In the midst of a controversy over her appointment to the Nike board of directors, UW Provost Phyllis Wise has finally submitted the terms the agreement to the UW School of Medicine, where she also sits as a professor. The dean of the Medical School declined to review Wise’s Nike agreement, and instead passed it on to UW President Mark Emmert, who gave his approval.
Whether that strictly meets the letter of the Medical School’s policies, I don’t know, but presumably this now makes Wise’s compensation package with Nike a public record, available for full disclosure.
Personally, I have a hard time understanding why an educator earning a more than comfy $535,000 a year would do anything that might call into question her professional ethics, but then, I guess I’ve never been as enamored with money as some people.
Didn’t you just ban someone from your site over money?
The clue might be the fact that the Provost is from the U.W. Medical School. Members of the medical community who hold full-time academic positions make substantially less than they could in private practice. Some might see this as an opportunity to level the playing field with their peers.
Of course, most academics are always trying to find ways to make extra money. Since the colleges enforce the “publish or perish” rule, they can hardly complain when their faculty spend time researching and writing textbooks or other scholarly treatise. Anyone who’s been to college is familiar with unpublished tax on students, whereby the instructor assigns his own publication as the class text, then makes sure a new edition is published each year so that the used books have no value.
Other opportunities for extra income include consulting work for business, as expert witnesses in lawsuits, etc. Some law school faculty even make money writing “Friend of the Court” briefs, in addition to being “Of Counsel” to some law firms.
Obviously, the opportunities for making outside money vary considerably depending upon the field. Faculty in a Romance Languages department probably don’t make much money, except perhaps as tuitors.
@2 rhp
No.
Dr. Wise is a PhD and a professor of physiology. The higher salaries you refer to are for MDs doing clinical work. One neurosurgeon colleague of mine a couple of years ago was given hell by the media because he was making about what she is now. In his case, however, at his clinical level, the going rate outside of a University was about $3 million a year. (He is a GREAT surgeon in a hard area).
Withall due respect, as Provost of the UW, she is already paid MORE than the Chancellor of UC Berkley. (take a look at today’s NYTimes).
The second difficult issue here is that she appears to have a conflict of interest. A Committee appointed by President Emmert has already found that Nike is in violation of their trademark contract wi UW because of labor problems in Guatemala. As the UW Executive Vice President and as Provost she has durect responsibility for exactly that sort of ethical concern. Her claim to be able to recuse herself makes no sense.
Remember, Dr. Wise claims NOT to be doing this in her capacity as a Prof. of Physiology. (Nike would not hire her for this much money in that capacity). Rather she is acting as a State employee. Imagine if Gregoire’s Head of the Prison System were to join the board of some firm selling for-profit prison services or if an aide to Perter Goldmark (Lands Commissioner) were to take money from Weyerhauser?
I respect Dr. Wise but I also believe she has made a bad mistake and is setting a bad precedent that undermines the credibility of the UW at a time when we badly need the support of citizens under great financial stress.
If I were her, I wold resign from Nike.
S.M. Schwartz, MD, PhD, MD (hon)
Professor of Pathology
University of Washington
Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering and Cardiology
We are merely seeing the Emmert Era at work. Mark has finally converted the UW into a Big Money Machine attached to a rapidly-declining (and once -great) University. And if you have recently dealt with the UW on an administrative level, as I have, you quickly encounter a breathtaking level of arrogance that would make Gerberding blush.
We will be stuck with Mark Emmert for a long time. I predict that the UW will continue to suffer while Mark and his cronies rake in the cash.
sj–
Wow…well said!
Mr C.
Oh? It would be great of folks who claim to be conservative would address issues like this instead of the usual Reprican mantras of Obama-messiah, Socialism, etc etc.
It seems to me there is a real need for a responsible and critical alternative.
FWIW, based on phone calls to me, I suspect the great majority of faculty now view her with distaste.
It’s time for universities to divest themselves of intercollegiate sports and the corruption that comes with them. A university should concern it self with the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, not playing games. Let the major league sports industry fund its own trade schools.
To Schwartz @ # 3: “Dr. Wise is a PhD and a professor of physiology. The higher salaries you refer to are for MDs doing clinical work….
I stand corrected.
rhp
no need to stand, just buy me a beer tonight .
@!
Didn’t you just ban someone from your site over money?
no kidding. i tried to explain to everyone that goldstien makes money every click, so he doesn’t give a fuck who posts here. but when he thought that marvin was making schekels off him, that was more than his inbred genes could take.
Regardless of her salary, any compensation she receives from Nike is supposed to go back to the University. She’s a state employee and so she either has to take vacation leave for time that she does work for Nike, or she has to turn over any honorariums from Nike to the UW.
But maybe that only applies to peons who get $200 for serving on a panel and not bigwigs.