When is enough, enough?

The North Dakota Board of Higher Education is at it again. I thought that the $300,000 salary established for Robert Kelley, University of North Dakota president, was a bit high. Chancellor William Goetz could have negotiated a smaller salary.

The board recently met and approved a raise for North Dakota State University President Joseph Chapman to $411,000 per year. This is $11,000 more than the president of the United States makes. Who has the most responsibility? The $38,314 raise for Chapman was over 10 percent. He will make approximately $1,500 for every working day.

What was the reasoning for this raise? All of the other state college presidents make about $150,000 or more, making them the highest-paid government employees in the state.

While they were at it, the board voted to give Goetz a $30,000 raise to $200,000. This is close to an 18 percent increase. Goetz says this was a worthwhile challenge and I would have to agree with him on that.

Where is it going to stop? I thought the governor would be the one to step in and do something. This seems very unlikely, since he is the one who appointed the chancellor.

The other possibility is the state Legislature. In the last legislative session, about the first order of business was voting themselves a pay raise, effective this year. This year, there is another move to boost salaries and expenses for them at the next legislative session. It would be hard for them to vote against any action that the Board of Higher Education has taken and then vote themselves larger increases.

Since there is apparently nothing that can be done, we should just grin and bear it.