Monday, December 10, 2012

Pay and Perks Creep Up for Private-College Presidents. From the Crampicle.

Private-college presidents often draw scrutiny for their hefty compensation packages, but most of them have a ready comeback: I could make a lot more money in the corporate world.

While this statement is surely sometimes true, it is also true that some of the nation's top-paid presidents continue to receive perks that their corporate counterparts have relinquished under shareholder criticism.

In 2010, 36 private-college presidents earned more than $1-million, according to the most recent federal tax filings. The median compensation was $396,649. That figure represents a 2.8-percent increase over 2009.

The Chronicle's analysis comprises 493 presidents at private colleges with budgets exceeding $50-million.

The highest-paid president in 2010 was J. Robert Kerrey, who earned $3-million as president of the New School. Mr. Kerrey, the former governor and two-term U.S. senator from Nebraska, resigned as the college's president in December 2010. His earnings included a $1.2-million "retention bonus," which New School trustees said they provided to ensure a smooth transition to his successor.


MORE MISERY.

8 comments:

  1. I'd like a system where anyone getting paid over $250k in a management position gets replaced by someone making half as much for 3 months. If the universe doesn't implode the $250k+ person gets the ax. Then we'd really know if they're worth their paycheck...chances are they aren't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nobody should make more than $750,000/year in either the public or private sectors.

    Why?

    Millionaires mean poverty. Billionares mean homelessness. That money should be reinvested to keep people employed and off the streets.

    ReplyDelete
  3. People who make this much pay more in taxes than I make.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Every time I scroll past the headline I think is says, "Pay and Pervs Creep Up..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too! When I first saw this header, I thought "Great--what's happened at Penn State now?"

      Delete
    2. That's EXACTLY what I read. I don't think I was wrong.

      Delete
  5. My alma mater's current president is earning close to $1M/year and lives in a house worth close to her annual salary.

    Why she's paid that much is beyond me. She's carried on the practice started by her predecessors of hiring "superstar" researchers who, it seems, stay only long enough until they get a better offer elsewhere. She continued turning the campus into a perpetual construction site, replacing perfectly good, though decades-old, buildings with shiny new architectural eyesores. That campaign began about a dozen years ago while I was finishing my Ph. D. and the real beneficiaries seem to be the construction companies, some of whom are rumoured to be quite cozy with the regional government.

    All of this must be part of her plan to boost the university's world rating. I, as an alumnus, am expected to donate money for this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I laugh whenever my alma mater calls for donations. I'll consider donating when the head football coach has a salary on par with an assistant prof in the humanities.

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.