Thu 7 Jan 2010
Whalen Salary
Posted by David Dudley Field '25 under Athletics, Mika Brzezinski '89 at 7:42 pm
Frank Uible ’57 writes:
In a major, unwarranted intrusion into privacy, today MNBC on its Morning Joe nationwide TV show gratuitously disclosed a certain annual salary number which it specifically attributable to Mike Whalen. Cute! I’m boycotting the show. You morons, rein in your base instincts and refrain from posting a clip of that disclosure or otherwise mentioning the number.
1) Video, please!
2) For those that don’t know, Mike Whalen is the football coach at Williams. My guess would be that this came up in conversation in the context of the huge salaries that Division I football coaches get. Whalen is, in comparison, paid very little.
3) In fact, as best I can tell, no member of the athletic faculty has ever had his salary made public. (I have never seen a coach salary listed in, for example, the Form 990 filings.) The puzzle then is: Who told Morning Joe Mike Whalen’s salary. There are very few people at Williams who know that number.
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10 Responses to “Whalen Salary”
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nuts says:
I looked through the MJoe RSS feed for video segments from today but I did not verify if they posted that part of the show. Today’s segments start here and there are eight more from today that may contain the revelation you mention.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:51 pmfrank uible says:
No video – drop it!
January 7th, 2010 at 10:10 pmkthomas says:
@frank uible: Seconded!
January 7th, 2010 at 11:42 pm10mbt says:
Umm I would like to see it. Why shouldn’t we? Why are athletic directors’ salaries so secret? Why should they be (especially since we can look up at least some faculty salaries)? Please, I would really like to hear your explanation, Mr. Uible/ Mr-or-Ms. Thomas.
If it has been on the national news, why should we censor it here on Ephblog, or anywhere else?
January 8th, 2010 at 1:32 amkthomas says:
@10mbt:
Greetings– and please allow me to take up the hat of Ephblog’s Ombudsperson.
I would ask, that you please think hard before posting a link– which might just save us the time of yet more needless conflict on this blog. (I trip over enough landmines and cause enough needless conflict, and certainly have in the last few days).
I don’t know if Frank will speak up, but I believe the general or classical argument is that people’s salaries are a private matter, and it changes something in our relationships if people look at Coach Whalen knowing his salary.
I am not endorsing this point of view (would people please listen to the previous!), and would certainly be the first to expound on the facts that there are plenty of businesses that work on opposite principles. Incapable of reading … ahem, anyway.
However, I would prefer if we paused and, if necessary, discussed a little before our humble forum (drip, drip) became a disseminator of this information and thus an agent of change in the status quo– as well as, before we take the step of affecting Coach Whalen’s life in this way.
Discussion is, as always, invited; my official capacity here is to resolve disputes, viewing each side neutrally, and I recite the positions above to that end.
Should you wish, you may email me via ombudsperson @ ephblog.com, or use that address to initiate an informal or formal complaint about any aspect of ephBlog.
Yours, verbosely and sincerely,
Kenneth Thomas ’93
January 8th, 2010 at 1:47 amRonit says:
What was your point posting this, David?
I would give this thread a crapload of negative votes if I could.
January 8th, 2010 at 2:39 amnuts says:
PTC,
January 8th, 2010 at 3:00 amI think the Fall 2006 Williams Football team could have taken Texas tonight.
Dick Swart says:
@kthomas:
Dear Ombudsperson Ken Thomas,
Thank you for this reminder of common courtesy as an expectation of behavior on a blog closely associated with Williams College and serving as an outlet for this self-selecting community.
Dick Swart 1956
January 8th, 2010 at 9:47 amPresident
EphBlog
hwc says:
I don’t understand. Williams College is a tax-exempt charity. We know the President’s salary. We know the salaries of the top paid officers and faculty. We know the average faculty pay at various grades. Why should a football coach receive special treatment? What am I missing?
While we are at it, I wouldn’t mind knowing how much the Athletic Director is paid.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:38 pmfrank uible says:
And each member of the faculty and staff? And each supplier of the College? And the family of each student? And I wouldn’t mind knowing your salary since you take an interest in this issue. And those of your loved ones?
January 8th, 2010 at 1:10 pm