Golden parachutes at state universities?

The Raleigh News and Observer had a long page one story two days ago headlined "Ex-University Brass Get Leaves, Payouts." The impetus for the story was no doubt the arrangements provided to NC State's former chancellor and provost after they resigned their positions earlier this year. In each case the former administrator was provided with six months to a year without teaching responsibilities, plus they were allowed to draw their administrative salary during that period. Sunday's story finds (I'm shocked, shocked) that this practice is very widespread in the UNC system.

If the newshounds at the N&O had done further investigation, they also would have found this to be a common practice at private universities and at public universities in other states. The reason for the teaching release is quite simple -- someone who has not taught for a number of years is likely to be well behind the state of knowledge in their field. This policy is in place to protect students! Also, because the overwhelming majority of universities have such a policy, the UNC system needs to have it to be competitive when filling high level administrative positions. If you pay below market, you cannot expect to attract the best and the brightest.

The current system could benefit from some tweaking. For instance someone who only serves as an administrator for a year or two should not need a year to retool. Also there are lots of issues about the salary level post-administration. Faculty salaries in research university are largely dictated by research productivity. It becomes difficult to attract faculty into administrative posts if they see do not see such posts as being at least revenue-neutral.