Crocodile tears from the UW

One of the highest-paid people at the University of Washington came by the other day to cry poor.

The Legislature is expected to cut higher-education funding by about 13 percent this session, UW President Mark Emmert told a group of us the other day. And the only way to save his school's programs will be to raise tuition. It already went up 14 percent this year, and will go up another 14 percent next.

I sat there and listened to Emmert lament the cuts that would come, the students who would suffer. The diversity that would die. The futures dashed.

But all I could think about was Emmert's $905,000 annual compensation; the second highest among public university presidents nationally.

He lives in the presidential mansion for free, has free memberships to The Rainier Club and the Seattle Tennis Club, and makes an additional $340,000 sitting on two corporate boards.

He's not the only one. The other week, UW Provost Phyllis Wise accepted a spot on the Nike corporate board. As UW's No. 2 administrator, Wise makes $535,000 in salary and deferred compensation.

Based on what Nike paid its 10 directors last year, Wise will make between $132,000 and $217,000 for attending five meetings a year.

Part of me accepts all this, the same way I accept that some people can afford to sit in first class and sip wine, while I spend my airtime back in the 20s with my knees in my mouth and a can of Canada Dry. Opportunities, abilities, choices, luck.

Emmert has that and more. He is handsomely compensated because he's a master rainmaker and good at what he does. He knows which hands to shake and which strings to pull.

But he seems to have a tin ear when it comes to hearing what taxpayers and the university community are struggling with.

A year ago, with the budget ax hanging, Washington State University President Elson Floyd announced he would take a voluntary pay cut of $100,000. Emmert would only say that he wouldn't take a raise.

In March, Emmert told a town-hall crowd of faculty and students that "everything is on the table" when it came to budget discussions — including his salary. But his salary has remained the same.

Rather than sit and solve problems on corporate boards, Emmert and Wise need to focus, full-time, on solving the UW's funding problems — as they're paid to do.

Am I wrong? I called Patrick Schultheis, an attorney and corporate-governance expert in Seattle, to get his take. He makes his living advising companies on corporate-board issues, including compensation.

He said I was dreaming.

"A few more hours at the office is not going to help UW figure it all out," he said.

Most employers want key players to have "a variety of experiences," including seats on corporate boards, Schultheis said.

And no matter how high the climb, he said, we need to get over Emmert's steep salary.

"As somebody who is going through my own partner compensation, if you don't pay your best people, they'll walk across the street and work somewhere else," he said.

Schultheis is a Stanford man. His president, John Hennessy, is paid well and sits on the Google board, among others. Enough said there.

"I don't begrudge him one bit," Schultheis said.

Of course, Stanford is a private university. UW is a public place, presumably within reach to all of us. With cuts coming, that is sure to change.

And yet, nothing seems to change for Mark Emmert.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She's keeping her calculator close.