High salaries earned by the likes of medical school Dean Lorris Betz and Fred Esplin, vice president for institutional advancement, have returned dividends to the university in terms of soaring federal grants and enhanced fundraising, Young said.
"When Lorris Betz came in, the hospital was losing $5 million to $10 million a year. It's now making $30 million," Young told the faculty body with Betz seated beside him. Enhanced revenue means more resources to compensate faculty, he added.
Young pointed out that U. revenue not provided by the state has increased by $800 million since 2003, which represents more than a third of the U.'s $2.3 billion operating budget.
In an interview, retiring Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Kendell said the U. must compete with better-endowed state universities in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and California for the kind of executive skills offered by administrators such as Betz.
Dryer and others take issue with The Tribune's assertion that faculty pay has advanced just 7 percent since 2003. His op-ed claims an accurate figure is 22 percent, while the 7 percent reflects only the state's share of faculty pay increases.
Still, Young assured the Senate on Monday that improving compensation is a priority, although he is constrained by the declining financial commitment the Legislature bestows on higher education.
"The portion of our budget covered by the state has dropped from 25 percent to 10 percent and it's going south," he said. "I'm not complaining. I appreciate the support they give us."
A veteran faculty member said when he joined the U. 40 years ago the operating budget was covered in equal measures by tuition, research grants and the state. He asked why state support has eroded.
The decline is a national phenomenon, reflecting states' growing fiscal obligations to prisons and health care, Young said. To make up for evaporating state support, the U. has excelled at generating new sources of revenue from earned income, private giving, technology commercialization and federal research grants, he said.
The controversy
The subject of executive pay came into focus in a recent Salt Lake Tribune article, which zeroed in on medical school Dean Lorris Betz's $735,000 salary. U. officials offered subsequent explanations for vice presidents' pay that has climbed 37 percent over the past five years. "The University of Utah is among the top public research universities in America because of the work of brilliant faculty supported by a highly effective administration," Board of Trustees Chairman Randy Dryer wrote in a recent op-ed piece chiding The Tribune.
