Kenneth’s Comments (We need more Kenneth-type folks)
As the SBC is considering changing its name perhaps DBU needs to change its “servant-leadership” slogan to “Cash for Cook and Poorhouse for Professors” from the information Kenneth has provided.
It is a shame how greedy Baptists have become!
Kenneth writes:
DBU President Gary Cook makes MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH as the median of other university presidents according to the table in the article on this page. http://chronicle.com/article/Executive-Compensation/129979/
“The Chronicle” table states that among private colleges with expenditures over $50 million in 2009, DBU President Gary Cook receives more than double the median total compensation of $385,909 for university presidents. From the Form 990 information I just read on Dallas Baptist University’s highest paid employees, it appears that no DBU professor makes even the median total compensation of $118,150. (DBU people reading this – correct me if I am wrong since I could not find anything on Gregory Rick or Suzanne Kavli.)
So to answer the poster’s question about how DBU’s faculty salaries compare to other universities, not very well.
However, several members of the administrative staff have total compensation over $150,000, but it is only the President and Executive Vice President who are doing VERY well making over $800,000 and $300,000 respectively.
Executive Pay Continues to Rise
We surveyed presidential pay at 482 private colleges with expenditures more than $50-million in 2009, using federal tax returns.
Category Median 1-year change
Total compensation $385,909 +2.2%
Base pay $294,489 +2.8%
Professor compensation $118,150 –0.3%
College expenditures $103.5-million +2.6%
Expenditures and professors’ compensation, which includes full professors only, are for the 2010 fiscal year.
And then Kenneth posted:
Or put another way, the guy who gets to handpick trustees to serve on his board and set his salary, and who are probably his friends or who he probably gives lavish favors to (honorary doctorates, university awards, etc.), makes more than double the median salary for his job.
Most everybody else at DBU gets considerably less than the median.
Oh, and Guidestar puts DBU’s expenditures of $94 million slightly below the median on this table of $103.5 million. So it would appear that the President’s salary should be where the professor’s salaries are — slightly BELOW the median, not well over TWICE AS MUCH as the median.
It will take more than name changes and slogans to undo the damage these CEO minded Baptists have done!
The opinions expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the opinions of any individuals or entities I am affiliated with.
David,
You have commented many times about the needs of our pastors, sometimes dire needs. I’m not believing the Lord wants everyone to be treated fairly, or for all to do or have their fair share, yet our attitudes and unfortunately the greedy need to move more toward the compassion of Christ.
Personally, I do not know Gary Cook and especially not his heart or where his priorities rest, but his compensation does seem not a little bit, but excessively excessive. I know of churches in the Valley who struggle to give offerings to Baptist Institutions (causes) and have no thought of how their sacrificial gifts are wasted. I’d hoped when we’ve watched other denominations crash and burn either through money, corruption or sinful personal behaviors on the part of leadership would have never come to Southern Baptists.
Could it be even in the fight to protect scripture and politically place ourselves in positions of power and control, we have become corrupt? How far are we from not acting like the world, but being in the world, of the world? Are we there yet?
I know I’m different than most, but have felt when I have excess that is the opportunity the Lord gives to do more. Actually, my Daddy and my wife’s Daddy taught me (us) by example. There’ve not many times when we had much excess, but we do try to think about how the Lord would have us use it when we have it.
Probably by now, with the abundance of prayer on my behalf with the cancer I am known. One of the most moving things that has happened to me is our small SBC church poured out their prayer, love and pocket books to assist with our high deductible health plan to help us. This small church which generally runs less than 30 in SS became the large church with the heart of God in our time of need. We are blessed.