Students ridicule Levin for raise

Students protest President Levin's $350,000 raise outside Commons
Students protest President Levin's $350,000 raise outside Commons Photo by Zeenat Mansoor.
By Zeenat Mansoor
Friday, October 8, 2010

Students held a mock cocktail party in Beinecke Plaza on Thursday to “congratulate” President Levin for his $350,000 bonus and “celebrate” the recent $400 increase in expected student contribution toward financial aid. The students offered martinis and distributed 350 flyers during the half hour protest. About two dozen students attended the event, which was coordinated by the Undergraduate Organizing Committee.

Comments

  • FailBoat

    These are the same clowns who protest everything that the university does. Why do they get any media attention anymore?

  • RexMottram08

    Does the university have a moral obligation to exempt students from this $400 increase?

    Of course not.

    Am I a fan of Dick Levin?

    Of course not.

    Do I acknowledge that there is a strong demand for the services of an experienced university president and economist and that this demand drives up his compensation?

    Of course, I passed economics.

  • comment

    I passed economics too, and am also a human. How many people were laid off at Yale last year? That one bonus is enough to have kept 5-10 people employed, departments well-staffed, and students best served. Instead one rich man’s jowls keep growing. What value are students getting for that money? A pet campus in Singapore? A pet country in China? Does anyone even know what he is talking about? Earth to Rick: Come back.

  • RexMottram08

    Yale has too many employees. How do we justify the dozens of faceless administrators?

    I’d rather pay top dollar for a President than employ an army of useless bureaucrats in the academy.

  • Hieronymus’ Bosh

    More interesting to me was the gender make-up of the protest group. Where are the boys? What does the trend toward female domination of activism and, eventually, leadership portend?

  • cappi

    Kudos to the UOC and others for spotlighting his ridiculous bonus. The wildly over compensated executives trend needs to be reined in, especially when the dough is coming out of your pockets. Sounds like the nay sayers on this board want to be part of the hyper greedy let them eat cake crowd some day.

  • pablum

    Meanwhile, the University has asked core departments of the liberal arts education to cut their budgets (read: fire professors and replace them with part-time labor).

    Top-level administrators and department heads (along with a large swath of tenured faculty) are among the top 5% of income-earners in the United States; clearly, they must be very smart, and must have earned this privilege, so I trust them when they speak for the need to tighten belts.

  • RexMottram08

    It’s not coming out of my pocket. I paid my tuition and received my diploma.

    Yale Corp won’t get another dime out of me. (My athletic team will receive my Yale-allocated donations directly)

  • FailBoat

    > That one bonus is enough to have kept 5-10 people employed, departments well-staffed, and students best served.

    Putting aside the ridiculousness of this line (if everyone took a 10% pay cut, we could hire even *more* unnecessary employees!), do you really think $350,000 is enough to pay 5 (let alone 10) members of Yale’s faculty?

  • ldffly

    Yes, Levin needs to go. “A pet campus in Singapore? A pet country in China? Does anyone even know what he is talking about? Earth to Rick: Come back.” Well put, except you left out two new colleges for the sake of enrollment expansion.

  • Gracchus

    Hieronymus: This photograph is not representative of the gender makeup of the group (whatever the implications may be). From my memory I can count (and name) at least 12 males involved.

    To correct a couple other purely factual matters:
    -Martinis (or any alcoholic drinks) were not served, period. Sparkling water and Martinelli’s sparkling cider were handed out.
    -The event lasted well into an hour, and distributed well over the initial 350 fliers. These 350 were handed out within the first half hour, where the confusion may have come from.

    Further, the title of this article (particularly the word “ridicule”) is a gross mischaracterization of the event, which was geared towards satirical political theater. Related to this misunderstanding, the news omitted mention of two violinists, a vocal quartet, trays of tea sandwiches, a student with a top hat, etc.

    Finally the article did not describe the content of the flier handed out, which juxtaposed quotes from the UOC’s financial aid petition of last year with news of the bonus.

  • yalestaffer

    Rex, the “useless bureaucrats” and “faceless administrators” that Yale employs do work that you might not notice, but that is vital to the functioning of the university. Your remark is repulsive.

  • RexMottram08

    yalestaffer, most of the functioning of the university is inessential to the idea of a university. you may perform a job and perform it well, but that doesn’t make it necessary.

  • yalestaffer

    I wish you knew what you were talking about, so we could have a productive and reality-grounded conversation.

  • YaleMom

    I wish Yale would host more fancy parties. You could invite us — the parents. We are paying for your education after all.

    Good for these girls. I think fancy parties are what Yale is all about.

  • robert99

    I think that A Whitney Griswold did a creditable job for a lot less money.

  • silliwin01

    Yalestaffer, the quality of a lot of the Yale administrators (Yale Dining’s incompetent affirmative-action satiating hack and the terrible head of intramurals) leads one to question the prudence of allocating money to their salaries.

  • RexMottram08

    If you want fancy residential colleges with squash courts and recording studios, you should expect tuition to rise with these frivolities.

    If you want to protest tuition increasing many multiples of the inflation rate, you should protest federal subsidies for education loans. When you subsidize something, you get more of it (see: tuition, ethanol, unemployment)

  • Saytan

    I would like to see a real cocktail party held for President Levin, celebrating and not satirizing his raise.
    Congratulations President Levin on a well deserved raise!

  • yaylie

    @Saytan – I’m sure Levin had one, except you weren’t on the invite list.

    @RexMottramo – word – if I ever donate to Yale, Yale College and GSAS likely won’t be seeing any of it…

  • yalie13

    Levin has increased his salary considerably over the last years, despite his momentary salary freeze. It’s increased by a lot, but I guess it’s generally ok.

    But considering that so many people have been laid off and departments have had to deal with massive personnel cuts and the economy is still stagnating, this is pay raise is very inappropriate.

    When people get laid off in this job market, it’s extremely difficult to get by and it changes their entire livelihood. Nonetheless, it’s a reality of tough economic times. But to raise the president’s salary during lay offs and employment cuts is an insult to so many people the Yale administration has put on the streets.

    It would not make sense for him to get a raise until Yale stopped laying people off and people started getting hired again.

  • pablum

    Yale isn’t simply firing people, it’s asking its academic departments — you know, those things upon which universities were once based — to make across-the-board budgetary cuts, something like 10-12% per year for the past few years and into the foreseeable future.

    Richard Levin’s salary was over $1 million in 2008. So, while he’s asking core aspects of the University to cut their budgets by 12%, he’s seen his own personal income increase by more than 35%.

    I dunno. He’s the economist.

  • roflairplane

    This protest is insane. Levin presided over the largest expansion of need-based financial aid in the country. Students are being tased and beaten by the police, and the UOC (many of whom, I’d bet, are on pretty hefty financial aid) protests the president getting a raise? These people should consider checking in with reality every once in a while.

  • townieexprof

    I think Rick Levin has been a really good president. On the other hand, talking to a very close friend who is the head of a major private prep school, he told me that overseeing the exponential growth in its endowment and creating a superb legacy of numerous new buildings, faculty hires, and upgrades in previously delayed maintenance was basically luck–by being in charge during the stock market boom.

    When most families in America cannot afford Yale without financial aid, when most families in America are struggling to make ends meet, when most companies are trying to rein in CEO salaries and bonuses, does it make sense for Levin to take a huge bonus, a bonus much larger than the annual income of probably 80% of Yale student families? Is it tone deaf? Is it out of touch with reality? Is it greedy?

    BTW, this published bonus is just that, just what is published for public consumption–its the deferred compensation and other considerable hidden expenses that may not get listed–that would make his total salary and benefits package waaaaay bigger than reported.

  • FailBoat

    > UOC (many of whom, I’d bet, are on pretty hefty financial aid)

    I’d bet the opposite. UOC kids tend to be bored children of privilege who have no idea how much good Levin has done for the financial aid system here at Yale.

  • Skeptic

    I am a demoralized (tenured) faculty member who has received substantial salary reductions two years in a row now (totaling about 25 percent), yet I am teaching more, publishing more, and serving on more committees than ever. Those of us in the trenches would be a bit more cheered in this time of cuts if Rick would volunteer to take a salary freeze for a few years until there is enough to go around to the rest of us. Objectively, he does not need the salary increase to support himself and his family. He works in the non-profit sector and in exchange for the kudos of “doing good” he might not want to appear to be “doing so well”.

  • Pingback: Carmicheal Jits

  • Pingback: แทงบอลออนไลน์

  • Pingback: gourmet corporate gifts delivery

  • Pingback: distilled beer

  • Pingback: sproutkin

  • Pingback: http://zaguru21.webs.com

  • Pingback: stomach body shaper

  • Pingback: Red Bottom Shoes sale

  • Pingback: http://machii33.eklablog.com

  • Pingback: bad robot surgery

  • Pingback: front page

  • Pingback: click here

  • Pingback: franchise sales leads

  • Pingback: leeds escorts

  • Pingback: Sparkling water flavour info

  • Pingback: Small Quick Loan

  • Pingback: buy clomid

  • Pingback: ac service

  • Pingback: Melbourne airport transfer

  • Pingback: ofis kIrtasiye

  • Pingback: buy champix

  • Pingback: distilled spirits faqs

  • Pingback: grow taller

  • Pingback: buy synthroid

  • Pingback: go here

  • Pingback: ecommerce web design

  • Pingback: beats by dre

  • Pingback: seo expert

  • Pingback: external link

  • Pingback: driving schools in maidstone

  • Pingback: 罗塞塔官方

  • Pingback: .. [read more]

  • Pingback: read more

  • Pingback: blog

  • Pingback: Just Some Thoughts on My Site

  • Pingback: iphone 4S screens melbourne

  • Pingback: beauty authority

  • Pingback: 24 hour emergency tree removal service

  • Pingback: hermes handbags

  • Pingback: IQ Investments

  • Pingback: Louis Vuitton outlet

  • Pingback: dr dre headphones

  • Pingback: All about personal finance success

  • Pingback: my website

  • Pingback: slimming lida

  • Pingback: united cash loans

  • Pingback: 4 Hour Millionaire

  • Pingback: buy christian louboutin shoes

  • Pingback: MBT Shoes

  • Pingback: investing in american homes

  • Pingback: plantas purificadoras de agua

  • Pingback: Herve Leger Bandage

  • Pingback: surveillance officer gear

  • Pingback: Recetario

  • Pingback: al lida

  • Pingback: diseño de paginas web

  • Pingback: teaching jobs

  • Pingback: hap lida

  • Pingback: New Hampshire Democrat