MU SILENT ON RAISES, BOASTS IT HAD GOOD REASONS

The University of Missouri Board of Curators gave President Manuel Pacheco a 24 percent pay raise -- nearly $50,000 -- to make the salary more competitive with peer universities. Pacheco now makes $250,000, up from $201,400 last year. The raise was approved at a closed session in July but not disclosed until this week.

The curators also gave a 21 percent raise to university attorney Bunky Wright, a former Cape Girardeau resident, who made $165,000 last September but now makes $200,000. These raises came in the same budget that awarded 4 percent raises to faculty and staff.

We don't quibble about compensating the university presidents competitively with that of other comparable schools. After the raise, Pacheco will still be below the average compensation of $270,805 for university presidents in the Big 12.

Our concerns, and those of all Missourians, go much more to the lack of disclosure of the curators' action. It is proper, under Missouri statutes, to act on salaries and personnel matters in closed session. What isn't proper is to fail to disclose or publicize the action, once it is taken, for two months or more. Nor to boast about all the good reason for the raise once it came to light.