Annual Survey Finds an Increase in Millionaire College Presidents
WASHINGTON
Curious where those extra tuition dollars are going? One place to look would be the pockets of college presidents. Five presidents have cracked the $1 million compensation barrier, including Dr. John R. Silber, the now-retired president of Boston University, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more are sure to follow. Nine presidents earned more than $900,000 — a figure none broke in last year’s report.
All were at private universities, and the figures are for fiscal 2004, the most recent information available for private schools. More recent data on public universities, for the current academic year, shows salaries are rising there, too. Leaders of 23 public institutions are being paid $500,000 or more this year, up from 17 a year ago.
Dr. Donald E. Ross of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., topped the list at $5.04 million. However, all but $477,000 of that was deferred compensation awarded after 34 years as president.
He was followed by Dr. Audrey K. Doberstein of Wilmington College in Delaware ($1.37 million) and Dr. Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt University ($1.33 million).
Silber, who now holds the title of president emeritus at BU, earned more than $1.25 million in the 2004 fiscal year, including a $513,000 payment in place of sabbaticals he was unable to take during his presidency.
Dr. Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan is the highest paid public university president this year with $724,604 in compensation, followed by Dr. David P. Roselle of the University of Delaware ($720,522 in 2004, the most recent figures provided in his case) and Dr. Mark G. Yudof of the University of Texas system ($693,677).
Raymond D. Cotton, a Washington attorney and expert on presidential contracts and compensation, says salary competition is being fueled by a wave of retirements by baby boomer college presidents, and by the growing desire of governing boards to hire only presidents who have already been presidents elsewhere.
“What’s happening is there’s an imbalance of supply and demand,” Cotton says.
The competition has driven the average tenure of the president of a large college down to about five years on average — often too short for effective leadership.
“It’s definitely not good to have instability at the top,” Cotton says.
After a long-running dispute over release of the figure, Pennsylvania State University agreed for the first time to provide the Chronicle with salary information for president Graham B. Spanier. He will be paid $492,000 this year, 25th among the 139 public universities surveyed.
— Associated Press
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