“FOR UNIVERSITY presidents, pay cut is in order’’ (Editorial, Nov. 5) drives home an important point about out-of-control compensation for chief executives in all sectors, whether at our esteemed colleges and universities or at Wall Street paper traders. Excessive salaries for these leaders are horribly inappropriate in what many call the “present economic circumstances.’’
Yet one of the most exemplary New England presidents is Ruth Simmons, who, with little fanfare, is making a difference through voluntary 10 percent pay cuts in the last two years as president of Brown University. Her salary is now down a fifth from its previous level, and is not a great deal more than when she began at the helm of Brown in 2001.
The 15.5 percent salary increase in the last year for presidents at major research universities should send a message to the boards and corporations that govern these institutions that they must rein in such excesses where they are occurring. Simmons’ example and that of many other presidents across the country who have taken substantial reductions show that this can be done without reducing the quality of the leaders that we must have as college presidents.
Stephen J. Nelson
Providence
The writer is assistant professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State College. 
