How would you spend $143,085.01? Would you buy a house? A car? An education?
Still not sure? Well, why don’t you ask President John Hitt for some ideas.
On Thursday, the Orlando Sentinel published an article that made us want to vomit.
Hitt, along with other administrators, will be receiving thousands of dollars in bonuses based on performance.
The bonuses were postponed from last year because of, you guessed it, the economy.
Just when you thought a decent thing was done when they accepted pay cuts, little did you know this was just a temporary delay in receiving big, fat bonuses.
According to the article, “The one-time payouts, which range from about $12,000 for Helen Donegan, vice president for community relations, to about $143,000 for Hitt, were based on meeting specific performance goals that were different for each administrator but could include enrollment growth.”
So, basically, you get a bonus for bringing more students to UCF, and then increase their tuition and parking fees, and then somehow manage to sleep soundly at night on top of a pile of money? Since when does doing your job entitle you to obscene amounts of money, anyway?
The article also said, “At the same time, belt-tightening has led to layoffs and program closings at UCF and other state universities. Currently, about 1,400 faculty and professional staff members are awaiting word on proposed 1 percent salary increases and one-time bonuses of $1,500 for some, according to faculty union leaders.”
Yeah, we can’t let you know if your salary’s going to go up to $30,300 or not, sorry. In the mean time though, we’ll accept a nearly half million dollar pay rise and drive off into the sunset in a gold Mercedes.
The gold Mercedes may have been an exaggeration, but you get our drift. Besides, buying a gold Mercedes would be ridiculous when, for $143,000 you could buy about four non-gold ones.
The Sentinel discussed how the bonuses were accepted now instead of later in order to avoid having them accumulate high interest, which would possibly do something like raise our tuition more.
Sounds like a self-serving, sketchy reason to us.
Why not hold off on the bonuses and reinvest the interest in the school, athletics or parking garages, or put the bonuses into professor salaries?
Even if the bonuses were part of a contract or have been turned down the past couple years because of the poor economy, these bonuses will never be justified to students.
Seeing programs slashed, having our tuition increased, and waking up every day wondering if our degree will even mean anything with the way unemployment is right now makes it hurt all the more to see the administration get more money.
Hitt has done a lot for UCF and has made it better in many ways (once again, this is essentially his job) with the medical school, making us a “green school” and everything else.
But in a time like this, his actions aren’t worth that kind of money.
To put that amount in perspective, that $143,000 is what LeBron James made for every 20.1 points scored last season.
For that money, you could buy 242,516 tacos from Del Taco, about four for every student.
Heck, Hitt could give each student at UCF $2.67. We wouldn’t complain.
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