The highest-paid university president in the New York area turns out to be John Sexton at New York University, whose compensation was $773,012 in fiscal year 2003, according to a new survey.

A glance at the annual executive compensation survey in the Chronicle of Higher Education might induce sticker shock for those outside the world of academia. For those who respect the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week work of university presidents, the big bucks seem well-earned.

Topping the list of highest-paid private university presidents, according to the Chronicle, was William Brody at Johns Hopkins University, whose compensation was $897,786 in 2002-03.The top pay for the president of a public university went to Mark Emmert at the University of Washington, who received $762,000 during the same period.

Mr. Sexton’s pay was more than twice the compensation that the New School University gave its president, Bob Kerrey, who took the job on West 12th Street after representing Nebraska in the Senate for a dozen years. And according to the Chronicle, Mr. Sexton’s compensation exceeded by more than $100,000 the $631,642 that the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, received. Both Mr. Sexton and Mr. Bollinger were inaugurated toward the start of the 2002-03 academic year.

On Friday, when The New York Sun called an NYU spokesman, John Beckman, about the Chronicle survey, he issued a statement on Mr. Sexton’s salary that quoted the chairman of the school’s board of trustees, Martin Lipton, as saying:

“John Sexton has devoted more than 20 years of his life to New York University as a law professor, dean, and now as president. In his short tenure as president of the nation’s largest private university, he has overseen a record number of applications for freshman admission with increasingly strong applicants, he has successfully begun the largest fundraising campaign in NYU’s history, and he developed and began acting upon a plan for the University’s largest expansion of arts and science faculty.

“The Board of Trustees views its responsibilities to set compensation very seriously. John Sexton’s compensation reflects his already admirable record of achievement, the enormous talent and energy he brings to his post, the steps he has taken to help NYU reach its aspirations, and the 23 years of dedicated and accomplished service he has given the University.”

The lowest compensation recorded in the area – or, surely, anywhere else – was $0, for the president at St. John’s University, Rev. Donald Harrington. He is a member of a religious order, the Congregation of the Mission.

When compared to public colleges and universities around the country, schools in the New York area seem not to be out of line in compensating their top officials. In 2002-03, the chancellor of the City University of New York, Matthew Goldstein, had total compensation of $444,800, and the presidents of CUNY colleges had average annual compensation of just under $200,000. The State University chancellor, Robert King, received compensation of $340,000, the survey said, and the campuses’ presidents had average compensation of more than $275,000.

Nationwide, the median compensation for presidents of public research universities and public college systems in 2004 is $328,400, according to the survey. At private universities, meanwhile, 32.4% of presidents received between $200,001 and $300,000 in 2003, according to the survey. In the second largest category, 31.3% received between $100,001 and $200,000.The third largest group, 25.7% of private university presidents, received more than $300,000 in salary and benefits.

The CUNY colleges use a performance-based system to determine annual raises for their presidents. Goals are set each year, and pay increases are awarded based on the year-end results. A CUNY spokesman, Michael Arena, called the system is a “trendsetter around the region.”

Private colleges determine their presidents’ compensation based on the supply and demand of the market, and salaries must be competitive to entice the best possible individual to lead an institution, according to the general counsel for the American Council on Education, Sheldon Steinbach.

When the survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education appears each year, it draws attention and warrants an explanation, Mr. Steinbach said, adding that compensation packages for presidents are as varied as the colleges that hire them. For instance, the added responsibility of presiding over universities that have medical schools and hospitals bumps up the package, Mr. Steinbach said.

SUNY Stony Brook has a hospital and medical school, and that may be a reason the Long Island campus’s president, Shirley Strum Kenny, tops the compensation list for presidents of constituent schools of New York public universities, with a package said to be worth $298,000.

When asked about the effect the high presidential salaries has on the morale of the rest of the faculty, Mr. Steinbach said the difference is vast. “The president is the head of the ship of state,” he said, rattling off a list of presidential duties and noting that professors basically are responsible only for their classes. Compared with the salaries of CEOs of corporations of similar size, Mr. Steinbach said, “Presidents are grossly underpaid and have significantly less perks.”

“There is nothing sinister about this,” Mr. Steinbach said. “It may look somewhat out of kilter, but it makes a lot of sense.”