As the winningest coach in college hockey, Ron Mason is expected - and deserves - to receive a $20,000 raise today. As one of the items on its agenda, the MSU Board of Trustees plans on voting to raise his salary to $173,215 a year.
Mason definitely merits rewards for his achievements. He is the No. 1 hockey coach in the country.
His 23 years at MSU have brought the program an outstanding record, which is consistently packed with top recruits and a first-rate team. Since he came on board as head coach, the hockey team has consistently sold out games, including the recent “Cold War,” which became the highest-attended hockey game in history and brought in $200,000 in profit.
Also, out of the three big sports at our university - football, basketball and hockey - Ron Mason is by far the most successful.
Yet, he is the least paid among each sport’s respective head coach. Basketball’s Tom Izzo earns $267,000 a year and football head coach Bobby Williams brings in an annual $435,000.
With all his merits, Mason is definitely worth his salt. MSU is lucky to have someone as talented and committed as he is. Trustees have said we could never really give him what he’s worth to us.
But in the face of the budget cuts and sacrifices the university has had to make, it’s kind of a dubious question whether now was the right time to be handing out raises to coaches.
The university is cutting $5.5 million from the 2001-02 budget, repealed its popular tuition guarantee and raised undergraduate tuition 8.9 percent to compensate for low state appropriations.
Many academic leaders and staff members on campus received minimal pay raises as a result of these budget cuts. It’s not fair to see many of these folks who are as equally brilliant in their own careers to receive crumbs of a pay raise when athletics appear to take prominence over them.
Athletics are an important part of MSU, but the first priority of a Big Ten university should be education. It’s the professors, instructors and staff members that play the most vital role on campus.
The Board of Trustees needs to take a look at its priorities before handing money out. Mason definitely deserves the reward he’s getting, but he’s not the only one - and some could definitely use it more.
