University Presidents See Their Compensation Skyrocket
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Academia isn’t widely considered a cash-cow profession, but a growing number of university presidents are commanding lucrative compensation packages, according to a survey to be released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The number of university chiefs earning $500,000 jumped 53% since last year’s survey.
Of the 853 colleges included in this year’s “Executive Compensation” study, 112 schools awarded their presidents packages exceeding a half-million dollars. Four such schools are in New York City: John Sexton of New York University received $798,989 in compensation; Lee Bollinger of Columbia University received $685,930; Richard Joel of Yeshiva University received $572,333, and J. Robert Kerry of New School University received $535,750.
“At the highest levels, there’s a certain amount of competition for presidents, and universities are willing to pay to get the best people,” the editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, Philip Semas, said.
The immediate past president of Delaware’s Wilmington College, Audrey Doberstein, who led the school for 26 years until her retirement last year, was the highest-paid college president during the 2004-05 academic year, the survey showed. She earned more than $2.7 million in salary, benefits, and deferred compensation. The nos. 2 and 3 earners were the former president of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., Donald Ross, and the president of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Their compensation totaled $1.3 million and $1.2 million, respectively.
“There’s not necessarily a direct correlation between the reputation of the institutions, and what the president gets,” Mr. Semas said. “There are a lot of factors that go into the salaries — how long a person has been there, deferred compensation, incentives for meeting fund-raising goals.”
For example, Wilmington College’s Ms. Doberstein’s and Lynn University’s Mr. Ross’s 2004-2005 earnings were boosted by sizeable deferred compensation packages based on their forthcoming retirements.
A growing number of public university presidents are also commanding high six-figure salaries, according to the study. Public school presidents earning $500,000 or more jumped 82% —to 42 from 23 during a one-year period. The highest-paid public school president, David Roselle of the University of Delaware, last year earned $919,571.
Salaries vary widely. The Reverend Donald Harrington of St. John’s University in Queens earns nothing — compensation of an undisclosed amount goes directly to his Vincentian Catholic order; the president of the Bronx-based Fordham University, the Reverend Joseph McShane, earns $39,776,while a former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Donna Shalala, earns $696,937 as the president of the University of Miami in Florida.
The median compensation package for a public university president is $374,846,and that figure is $497,046 for a private university president.
Among Ivy League institutions, Cornell University paid its former president, Jeffrey Lehman, the most, and Harvard University paid its former president, Lawrence Summers, the least. Their 2004-05 compensation packages were worth more than $1 million and $595,871 respectively.
Lesser-known colleges may be willing to pay more for their executives than their big-name counterparts, the president of an executive search firm, Jon McRae, said. “Some of these schools are in greater need than schools like Harvard, particularly when it comes to enrollment,” he said.”If you can’t fill the bids, you can’t balance the budget.”
Many would-be college presidents are employing agents and lawyers to secure bigger, better deals — and, increasingly, institutions are willing to pay up, Mr. McRae, whose Atlanta-based company helps private colleges fill top positions, said.
“It’s basic supply and demand,” he said. “There just aren’t enough people who can do what a college president needs to do these days. Colleges are looking for credentials, experience, the right set of personal traits, and someone who is good at fund-raising. Fund-raising takes up an inordinate amount of time, and there are a lot of people who don’t like doing it or aren’t good at it.”