UNH President Makes About Half a Million - Look at What We Get! - Granite Grok

UNH President Makes About Half a Million – Look at What We Get!

UNH CampusNew Hampshire taxpayers should take a few moments to measure the value of their ‘investment” in leadership at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). UNH President Mark Huddleston is the second highest paid Public University President in New England.

Huddleston’s compensation package – which increased 2.7 percent compared to the previous year – consisted of a base salary of $385,000 with a bonus of $107,800, but that total did not include nearly $60,000 in deferred compensation and retirement benefits, nor such perks as living at a university-owned house worth almost $1 million or access to a university car valued as nearly $17,000.

So, what do you, the taxpayer, get in return.

UNH has one of the highest tuition rates for a public university but does not deliver a top ranking for that cost.

Maybe you have heard the hew and cry over the student debt crisis? UNH ranks at or near the top for student debt and students graduating with debt.

UNH does fare well on one related point, but with a caveat. Seventy-nine percent of UNH educated graduates get jobs, but a significant number of those will be outside the state. Nearly 6 in 10 take their taxpayer backstopped degree outside of New Hampshire after graduating

The University of New Hampshire has a history of poor spending choices, while constantly begging the state legislature for more money.

Huddleston’s “Leadership” has fostered, or at least tolerated, a culture that creates anti-free-speech-language guides (when not embroiled in scandals involving language teachers) and thinks nothing of spending $17,570.00 on one table.

After the fact, (meaning after a decision becomes a public scandal) UNH has admitted to some poor decisions. The table was a bad idea. And Huddleston, seeing the national outrage, defended free speech, quickly commanding the UNH diversity industrial complex at to dump the language guide and retool that part of the website. But that was just hedge trimming. The roots of the anti-speech diversity weeds were left intact, along with their keepers, their offices, their salaries, and their web spaces, resulting in junk like this, and “awards” like this one.

This is not a flattering resume, and I’m certain we’ve not catalogued all the miscues. So, considered in its entirety, doesn’t Huddleston’s compensation, and the recent 2.7% salary increase, seem a bit much?

No, taxpayers can’t do a heck of a lot about what Mark Huddleston’s compensation package includes, but they can vote for a governor and a legislature willing to take a more serious look at the value of backstopping UNH and its spending antics with taxpayer dollars.

In the absence of easy money, UNH might be forced to think before it spends. Manage its appetites. Attract even more private money. Focus its resources on degree programs with long-term fiscal promise.

And if it still wants to pay the man half-a-million for the results, there won’t be any taxpayer dollars for which to answer.

 

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