Wednesday, June 24, 2009

It's good to be the president!

From the NY Post:

Matthew Goldstein, the CUNY chancellor, earns $450,000 and gets an extra $90,000 a year for housing, giving him the highest allowance in the nation along with the new State University of New York chancellor and a college administrator in Kentucky.

The president of Queens College, James Muyskens, and CUNY Law School dean Michelle Anderson, live in the tony Douglas Manor enclave that was once home to tennis great John McEnroe. Muysken's house is about seven miles from campus.

The president of Brooklyn College lives in a 1918 neoclassical home in the borough's Prospect Heights South historic district, is valued at $1.6 million and is two miles from the college.

The Medgar Evers College president lives in a prewar co-op across from the Brooklyn Museum, about a mile from the Brooklyn campus. The head of the College of Staten Island lives on tony Todt Hill about three miles from his campus, and the president of Lehman College in The Bronx lives in leafy Riverdale, three miles from Lehman.

The perks don't stop at the city line.

The SUNY board of trustees last week authorized a $90,000 a year housing allowance for chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who earns $490,000 and also gets an apartment in the university's Albany headquarters plus a car and driver.

Each SUNY president gets either a free house or a housing allowance that ranges from $3,500 to $5,500.

CUNY defends the housing, saying its leaders are on call day and night for university business, plus they host alumni, business and community leaders in their homes.


Interesting how they all live in "devalued" landmarked areas. Why do you think that is?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do we even have a CUNY Law School? It is a total waste of money and one of the many dumb things Mario Cuomo did as Governor.

Anonymous said...

If the city wants to discover the meaning of slush, look no further than CUNY. Departments spend money on unnecessary new equipment every year, including cell phones, PDA's and computers, to maintain their cash allotment for the next. Students pay for this as tuitions continue to go up. Open up their books!

Anonymous said...

The Law School Dean is living in the Douglaston house where the President of York College usually lived. The new York President didn't need it, since she came from CUNY and already has a house, so it was turned over to the Law School Dean.

Anonymous said...

"Departments spend money on unnecessary new equipment every year, including cell phones, PDA's and computers, to maintain their cash allotment for the next."

Unfortunately, that's the way that city and state budgets operate: unspent money from one fiscal year does not roll over into the next; and next year's budget is reduced by that amount, since you obviously don't need it because you didn't spend it. Budget year ends on June 30, so many of us have to use up any remaining funds by Tuesday. I guess I'll have to stock up on pens, paper clips, and toner.