Think College Tuition is High? Take a Look at These Presidents’ Paychecks

A new report from the Chronicle of Higher Education showed that Bollinger was the top paid president at a private university.

Qubein, a motivational speaker who once authored a book titled How to Get Anything You Want, earned $2.9 million in total compensation in 2013, according to a just-released annual survey of presidential compensation at private colleges by the Chronicle of Higher Education. His package included $633,336 in base pay, $150,000 in bonus pay, $125,000 in severance and $586,267 in deferred compensation. Last fiscal year’s data was not represented in the Chronicle data. The Chronicle counts deferred compensation only in the year it is paid out. Instead, college boards of trustees take all sorts of other metrics into consideration such as the salaries of college presidents at peer institutions, how much money they raise for the school, the recognition they’re able to draw to the college and the programs they start or grow at the school. That number can fluctuate substantially year-to-year because most people earning that much reach that level because of one-year bonuses and other benefits.

Down from top left, the highest earners: Lee Bollinger of Columbia U., Amy Gutmann of the U. of Pennsylvania, Nido Qubein of High Point U., Richard Joel of Yeshiva U., Nicholas Zeppos of Vanderbilt U., and Scott Cowen of Tulane U.

Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov ranked fourth in OH and 221st nationally with total compensation of $445,348.

The typical private-college president receives about 80 percent of his or her total compensation as base pay, the Chronicle said. Yeshiva tells The New York Times Joel’s high figure is due to delayed compensation, and says he has requested 0,000 in pay cuts over the past two years.

High Point, a liberal-arts campus in North Carolina, has been on a construction spree in recent years.

“If you’re going to recruit and retain the type of talent that you need to run a university of this complexity and to continue to advance this university’s reputation and the quality of its product, you have to fairly compensate individuals for doing that job”, says David Cohen, who chairs the University of Pennsylvania’s board.

In all, the Chronicle found, 32 chief executives among 558 analyzed nationwide earned more than $1 million in 2013. “Rodney A. Ericson from Penn State earned over $1.4 million”.

She pointed out that in 2012 Lahey had become fully vested in his retirement plan after serving 25 years as president and “was required to report the full amount and pay the full tax on a retirement plan that will be paid out over 17 or more years after his retirement”.

“Executive pay is an emotional topic, especially in an environment where tuition is so expensive, and faculty professors look at compensation and the merit increases that they are getting in comparison to president pay”, he said.

Cleveland State University President Ronald Berkman had a base salary of $430,000 and his total compensation was $597,500.

Lavish presidential pay packages have come under scrutiny in recent years as tuitions rise and students graduate with crippling debt.