Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Constance News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back, everybody. We are going to talk
Speaker 2: first hour tonight about college tuition. As some of you,
Speaker 2: I'm sure probably heard over the weekend or perhaps read
Speaker 2: in today's newspapers that the University of Massachusetts, the president
Speaker 2: of you mass Marty Me and he was interviewed over
Speaker 2: the weekend on WCVB what they call us a A
Speaker 2: it's an interview show. I called on the record and
Speaker 2: he said me and said, President Mean said during COVID,
Speaker 2: we didn't increase two years in a row, but we're
Speaker 2: trying to make sure that if there is an increase
Speaker 2: in tuition, it's below the rate of inflation. He didn't
Speaker 2: confirm a rate, but told WCBB that he expects it
Speaker 2: will come in it under three percent this year. Now
Speaker 2: that sounds, you know, I guess, reasonable in terms of
Speaker 2: the amount of inflation that we've all been exposed to. However,
Speaker 2: it just so happened, as luck would have it, that
Speaker 2: over the last few days, Massachusetts state employee salaries have
Speaker 2: been released, and at the top of that pyramid is
Speaker 2: the University of Massachusetts, which has over thirty thousand employees.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of people. You could almost fill Fenway
Speaker 2: Park with that. Now, according to the statistics that have
Speaker 2: been released for the most recent year, which is twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, last year, the average salary in the UMS
Speaker 2: system was fifty five and eighty five dollars. Okay, that
Speaker 2: is that's pretty reasonable when you think about it. The
Speaker 2: average salary in the Massachusettstate Police it's one hundred and
Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars. That's the average salary. The average salary
Speaker 2: in the Massachusetts MBTA, it's eighty four thousand dollars. So
Speaker 2: the average salaries at UMass are pretty reasonable. However, when
Speaker 2: you get to the specifics, and I'm not looking to
Speaker 2: embarrass people here and I certainly don't want to get
Speaker 2: into names, but the salary UH is the head basketball
Speaker 2: coach at UMass Amherst and that is about one point
Speaker 2: eight million dollars, actually one point seven million, UH seventy
Speaker 2: one million, seven hundred and seventy eighty nine hundred and
Speaker 2: nineteen dollars. This is he's the most most well paid
Speaker 2: individual UH in the in the system. But then you
Speaker 2: get to others. The chancellor at U mass Medical Center
Speaker 2: million and a half. And again I think all of
Speaker 2: those those two salaries are people who are, you know,
Speaker 2: in their fields, probably they have the ability to demand that. However,
Speaker 2: when you start to look down some of the different salaries,
Speaker 2: as highlighted today in a Globe, in a in a
Speaker 2: Herald editorial, you have I don't know, the chief People's
Speaker 2: Strategy officer whatever that is four hundred and fifty three
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. I have no idea what that would be.
Speaker 2: There are lots and lots of people who make chancellors
Speaker 2: do well at you Mass six, earning between a half
Speaker 2: a million and six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A
Speaker 2: trio of chancellor professors earned between two hundred and two
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty three thousand dollars. Now, again, there are
Speaker 2: individuals who you know, just by virtue of their status
Speaker 2: in anything, can command top salaries. But when I looked
Speaker 2: at this list of salaries last week, it was extraordinary
Speaker 2: the number of people who were making more than the
Speaker 2: president president me and I think he was making eight
Speaker 2: hundred thousand. There were several people above him, and several
Speaker 2: people very close to him. So the question is, and
Speaker 2: again this is the Herald today makes point that the
Speaker 2: State House News reported last summer that U MASS enrollment
Speaker 2: was projected to decrease by a third of a percent
Speaker 2: in this fiscal year, and apparently there is a downward
Speaker 2: trend lower birth rates. And U MASS is a really
Speaker 2: good system, whether it's U MASS Amherst the flagship, or
Speaker 2: whether it's you Mass, Boston, U Mass, Lowell, U Mass Dartmouth,
Speaker 2: all the different you know, state universities. But the amount
Speaker 2: of money that we are spending here probably not as
Speaker 2: much as being spent at some schools like Ohio State
Speaker 2: or Michigan State, where where you know, they don't have
Speaker 2: as much competition. There are private colleges in those states,
Speaker 2: but here in Massachusetts we have an abundance of private colleges.
Speaker 2: I mean, some of the best in the world. Harvard, Mit,
Speaker 2: Boston College, Boston University, just to name a few toughs.
Speaker 2: The list goes on, and it's just the question is
Speaker 2: how much do we need to spend on education and
Speaker 2: at what point? At what point There's a lot of
Speaker 2: people who have had to tighten their belts, family budgets,
Speaker 2: small businesses, but at the University of Massachusetts it doesn't
Speaker 2: seem to me to be a lot of belt tightening
Speaker 2: going on. So what I want to do is just
Speaker 2: open up the phone lines and see what you think
Speaker 2: is fair. There are just a lot of people in
Speaker 2: the article. The companion article is written by Matthew menscrom
Speaker 2: in The Herald Today is there's a lot of information
Speaker 2: and specifics again about things like the head football coach
Speaker 2: making nine fifty which included a sixty seven thousand dollars
Speaker 2: buy it when he was fired in November. You know,
Speaker 2: as they said Marty Mehen was around eight hundred thousand
Speaker 2: and eight thirty seven to be exact. The university system
Speaker 2: will begin waiving the cost of tuition for families making
Speaker 2: less than seventy five thousand dollars annually this coming year.
Speaker 2: And me And said, under his watch, he's seen the
Speaker 2: amount of need based financial aid increased by seventy three percent,
Speaker 2: which is great. But when you have this many people
Speaker 2: making that amount of money, you have to wonder if
Speaker 2: there are not some some simple budget cuts that could
Speaker 2: be instituted. So I'm going to open it up. If
Speaker 2: you're a UMass student and want to defend, or a
Speaker 2: UMass graduate and I'm a UMass Boston graduate, because I
Speaker 2: graduated from Boston State College a long time ago. But
Speaker 2: I'm proud of the system, and I'm proud of the
Speaker 2: people who I know who work there. But when I
Speaker 2: looked at all of these salaries, I just thought, WHOA,
Speaker 2: that's a lot of salaries in the in big range
Speaker 2: half a million dollars or more. For it looks to
Speaker 2: me like positions that are relatively undefinable, I guess would
Speaker 2: be the one word. I describe it as six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty six months, seven nine three, one, ten thirty,
Speaker 2: Your comments, your observations. We are back on Night's side
Speaker 2: right after this shortbreak.
Speaker 1: Now after Dan Ray live from the Window World night
Speaker 1: Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: So just looking at at some of again, I'm not
Speaker 2: looking to embarrass people with names, Okay, that's not my point.
Speaker 2: The head basketball coach out at UMass is getting a
Speaker 2: total of one point eight million dollars. Okay, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna I'm not gonna give you all this one point well,
Speaker 2: one point eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. The
Speaker 2: head of the the University Medical System, the Chancellor uh
Speaker 2: and senior vice president of Health Sciences at the University
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts one million, five hundred and ninety eight thousand
Speaker 2: dollars UH. The Executive Deputy Chancellor provo In Dean of
Speaker 2: the University of Massachusetts System one point one million, one
Speaker 2: hundred forty nine thousand dollars. They head football coach nine
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The Executive Vice Chancellor of
Speaker 2: Innovation and Business Development the University of Massachusetts System eight
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars. It is only then
Speaker 2: that we get to the president of the university, former
Speaker 2: Congressman Marty Meehan, who receives boy this is eight hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty seven thousand dollars. Then the Athletic Director of
Speaker 2: the UMass System seven hundred and twenty six thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: The Executive Vice President Vice Chancellor Administration and Finance six
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars, The Executive Vice President
Speaker 2: for Health Consulting the University of Massachusetts System six hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty five thousand dollars. The Chancellor of the University
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts System six hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: The Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts System, six hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty seven thousand dollars. Of the University of Massachusetts
Speaker 2: System Athletic Coach six hundred and forty two thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: the University of Massachusetts System. The Vice Chancellor of University Advancement.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what that means. Five hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty five thousand dollars. The University of Massachusetts System, Chancellor,
Speaker 2: University of Massachusetts System, five hundred and seventy two A
Speaker 2: lot of chancellors. The Dean of the Management, University of
Speaker 2: Massachusetts System, five hundred and sixty three thousand dollars. The
Speaker 2: Deputy EVC Facilities Management, University of Massachusetts System. Five hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty seven thousand dollars, the EVC, University of Massachusetts Emeritus.
Speaker 2: No idea what that means. Five hundred and forty nine
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. The University Massachusetts System, Director of the Institute
Speaker 2: of Applied Life Sciences five hundred and forty nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: This is the all the employees up until now U
Speaker 2: mass Whatever the number of employee here would be the
Speaker 2: tenth employee. I'm not sure, Philip Bang, who's the MBTA
Speaker 2: General Manager four hundred excuse me, five hundred and forty
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars. Then we have a University of Massachusetts
Speaker 2: distinguished professor. Has to be very distinguished. Five hundred and
Speaker 2: seven thousand dollars. The Chancellor the University of Massachusetts System.
Speaker 2: Sounds like we've gone through a bunch of chancellors already.
Speaker 2: Four hundred and ninety four thousand dollars. Also close to
Speaker 2: a half a million dollars. The senior vice president of
Speaker 2: the University of Massive Boy, there's a lot of titles.
Speaker 2: Four hundred and ninety eight four hundred and eighty nine
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. The Director Executive I'm not, I guess not
Speaker 2: executive director. The director Executive, University of Massachuset System. Four
Speaker 2: to seventy six thousand dollars. Here's one. The Chair of
Speaker 2: the Department Tenured in Tract, University of Massachusetts System. Six
Speaker 2: hundred and twelve thousand dollars. Uh, it just goes on
Speaker 2: and on and on, and now we're getting into some
Speaker 2: some other Most of them are U mass folks. Professor
Speaker 2: tenured track. If you get to be a professor with
Speaker 2: a tenure track, you're five hundred and eighty seven thousand.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing system. The ice hockey coach out there
Speaker 2: gets four hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars. They have
Speaker 2: a chief medical examiner out there, four hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: four thousand dollars. Oh, that could be a state that's
Speaker 2: not necessarily associate with the with the school. That's a state. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a state office. So it goes on and on.
Speaker 2: An assistant professor, here's a good one. An assistant professor,
Speaker 2: not a full professor. And assistant professor four hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty three thousand dollars. I just again, it's now we're
Speaker 2: into the professors and they're all it looks like, well
Speaker 2: a lot of them are in the four hundred and
Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars range. It says, I, I don't know
Speaker 2: if that's interim, if it stands for international, I have
Speaker 2: no IDEA Senior vice president of academic and Student Affairs
Speaker 2: four hundred and forty two thousand dollars. So on and
Speaker 2: on and on. It goes professor four thirty three. So
Speaker 2: the question, I guess is are these salaries. It's it's
Speaker 2: just not one or two or five or six. It's
Speaker 2: a lot these salaries. Are they acceptable? Let me go
Speaker 2: to Nico in mathuen Nico. I appreciate you calling in.
Speaker 2: How are you tonight?
Speaker 3: How are you mister ra. Nice to see, nice to
Speaker 3: hear it, Nice to talk to you again.
Speaker 2: Nice to talk with you again. Now you are you
Speaker 2: still in school or have you graduated?
Speaker 3: I am no. I actually I'm a comment sophomore at BABS.
Speaker 3: And that's actually why I called a great.
Speaker 2: School at BABS. And I'll say it's a it was
Speaker 2: a top rated school. I thought of you and I
Speaker 2: saw a few weeks ago. I think that in terms
Speaker 2: of the in the the starting salaries that graduates make
Speaker 2: from different colleges, they track and I think Batson is
Speaker 2: the number one school in the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are up there. That's that's one of the
Speaker 3: chief statistics that we like to float amongst them.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, proud of that one. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, So I think now this is I mean, UMass
Speaker 3: Amhurst is a very large school, so I don't I
Speaker 3: think that. I think they have a student population of
Speaker 3: around twenty thousand. Just for clarity, I'm at my campus
Speaker 3: is around three thousand. So I think when when you're
Speaker 3: talking about the the sports. I don't know about basketball
Speaker 3: and hockey, but I know football is a D one
Speaker 3: program which drastically increases the price in terms of in
Speaker 3: terms of the players. I think I'll high state who
Speaker 3: is going to the championship, going to the NASTER the
Speaker 3: College Football Playoffs championship against Notre Dame soon or if
Speaker 3: they have played already, they spent ten million dollars on
Speaker 3: the team of players themselves. They're getting paid to play apparently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's a new development. But you're you're correct, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're correct.
Speaker 3: So I think I think that the the plus they
Speaker 3: have to hire, they they run the football program, they
Speaker 3: come up with everything. I think that a lot of
Speaker 3: the I don't want to say waste, I'm talking about
Speaker 3: the government, but there is definitely you were mentioning former
Speaker 3: Congressman Maham, I believe.
Speaker 2: That's how.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I think realistic from my own from
Speaker 3: my I mean, the president of my school's name is
Speaker 3: Steven Spinelli. He's the he's the he's a co founder
Speaker 3: or a founder of Jiffy Lube. And realistic or yeah,
Speaker 3: so realistically, I mean, I don't know his if he
Speaker 3: I couldn't write out his duties for him. But I
Speaker 3: mean he represents the school and tries to get us
Speaker 3: into different places. So I think that's that's the reason
Speaker 3: that I think mister Hanna is probably compensated for that
Speaker 3: because he has to know, since we are at state school,
Speaker 3: you have to know you have to have the political connections.
Speaker 3: To my understanding, you probably have to have political connections
Speaker 3: to get the funding for things you need. But I
Speaker 3: would be I mean, I I don't know what my
Speaker 3: school pays for. Is this just out of curiosity? Is
Speaker 3: this including benefits?
Speaker 2: Is this I think that salary. I'm sure there are
Speaker 2: benefits on top of it, but these are the salaries
Speaker 2: good they've broken down. I rounded the figures to you know,
Speaker 2: one point eight million, but it's like one point eight
Speaker 2: I mean yeah, it's very very scidentific.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I don't, I don't. I mean, I will
Speaker 3: say you also, and I say, this is somebody who
Speaker 3: is who's going to apply there if I didn't, if
Speaker 3: I didn't get accepted for as an early decision to
Speaker 3: my current school, The Edinburgh School of Business at ums
Speaker 3: Amhurst is very very selective, So I mean, the I
Speaker 3: forget the chances that you were mentioning, I probably would
Speaker 3: expect that considering the amount of money that they're trying
Speaker 3: to invest to get that school up to par I
Speaker 3: think that that's probably well worth. Really, the stuff that
Speaker 3: gets you is tenure, and I think depending on what
Speaker 3: you're trying to cut, it's also the amount of students
Speaker 3: that they have. If you have a class of like
Speaker 3: three hundred kids. I don't know how they're paid specifically,
Speaker 3: but I think that there's also some stuff in there
Speaker 3: that you might if we're gonna if you wanted to
Speaker 3: talk about belt tightening, I think that there's definitely things
Speaker 3: in there. Plus all the the more the more letters
Speaker 3: you add onto your name in the fact, as it
Speaker 3: was explained to me by a faculty member, is how
Speaker 3: you get a better pay. I mean, it's how many
Speaker 3: I totally get that.
Speaker 2: I totally get that you have to have a master's
Speaker 2: degree at least or maybe a PhD. I get all
Speaker 2: of that. It's it's just that I don't even know
Speaker 2: what the tuition is at you Mass at this point,
Speaker 2: but it just seems to me that there's a lot
Speaker 2: of not only at you Mass but at any college
Speaker 2: around the country. Uh that that there's there's so much
Speaker 2: money that has been pumped into education by the federal government.
Speaker 2: A lot of people take loans, but the people who
Speaker 2: then have to pay back the loans or guys like you,
Speaker 2: are students like you who graduate and you come out
Speaker 2: of school with a nice with a good degree, but
Speaker 2: you also come out with a bill of whatever it is.
Speaker 3: One hundred Yeah, I think. I think that also what
Speaker 3: what colleges are paying for. And this is also this
Speaker 3: is kind of just a reflection about how how I
Speaker 3: view the matriculation process.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 3: It is a network. It's a it's a it's a
Speaker 3: it's a networking experiment, especially for business from where I
Speaker 3: come from. You know, business instincts are not something you
Speaker 3: can really teach. You know, you can you can teach
Speaker 3: account and you can teach some manners of finance. But
Speaker 3: I think that depending on what you're going for, it's
Speaker 3: who you're connected to. And that's that's kind of I
Speaker 3: think what school if you're asking me personally, I think
Speaker 3: that's what schools are paying for. And that's why it's
Speaker 3: going up so much, because having inns in these specific
Speaker 3: industries is just it's well, it is valuable.
Speaker 2: I guess, but I just look at it and again,
Speaker 2: I I hold a state.
Speaker 3: College, I cannot.
Speaker 2: I can't to a different standard. I mean, if someone
Speaker 2: wants to start a private college and they're gonna rely
Speaker 2: on now, again, the private colleges also get benefits of
Speaker 2: all the different you know, federal infe usion of money,
Speaker 2: and so it's just it gets out of reach for
Speaker 2: a lot of people. Someone suggested on Friday night, but
Speaker 2: we did the twentieth Hour, that we do more topics
Speaker 2: of how people can get into the trades. And we're
Speaker 2: going to do that because I am a firm believer
Speaker 2: that the college is not for everyone, and it is
Speaker 2: for a lot of people, but not for everyone, and
Speaker 2: that a lot of people can become you know, you know, plumbers, electrician, roofers,
Speaker 2: HVAC masons. There's all sorts of art of things that
Speaker 2: can be done that do not require and you can still.
Speaker 2: I had a guy called the other night on Friday
Speaker 2: night who said he was a tower climber. He climbs
Speaker 2: up the big towers you see, the TV towers, And
Speaker 2: I mean he was telling me that he has educated himself,
Speaker 2: not necessarily through college, but by taking individual courses here
Speaker 2: on individual courses. Nikola, I got to let you run here.
Speaker 2: I'm way past my break, but I always lov when
Speaker 2: you call, and I hope you're going to do great.
Speaker 2: There's no question. Thanks YouTube banks. All right, we're going
Speaker 2: to take a break, take a quick news break here.
Speaker 2: Feel free to join the conversation. Is college just too
Speaker 2: darn expensive? I mean, I remember the guy ran for
Speaker 2: mayor in New York a few years ago because the
Speaker 2: rent was too damn high. That was his platform. I
Speaker 2: think colleges have become, uh just extraordinarily expensive and out
Speaker 2: of reach of a lot of people. Uh And and
Speaker 2: they're they're they're tough. Well again, I think if you
Speaker 2: look at the amount of money that people are coming
Speaker 2: out now with loans, and you see it right here,
Speaker 2: someone's paying these administrators. And I suspect that many of
Speaker 2: these administrators are not interfacing with students, they're not teaching classes,
Speaker 2: but they're getting paid a lot of money. We'll be
Speaker 2: back on Nightside six one, seven thirty six one seven, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: So we're talking about the global actually was the one
Speaker 2: that broke this story. The state payroll climbed in the
Speaker 2: year of twenty twenty four ten point twenty six billion dollars.
Speaker 2: That's an annual increase of nearly ten percent.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: That's that's better than inflation. So if you worked at
Speaker 2: for the for the Cormewalth of Massachusetts, chances are that
Speaker 2: your salary increase outpaced inflation, which is good. Roughly seventeen
Speaker 2: percent of the state's payroll, about one point seven six
Speaker 2: billion dollars went to the UMAs system. MBTA was second
Speaker 2: at eight hundred and seventy nine million dollars. Trial court
Speaker 2: was third at six forty seven State police fourth at
Speaker 2: four sixty four million. For yeah, four hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: four million point four to seven million dollars. So the
Speaker 2: question that I have is we working for the government
Speaker 2: seems like good jobs? Okay. I want to turn the
Speaker 2: question around and find out from people if they think
Speaker 2: the price of a college degree has simply got too high,
Speaker 2: that there has to be an adjustment here. To send
Speaker 2: your son, your daughter, or your children off to college
Speaker 2: can be extraordinarily expensive for the average family. Now, I
Speaker 2: know that there are programs, and we've talked about that
Speaker 2: on the show before, But are any of you out
Speaker 2: there thinking that, hey, it would be better to learn
Speaker 2: a trade, get a good high school diploma, learn a trade,
Speaker 2: and maybe self educate. People can read books and and
Speaker 2: if they become you know, there's always your sort as
Speaker 2: of electricians, plumbers, Mason's roofers. Now some of you may
Speaker 2: have done it. Feel free to call six seven ten
Speaker 2: thirty six seven nine ten thirty. Then we'll go to
Speaker 2: Robert and Wellesley. Robert, welcome, how are.
Speaker 5: You sir, Good evening, Dan, Thanks for taking on this topic.
Speaker 5: Sure well, And in brief, I am this sounds harsh,
Speaker 5: but I think that higher education in some ways has
Speaker 5: become an expensive rocket and needs to be reformed. And
Speaker 5: I think this has been handled concretely when a comparison
Speaker 5: has been made between secondary school education and jociary school
Speaker 5: education or college that they're if tuitions are compared, there
Speaker 5: really isn't a good reason for there to be the
Speaker 5: tremendous disparity. And I think that so, in other words,
Speaker 5: things could be done less expensively concretely. And the other
Speaker 5: thing is that there has I think with your discussion
Speaker 5: about trades is important. I think there's become an unnecessary
Speaker 5: disparity between education secondary and tertiary level of education and
Speaker 5: UH work and and UH and applying education in work.
Speaker 5: There is a I think a misconception that what you
Speaker 5: learn in school is something that you have to do
Speaker 5: to get a job, but then you don't actually use
Speaker 5: it when you when you get into the in the
Speaker 5: job you need to Some employers may mistakenly say forget
Speaker 5: all that and and just you know, do the job
Speaker 5: they So I think the uh, the I forgot exactly
Speaker 5: how I wanted to express this.
Speaker 3: But the.
Speaker 5: Example would be turning scientists into bureaucrats and then having
Speaker 5: them function more as bureaucrats than as scientists forgetting their
Speaker 5: training and huge mistakes can occur in A centerpiece of
Speaker 5: that was the Shuttle disaster, where scientific efferencials were not
Speaker 5: being followed and it had a tremendous consequences. And that's
Speaker 5: just a symbolic example. I feel that I did do
Speaker 5: these comments feel like they're relevant to the discussion.
Speaker 2: Relevant to you. Well, when you went to the Shuttle disaster,
Speaker 2: you're talking about the uh, not not the flight that
Speaker 2: on re entry burned up, but you're talking about the
Speaker 2: flight that took off from Florida and the old rings fail,
Speaker 2: uh and blew up as we were watching it. You
Speaker 2: go off into space. Is that is that the.
Speaker 5: Disaster that's the one I'm referring to.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I think that there was some question about
Speaker 2: the overnight temperatures. There was a January lift off, and
Speaker 2: what I forget for the moment what the final result was,
Speaker 2: but I think that they that the o rings on
Speaker 2: the on the shuttle failed. Yeah. I just would rather
Speaker 2: simplify it a little bit, Robert and say, hey, is
Speaker 2: a college degree worth You come out of college these
Speaker 2: days and you could have one hundred and fifty two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars or more ode and you may have
Speaker 2: a tough time getting a job with a salary which
Speaker 2: will help you live as well as pay off those loans.
Speaker 2: And I think that you know, you talk about sort
Speaker 2: of the military industrial complex, I think there's an educational
Speaker 2: industrial complex, and I think it's a little lot of
Speaker 2: balance right now, and that if your son or daughter
Speaker 2: comes out and decides that they want to become a
Speaker 2: plumber or electrician or roofer, I mean those are good jobs.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of skill involved in those jobs, and
Speaker 2: those jobs. They have to be trained and retrained every
Speaker 2: couple of years to make sure they're staying up to date.
Speaker 2: All of that, they're compensated well, and they don't have
Speaker 2: to pay off student loans. And I just think that
Speaker 2: more people over time are going to start, hopefully beginning
Speaker 2: to look at some of those jobs and say, hey,
Speaker 2: if I come out with a degree in archaeology from
Speaker 2: a great college, what am I going to do with that?
Speaker 2: I mean, there's there's no great demand for people with
Speaker 2: the archaeology degrees.
Speaker 5: That's your comments about I'm sorry, your comments self education
Speaker 5: or are very are very relevant, pertinent. I agree with
Speaker 5: them and I and there's the saying they used to
Speaker 5: be saying. In the final analysis, all education is self education.
Speaker 5: What formal education is an advantage in that in that
Speaker 5: it teach, it makes the person better equipped to do
Speaker 5: self education.
Speaker 2: And fair enough, I'll accept that, Robert. I'm that's my
Speaker 2: break here. I don't mean to interact your train of thought,
Speaker 2: but you made some interesting points. I appreciate your call
Speaker 2: as always. Thank you have a right take a very
Speaker 2: quick break. Coming right back on night side. We're talking
Speaker 2: about the cost and the value of college and university education,
Speaker 2: and you look at this payroll and you say, boy,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of folks out there making a lot
Speaker 2: of money. And I frankly don't know what a lot
Speaker 2: of these positions are. But once you get one of
Speaker 2: those jobs at that level, uh, you you could take
Speaker 2: a glide glide glide path to a very comfortable retirement
Speaker 2: with that type of employment. Back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w b Z, the news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, let's see what the rest of our call is said.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Joseph in Middleton. Joseph next on Nightsider.
Speaker 2: Right ahead, we lost Joseph. Okay, Joseph, call back. We'll
Speaker 2: try to get you on. What happens is a lot
Speaker 2: of times people are waiting and they're listening on speakerphone,
Speaker 2: and of course when they go to to reconnect, they
Speaker 2: lose the connection. So, Joseph, you waited a long time,
Speaker 2: Feel free to join us. Six one seven four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven nine. Tom in West Virginia, Tom,
Speaker 2: welcome back.
Speaker 5: How are you you know?
Speaker 4: I Camember time and Billy Bulger were tired and he
Speaker 4: was going to look like two hundred grand a year
Speaker 4: working for you mass. I don't know if he's and
Speaker 4: I remember thinking at that time that's unbelievable. But you
Speaker 4: really should do an exposies of the people of two
Speaker 4: masked universe. It's un.
Speaker 2: Tom, hold on for a seconds reason we're having Tom.
Speaker 2: We're having trouble with your with your call here. Let
Speaker 2: me Rob trying to clean up your line. I think
Speaker 2: the controversy that you're referring to with Bulger was he
Speaker 2: was getting a pension for like two hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. I think that his salary far exceeded that
Speaker 2: in actuality. But Robo tried to clean up your line.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, let me go to Debbie and Quincy.
Speaker 2: W you're going to get you in here. Go right ahead,
Speaker 2: you're next a night side. Hi.
Speaker 6: I am an actual union painter, and I've been in
Speaker 6: the trade for forty seven years.
Speaker 2: Good for you.
Speaker 6: And I got a college degree at forty two, okay,
Speaker 6: And I have a daughter who actually went to college
Speaker 6: and came out with one hundred thousand dollars and now
Speaker 6: is a union electrician.
Speaker 3: Good for her because she.
Speaker 6: Couldn't find a job that was paying a substantial amount
Speaker 6: of money so she can play her student loan and
Speaker 6: live on her own.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're exactly the caller that I was hoping to
Speaker 2: hear from tonight, because you got your college degree and
Speaker 2: worked as a painter, probably a pretty good one. And
Speaker 2: your daughter is now working as an electrician to help
Speaker 2: pay off for her college loans. Right.
Speaker 6: Well, mom and dad helped her pay that. And I
Speaker 6: also have a daughter that went to college with a
Speaker 6: large degree amount of money that you know, for her degree,
Speaker 6: and not even work in the trade she went. She
Speaker 6: went into graphic design, and she works at a dispensary
Speaker 6: making lousy money and just barely makes her rent. And
Speaker 6: with the college degree that she had, she's done nothing
Speaker 6: with it and can't simply do anything with it because
Speaker 6: with graphic designs, it just the work is an outfit
Speaker 6: that pays that kind of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Debbie, I think you're the listener I was
Speaker 2: talking to tonight. I mean, you figured it out. Your
Speaker 2: daughter took the more traditional route and she's paying through
Speaker 2: the nose. Where did you get your college degree? If
Speaker 2: I could, if I could be so bold to.
Speaker 6: Ask, I got it at Marshall University, with the help
Speaker 6: of my union. I am a part time instructor. Frendice
Speaker 6: instructor helped and safety instructor that I was apprentice instructor
Speaker 6: for a while, and my union actually helped pay my degree.
Speaker 2: And you said it was Marshall University.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was Huntington West Virginia.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm familiar with Marshall University.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that they had a horrific plane crash many
Speaker 2: many years ago which wiped out their football team, if I'm.
Speaker 6: Not mistaken, and the unions with they have I'm sorry, Yes,
Speaker 6: I am familiar with that.
Speaker 2: Are you are you from that neck of the woods
Speaker 2: or were you able to do this?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 6: No, I'm a dchess. I did it remotely, and once
Speaker 6: a year we had to go down and do classes
Speaker 6: down there on site. And the union is one to help.
Speaker 2: Good for you. That's great to hear. I'm going to
Speaker 2: do more on this sort of topic. I really am.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad you listened. And I'm so glad
Speaker 2: you called because most people also.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, but I was going to say, is I
Speaker 6: work right now? My second job is I work full
Speaker 6: time instructor for what they call the building Pathways Boston,
Speaker 6: which helps young students and young adults get into the trade.
Speaker 6: It was actually shotted by Maddy Walsh thirteen years ago.
Speaker 2: Well, do be a favorite, Do be a favorite, stay
Speaker 2: in the line, give you a call dur in the week,
Speaker 2: and I'd like to get more and I get some
Speaker 2: representative of that group and come on and talk about it.
Speaker 6: Okay, Oh wonderful, they would love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Rob, will give you my direct line and give
Speaker 2: me a call and give leave me a daytime phone number,
Speaker 2: either of you or a person I can talk to
Speaker 2: with that group.
Speaker 3: Fair enough, sad enough, thank you, thanks that.
Speaker 2: I'd be appreciate. Okay, hope we got Tom back. Tom,
Speaker 2: you were breaking up for us before. Go right ahead.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've got satellite internet down here. My apologies. No,
Speaker 4: it's funny that she mentioned Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Speaker 4: I worked at a local three seventeen, West Virginia, and
Speaker 4: their football teams called the Thundering Herd, but I wrote
Speaker 4: for the Mountaineers. My mom went to Morgantown back in
Speaker 4: the early fifties. Anyway, what I was saying with regards
Speaker 4: the salaries that the administrators at UMass get is just unbelievable.
Speaker 4: And if I go back to the early eighties, I
Speaker 4: had a girlfriend that went to the old UMass Lowell.
Speaker 4: Her tuition back then with room and board was twenty
Speaker 4: five hundred a year, and I would say that now
Speaker 4: it's called you mass l it's a very good engineering school.
Speaker 4: I would say, now it's probably at least forty grand
Speaker 4: a year, and it's unbelievable, you know, And that's a
Speaker 4: state school. And I don't know, I you know, I
Speaker 4: do remember my senior year in high school, I had
Speaker 4: a math teacher that was talking about how at some
Speaker 4: point Yale University would go from about five thousand dollars
Speaker 4: a year to nine thousand. And I really wasn't paying
Speaker 4: attention because I went to technical school after high school.
Speaker 4: But I did a friend of mine that was going
Speaker 4: to Boston College back then on the fall of seventy eight,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if it was a semester or
Speaker 4: for the year, it was fifty four hundred dollars, and
Speaker 4: I just about choked when he told me that. I
Speaker 4: went to Coin Electrical School, you know, in the corner
Speaker 4: of mass Aven Newbury to be essentially trained for electrician
Speaker 4: and I think I paid eighteen or nineteen hundred dollars
Speaker 4: back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that would be the same.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm sure the cost or equivalent. And you got a
Speaker 2: career out of it. A lot of people who went
Speaker 2: to great colleges ended up in different careers. That's again,
Speaker 2: It's just my point is it's different paths for different people.
Speaker 2: That's all simple, simple as that. Yeah, absolutely, I'm up
Speaker 2: against it. I know your time next time, but unfortunately,
Speaker 2: your your connection is fortunately your connection is much better
Speaker 2: now than it was before. We'll talk soon, okay, yep,
Speaker 2: take care, Thanks Tom, talk to you, bye bye. Okay,
Speaker 2: we come back and take a break and to talk
Speaker 2: with John Cesto. John wrote a very interesting piece in
Speaker 2: the Boston Globe this morning in the Business section that
Speaker 2: talked about the uh people are still leaving Massachusetts, but
Speaker 2: not as at higher rate as it was a year
Speaker 2: or so ago. Uh So, I guess we can say
Speaker 2: something positive about that. But we'll see what John Shasto
Speaker 2: has to say. Coming back on Night's side right after
Speaker 2: this