大學校長該拿天價薪水嗎？

Gregory Fenves recently got a big promotion, fromprovost to president of the University of Texas atAustin. A raise came with it. Instead of his currentbase of about $425,000, he was offered $1 million.

格雷戈里·范韋斯(Gregory Fenves)最近晉升要職，從德州大學奧斯汀分校(University of Texas at Austin)教務長升任校長。此次升職是包含加薪的。他目前的基礎薪俸約為42.5萬美元(約合263萬元人民幣)，校方開出100萬美元。

And he rejected it — as too much.

但他拒絕了——理由是太高。

“With many issues and concerns about administrative costs, affordability and tuition, such asalary will affect the ability of the president to work with the Texas Legislature,” Fenves wroteto a university official, in an email obtained by The Austin American-Statesman and publishedlast week.

“鑒于對行政支出、負擔能力、學費等諸多問題的擔憂與考量，這樣的薪俸將影響校長與德州議會(TexasLegislature)的合作，”范韋斯在一封致某大學官員的電子郵件中寫道，該信由《奧斯汀美國政治家》(TheAustin American-Statesman)獲得，并于上周刊發(fā)。

He suggested, and agreed to, $750,000.

最終他提議并接受了75萬美元。

That’s hardly chump change. But in the context of the shockingly lucrative deals that havebecome almost commonplace among college presidents, the sum — or, more precisely, thesentiment behind it — is worthy of note and praise.

這當然不算是一筆小數(shù)目。但相比在大學校長中已經(jīng)司空見慣的天價合約，它——或者更準確的說，它所透露的觀念——是值得留意和稱贊的。

Another of those deals came to light late Tuesday night, when The Wall Street Journal reportedthat Yale University had paid its former president, Richard Levin, an “additional retirementbenefit” of $8.5 million after he retired from his post in 2013. The Journal characterized this asan “unprecedented lump-sum payment” for a college president and noted that Levin’s annualcompensation package during his final years at Yale was already over $1 million.

周二深夜，《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)曝光了另一份類似的合約，2013年理查德·萊文(Richard Levin)卸任后，耶魯大學(Yale University)向這位校長支付了一筆850萬美元的“額外退休金”?！度請蟆沸稳葸@筆一次總付的退休金在大學校長中是“前所未有的”，并指出萊文在執(zhí)掌耶魯?shù)淖詈髱啄昀?，年薪已?jīng)在100萬美元以上。

All in all, few presidents give adequate thought to the symbolism and dissonance ofextraordinarily generous salaries, which are in sync with this era of lavish executive pay andglaring income inequality but out of line with the ostensible mission of academia.

總的來說，很少有大學校長充分考慮到，這些令人咋舌的高薪有怎樣的象征意義，看上去會有多么刺眼，它們和這個時代對企業(yè)高管的慷慨以及觸目驚心的貧富差距是相符的，但卻與學術界聲言的使命相去甚遠。

Ideally, higher education is dedicated to values different from those that govern Wall Streetand corporate America. It supposedly calls students to more soulful concerns, even tosacrifice.

按理說，高等教育的價值觀應該有別于華爾街和美國企業(yè)界。它本應將學子引向更高尚的追求，甚至是犧牲。

But that message is muddled when some of the people who run colleges wallow in paymentsand perks that would once have been considered vulgar.

然而，當一些大學的管理者享受著曾被斥為鄙俗的高薪和待遇時，學生們看在眼里會感到困惑。

For E. Gordon Gee’s final year as the president of Ohio State University, which he left in 2013,he got a package of more than $6 million, as was widely reported. It was a one-time bonanza,including deferred payments and severance, but he’d earned roughly $2 million annually overthe previous years.

俄亥俄州立大學(Ohio State University)校長E·戈登·吉(E. Gordon Gee)于2013年卸任，任內(nèi)最后一年他的薪俸超過了600萬美元，當時媒體廣為報道。那是一次性支付的獎酬，包括了延期付款和遣散費，但此前幾年里，他的年薪已經(jīng)在200萬美元上下。

The Chronicle of Higher Education analyzed salary information for private colleges from 2012,the most recent year available, and found that Shirley Ann Jackson, the president ofRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received a package worth over $7 million.

《高等教育紀事報》(The Chronicle of Higher Education)分析了2012年私立大學的薪俸信息，也就是現(xiàn)有數(shù)據(jù)所及的最近一年，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)倫斯勒理工學院(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)院長雪利·安·杰克遜(Shirley Ann Jackson)拿到了超過700萬美元的薪俸。

John L. Lahey of Quinnipiac University: about $3.75 million. Lee Bollinger of Columbia University:almost $3.4 million.

昆尼皮亞克大學(Quinnipiac University)的約翰·L·雷希(John L. Lahey)：約375萬美元。哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)的李·鮑林杰(Lee Bollinger)：將近340萬美元。

Fenves’s salary as the president of the University of Texas puts him well behind that of hiscounterpart at Texas A & M University, who has an annual base of $1 million plus$400,000 in additional compensation, according to The American-Statesman.

據(jù)《美國政治家》的報道，范韋斯作為德州大學校長的工資要比德州農(nóng)工大學(Texas A&M University)校長低很多，后者的基礎年薪是100萬美元，外加40萬美元的額外報酬。

Each profligate compensation package breeds more like it, as schools’ trustees convincethemselves that they must keep pace in order to recruit, retain and receive the precious fairydust of the heaviest hitters.

每出現(xiàn)一個漫天高價的薪酬包，都會促使更多的學校跟進。校董們認定，要想招募、挽留最搶手人才，并領受其恩澤，他們必須跟上時代的步伐。

They reason that “this is a winner-take-all society and that people with extremely high levels oftalent are richly rewarded,” said Richard Vedder, the director of the Center for CollegeAffordability and Productivity.

他們的理由是，“這是個成王敗寇的社會，具備最頂尖才能的人要得到豐厚的回報，”大學學費與績效中心(Center for College Affordability and Productivity)主任理查德·韋德(Richard Vedder)說。

“But I think that things are getting out of hand, especially given the tax-exempt nature ofuniversities,” he told me. “They’re in privileged positions, and they were given these privilegedpositions not to enrich themselves but to serve society. These presidents are expected to livequite nicely but not exorbitantly and not extravagantly.”

“但我認為現(xiàn)在有些失控了，尤其是考慮到大學的免稅待遇，”他對我說。“他們是享受著特權的，而之所以給他們特權，不是為了讓他們逐利，是要他們服務社會。這些校長理應過上優(yōu)越的生活，但不能這么窮奢極欲。”

Their extravagance strikes an especially discordant note in light of the challenges confrontinghigher education today, and it undercuts their moral authority.

在高等教育面臨嚴峻挑戰(zhàn)的今天，他們的奢侈無度尤顯不協(xié)調，并且有損他們的道德威嚴。

How do you defend the transfer of teaching responsibilities to low-paid, part-time adjunctswhen the president is sitting so pretty? How do you cut administrative costs, which indeed needcutting? How do you explain steep tuition increases, mammoth student debt and the failure toadmit more children from poor families?

一個錦衣玉食的校長，該如何解釋將教學責任轉給低薪的兼職教授的舉措?如何下手削減行政開支——盡管的確有削減的必要?你如何解釋學費的暴漲，巨額學生債，無法接收更多窮人家的孩子?

How do you summon students back to the liberal arts and away from mercenary priorities?

你如何呼吁學生們放棄唯利是圖的專業(yè)方向，重拾對文科的興趣?

The high salaries are frequently defended on the grounds that a university president’s job is allconsuming. But if it is, how do so many of them find time to serve, for hundreds of thousandsof extra dollars, on corporate boards? Rensselaer’s Jackson was at one point on five boardssimultaneously.

大學校長的工作極為繁重，這也是給他們開出高薪的一個常見理由。但如果真的如此，為什么還有那么多校長進入企業(yè)董事會，額外再賺上幾十萬美元?倫斯勒的杰克遜一度身兼五家企業(yè)的董事。

The high salaries are also defended in terms of the fund-raising that certain presidentsreputedly excel at, covering their compensation many times over. But do they deserve solecredit for those donations? And at nonprofit institutions, should money be the main yardstickand currency? Shouldn’t ethics compete with economics, as they sometimes do when a schoolinvests its endowment?

高薪的另一個理由是某些校長被認為格外擅長籌款，比起他們?yōu)閷W?；I措到的資金，他們的薪水只是個零頭。但是爭取到那些捐款的功勞，應該記在他們一個人頭上嗎?在一個非營利機構，金錢應該成為主要衡量標準和通貨嗎?難道不應該將倫理置于和經(jīng)濟同等的地位來考慮?要知道有時候學校在決定如何用捐贈基金投資時，就會這樣考慮。

The lofty pay of college presidents is part of higher education’s increasingly corporate bent, ofthe blurred lines between the campus and the marketplace.

高等教育越來越有企業(yè)的作派，校園和市場的界線漸漸模糊，校長的高薪就是其中一個表現(xiàn)。

And like the private enrichment of many political candidates who speak of “public service,” it’snot just a mirror of our pervasive money culture. It’s a green light for it, from precincts ofprinciple where a flashing yellow would be more appropriate.

和許多一邊說著“公共服務”一邊攬聚私人財富的政治候選人一樣，它不只是四處蔓延的金錢文化的映照。它是在給這種文化開綠燈，而在這個固守志節(jié)的界域中，理應不斷閃動的是一盞黃燈。