For years, USC’s tuition has soared, while the salaries of its faculty have not. The university’s exponentially expanding enrollment has stretched its facilities, resources and class sizes to a breaking point.
To continue this growth, some professors have been willing to take education online for students and design classes for Palmetto College. They’ve done their best to connect with hundreds of students at a time in packed auditoriums.
But their first raise in the past four years came only when the state legislature mandated a 3-percent, across-the-board increase. Meanwhile, every year, their bosses in the administration bring down tens of thousands of dollars in annual bonuses and raises. The university distributed $4.1 million in bonuses this year to 237 of its top earners, an average of $17,400 per employee. These “salary adjustments” don’t include the raises some received this year in the form of $10,000 or more.
The administration justifies most of these bonuses as compensation for “additional responsibilities.” While each individual’s time and effort may be difficult to tangibly monetize, tacking on that much money to employees’ salaries already above $100,000 seems even more difficult to justify.
Sure, retention of top talent in the school’s brass is crucial.
But it’s a philosophical question: What makes the university?
We think it’s the experiences of the students and the faculty who teach them.
We’re disappointed our administration seems to think otherwise.