From the New York Times we learn of the action of a number of colleges that are suspending their payments to the retirement accounts of faculty and staff members.
There is this perception that the nonprofit world is maybe a gentler, kinder world than corporate,” said Roland King, Vice President for public affairs at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “So some people seem to perceive this as a breach of faith, especially since many people go into nonprofit work at less salary, because the benefits are so good. But we are absolutely at a point in this economy where these sort of things have to be on the table.”
I tend to agree that nonprofits must take prudent steps to ensure they can still achieve mission. For the many nonprofits that have few resources, a suspension of retirement accounts, assuming the likelyhood that they have such a thing, certainly seems reasonable. On the other hand, I do wonder about the necessity of such radical actions by institutions such as Brandeis. (Although Brandeis in particular has been in the news over the past few months with financial challenges even prompting it to consider its very valuable ($300 million) art collection (story)).
Still I wonder as these big institutions cry pain, have they considered slashing the salaries of their generally very generously paid Presidents as a first if not symbollic step to show this is not the heartless corporate America?