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Sky-high executive pay at Fortune 500 companies is nothing new, and although many of us might not like it, CEOs receive gargantuan compensation packages even if they send their companies diving into the dirt. \nAnd just as private sector executive pay has skyrocketed, so has the compensation for university presidents. Inflated pay packages at private universities have put many presidential salaries at over $1 million, and public universities seem ready to follow. In The Chronicle of Higher Education’s latest survey of presidential salaries, eight public institutions doled out at least $700,000 for their presidents, while only two had similarly compensated their presidents the year before. IU President Michael McRobbie’s haul totaled $481,680, right around the median in the Big Ten. But that’s nothing compared to the $880,950 made by former Purdue President Martin C. Jischke. It’s worth noting that most university presidents still make less than the head football coach, but inflated executive salaries have become progressively more commonplace.\nThis information leads us here at the Indiana Daily Student Editorial Board to wonder just where all this money is going. Certainly universities today, especially those with sizable research goals and multiple campuses, are complex organizations that require well-compensated leaders. Nevertheless, we wonder just how much of an increase in quality all these highly-paid presidents get us. \nAs universities, even publicly-funded ones, are run increasingly like businesses, they begin to experience the same problems with paying chief executives. Defining success can be difficult, and if leaders can be shoved out the door quickly, they’ll demand serious cash up front and a signed contract to guarantee them a golden parachute. Leaders of universities, though, are even tougher to judge than CEOs, as the goal of a university is not an increase in stock price or profit but education. Additionally, as the public face of the university, a president faces far more scrutiny than any one member, save for sports coaches. \nAs universities begin to look to the private sector for help to steer their institutions, they will no doubt have to use serious perks to lure top executives to the rather dowdy world of academia. Yet, that doesn’t mean they should simply go nuts and go crazy to attract superstars. The business world has learned that the highest-paid celebrity CEO can still doom a company.\nUnless top executives can actually prove they are turning things around, universities should seriously reconsider before offering ever larger pay packages. Hugely inflated compensation has overtaken Fortune 500 companies, with no clear benefit in many cases. There’s no reason that a similar fate has to befall public universities. \nIt’s easy to say that the market has priced presidential compensation at increasing levels, but when the public is helping to foot the bill, we should be wary of the president who will only come with enormous financial inducement. Particularly in the case of education funded by the state, a leader must not be in it solely for the money, but for the spirit of public service. As the private sector has shown, you don’t always get what you pay for.