Petraeus OKs Teaching Pay Cut From $200,000 to $1

Former CIA director and retired Gen. David Petraeus has agreed to take a major pay cut, from $200,000 to just $1, for his new teaching job at the City University of New York after his six-figure salary drew howls of protest from faculty and city politicians.

"The general never was taking on this teaching assignment for the money,” his lawyer, Robert Barnett, told The New York Times while confirming the salary change.

"Once controversy arose about the amount he was being paid, he decided it was much more important to keep the focus on the students, on the school, and on the teaching, and not have it be about the money," Barnett said, adding that Petraeus proposed waiving his salary "to remove money as a point of controversy."

Petraeus is set to teach a course starting this fall entitled, "Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?" The class of 16 students would meet once a week and Petraeus would be assisted in grading by graduate students, according to the website, reported Gawker.com, which first reported his salary July 1.

The disclosure that Petraeus would be paid $200,000 by the taxpayer-funded City University caused an uproar, despite university claims that part of the salary would come from private sources.

The average salary for a full professor at CUNY is $89,768 to teach multiple courses. Adjunct professors who teach more than half of the university's courses make far less, The New York Times reported.

Petraeus is no stranger to scandal. He resigned from his CIA post in November after the FBI discovered he had an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, while he was serving as commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

In addition to teaching a course at the City University's Macaulay Honors College, Petraeus is chairman of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company's new KKR Global Institute, the Times reported. He also is on the lecture circuit and teaches at the University of Southern California.