From all appearances, Dean Shields runs VLS like a typical modern corporate CEO (e.g. ExxonMobil, Chase Bank, Enron etc.). Here is a man that is no doubt a millionaire in his own right, an enormous salary from VLS comparitevly speaking (in a state where cost of living is ridiculously low compared to Chicago) and he tries every way he can to make sure he doesn't have to foot the bill for any parties etc. Such as hiring students to cater, so that they can be paid from federal work study funds. Seriously, at $10/hr for one evening, he can't take that out of his own pocket? Hell, even most of us out of school could afford that!
Is the decaying modern American corporate culture permeating "VLS, Inc."? I so hope not.
4 comments:
OK, you are really stepping out of reality here. If Dean Shields has made money in the past, that is his business. If he is making, as you have indicated, $300k per year, well, I have to tell you that that is not exhorbitant. Hell, my wife makes $150k per year in Vermont, and I can tell you that the money does not go far. You are vastly mistaken about the cost of living in Vermont. It is high. Real estate is high. 150k per year is sufficient for us to afford a modest home, one car, a few nights a week out for dinner, and thats it. MAYBE one vacation per year. So do not try to make Shield's income out to be some crazy amount for Vermont. It is not.
Second, part of his job is entertaining people at his home. It is a BUSINESS EXPENSE. People don't pay for business expenses out of pocket. Your assessment of his use of student labor is unsophisticated and misguided. He is saving the school money by paying students $10/hr rather than pay a caterer $30 per hour. Would that make you feel better???
Really, your rantings are out of hand and you need to grow up. And learn the ways of the world.
Didn't mean to get you upset.
Your wife's salary is VERY rare for Vermont, which means you aren't struggling with law school debt like most of us. So, when it comes to law school to debt ratio, you really can't speak on that. You have help, unlike most of us.
OK, stepping out of reality. If these businesses expenses are necessary, then why has the school dropped in rankings, tuition increased, and the school has apparently raised the money it intended to raise ($10MM) all during this administration?
Who is benefiting from this?
WOW - $150K a year in Vermont?? How fortunate for you and your family! I can tell you that neither of my own parents, at age 60, have EVER earned a salary anywhere near that high in New York, a state where cost of living is legendarily high.
I agree that any money Dean Shields made in the past is his business. I must say, though, this blog seems to be focusing on the very real problem for the vast majority of VLS students that they go into the workforce with obscenely high debt, and then realize that they can't get a job where they make enough money to pay it off and still actually afford to pay rent and other expenses, much less save for a down payment on a home or for their own children's future education. While, again, your own family's income is your own business, you must understand that for most of your fellow VLSers, $150K a year seems like a huge salary and the lifestyle that salary affords is something foreign from their own experience.
Post a Comment