Opinion

Saving Gen. Petraeus

Despite the best efforts of an activist faculty union, retired Gen. David Petraeus will teach this fall at CUNY. And the university and its students will be better for it.

The hoopla started early this month, when CUNY announced that the military leader who orchestrated the winning surge in Iraq would teach a weekly course in public policy as a visiting professor at Macaulay Honors College. The outcry against that appointment was led by the Professional Staff Congress, the left-wing faculty union that’s worked to undermine CUNY progress over the years. Its members claimed outrage that Petraeus would be paid $150,000, far above the $90,000 full-time professors receive.

That’s ironic for two reasons. First, much of the difference in pay would have been covered by private donations.

Second, as KC Johnson of the Minding the Campus blog pointed out, this is the same union that has fought hard against any effort to match faculty pay with merit. Instead, it is based on seniority. “If CUNY’s salary scale resembled, say, Columbia’s, there doubtless would be many regular faculty whose pay grade would resemble or exceed that of Petraeus,” Johnson wrote.

In the end, Petraeus outflanked his critics. Instead of retreating — and depriving CUNY students of the opportunity to learn from one of America’s most important military leaders — he agreed to teach for the princely sum of one dollar a year.

CUNY’s fortunate to have him at any price. Too many Americans are disconnected from the reality of our men and women in uniform.

Petraeus is the perfect person to educate them.