23 Private College Presidents Made More Than $1 Million

[starbright]

<p>This doesn’t surprise me, having been in this industry 20 years. Just wish consumers of education could fully appreciate how it is an industry like any other (with tons of incentive to market themselves heavily and keep their rankings up in a million ways, ones that often have nothing to do with providing a better education). </p>

<p>

November 2, 2009
23 Private College Presidents Made More Than $1 Million</p>

<p>By TAMAR LEWIN
The presidents of the nation’s major private research universities were paid a median compensation of $627,750 in the 2007-8 fiscal year — a 5.5 percent increase from the previous year — according to The Chronicle of Higher Education annual executive compensation survey.</p>

<p>The highest paid private university executive was Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., with a pay package totaling $1,598,247 in fiscal 2008. Ms. Jackson, a physicist and former chairwoman of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been at Rensselaer since 1999, and first became the highest-paid university president just two years later.</p>

<p>In this year’s survey, she was followed by David J. Sargent of Suffolk University in Boston, the top earner in last year’s survey, who took in $1,496,593 in fiscal 2008, and Steadman Upham of the University of Tulsa, whose pay package was $1,485,275.</p>

<p>According to the survey, published in Monday’s edition, 23 private college presidents made over $1 million in total compensation, and 110 made more than $500,000. Such large pay packages are still relatively new in higher education: as recently as 2002, there were no million-dollar presidents, only four earning more than $800,000, and 27 earning more than $500,000.</p>

<p>Over all, the Chronicle survey found, the median pay for presidents of the 419 private colleges and universities surveyed was $358,746, a 6.5 percent increase over the previous year. Over the last five years, the median presidential pay, adjusted for inflation, grew by 14 percent.</p>

<p>Why is university presidents’ pay going up so much?</p>

<p>“I think the answer you’d get from the governing boards that set these salaries is that it’s a market and it’s increasingly hard to find these people,” said Jeffrey Selingo, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, which has published its compensation survey annually since 1993. “That said, almost every year, presidential salaries have gone up faster than inflation, and faster than tuition, which rankles some people on campus.”</p>

<p>The Chronicle’s information is from federal tax documents for the 2007-8 fiscal year, the most recent data available, but from a period before the current economic downturn. More recently, most colleges have moderated, or frozen, salary increases.</p>

<p>“It’s important to remember that these pay packages were set before the economic crisis began last fall,” Mr. Selingo said. “Since then, many presidents have taken pay cuts, donated part of their pay in scholarships, or had their pay frozen. Next year, it’s likely that we won’t see many presidents getting big raises.”</p>

<p>Mr. Selingo pointed out, however, that even if presidential pay has stopped growing so quickly, tuition has not, with 58 private colleges charging more than $50,000 for tuition, fees, room and board this year, compared with only five last year.</p>

<p>In its previous presidential pay surveys, The Chronicle reported compensation at both public and private universities, and last year, it was the public university presidents who were getting the larger raises.</p>

<p>In the current survey, covering only private institutions, for the presidents of large, complex research universities the pay increase was 11 percent over the year’s inflation rate. Over the last five years, The Chronicle found, their median increase, adjusted for inflation, was 19.6 percent.</p>

<p>Presidents of small liberal arts colleges tend to be paid less, with only John A. Fry, the president of Franklin & Marshall College earning more than a $1 million in 2007-8.</p>

<p>While most of the highest-paying universities on The Chronicle’s lists are well-known institutions, there are some surprising names as well.</p>

<p>For example, among the five highest paid presidents at master’s level institutions are Guy F. Riekeman, the president of Life University, in Marietta, Ga., which is known for its chiropractic program; Charles H. Polk, the president of Mountain State University in Beckley, W. Va., which offers distance learning and branch campuses in several states; and Jerry C. Lee, the president of National University in San Diego, which has dozens of online degree programs and campuses throughout California.</p>

<p>Many of the pay packages in the survey included deferred compensation.</p>

<p>For the first time this year, The Chronicle survey analyzed the “former officer” pay reported on college’s federal tax forms, and found that 85 of the institutions, about one in five, were paying at least one former officer or key employee more than $200,000 in compensation in 2007-8.</p>

<p>Three of them paid a former officer more than $1 million: Stephen J. Trachtenberg, a former president of George Washington University’s, received a package totaling $3,664,569; Oberlin College paid Nancy S. Dye, a former president, $1,460,420; and Emory University paid Michael M. E. Johns, a former executive vice president who now serves as chancellor, $1,006,188.

</p>