This week, GoLocalProv‘s Kate Nagle shined a multi-part spotlight on various spending items at CCRI, the Community College of Rhode Island, one of three state colleges/universities and, accordingly, annual recipient of many millions of state tax dollars.

We have yet to hear why, for example, it is prudent and appropriate that college funds are used to renovate, maintain and heat, all at considerable expense, a mansion – the “Knight Estate” – for the president to reside in, even if the mansion itself was donated to the college.

Especially jarring in the series is the compensation paid to President Raymond Di Pasquale. Nagle’s research revealed, for example, that the college annually contributes to not one but TWO retirement funds for the president, both a 403(b) and a 401(a), meaning that we’ve appended a new entry to the definition of “pension double dipping”.

Even more concerning is the evolution of President Di Pasquale’s base salary. In 2010, it was boosted from $180,000 to $265,000 with his appointment to the position of interim Commissioner of Higher Education for the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education. However, when the Board of Governors for Higher Ed went away (as should not have happened) and the position of Commissioner of Higher Ed along with it, the Board of Governors, presumably as one of their last official acts, unanimously voted to keep his salary the same.

Now President Di Pasquale receives a salary that is almost $100,000 higher than the country wide average of $167,000. Which might be even slightly justifiable if CCRI’s student graduation rate matched the salary of its president. But CCRI’s graduation rate is 48th lowest nationally for a two year college.

And remember, that’s just base salary. As Nagle reports,

Di Pasquale’s total compensation including retirement and benefits currently tops $370,000 each year.

Interestingly, President Di Pasquale’s biography page over at CCRI’s website refers to his fulfilling a dual role

In conjunction with his role as president of the Community College of Rhode Island, in January 2010, President Di Pasquale assumed a dual role when he was named commissioner of higher education for the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, which became the Rhode Island Board of Education in January 2013.

without making it clear that he no longer occupies that second role.

In each of 2012, 2013 and 2014, the state’s “allocation” – i.e., hard earned tax dollars – to CCRI was just north of $44 million (page 19 of this PDF obtained by Nagle).

Nagle reports that CCRI has asked that that amount be jacked by $3.4 million for their FY 2015.

This taxpayer wonders: was that request accompanied by an explanation of why the college’s president still receives a base salary for a dual role that no longer exists, except by gauzy, well-worded allusion on the president’s biography page of the college’s website?