From The Post‘s Kimberly Miller:

In the year since declaring a hiring freeze in January 2008, Florida Atlantic University has hired nearly 500 employees, spending $175,000 for a basketball coach, $90,000 for the basketball coach’s son, $110,000 for an associate general counsel and $220,000 for a biomedical science professor.

The hires were made amid tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts, predicted layoffs and a worsening salary dispute with the school’s professors. FAU faculty members have not had across-the-board raises since 2006, leaving some to question the new hires, especially after FAU’s rejection April 10 of a state-recommended 2.5 percent raise that would have cost $1.9 million this year.

Personnel data obtained by The Palm Beach Post show that salaries for the new hires total $13 million. Of the 495 new employees, 74 were professors and 123 were adjunct or graduate student instructors, meaning 298 were not responsible for regular classroom teaching.

“You say we have freezes, but we’re really hiring, and now we’re being asked to make these budget reductions while we’re hiring,” said Tim Lenz, president-elect of FAU’s faculty senate. “It makes no sense to have hard freezes because some programs need to have positions filled, but the numbers raise some concern.”

More here.