The College Fix

The Editorial Board of The Michigan Review, a student publication at the University of Michigan, criticized U-M President Mary Sue Coleman for her lavish travel expenses:

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman spent $59,553 on travel and $70,593 on meals during the 2010 calendar year, according to a report by the Detroit Free Press. It is inevitable for a university president to accrue substantial expenses while conducting official business. Yet Coleman’s $130,146 in spending seems all the more extravagant when it is compared to that of other university presidents.

A look at the expense reports of other in-state university presidents provides some perspective: the heads of Oakland and Wayne State Universities both spent around $20,000 during the same period, and Michigan State’s president spent a little over $15,000. President Coleman accrued more than double the amount of those three other presidents–combined.

Coleman’s representatives have stated that her sky-high travel and expense budget reflects U-M’s far-flung alumni base and global prominence. They say that the need to foster international relationships justify Coleman’s frequent, and pricey, globetrotting. U-M does enjoy the benefits of partnerships with universities around the world, but if the current university administration is to be believed, maintaining those partnerships isn’t cheap. Take Coleman’s June 2010 trip to China. That jaunt alone cost $14,000.

Pressed further on the her travel expenses, Coleman replied, “Certainly the expectation has always been there to have the president be involved in development efforts. As we’ve seen a pretty dramatic drop every year in (state) funding, it’s more imperative that the president focus much more on development.”

It seems that everything–including ballooning budgets–can be pinned on Governor Snyder’s push for fiscal sanity. Although Coleman’s attempt to attribute her astronomical travel expenses to a decrease in state funding might fly with campus liberal anti-Snyder loons, students and taxpayers must demand both a better answer and more accountability in the future.

Read the rest of the editorial here.

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