year. Dan Forest and Big Barry are both accountable to voters. They both rank much higher in the food chain than Ms. Folt.
I can hear the lefties whining now: What about Larry Fedora and Roy Williams and their big salaries? Well, those two guys help lure GOBS of private sector investment into the university (shoe & clothing endorsements, arena and stadium ads, TV and radio deals, season ticket sales). They more than pay for themselves. They do a lot to market the university and create goodwill for it around the state and the country. They also don’t have tenure. THEY can be fired at the drop of a hat.
Gene Nichol, head of the university’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, is pulling down $212,900 each year. His most publicized work (like THIS, THIS, and THIS) consists of bashing Republicans and moaning about the plight of minorities and the poor in North Carolina. I am sure that his rants go over well on Jones Street when UNC officials go over there with hat-in-hand, seeking $$$$.
Wow. A white man pulling down a $212,900 tax-payer funded salary is touted as the premier expert on the plight of minorities and poor people. His wife is also on the government gravy train. She is pulling down more than $400,000 of tax payer funded salary from UNC each year.
We’ve got record unemployment and a stagnant economy rocking the state. The UNC system is being asked to tighten its belt to help the state get its financial house in order. The UNC system president is fighting the calls for budget cuts. He explains that students will be hurt, because the number of class offerings will have to be cut. Nah. We can’t possibly touch all of these six-figure bureaucrats and faculty members — making gobs more on the government dole than they possibly could in the private sector.
I have a friend who is CEO of a community bank with somewhere between 50 and 100 branches. He pulls down roughly $250,000 per year. He worked his way to the top of the heap. He and his organization have had their hands in gobs of economic development, growth and productivity in their communities. Yet, he and his fellow business / banking execs are blasted as thieves — by people like Mr. Nichol, unaccountable to voters or stock-holders, who never produced ANYTHING of value, thumbing their noses at their state’s strained economy and beleaguered taxpayers, and raking in bloated taxpayer-funded salaries.
I don’t mind people working hard, making a lot of money and getting filthy rich. I DO MIND people who entrench themselves within the government bureaucracy, pulling down bloated salaries confiscated from hard-working private sector producers, while sabotaging the economy, filling students heads with rot, and bashing those same producers and the economic system that made this state and country great.
There are simply no adults in charge of the UNC system anymore. The entire Board of Governors should be replaced with real people who understand NC and have some common sense. UNC has become nothing but a gravy train for every far-out leftist in the country who needs a job. Everyone seems to have figured this out except the General Assembly. I guess these stooges like their free ballgame tickets too much to ask questions.
I doubt most North Carolinians will mind what she gets paid as long as the football and basketball teams do well.
It’s ok to complain, but at least be somewhat informed. How about some facts that paint a more nuanced picture?
State appropriations and aid accounted for about 20 percent ($534.6 million) of UNC’s $2.4 billion operating budget in fiscal 2010-2011. In other words, 80 percent of the UNC’s funding does not come from the state.
Like any other job, pay reflects the market. Check other public universities for comparison: U of Mich in 2009 paid its president well over $500,000. One can complain about this like any other CEO pay, but if you want good people you have to pay them a competitive rate.
The UNC chancellor is accountable to the Board of Trustees, which is appointed by the state.
UNC researchers brought in nearly $800 million in grants, about a fourth of that from private sources. I don’t think UNC gets as much from shoe companies. In fact, UNC generated $2.5 million from inventions that benefit the private sector.