A dozen presidents of private colleges earned more than $1 million in compensation during the 2006-07 year, including Northwestern University chief Henry Bienen, who was the second-highest paid college executive in the nation.
The annual survey of presidential pay released Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education found that 89 private college presidents took home more than $500,000 in annual compensation, more than double the number who did five years earlier.
News of the increase comes amid concerns that the economic downturn and skyrocketing tuition costs could put a college diploma further out of reach for many prospective students.
"One thing colleges have to be worried about is this perception that you have a lot of presidents making big dollars at a time when students and their parents are really worried about making tuition payments. It's really a perception problem," said Chronicle editor Jeffrey Selingo.
With that in mind, presidents at colleges such as Rutgers University and the University of Connecticut even passed on bonus payments this year, the report found.
In Illinois, three private college presidents crossed the half-million dollar threshold for total compensation, which includes salary and such benefits as housing and car allowances, retirement pay and various kinds of deferred compensation.
In addition to Bienen, they were the University of Chicago's Robert Zimmer and Columbia College Chicago's Warrick Carter, according to the study.
Zimmer, a longtime faculty member who became president of the Hyde Park institution in 2006, was the 16th-highest-paid executive of a private university.
Public university presidents also collected bigger paychecks, and survey results suggest the disparity in executive pay between public and private colleges may be leveling.
Across the country, 59 top executives at public institutions earned more than $500,000 in total compensation during the 2007-08 year, up from 43 a year earlier. Private college compensation information lags a year by comparison and only is available through 2006-07, survey authors said.
Among those earning more than $500,000 was University of Illinois President B. Joseph White, the only public college president statewide to do so. Urbana-Champaign Chancellor
Richard Herman took home $475,500 in total compensation, the second-highest among state university presidents.
Many schools could soon be in the market for a new executive.
Nearly half of all college presidents were 61 or older in 2006, according to a report by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources and the American Council on Education. It was 13.9 percent two decades ago.
What that might portend for presidential pay packages is unclear. Historically, many of the highest-grossing presidents have been nearing their final years of service.
That is true of Bienen, who will step down from his post at Northwestern in August after nearly 15 years.
One of the university's longest-serving stewards, Bienen earned $1.7 million in 2006. Of that, $590,929 was a payment deferred until he had been with the Evanston-based institution for more than a decade.
Another $375,000 in benefits was included in this year's total but will be paid only if Bienen serves through his retirement next year, spokesman Alan Cubbage said.
"For someone who's been in the position for more than 13 years, that's really not out of line with many presidents who have been there a much shorter time," Cubbage said of the compensation deal. "Besides, he's been one heck of a president. He transformed the university in many ways."
Suffolk University President David Sargent was the top-paid president nationally with a $2.8 million compensation package after 52 years at the Boston-based institution.
Most presidents at the nation's 3,500 colleges and universities receive far less.
The median pay package for a private college president was $527,172 in 2006. And in 2007, the most recent information for public institutions, the median compensation for a public college executive was $427,400.
Be the first to comment on this article!