Press Clipping: Chronicle of Higher Education article about SG Salary Survey
02/05/2008
From the issue dated November 14, 1997
NOTE BOOK
Student-Government Presidents Say They Earn Their Pay
Back when the only recompense that student-government presidents received was the chance to impress their friends and pad their resumes, you didn't hear many complaints about the stresses of the job.
But a new poll by Student Leader, a quarterly magazine, shows that 70 per cent of colleges now pay student officers -- and that those students want you to know they're worth every cent.
In the article, the student-government president at Iowa State University, who receives free tuition, room, and board, grumbled about his 40-hour work week. The student president at Western Washington University, who earns $210 per quarter, boasted that he is "C.E.O. of an $11-million budget." At the University of Florida, the president earns $4,000 per year but groused that he had to spend a chunk of it on a new suit and dry cleaning.
The magazine surveyed student officers at 150 institutions, two-thirds of which are public. Some colleges, such as Texas A&M University, don't pay student officers anything. Kristen Paris, executive vice-president of the student government there, told the magazine that she had no problem with the policy, since 80 per cent of her classmates are also involved in student groups.
But Neil Walker, of Washington State University, the highest-paid student president at a public university in the survey, didn't seem satisfied with his $15,463 annual salary. "My compensation," he told Student Leader, "is about half what I could get right now at Boeing."