Really? The UMass men’s basketball coach is hired on a five-year contract with an average salary of $1.65 million per season? That makes him the highest-paid public employee in Massachusetts.
That’s about double what the chancellor of the whole UMass system gets, and five or six times more than the governor gets. Google tells me the mission of UMass is “to provide an affordable and accessible education of high quality and to conduct programs of research and public service that advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.”
Nothing there about dribbling and passing and shooting. Or even about sportsmanship. No doubt some of my tax dollars support the academics of our state university, and that’s great. But if that coach’s salary is any indication, I can’t help wondering about the costly sports program.
In the long run, I believe more in “sapientia potentia est” (“wisdom is power”) than in “sequere pecuniam” (“follow the money).
Peter Van Pelt
Northampton