I’m a UW employee too, sort of
Editor, The Times:
It was with great interest I read Nicole Brodeur’s column in The Seattle Times on Dec. 18 [“Crocodile tears from the UW,” NWFriday]. The column noted UW President Mark Emmert’s compensation of $905,000 per year, plus generous perks — free mansion, club memberships, etc.
The article also mentioned UW Provost Phyllis Wise ($535,000 per year) and her recent appointment to the Nike corporate board.
As a nurse at Harborview — the only Level I trauma center serving the four-state region of Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana — I’m a UW employee too, but the similarity stops there. The average full-time Harborview RN makes about 1/13 of Emmert’s salary, with none of the perks, unless one considers working nights, weekends, all major holidays and generally through a 30-minute lunch break (for which we are not paid) to be a bonus.
A corporate lawyer stated in the article that “if you don’t pay your best people, they’ll walk across the street and work somewhere else.” I guess nurses, or police officers, firefighters and teachers don’t count as “best people.” Hey, maybe I could go across the street and get a job with Nike; I actually wear their shoes while running all night during those 12-hour shifts.
— Gayle Hawney Krona, Seattle
The corporate gravy train
Full marks to columnist Nicole Brodeur for taking on top UW administrators Mark Emmert and Phyllis Wise for padding their already plump salaries by joining corporate boards.
This greedy grab by two of the highest-paid employees in state government is an affront to every taxpayer in the state. We pay Emmert nearly $1 million a year to do his job and Wise more than $500,000 a year to do hers. They may be worth it, but for that kind of money we have the right to insist that they apply 100 percent of their efforts to their state jobs.
The UW regents are supposed to guard taxpayers’ interest at this public university, but in this instance have clearly abdicated their responsibility. Rather than insisting that UW administrators earn their money by devoting full attention to their jobs, the regents reportedly agreed to Emmert’s demand that he be allowed to serve on as many as three corporate boards. They then left it up to him to decide whether his underlings could join him on the corporate gravy train.
Since Emmert now serves on only two boards, we can all look forward to him joining another, just as soon as he finds one that pays better than the one he let Wise join. And please, don’t tell me that these two can fulfill their corporate responsibilities in their spare time. That’s not possible — at least if they intend to earn their money. It is time for the UW regents to man up and insist that Emmert and Wise earn their UW salaries by applying themselves full time to their jobs.
— Michael Sweeney, Seattle
Worth every penny
UW President Mark Emmert is a good man who takes time to listen to everybody. He gives up tens of millions of dollars that he could make in the private sector to give to our community.
He runs the largest organization in the state, and is an expert at helping acquire the 90 percent of UW funding not coming from the state.
— Thomas Finnelly, Seattle