Hard times? Not for private college leaders
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In just five years, the number of private college presidents earning more than $1 million a year has grown from five to 36, according to the latest presidential pay survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Of 519 private college presidents nationwide in 2009, the top total compensation in the survey released Sunday was $4.91 million to the late Constantine Papadakis, who was president of Drexel University from August 1995 until his death in April 2009.
Mr. Papadakis' pay has been in the millionaire group before -- it was $1.6 million in 2008 -- but the 2009 figure is about triple that, a large portion of that listed as "other compensation" in addition to base compensation, deferred compensation, bonus and benefits.
Two other private college presidents in Pennsylvania also topped the $1 million mark: Swarthmore College's Alfred Bloom, who received $1.75 million, and the University of Pennsylvania's Amy Gutmann, $1.32 million.
Mr. Bloom was president from July 1991 to June 2009. Ms. Gutmann has been president since July 2004.
Pay has been going up for other private college presidents as well. The median total compensation in 2009 was $385,909, an increase of 2.2 percent over the prior year. The increase in median base salaries alone was 2.8 percent to $294,489.
Jack Stripling, a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, noted that presidential pay typically is a small portion of a public college's budget, a median of 0.4 percent.
"However, it is significant, particularly at institutions that are seeing major pay increases. I don't think it's at all a surprise to see presidential compensation under fire, particularly by students who are concerned about rising tuition," he said, adding, "It certainly has a symbolic impact."
The Chronicle noted that there are exceptions to salaries being a fraction of a percentage of the school's budget.
At Mountain State University in West Virginia, the $1.8 million in total compensation for president Charles Polk was 3.5 percent of the total university budget.
The pay increases keep coming despite the difficult economic times.
"It's a little hard to look at this through the lens of the economic downturn because of the fact so many of these presidents have multiyear contracts," said Mr. Stripling.
"College presidents are often impervious to economic downturns because they have a deal that was sealed before that happened."
The report does not count up the number of presidents who have donated a portion of their pay to scholarships or to otherwise benefit the college.
The list, based on federal tax documents, covers 482 private colleges with budgets exceeding $50 million. The report is published at www.chronicle.com .
The Chronicle publishes a separate report on public colleges and universities in the spring.
In Western Pennsylvania, total presidential compensation ranged from $816,726 for Jared Cohon at Carnegie Mellon University to $288,740 for Richard Dorman at Westminster College.
The report also lists the Rev. Gabriel Zeis, president of St. Francis University, as receiving zero pay.
This year's survey compared presidential pay with faculty pay and found that presidential pay has grown at a much faster rate than that of full professors.
In dollars adjusted for inflation, presidential pay grew 75 percent while faculty pay grew 14 percent at the 50 private colleges and universities with the largest expenditures.
Of those 50 schools, presidential compensation grew from $502,288 to $876,792. The pay for full professors grew from $158,879 to $179,950.
"To the extent that compensation is judged by what peer groups are doing, there's some keeping up with the Joneses going on here," said Mr. Stripling.
He noted that setting presidential compensation involves one individual whereas with faculty pay "you're dealing with a structural institutional issue. Every faculty member on campus is going to probably get a base increase or merit increase."
Andrea Fuller, a reporter for the Chronicle, noted that presidential pay has more elements, such as deferred compensation, housing, club memberships and other items. Counting total pay and benefits, the typical president is paid 3.7 times as much as a full professor at the same school.
However, at some schools -- none of them in Pennsylvania -- the Chronicle reported the president earned eight to 16 times as much. At Stevenson University in Maryland, president Kevin Manning's total compensation was $1.49 million, which is 16.1 times the $92,500 average compensation for a full professor.
First Published December 5, 2011 12:00 am
