Public Policy or Prurience?

Some years ago an enterprising reporter at the Courier wrote an article detailing the salaries of the college presidents in town. Since we here figure that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we thought we'd provide an update to that excellent article. As usual, with no realistic sense of limits or boundaries here at the Insider, we decided we'd provide a snapshot of each institution in town through its numbers.

So we went to our friends at guidestar.org where copies of each institution's IRS Form 990 is kept for public view. Now before anybody gets their trenchers in a knot, we remind everyone that this is public information provided so that taxpayers, citizens, and other interested parties can square their perception of how the institution is fulfilling its tax-subsidized mission with the amount of money it has in play and with the salaries it is paying its highest-priced help (corporate officers, highest-paid employees, and contractors or consultants).

Of course, if one of these corporate officers, highly-paid employees, or consultants happens to be your neighbor, in your stretching class, or your tennis partner, we can't help it if there is a prurient aspect to the whole affair.

Over the coming weeks, we will provide this information for each of the academic institutions in town which will allow you to compare and contrast. It always takes awhile for this information to be posted by GuideStar. We will present information from each institution's fiscal year July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005. If more recent numbers should be readily available, we will present them and note that fact. Realize that salaries will certainly have increased since 2005, but these are the latest numbers we have.

If anyone has a burning urge to see these or the most current documents in the flesh, the schools are required by the Internal Revenue Code to make them available for inspection very promptly upon request. Simply present yourself at the business office during business hours and ask to see the most recent Form 990.