By: Karl Spaulding

Karl Spaulding
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 13:52:52 +0000

Anon at 9:13am wrote:

“OSU is in competition with other highly-ranked institutions, all of which pay high salaries for staff and faculty. If OSU does not offer competitive pay, then they won’t be able to retain people–and they won’t be able to recruit top people either. If mediocrity is the goal, then by all means, cut salaries. Take a look at pay at other highly-ranked institutions–UCLA, UVA, Wisconsin…if OSU wants to compete at this level, then you gotta pay for talent.”

That’s the usual, tired argument. I don’t buy it.

I suspect there is a certain pay point that each job requires, and once met, it will attract qualified candidates. As with any distribution, it will be a mix of qualifications, but I don’t think intelligence, diligence, creativity, and other qualities are so affected solely by Ultra High Salary Levels that OSU has to stick to this wasteful “Battle of the Higher Education Joneses” in order to do the job.

There are younger folks looking to move up. There are folks who live in the area who don’t want to move. There is the recent horrid economy. There is also the notion of “Public Service” instead of “I Earn Mo Money Than You Do Bragging Rights.”

I think it’s time to see what we could do with people who were really dedicated to higher education and not ones who have been bred to be the usual Derriere Bussing Rung Climbers.

If you don’t like my reasoning you might want to read the book “Boyd: The Figter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War,” by Roger Corum. Boyd fought his major battles in the Pentagon against the Military Industrialists. He fathered the F-16 fighter, helped improve the survivability of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and a few other notable things.

Boyd is widely considered to be one of the finest 20th C tacticians and military thinkers, and his loyalty was not gained with mere money.

Variables. Multiple variables, there are!

Money is only one of them. My guess is that for most people, it needs to be sufficient, and fair, but it isn’t necessarily the most important.

But what do I know? I’m just a dumb public servant.

Karl Spaulding

Karl