 The Chicago State University, or CSU, board of trustees accepted the resignation
of the university’s president, Thomas Calhoun Jr. on Sept. 16. Despite having
served as president for only nine months, Calhoun received severance pay of
$600,000 – two years’ salary – as part of his resignation agreement.
This is a blow to CSU students and taxpayers, both of whom foot the bill for
administrator costs, including outgoing officials’ severance pay. CSU has the
highest administrator costs among Illinois’ state universities, which has helped
drive up average tuition and fees at CSU by more than $5,000 over the past
decade. These administrative costs are driven by the large number of
administrators at the university: CSU employs almost the same number of
administrators as faculty members.
CSU is the state’s leader in bloated university administrative costs, but this
problem plagues state universities and colleges across Illinois. Between 2004
and 2010, the number of administrators in Illinois’ universities grew by over 30
percent, yet the number of students only grew by 2.3 percent.
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 The problem is even worse than it appears. High administrator
salaries – over half of Illinois’ more than 2,465 university
administrators received a base salary of $100,000 or more in 2015 –
are only part of overall compensation. Pensions are the biggest cost
driver for universities. In fact, 53 percent of the money
appropriated to universities by the state is spent on
higher-education retirement costs, rather than on university
operations.
Illinois’ higher education system needs reform. Excessive numbers of
administrators, administrative salaries and benefits are unfair to
both taxpayers and students, who pay for it. Illinois’ colleges need
to freeze tuition rates, and then enact cost-saving reforms, such as
switching to 401(k)-style retirement plans for new hires.
Mismanagement of student and taxpayer dollars is a crisis in
Illinois. Reducing higher-education administrative costs is part of
the solution.
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