Bollinger's Pay

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger was paid $3.3 million in 2012 and University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann earned $2.4 million, the Boston Globe reports, picking up a Chronicle of Higher Education survey. As we've said here before, if alumni donors, trustees, and tuition-paying parents think these presidents are worth these sums, that's one thing. But the more the presidents lobby for taxpayer research funds, Pell Grants, and student loans, the more taxpayers and politicians may start wondering whether institutions that can afford these levels of compensation really need the funding from taxpayers.