Republican lawmakers are criticizing the U-of-M Board of Regents for approving a salary exceeding 500 thousand dollars for a new provost — President Joan Gabel’s first major hire. Representative Peggy Scott from Andover says the University is legitimizing a nationwide bidding war. “What happens with these high administrative costs is they’re passed along to students and their families in the form of higher tuition, and it’s really disappointing to me that that’s not taken into stronger consideration when these decisions are made,” she says.
Scott points to coming budget cuts and layoffs at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “I don’t know how much solace that gives the people that have lost their jobs… this new person with zero experience that is gonna be starting at a salary that is… half a million dollars,” she says.
U-of-M President Gabel calls incoming Provost Rachel Croson — currently a dean at Michigan State University — “an accomplished academic leader who brings… an extraordinary breadth of talent, experience and strategic acumen.”