LISA LIPMAN / AP 18nov00
BOSTON -- The salaries of private university presidents continued to rise in 1998-99, a survey has found, but the academic community is split over whether it is growing fast enough to attract the best and the brightest.
A survey of 479 private institutions to be released in the Nov. 24 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education found that the median compensation at 37 research universities in 1998-99 was $393,288, up 3 percent from the previous year. The median for 44 doctoral institutions -- research universities that award more than 50 doctoral degrees a year -- was $218,703, up 9 percent.
Seven presidents received more than $500,000 in compensation and 21 received over $400,000. The number of presidents earning $300,000 or more -- 46 -- has nearly doubled in the last three years.
The former president of Williams College, Harry C. Payne, topped the list with $878,222 in salary and benefits when he received a special package related to his departure from the school. His base salary was $232,550. The No. 2 earner was Judith Rodin of the University of Pennsylvania, who received $655,557.
Salaries for presidents of universities granting master's degrees rose 3 percent to $160,396 and salaries for baccalaureate degree-granting institutions rose 9 percent, to $194,640, the survey found.
``The boards of trustees are seeing these individuals as comparable to CEOs of corporations and are beginning to compensate them accordingly,'' said Patti Couger, president-elect of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.
Judy Fischer, managing director of Alexandria, Va.-based Executive Compensation Advisory Services, says the presidents of top-level universities are deserving of the increased compensation.
``The tenor of the job is changing,'' Fischer said. ``More and more stresses are being put on them to not only address university issues but community and social measures. You have to have a public relations person, a business person and an academic person rolled into one in that position.''
But Patrick M. Callan of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education said he's concerned presidents' salaries are going up much faster than the rate of inflation and the rate of income in the families sending their children to college.
``I think it causes considerable concern about the cost of higher education,'' Callan said. ``Presidential salaries aren't driving the cost up, but it's a symbol of what is going on, and it leaves an impression on the public.''
Duke University's president Nannerl O. Keohane, who earned $377,889 in salary and benefits last year, has called for the end of inflated salaries.
``Universities should be places where the culture of inequality based on wealth is regularly and elegantly called into question,'' she said at an American Council on Education meeting last spring. ``Further, we must look to our own house and resist the alarming tendency for inflated corporate compensation to spill over into higher education.''
The top 10 list of highest paid presidents were:
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Williams College's Harry C. Payne $878,222 in salary and benefits when he received a special package related to his departure from the school. His base salary was $232,550.
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University of Pennsylvania's Judith Rodin $655,557.
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New York University's Jay Oliva $649,633
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Johns Hopkins University's William R. Brody $645,710
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Vanderbilt University's Joe B. Wyatt $532,461
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Yale's Richard C. Levin $525,687
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Columbia University's George C. Rupp $500,204
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Rice University's Malcolm Gillis $497,691
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George Washington University's Stephen J. Trachtenberg $473,233
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Princeton University's Harold T. Shapiro $456,170
- Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/
- American Council on Education: http://www.acenet.edu/
- The Presidency magazine: http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/descriptions/presidency.htmlzin
- College and University Professional Association for Human Resources: http://www.cupahr.org/
- Executive Compensation Advisory Services: http://www.ecronline.com/
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