University President Takes Huge Pay Cut To Give School’s Minimum-Wage Workers A Raise

[kpete]

Two dozen low-wage workers at Kentucky State University (KSU) will get a raise to $10.25 an hour after the school’s interim president asked for his pay to be cut by about 25 percent, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The workers currently make as little as $7.25 an hour, the lowest wage allowed by federal law.

“This is not a publicity stunt,” interim KSU president Raymond Burse told the newspaper. “You don’t give up $90,000 for publicity. I did this for the people,” he said. Burse, who retired from an executive position at General Electric in 2012, pointed out that “I don’t need to work” and “the people who do the hard work and heavy lifting, they are at the lower pay scale.”

Burse will only be KSU president for the next year while the school’s board searches for a long-term replacement for Mary Evans Sias, who retired at the end of June after 10 years as president. He was set to be paid just under $350,000 and asked that $90,000 of that be spent on staff wages instead. There is no guarantee that the workers’ wages will remain at $10.25 under future regimes should the school’s board of regents decide it needs that money for other purposes.

There are nine public university presidents and 42 private school presidents who make more than a million dollars per year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, and KSU doesn’t make their rankings at all.

The rest:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/08/05/3467601/university-president-minimum-wage-workers/

[FreakinDJ]

1. We need morfe people like him

[progressoid]

4. I would love to see a coach do something like that.

[Faux pas]

2. Massive amount of karma

points for Social Responsibility!

[DreamGypsy]

3. Raymond Burse seems like an overall good guy...

from KSU Interim President Raymond Burse’s Tenure Begins:

A native of Hopkinsville, Ky., Burse has a long record of achievement in academics, athletics and community service. As president of KSU, from 1982 to 1989, he oversaw record enrollment, more than $60 million in capital improvements and significant enhancements in the academic and financial operations of the institution, including the establishment of the Whitney M. Young College of Leadership Studies.

He later became an executive at General Electric Company from which he retired in 2012 after 17 years. He initially served as GE Appliances senior counsel and then became a corporate officer as vice president and general counsel. Before joining GE, he was a partner in the law firm of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs in Louisville, Ky.

Burse received his law degree in 1978 from Harvard Law School. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics in 1973 from Centre College, where he was named to the Deans’ List for four years. In addition to his high achievements in academics, he excelled in sports from high school through college. He was named to the All-College Athletic Conference Football Team as well as Centre’s Most Valuable Offensive Player in football.

He assumed leadership roles as founder and president of Centre’s Black Student Union and, active in student government, he was a student adviser to the president. His cumulative achievements in academics, athletics and student leadership contributed to his selection as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he studied organic chemistry. He also played sports at Oxford, including basketball, track, crew and rugby.

<snip>

He is married to Kim Burse, who serves as vice president of administrative services for Goodwill Industries of Kentucky. They have three sons, Raymond Jr., Justin and Eric.

The family is not going to suffer great hardship on account of the $90,000 humanitarian gesture. Still, it is not something many wealthy people would choose to do.

After all, a chunk of change like that could buy someone yet another $100K car and many would prefer that over helping their fellow working persons.