2009.06.12
Radford's bonus baby
The Radford University Board of Visitors obviously wants to keep Penelope Kyle at the helm of that institution. It has insisted on a $1 million "stay bonus" that caused the university's foundation to balk initially. Now it has come around - but the public has no inkling why. In an editorial Monday, we'll say that Kyle and the RU visitors have some explaining to do.
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I read about this issue this morning, and the "stay bonus" did seem exceedingly generous. But without any idea what most college presidents make or what the usual pay structure is, I can't really tell if this is out of line with the norm. How great is she anyway? Didn't they just have a huge issue this year over curriculum cuts?
Comment by Kristen — June 12, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
From The Chronicle of Higher Education:
"Presidents make claims of fairness about their compensation by pointing to what other presidents are paid at highly ranked competitor institutions. They complain about the high cost of living in the region, or they note that education administrators have historically been less well paid than similarly talented executives in other fields. Those arguments succeed to the point that they tap into widely accepted values.
The arguments break down, however, when presidents resist applying those same values to everyone else on the campus. Using one form or another of peer comparison, many administrators can easily show that they should earn 20 or 30 percent more than their current salary. But that relatively modest underpayment pales beside the perennial exploitation of adjunct faculty members."
See: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i13/13b01301.htm
Comment by Fernando — June 12, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
That's absured, she should only make what the higest paid tenured professor makes. She is a state employee and she does not deserve the pay. She didn't work hard or increase enrollment or do her job above and beyond. We must regulate all State supported colleges and university presidents salaries. Anything above $250k is too much. I bet we pay for her housing and a car etc. no perks! period! excessive pay for no performance!
Comment by Frank — June 12, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Isn't there currently a national debate about how much private companies should be able to pay company execs? Doesn't the Prez say the limit should be $500K? And don't many, including the RTEB say that is not restrictive enough? Yet here is a public institution that seeks to give not a $1 million salary, but a $1 million BONUS on top of a salary? Does anyone see a problem with this picture? Or is the government going to make a habit of forcing one standard on private industry and holding itself to another? (Yes, I know the difference between state and federal govn't, but this still reeks.)
Comment by C Ramsey — June 12, 2009 @ 8:18 pm
How many scholarships to needy students could Kyle's "stay bonus" fund? Is she a student whose mother or father has recently lost a job? Is she using her $1500 a month "vehicle allowance" to pay for text books? Tuition has increased for 2009, and RU faculty and most state employees have gone for 2 consecutive years with a 0% raise; Kyle has just given herself a 40% one. This is a typical money grab, plain and simple, and her actions and greed are deplorable. RU, you can and should do better than her.
Comment by John — June 12, 2009 @ 8:33 pm
Well, well, well.
So, folks are finally begining to awaken to p[erks, pillage, and perfidity of the gang of AIG wanna be's running Radford University. Kyle has erected an empire of terror at Radford which rivals Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible...!
The very idea that in this time of economic crisis, this time of no increases for faculty and staff, this time of imposed sacrifice, the Radford University administration and the Board of Visitors has the gaul to reward the utter management failure continuing at Radford University is a treasonist use of our tax dollars and the hard-earned dollars that contributors give to Radford University, not for administrators, but for programs that advance the quality of eduaction for RU students. NOTHING in MS. KYLE's performance, nothing in her bastardization of the academics and the mission of Radford is advancing the quality of education at Radford. Quite the opposite--Radford is declining rapidly. The courage of a growing segment of faculty is the only factor of hope staving off a continuing ruin.
When will the State and the Governor step in and clean house, right the ship, and help launch a future which should be Radford's destiny?
Comment by Roudy Red — June 13, 2009 @ 12:47 am
Someone asked how many adjunct faculty could be supported by the raise ZMs. Kyle has been granted. The Slaves are paid $2,700 for a semester-long course with NO BENEFITS. Ya'll can do the math. Divde the nominally $250,000 by $2,700--93 courses. Adjunct faculty are being cut at Radford University. Wouldn't you as a hard-working taxpayer struggling to put your child through school love to have some help. How about an opportunity for your child to compete for say one of one hundred potential $2,500 scholarships that could accrue from that raise?
Had enough?! Tell somebody! Write the Governor, write the State board of education. Write Ms. Kyle and shame her like an AIG big wig!! It would, if nothing else, be interesting to know if she has any shame; to learn if she will mirror her big-business cronies and refuse this outrage perpetrated on on all of us by her and the Radford University Board of Visitors.
Comment by Roudy Red — June 13, 2009 @ 12:59 am
So, a $200,000 yearly bonus for someone who gets a free house, a free car, full benefits, 30 days of paid vacation, free internet, $5,000 a year for "club and organization membership," a $1500 per MONTH vehicle allowance, and the list goes on and on. Why is the RU Foundation called the "RU" Foundation? It's clear that its primary purpose is not to fund students in financial need but to fund Ms. Kyle's money market account, where her bonus money is deposited. Let's rename the foundation "The Kyle Foundation" instead. Oh, and make sure to keep its incorporated status so that the BOV can skirt state transparency laws and hide their greed more effectively. Just a thought.
Comment by Lacy — June 13, 2009 @ 8:24 am
This past year I made approximately $60k. I worked approximately 70 hours per week. This past year president Kyle made approximately $360k. She must have worked 420 hours per week. I am very impressed since there are only 168 hours in a week. This coming year she will make just over $500k. I guess I must now be expecting her to work over 560 hours per week. I'm impressed that the Board of Visitors has recognized her ability to manipulate time in such an amazing manner.
Comment by Ishmael — June 13, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
The state is running large deficits, the country is running immense deficits, and those at the top pillage the coffers of their institutions. AIG paid out 160 times the amount of her bonus, however their value prior to their collapse was significantly greater than the value of RU. The federal government is paying out stimulus money to colleges, including RU which will receive somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million federal dollars.
Is there not some relationship here between the errors of the moguls of large banking and Wall Street, and the hubris and greed exemplified by the ribald attack upon the treasury of the RU Foundation? Vacant faculty positions are not being refilled, and many adjunct faculty are not being rehired. Many programs are so underfunded as to be in peril.
I am angry that she received this 'bonus' based upon such poor performance. I am even more disheartened to see that she might be at the helm of RU for several more years. Certainly they can do better.
Comment by jim — June 13, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Y'all aren't very considerate of her feelings. How would _you_ like to walk into a meeting with other university presidents with no Ph.D., no background in education, no significant accomplishments, _and_ lower-than-average compensation? And you know she has had to cut back in this recession; $360K just isn't that much when you start adding up all the little things.
Comment by Lee — June 14, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
Let's talk about the performance of Ms. Kyle and her band of "administrators. First, recall that her coming was to be such a fiscal windfall of funding for RU by her purportedly fantastic "Richmond Connections". WHAT A JOKE!! Her performance so much heralded by RJ Kirk and the Board of Visitors has actually been actually second rate when for just one instance the proportion of funding compared to the other state schools is considered. Read on. The retoric continues, but the facts are pretty revealing.
I went into the State's records to see what at least one comparison to the other four-year VA public schools might show. Remember a couple of years ago when everyone was told how wonderful she was for attracting the $70.9 million of the State Bond referendum funds? Looking deeper, this level of funding turns out to be quite an ordinary, maybe even mediocre, no actually a poor achievement--10th out of 14 four-year schools pleading for their share of the $1.65 billion available. JMU, VA State, Norfolk State, JMU, GMU, CNP, and, naturally, the big three all did better. Back in 2002, when the Virginia state budget was in the Gilmore toilet, salaries were frozen, things were in bad shape--the total pot in the General bond referendum was $833 million. At that time, RU's portion ($27.4 million) ranked six out of 14. A better performance in ranking than Kyle's 10 out of 14. Bottom line? The progress during her administration in accessing the State purse is clearly nothing for president Kyle to brag about and take cheap shots at Doug Covington and all that has gone before her. Her performance is basically no progress, maybe even decline over that of 2002. So, what IS the basis for awarding her below average, no poor performance with all this bonus and annuity money that RU can't afford? Maybe, if she actually did her job instead of worrying about the color of T-shirts sold in the bookstore or in preventing students from taking hot food from the cafeteria, even though they pay for it...Radford could do better per State coffers.
Your Pal,
Roudy
Comment by Roudy Red — June 14, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
Kyle's ambitious 7-17 plans, which probably have little to do with RU's regional university-mission in SW VA, may not be very realistic given the anything but stunning success (actually stunning failure) she has achieved so far?
The trail of missteps, ill-advised decisions, and outright incompetence of RU's leadership--president, provost, some deans, and Board of Visitors--is the most fertile, the most rich of loams for stories you could pursue:
1. Firing a provost after six months--an academic black eye, nationally, for RU
3. Moving the homecoming from the beautiful Autumn to the dark of winter for a b-ball game with Liberty--idiotic.
4. Ignoring or trying to kill the Highlander Festival--the single biggest draw annually in the Radford community--idiotic!
5. Wanting to sell the Selu Conservancy, a much coveted RU jewel, and finding out after her husband's law firm (using RU funds)discovered she couldn't. How frustrating for the poor woman. Another ill-advised decison stymied.
6. Trying to change the mascot from the Highlander, a culturally reasonable icon of this region, to dread the red--whatever the red is? I know about Roudy Red.
7. Alleged re-directing RU Foundation funds to newly created foundations without consulting donors?
8. Why, as they increase everywhere else, have enrollments and retention rates over the past two years declined at RU?
9. Closing the Dedmon Center facilities to everyone but athletes all the while financing renovation of said facity with RU student fees.
10. The budget forum fiasco where she failed to answer questions fro students and made a mockery of her own economic situation compared to RU staff. When asked why she wasn't anwering all the questions, Kyle capped off her performance with the immortal words for Radford University history--"I get to choose the questions!"
11. Ms. Kyle's unconscionable acceptance of unearned bonuses and raises in times when student in Appalachia need all the support they can get. But Ms. Kyle's attitude is probably like her response when she was questioned about removing the word "Appalachian" from the Appalachian Colections of the RU Library--Ms. Kyle, a Galax girl, said, "Appalachia doesn't play well in Richmond." I wonder if it's just at the tea parties with Mrs. Kane that Appalachia doesn't play well.
12. Trying to change the core curriculum without consulting the RU faculty, and recently through her Provost, erecting a sort of kangaroo court to perform an illegal "expedited review" of academic programs is another addition to her growing legacy of academic incompetence. BTW,take heart; the RU faculty has risen in protest and has begun to re-take their sacred ground from the Provost, past Head Rector, and president--this is the cool story chronicled in recent months by local newspapers and continues with an investigation of wrong-doing by the RU Faculty Senate and the RU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
n. the list goes on...
Finally, Ms. Kyle often tries to blame others or deflect unwanted attention to others by saying--"oh, I don't do that... HELLO Ms Kyle, you are the president of Radford University. You are rsponsible for it all!!
Comment by Roudy Red — June 14, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
Roudy Red for Prez!
Comment by Fernando — June 16, 2009 @ 12:21 pm