The median compensation for presidents increased 15.5% from the previous year to $358,746 in 2007-2008, with 23 presidents making more than $1 million a year, according to the Chronicle's survey of 419 private colleges and universities. At the top of the list was Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, whose compensation in 2008 was $1,598,247.
Amid the backlash from parents already bristling over ever-rising tuition costs, experts pointed out that these paychecks come with even higher expectations than the last crop of allegedly overpaid chiefs.
"It's a real challenging job," said Henry M. Levin, professor of economics and education at Columbia University's Teachers College. "I would say that the demands are so unique that very few CEOs could succeed as university presidents."
Tim Roske, AP
Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, whose compensation in 2008 was $1,598,247.
Most private universities and colleges in the United States are not-for-profit institutions, with their revenue piped directly into their academic programs. Because tuition doesn't cover all of a school's expenses, administrations are often forced to go elsewhere to stay in the black, according to a 2004 article by Levin. And only the savviest leaders in the industry have mastered the art of prying funds from alumni, philanthropists and the government.
All of which keeps one main concern in the top of the minds of private university and college presidents: prestige. The greater the school's prestige, the better faculty, students and funding it can hope to attract.
The pay packages to take note of, said Levin, are the ones where a school's prestige doesn't match the president's paycheck.
"The surprises," he said, "are that presidents with far, far more prestige, far more responsibility, far more complexity in their jobs are getting less than the presidents of institutions you've never heard of."
Right behind Rensselaer President Jackson on the pay scale for 2008 is David J. Sargent of Suffolk University in Boston, who made $1,496,593, and Steadman Upham of the University of Tulsa, who made $1,485,275. In comparison, Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University, was paid $693,739, and John L. Hennessy of Stanford University received $731,614.
Compared with chief executives in other industries, however, even a $1 million paycheck is not staggering. A New York Times-commissioned study of 198 of the largest public companies found the average pay for chief executives in 2008 was $10.8 million. Even the presidents at large research universities had a median income well below this, at $627,750.
Michelle Cooper, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, cautions against taking the survey out of context, pointing to the fact that 23 schools with highly paid presidents out of thousands countrywide is not a large percentage.
"In many cases these people are doing very complicated work," Cooper said. "I think we also need to recognize that we're talking about a minority."
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