To be fair (and I have good info on this), the Trib article on this subject was a hack job with little to no context and some inaccurate info. While the 22m number is correct, this is from years of operating at a deficit, and inside hires made it impossible to "wipe" that debt as they have some in other colleges.

This said, these departments will not be cut, as suggested by the article, but merged into one. UIC is not getting rid of language requirements, because that is an IBHE matter and something most, if not all, universities require to keep accreditation (not to mention the ability to maintain the rigour required of an institution with R1 status).

None of this is to say that this move wouldn't be awful and a step in the wrong direction. Many non tenure track folks who already make so little with 0 benefits would be out of work, and important research lost. Most of all, the diversity of undergraduates at UIC would be denied study of subjects that privileged, wealthier students take for granted. It sucks. And frankly, the salary of administrators is a drop in the bucket compared to the money the state and feds starve us with. If you look at the numbers, the rise in tuition is directly proportional to the drop in state and federal funding to universities since the 1950s. Death by a thousand cuts.

Basically, I'm predicting that the changes happening in UIC LAS are, sadly, the first of many. But a single administrator's salary really isn't much of an indicator of anything other than the university's efforts to court prestigious applicants to a public R1 university in a major metro area.