"From each according to his ability and to each according to his need."
We couldn't tell you exactly what Karl Marx meant by those words, but we're pretty sure he didn't mean for college presidents to make more than the president of the free world.
Of course, that's too often the case.
Nationwide, college presidents are raking in the dough while students are overburdened and underserved. Certainly running a major university is not the most stress-free position available, nor is it an easy job to achieve.
But we're not talking about private colleges where whatever they decide is their own business. We're talking about state schools run largely on federal dollars, where university president salaries have risen far out of proportion to state employees in similar positions, not to mention in comparison to professor salaries.
Right here at home, President Michael Crow makes nearly five times what Gov. Janet Napolitano makes: One runs a state of six million people, the other a university of 57,000 students. Were you to request the services of some omnipotent babysitter, he or she would charge a lot more for taking care of a state.
And despite its size, ASU is not an unfathomable fixer-upper. President Crow did not come here in the wake of a school-wide riot, where buildings lay in cinders and he had to give mouth-to-mouth to dying students.
He did not have to coax alumni into showing loyalty, nor try to keep a major university alive in a city with a dried-up economy.
So why the half million dollar annual salary when the only improvements ASU seems to see are from federal grants?
No, we've paid exorbitant funds for a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor and improvements to the campus that were abandoned the moment Air Force One left the runway.
In the meantime, parking remains appalling at best, not merely because it's far away, not just because it's still a virtual nest for theft, but also because, in the blink of an eye, it is sold out for more money.
The moment an event comes, students who have already paid for parking are given the shaft. Where has the money to protect our University resources gone? Look at the salary of our No. 1 man.
We can't even agree to pay interpreters competitive wages, and yet Crow makes enough money to buy a Third World country. And despite having just enough money to support Four Peaks and pay rent (in that order), we even took a pay cut when it came down to it.
Maybe next time he's up for a pay raise, Crow should consider eating Ramen noodles for just one night in exchange for kicking just a little of that money back to the University.
