Pa. private colleges post 4 chiefs in top 30 nationally for earnings
Baylor’s Starr leads 2016 compensation
When Kenneth W. Starr relinquished Baylor University’s presidency a couple years back, his campus faced highly publicized accusations over its handling of sexual assault cases involving the school’s football players.
Even so, the private Christian university in Waco, Texas, reached a severance agreement with Mr. Starr that dramatically increased his total compensation to $4,946,996. It made him the biggest earner among private college leaders in 2016, tripling what he made the previous year, according to a national survey released Sunday night by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Mr. Starr, widely known in the 1990s as leading investigations into then-President Bill Clinton, including a White House sex scandal, was not alone in how he departed his campus. The Chronicle’s newly released survey cited several other examples of private campus leaders who it said left office under duress, yet received substantial financial packages on the way out.
Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Suffolk University in Massachusetts, Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland and Wittenberg University in Ohio all entered negotiated settlements amid turmoil, according to The Chronicle.
Overall, the survey of schools with the 500 largest endowments found that 61 presidents earned more than $1 million in calendar year 2016, the most current available for comparisons, up from 58 the previous year and 39 the year before that. Presidents serving all of 2016 received on average about $560,000, and if they also were in office all of 2015, they saw raises of almost 4 percent.
In Pennsylvania, four current or former leaders were among the survey’s top 30 earners and were part of the “million-dollar club.” They included University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, third in total compensation nationally at $3,211,681; then-president Subra Suresh at Carnegie Mellon University, 16th with $1,608,582; John Fry of Drexel University, 25th with $1,359,424; and Charles Dougherty, Duquesne University’s now-retired president, 26th with $1,354,464.
The annual listing, no doubt, will add to a decadesold debate about the appropriateness of these hefty payouts on campuses where many students struggle to pay tuition bills.
Schools defend the awards, saying competition to recruit and retain executive talent costs money. Even extricating an institution from a bad situation has a price.
“What boards of trustees, and people who represent them, tell us is these can seem obscene at the time or problematic, but they are necessary tools in order to right a ship, make a change in how a university is managed,” said Dan Bauman, data reporter for The Chronicle who compiled the report.
Big money can prevent a lawsuit, or keep a former leader from airing dirty laundry in the media, although others including faculty often are critical of the practice, Mr. Bauman added.
Mr. Starr, an attorney and former independent counsel, has served as a judge, solicitor general and law school dean. He was named to Baylor’s presidency in 2010.
Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said Friday that terms of Mr. Starr’s agreement are confidential, but she confirmed that part of the compensation was to buy out his tenured faculty position in Baylor’s law school.
She referred to a university statement issued at the time:
“The mutually agreed separation comes with the greatest respect and love Judge Starr has for Baylor and with Baylor’s recognition and appreciation for Judge Starr’s many contributions to Baylor,” it read in part.
In Pennsylvania, Ms. Gutmann’s earnings at Penn included $1,312,971 in base pay, $1,508,593 in bonus pay and $349,360 in other pay.
Mr. Suresh’s total package included base pay of $821,047, bonus pay of $500,000, $238,839 in other pay.
Mr. Dougherty’s total included base pay of $376,333 and $968,773 in other pay.
At the other end of the spectrum, leaders at a number of religious institutions did the job for no pay. In Pennsylvania, Malachi Van Tassell at St. Francis University and Norman Hipps of Saint Vincent College were among four leaders in Pennsylvania receiving no pay.
Nationally, the second highest in total compensation after Mr. Starr was Columbia University’s Lee Bollinger at $3,927,961, followed by Ms. Gutman; Texas Christian University’s Victor Boschini Jr., with $2,864,303; and New York Institute of Technology at Old Westbury’s Edward Guiliano $2,733,651.
This year’s survey included private nonprofit institutions that offer bachelor’s degrees or higher and hold the 500 largest endowments per the U.S. Department of Education’s postsecondary education data system (IPEDS).
Because some presidents served only partial years at the institutions, 559 individuals on the 500 campuses were listed, according to The Chronicle.
The Chronicle includes base pay, bonus pay, nontaxable benefits, and other pay in its calculation of total compensation. Deferred compensation set aside but not paid in 2016 is not included in the calculation.
The Chronicle’s survey of public university presidential pay is conducted separately.