When I saw your recently published salaries of the head coaches of football at Pitt and Penn State, I became curious to see how they compared to the salaries of the individuals responsible for the academic success of these institutions and how some other well known academic institutions valued their professional employees. Here is what I found:

• University of Pittsburgh: head football coach, $5,391,518; athletic director, $756,000; chancellor, $950,000; average faculty member, $99,877 (Penn State’s numbers are comparable except that their football coach is paid even more — guaranteed $7 million.

• Carnegie Mellon University: head football coach, $76,738; president, $1,380,000; average faculty member, $118,048

• Harvard University: head football coach, $46,510 (estimated); president, $1,130,000; average faculty member, $193,382

• MIT: head football coach, $73,412 (estimated); president, $2,545,000; average faculty member, $185,885

It is hard to swallow the fact that coaches and even athletic directors are paid far better than presidents and teachers of actual academic subjects at our major public universities. Note that the prestigious private universities above value teaching staff more highly than coaches. Are public universities maintained to educate our young people or are they there to function as minor league sports franchises?

Charles Henry

Greensburg

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