NYUNEWS.COM | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 | WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS
OPINION
EDITED BY SAMEER JAYWANT OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
UNIVERSITY STAFF EDITORIAL
NYU should trust Sexton, university progress By SAMEER JAYWANT
Confidence is the belief that one can count on someone or something. It encapsulates a feeling of trust, and it is generally reserved for the resolute and dedicated individuals in our lives. It implies the possibility of failure, as it relies on a certain measure of faith in someone. It is an acknowledgment of the validity of external judgment. And it is unquestionably what I have in NYU President John Sexton. It is difficult to make this case without trivializing the concerns that are currently, and rightfully, the subject of intense debate. The process of achieving growth is, and should be, a contentious one. NYU 2031 is not an ideal expansion plan — many individuals stand to lose their homes, and the NYU gentrification of Greenwich Village is certainly unnerving. Most alarming is the undisclosed cost of the expansion and the possibility that it will be paid for by tuition increases — the expenditure concerns are all the more pertinent now given the expected tightening of NYU’s research and financial aid allowances thanks to political ineptitude in Washington, D.C. over sequestration cuts. But whatever the discontent over the specifics
of the 2031 plan, NYU is currently unsustainable in its physical capacity, and throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a shortsighted and petulant pseudo-solution. But, the nature of our disapproval or approval of many NYU policies derives from our unique positions and experiences during our time here. The opportunity to chair the International Affairs Committee of our Student Senators Council has given me substantial insight into the functionality of the Global Network University. The scale of our international web is astonishing — and its unprecedented success at nearly all levels of implementation is even more incredible. In its entirety, the GNU is self-sustaining and incurs no additional costs beyond what is paid for by tuition and fundraising, with the latter contributing more than $300 million. The system generates a surplus for NYU, which is not pocketed by the university but reinvested in our Washington Square campus. By no means is the system perfect, and my role is to translate student feedback into tangible improvements by the administration, which has consistently shown the desire to put aside bureaucracy to improve our global sites. It is easy for dissenters to criticize the vague concept of some-
thing they know nothing about, but it takes a measured approach and a willingness to examine facts to accurately assess the implications of the GNU. We are not a perfect institution. We have substantial flaws that must be addressed, including pervasive and unsustainable student debt, funding concerns for our expansion plan, a lack of faculty in the highest echelons of university leadership and a corporate mentality amplified by enormous severance payouts to star officials. But I find no comfort in the absolute lack of outreach to students by the faculty spearheading this vote. All we are witnessing is a selfinterested power grab that continues to denigrate and disregard the voice of those the university is built to serve — its students. We are selling ourselves short if all we do is passively complain, become disillusioned and naively hope our problems will vanish by replacing the visionary who has elevated our university to the incredible level where it currently stands. Be constructive. Speak up — I am confident he will listen. Sameer Jaywant is opinion editor. Email him at sjaywant@nyunews.com.
FINANCIAL POLICY
Payouts to administrators unethical, unfair By EDWARD RADZIVILOVSKIY
Last week, The New York Times reported a story that shocked many students and NYU faculty members. The article revealed that the NYU administration gives away lavish parting bonuses to its administrative staff after they leave the institution. In response to the growing uproar, Martin S. Dorph, NYU’s CFO, defended the administration’s decision in a university-wide email. However, Dorph’s point, “We do not give gifts — we honor employment agreements,” is a distinction without a difference. In other words, a gift versus a gift stipulated in a contract is one and the same. The distinction is only relevant in a profit-driven company where greed is the motivating factor. Bonuses should be given to people who are doing amazing work, but should NYU President John Sexton be getting an $800,000 pension every year after he leaves on top of a $1.5 million salary? Jack Lew’s numbers are even more outrageous. The New York Times recently did a separate profile on Jack Lew, reporting that on
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top of an $800,000 annual salary, Lew also received “mortgages of roughly $1.5 million through the school as a prerequisite — $440,000 of which was forgiven by the university over time.” The payouts are unnecessary and unethical. NYU’s counterargument is that these bonuses are market-driven, helping the university raise money. However, I find something dangerously disturbing about bringing marketization into the university ethos. NYU is a nonprofit, yet it is operating as if it were a Wall Street investment bank. Thus, I would like to propose a provision to the NYU administration. How about inserting a clawback provision into future contracts to recuperate funds from those executives who leave NYU with unethically exorbitant severance packages? A clawback provision is only saying you’re going to recieve that provision if you do perform. It is true that Lew and other administrators may have performed well. However, since NYU is not an investment bank and is a recipient of federal funding, there is a case to be made that such
compensation is altogether unethical and inappropriate in this context of nonprofit institutions of higher learning. Indeed in the case of Lew, we can even say there is a possibility of criminality since the “sweetheart” deal he negotiated between Citibank and NYU amounts to a kickback scheme, whereby NYU sends its students to borrow money from Citi (which gets its loan money from the Federal Reserve) and Citi in turn “kicks back” a percentage of the loan amount to NYU. The clawback I propose be a legallydriven effort to recuperate the money already paid out to Lew and others like him, even if it happened to be stipulated in his contract. In other words, there should be a mechanism for addressing this impropriety, rather than the glib and cynical dismissal of Dorph that such payment was justified by the sheer fact of its having been contractual. Edward Radzivilovskiy is a deputy opinion editor. Email him at eradzivilovskiy@nyunews.com.
University must keep focus on main campus
With NYU President John Sexton’s 2031 plans now in question, NYU should focus its fundraising on increasing financial aid instead of expanding its campus. Global expansion is an interesting idea in theory. But in recent years, NYU has focused most of its fundraising and resources on creating a global university while neglecting other crucial aspects of NYU. Sexton has advocated a number of policies that have turned NYU into a primarily for-profit corporation. NYU under Sexton has made a choice to pursue revenue instead of focusing on the quality of its education and financial aid for students. In recent years NYU has followed the mentality that it needs to expand its student body and real estate in order to remain a top-tier university. However, does a powerful brand name imply a high quality education? Certainly NYU is establishing a radical new paradigm, something it calls the Global Network University. We now have a global site on every single continent except Antarctica. But the relationship between the brand name and the quality of education can be misleading. Presumably, the goal of the GNU plan is to develop connections we provide our professors to economically developing nations like the United Arab Emirates and China, and in turn, their governments furnish lavish campuses for our students. Perhaps in 30 years, this will be a great help — China and the UAE will have highly developed academic systems and NYU will be present to take advantage. Or perhaps studying abroad will become much easier for NYU students. Maybe they will all speak two languages and have spent a year abroad somewhere halfway across the globe. This is a textbook economic investment. But if NYU, which is listed as a nonprofit, narrows its focus and functions more like a for-profit business, is it not at least possible that this will result in a decrease in the quality of its education? After all, such developments take up a good deal of our resources in the short run. Today, our great professors are hopping back and forth between New York and Abu Dhabi, teaching classes over Skype and spreading themselves thin over the globe. Shouldn’t they be spending more time here with us at our main campus?
Email the WSN Editorial Board at editboard@nyunews.com. EDITORIAL BOARD: Sameer Jaywant (Chair), Raquel Woodruff (Co–Chair), Edward Radzivilovskiy (Co–Chair), Nickhil Sethi, Matt Luo, Nina Golshan, Ian Mark, Jess Littman, Marcelo Cicconet
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