Athletic salaries are too high
by Steven Shulman, CSU Professor of Economics
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Your article “Athletics Employees Top List of CSU’s Highest Paid” (Sept. 24) makes me despair for the soul of our University.
$1,350,000 for the new football coach, $946,764 for the basketball coach, $500,000 for an assistant coach. Just these three positions add up to $2.8 million that could have been spent on, say, education.
What could justify these breathtaking salaries? It can’t be the profits these coaches earn for CSU since their sports — mostly meaning football — are huge money losers. Last year, CSU spent $20 million to subsidize its athletic programs (see http://sports.usatoday.com/
Year after year, CSU offers pitifully small salary increases to its faculty and staff. Year after year, it raises tuition by double or triple the rate of inflation. Year after year, it staffs most of its undergraduate classes with poorly-paid adjunct faculty. Yet it spends money on football like it has no other needs and no other priorities.
For shame.
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