Iowa Measures It's Penis Size According To A University President's Salary

From the Des Moines Register:

Some Iowa university presidents who left the state are now among the highest-paid college leaders in the nation, according to a new national survey of executive compensation.

Purdue University President Martin Jischke's total compensation package of $880,950 this year ranks second-highest in the nation among public university presidents, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's latest salary survey.

Jischke was paid $227,000 a year by Iowa State University when he left in 2000 to become president of Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. He is retiring in June when his contract expires. His current compensation package includes a $400,000 retention bonus for staying until the end of his contract.

Jischke's situation is just one example of Iowa's relatively low salaries among university presidents and the difficulty the institutions have in retaining those leaders, according to national articles that ran Friday with the Chronicle's 2006-07 salary survey.

"The state has developed a reputation as a training ground for hotshot college chiefs who leave the state to run major research universities elsewhere," Chronicle reporter Annie Shuppy wrote.

Annie Shuppy? You mean the Daily Hottie found a job? Good for her. She had a bit of trouble out of school finding a job, if I remember correctly.

What I don't get is that ongoing obsession with penis measurement by the Des Moines Register. Does it really matter whether the head of the University of Iowa makes $300,000 a year or $750,000 a year? Apparently so, to them. It's not like whoever is hired has to find a house to live in, since one that was recently renovated to the tune of $3 million is theirs to use and abuse as long as they hold the job.

Meanwhile, also in the Sunday Register, Regents member Robert Downer speculates on the reasons for the snubbing of Skorton and the halting of the search for a new UI President.

You know, it did seem weird that the Regents voted to give Skorton a 3% raise while the other public university presidents got a 5% raise. Was everything based on the Wellmark thing? It all seems so petty. "Do what Vilsack wants through the Regents, or we will dock you!" So after Skorton asserts himself in his job in Iowa City, Vilsack decides to send his hatchet man, Michael Gartner, in to fuck with everything. Gartner, and teresa wahlert proceed to drive Skorton away and attempt to make the ultimate power grab at the University of Iowa by installing some Stepin Fetchit puppet. It wouldn't surprise me one bit.