Rich pickings
Sir: In Maurice Cowling's moving account of the dismissal of the trustees and presi- dent from Ade1phi University (Peterhouse `Well, I'm sorry, too, Myrna, but nobody made you eat him afterwards.' on Long Island', 22 March), he somehow neglects to inform your readers how much President Diamondopoulos was being paid. Let me add that information. His annual compensation, salary and benefits were $837,000; in addition to the president's house, he was provided with a million-dol- lar apartment in Manhattan which the uni- versity spent $170,000 to renovate. Dia- mondopoulos ordered $1,800 worth of bathroom accessories for this apartment. Since losing his job as president he has, according to news reports, made plans to teach part-time at the university at a salary of several hundred thousand dollars a year.
The average presidential salary at an American university is $114,298 a year. Ade1phi is a small American university, with an enrolment of less than 3,000 stu- dents (full-time equivalent), a figure far below the enrolment when he took office.
Cowling's story was interestingly juxta- posed against the analysis of how A.J.P. Taylor, a world-famous historian, earned nearly £2 million in 60 years of hard work. Peter Diamondopoulos could do that in a few years. How many Spectator readers have ever heard of him or of Ade1phi?
Merritt Moseley
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
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