[Husker] Pelini's Contract

[Steve Reichenbach]

You misinterpretted my note by inferring that I want something
different.  I'm merely reiterating that the large amounts of money
devoted to athletics at UNL make it clear that athletics (especially
football) is a very high priority, higher than many of the academic
missions of the university.  In that, I believe that providing such
large incentives to the football coach for academics indicates more
about the priority of football than the priority for academics.  That
was my only point.

I mean really, if academics were the priority, why not spend the money
on academics instead of the football coach's salary?  One could even
reasonably argue for the interpretation that football is so important
that it must be protected against allegations that it is somehow
inconsistent with what should be the real priorities of the
university.

What I want?  Well, I think Nebraska would do well to put more money
into the university.  Taking me as an example, I'm well compensated
from the perspective of the average salary in Nebraska, but less so
than in industry which is fine with me because my position provides me
with a great deal of creative freedom.  Still, I bring several times
my salary into the university and the state in external funding for
research, development, and education and I have led two successful
commercial spin-offs that also have contributed to the state.  And, I'm
by no means the most successful faculty member in my department nor the
university.  The world is competitive and if Nebraska wants to succeed,
research and education are critical.  If we had more resources, we
could do much more, e.g., in the area of online education, for the
benefit of Nebraska and its future.

To address your specific comments:

No, I don't think there is enough in the way of financial incentives
for high-performing individuals and units on the academic side.  The
university has tried to do so, reserving some of the annual salary
increases for merit pools, but the annual increases have been small
enough that UNL salaries trail peer institutions and some great folks
have left for better funded institutions.  Some people claim to want
the university to be much more like private industry, but most
businesses are much better positioned to "incentivize" high-performing
individuals.  The real truth is that many who pay lip service to the
university (e.g., Govenor Heineman) and say they want a more
business-like institution really just want to spend less.  Criticizing
UNL's budget expenditures (without adequately crediting its importance)
is a popular road to political success in Nebraska.

On the athletic side, does that mean I want to make football and
athletics less important?  No, it doesn't.  Football is a big and
successful enterprise, and I don't have a problem with that or with
the level of revenue that they generate and use to succeed.  You write
that this will "remind" student athletes that they are students first,
but I don't think this will change their perception any more than Bo
will come to believe that if the athletes are successful students, then
slipping below NU standards for football would be a secondary concern.


> Well those guys do get compensated for having a good department. If
> they dont have a good graduation rate they will be let go. If however
> they have one of the top departments in the country they will be
> rewarded for it in salary increase. What do you want Steve? Should the
> teachers be compensated if someone in their department does well in
> athletics? They put that in so that students would be reminded that
> they are there for academics first and sports second. Dont think for a
> minute that Bo wont be reminded of that if the academic part slips
> below NU standards.
> 
> Steve Reichenbach <reich at inetnebr.com> wrote:
> This is still the tail wagging the dog.  In which other departments
> at UNL are employees getting $125K/year salary incentives for the
> academic success of their students?  An outstanding math or chem
> teacher?  If academics is the dog and football is the tail, which
> is the real priority?  In this, it's football.
> 
> (Care to compare the budgets for athletics and engineering or the
> salary costs for football and physics?  I think I don't really want
> to know.)
> 
> 
> >   Thursday's World Herald had an article stating Pelini could get $250,000 in bonuses if certain academic criteria were met.
> > 
> >   $125,000 if graduation rate is same or above general student population. Also some of the money is based on the Academic Performance rating that the NCAA uses to determine progress to graduation.
> > 
> >   I absolutely agree with Perlman's statement. "You want a contract that fairly compensates the coach and signal what's important to the university," Chancellor Harvey Perlman said Thursday. "If you're going to put incentives in for winning, then you should balance those with incentives for academic performance." 
> > 
> >   Maybe this is a start to the end of the tail wagging the dog.