Allowing former UB officials to collect on hefty salaries while in semi-retirement is simply bad business. But by refusing to comment on the practice, President John B. Simpson has further complicated the situation, leaving too much to the media's imagination and giving the appearance of impropriety.
Last week, The Buffalo News reported that former members of the UB community, including a former university president, numerous deans, and a past provost, have all continued collecting salaries in excess of $200,000 from the university. The long-standing practice of offering faculty positions to former administrators is at fault, resulting in several of these officials comprising the group of 29 well-paid ex-officials.
While Simpson isn't to blame for this system, the noteworthy amount of turnover that's occurred during his tenure has inadvertently contributed to the problem by placing more and more high-paid staffers on faculty roles.
What's worse is Simpson's practice of keeping problems in-house, where openness and full disclosure would better serve the problem, and UB's interests. In a misguided attempt at keeping things quiet, Simpson created a different problem. When there is nothing to hide, holding back information gives rise to the appearance there is. Simpson should have learned a lesson from his handling of the AVCOR controversy when he first arrived, and from the soccer hazing scandal in 2004. In both cases, the media scrutiny was mostly due to the secrecy encountered when investigating the events, though both proved to be much ado about nothing.
Simpson is the administrator of a public institution. Running it in secrecy might be in his short-term interest, but certainly not in the long-term.
Super Sunday meltdown
Worship of the almighty dollar leads to compromised product
The Super Bowl is irrelevant, and greed is primarily to blame. The NFL's flagship event has allowed football itself to become of secondary importance, which renders the actual game a bad joke.
Football is the only major sport where home field advantage means nothing in the final game of the season. Fans and commentators are exposed to a season's worth of mind numbing clich?(c)s from players and coaches alike, centered on the "home field advantage" conundrum. They tell us securing home field advantage for the playoffs is their regular season goal, yet the championship game is played on a neutral site. Could you imagine the World Series being played in primarily warm weather neutral sites?
This set-up directly robbed the Buffalo Bills of becoming Super Bowl champions. If Buffalo had hosted the NFL's coronation, which would have happened in their first and third appearances, they would've won at least once. No one could beat the Bills at home, in the playoffs, during their Super Bowl runs. Not so in Florida and California.
Further sapping the game of its relevance is the two-week delay that occurs between the division championship games, and the bowl itself. In order to drum up as much hype as possible, which directly correlates to profits for the NFL, momentum is lost for the teams involved. This is why the game is boring more often than not.
Super Bowls are about commercialism, corporate interests, big business, and profit. The game has become an afterthought to the event, which is a shame for those who actually love watching football.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
