EDITORIAL
Two ways of viewing UH's $4 million man

There are two rather opposite yet sensible ways of viewing UH football coach June Jones new salary of $800,000 a year — a five-year contract worth $4 million:

• It's a good investment, and a bargain at that.

Soon after statehood, Gov. John Burns strongly advocated that the University of Hawai'i develop a football team competitive in the NCAA's Division I. He reasoned that it was the fastest way to supplant UH's barefoot, Third World image with a more serious reputation, and to overcome what he saw as a state inferiority complex.

UH has struggled with Burns' vision for decades, interspersing the occasional winning season with many more years of mediocrity.

Until, that is, June Jones signed on.

The man is the genuine article. There's no doubt he can find a richer contract, either at another university or in the NFL, at the drop of a hat.

• It's a shocking indication of a state's misplaced priorities.

Jones will make far more than any other state employee — almost twice as much as the university president, almost nine times as much as the governor.

This is not Jones' fault, of course, but as symbolism in a state that has steadily cut budgets for its struggling university and its failing public school systems, Jones' pay hike is distressing.

Further, it deepens the commitment of the university and the state to Division 1 competitiveness, which for most universities is a toboggan slide to ever greater costs and ever greater frustration. Today it's a $4 million contract for its head coach; tomorrow it's charter flights for team travel; soon it's a new stadium — but the top programs increase their spending at an even faster rate.

In the 1998-99 school year, the University of Michigan's football team, which shared the Big 10 title, averaged 110,965 fans over six home games, made $5.7 million from apparel royalties — and its athletic department lost $2.8 million that year. UH's football team averaged 35,000 fans at its home games last year, a figure that is slipping even as the team improves. The athletic department lost $1.43 million last year and is expected to come up $1 million short in the current fiscal year ending this month. While most UH academic budgets are shrinking, the athletic department's budget will rise $3 million next year to more than $20 million.

Whether you feel an $800,000 salary for June Jones is a good deal or an abomination, it's important that you understand its true cost and how that reflects this state's priorities. The UH football team amounts to a state-subsidized entertainment program that offers a pride- and identity-building capacity of indeterminate value.

While it's true that keeping Jones on at his current $320,000 salary (assuming he'd stay) would do nothing to improve education in this state, has anyone given any thought to what a "million dollar" schools superintendent might accomplish?