Give McNeely's money to the professors

There are many things in life that baffle me. People with bumper stickers that say "Honk if You Like Cheese!" or the idiots who walk around campus with cell phones, describing every step to their next class. "Hey Mike, it's Rob -- yeah, I'm just walking to class right now, some guy just handed me an Add Sheet. Score!" But most of all, I don't understand how members of the IU administration are making such exorbitant amounts of money.\nWe just hired a new athletics director, former San Diego Chargers vice president and chief operating officer Michael McNeely. At the time of his announcement, IU President Myles Brand said McNeely will be making $250,000 per year, making him the third-highest paid employee on the Bloomington campus.\nWhile I'm sure McNeely will do a fine job during his tenure here, my only question is this: at a publicly funded institution such as IU, does the guy who organizes the athletic department really need to make more money than the president of the United States?\nMy reasoning is pretty simple, really. I figure that if George W. Bush can handle all the details and organization of an entire country for $200,000, then surely we can find someone to run a sports program at a college for around $25,000.\nThis University is in trouble. People at the top are getting far more than they deserve, while the true building blocks of the school (the professors) are bolting for warmer climates and higher salaries. I spoke with some friends of mine on some of our athletic teams and they thought I was crazy.\nThese are, of course, the same people who one day hope to dribble a ball down a court or kick winning field goals for $5 million a season, so I can forgive them for their ignorance. I guess I'm the only one who finds it absolutely absurd that those who make genuine differences in our society get the short end of the stick while those with the glamour and fame get the biggest check.\nMoney has always been a driving force among humans. From the gold rush of the 19th century to the latest dot.com rush of the 21st, everyone seems to be fighting for every last cent they can get. \nBrand's justification for McNeely's salary was that the Big Ten's other two newest athletics directors were making the same figure. Isn't this the same guy who, just weeks ago, claimed athletics were becoming too commercialized? In an attempt to take money out of collegiate sports, Brand increased the AD's salary from Clarence Doninger's $170,600 to McNeely's $250,000. That's like saying we should take a proactive approach to reduce pollution levels and then buying a huge, gas-guzzling SUV.\nMcNeely has been tapped to lead our football program back to a respected national status and to fill a lot of empty seats at Memorial Stadium. And for $250,000 of our tax and tuition dollars, he'd better deliver.\nI firmly believe that McNeely is an extraordinarily qualified individual for the task, but if the administration is so focused on academic quality over athletic performance, it should think about taking a cut in its salary and distributing the wealth to the professors on this campus.\nThere is no way on earth that any AD around the country should be making more than the lowest paid professor at the school. I remember seeing a logo declaring IU as having "quality education, lifetime opportunities," which I now read as "high salaries, except for teachers."\nJust because every other school in the country is paying ridiculous salaries to their ADs doesn't mean we have to join them. \nTake a stand, Myles Brand. That's what presidents do.