College Presidents Cashing In, Study Says

The editor of the Chronicle, Jeffrey Selingo, said, "Salaries of college presidents always get scrutiny. But this year, students, parents, trustees and lawmakers are likely to take a closer look at whether presidents are worth the cost given how worried families are about affording tuition as everyone is feeling a bit poorer."

College presidents defend their compensation packages, saying they function, in effect, as chief executives overseeing complex, multibillion-dollar enterprises – and are still paid far less than CEOs in other lines of work.

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"The trouble is that most people…have little idea what we do," Sanford Ungar, president of Goucher College, wrote in an op-ed piece that accompanies the Chronicle survey.

The new survey found that executive compensation increased by 7.6 percent, to $427,400, for the leaders of 184 public research universities.

Total compensation for the leaders of private institutions actually declined by 0.2 percent, but Selingo said the drop was a statistical anomaly -- the result of several established, high-paid university presidents retiring.

Still, Selingo said the salary gap between the presidents of public and private college and universities was narrowing.

"Privates have long paid a lot more than publics, by the salaries at the public universities definitely are rising at a much faster rate," he said.

"Eighty percent of the students go to the public universities, they are becoming a lot more complex to operate, and they are under more and more pressure to operate more efficiently and turn out better graduates. The competition for talent to run them has increased greatly."

The $2.8 million payday for Suffolk University President David J. Sargent broke down this way: $436,000 in base pay, a $436,000 longevity bonus, a deferred sabbatical bonus of $1.19 million, $555,667 in deferred compensation, a performance bonus of $87,200 and $56,262 in health, dental and other benefits.

Nicholas Macaronis, chairman of Suffolk's Board of Trustees, defending the compensation package, telling the Chronicle, "In more than a half century at Suffolk University, President Sargent has been the heart, the soul and the vision of this great institution. His compensation should be appropriate for a president of an outstanding major urban institution."