The
earnings of many top
university presidents
are spiraling up toward
$1 million a year,
according to an annual
survey by The Chronicle
of Higher Education,
rising far more quickly
than faculty salaries.
Forty-two
presidents of private
universities were paid
$500,000 or more in the
2003 fiscal year, the
most recent for which
figures are available,
compared with 27
presidents the previous
year. Just two earned
half a million in 1994.
The
highest-paid private
university president,
William R. Brody of
Johns Hopkins
University, earned
$897,786 in university
compensation, not
counting at least
$100,000 in annual pay
for membership on
several corporate
boards. At least five
other university
presidents earned more
than $800,000, including
Judith Rodin, who has
since left the
presidency of the
University of
Pennsylvania, and Gordon
Gee, the chancellor of
Vanderbilt. They
received the second- and
third-highest
compensation packages.
The
presidents of public
universities, too, are
earning salaries that
would have been
inconceivable a few
years back, although
they remain lower than
on private campuses. At
public universities, 17
presidents earn more
than $500,000, compared
with 12 last year and 6
the year before that.
Mark
A. Emmert of the
University of Washington
is the highest-paid
public university
president, earning
$762,000 this academic
year. Carl V. Patton of
Georgia State, who
receives $722,350, and
Mary Sue Coleman of the
University of Michigan,
who receives $677,500,
rank second and third.
"These
huge salaries feed into
the ongoing
corporatization of the
academy," said
Roger Bowen, general
secretary of the
American Association of
University Professors,
who earned about
$120,000 a year when he
was president of the
State University of New
York at New Paltz during
the last decade.
"Universities do
not exist to make money
but to educate our
students and citizens, a
role that is central to
our democratic society.
We send the wrong
message when we
transmogrify our campus
presidents into
C.E.O.'s."
The
Chronicle based its
listings of private
university presidents on
the most recently
available university
federal tax filings, for
the 2002-2003 fiscal
year. It collected its
data on public
university presidents by
conducting telephone
interviews with
officials at 131 public
research universities
and colleges, said
Julianne Basinger, who
compiled this year's
special section. The
figures for public
university presidents
reflect their current
compensation, she said.
The
median compensation for
presidents of private
research universities
rose to $459,643 in 2003
from $314,944 in 1999,
or 46 percent, The
Chronicle reported.
Several
members of university
boards said their
presidents deserve the
compensation because
their responsibilities
are increasingly
complex, with oversight
of thousands of
employees, as well as
vast research budgets
and fund-raising
campaigns. Dr. Brody of
Johns Hopkins, who has a
medical degree and a
doctorate in
engineering, manages
Maryland's largest
private work force, with
45,000 employees, and
the largest research
budget of any American
university, more than $1
billion.
"He
deserves his
compensation,"
Raymond A. Mason,
chairman of the Johns
Hopkins board, said in a
statement.
But
the rising salaries of
presidents appear to be
opening a social and
financial breach with
professors. The average
compensation for full
professors at public and
private universities
last year was about
$100,000, Dr. Bowen
said.
The
rising presidential
salaries at public
universities come as
many legislatures have
slashed their states'
higher education
budgets. Public
four-year colleges
raised tuition on
average 14 percent last
year and 10 percent this
year, according to the
College Board.
Still,
trustees at public
universities say that to
attract talented leaders
they must compete with
the private
universities. The
University of Washington
Board of Regents enticed
Dr. Emmert to leave the
chancellorship of
Louisiana State
University in Baton
Rouge, where he was paid
$590,000, by matching
that figure and adding a
$160,000 one-time
incentive to move, Jeff
Brotman, the chairman of
Costco who is the
president of the board
of regents, said in an
interview.
"We
think we got tremendous
value," Mr. Brotman
said. "It's like
going into Costco and
you see a bottle of Dom
Perignon for $90. That's
a great value, but it's
not cheap."
At
many universities, the
most highly compensated
official is not the
president. At Duke in
the 2003 fiscal year,
for instance, Nannerl O.
Keohane, who was the
president then, received
$528,622 in total
compensation, while Mike
Krzyzewski, the
basketball coach,
received $853,099.
The
highest-paid person in
American academic life,
according to The
Chronicle, was Maurice
Samuels, who received
$35.1 million, including
a bonus of $14.5 million
for reaching investment
goals, as senior vice
president of the Harvard
Management Company,
which manages Harvard
University's $22.6
billion endowment.
Lawrence H. Summers, the
Harvard University
president, received
$529,397 in total
compensation.
Two
top educators at Boston
University made the list
of highest-paid
presidents for the
2002-2003 year. Jon
Westling, who left the
Boston University
presidency in July 2002,
received $700,626 in
total compensation. John
R. Silber, the
chancellor who had
served as president from
1971 through 1996 and
who assumed the duties
but not the formal title
of president when Dr.
Westling stepped down,
received $808,677 in
total compensation
during the same fiscal
year.
A year
later, in October 2003,
Boston University paid
$1.8 million to Daniel
S. Goldin, a former NASA
administrator, to walk
away from his contract
as university president
the day before he was to
assume the duties from
Dr. Silber.