First-year salary for TSU president nears $400,000
3-year-deal, including benefits, falls below peers at other Texas colleges
Texas Southern University’s new president will make about $400,000 a year in salary, considerably less than his peers at several other state colleges.
Austin Lane — who most recently was second-incommand at the Lone Star College System in Montgomery County, where he made $206,600 a year — will make $398,000 at TSU in Houston in his first year plus benefits. Lane will get an $8,000 raise each year of his three-year contract, TSU Board Chair Derrick Mitchell said Tuesday.
Including a deferred compensation package of $60,000 a year, a monthly car allowance of $1,400 and a monthly housing stipend of $4,500, Lane will make more than $500,000 a year. His predecessor, John Rudley, who led the school since 2008 and agreed to stay as a consultant to Lane for at least six months, made a base salary of $406,000 per year plus benefits.
In an era of skyrocketing executive pay at public colleges, Lane’s salary falls in line with the national median but well below many of his peers across the state. The median base salary for public university presidents was $400,000 in 2014, according to the latest data from the Chronicle of Higher Education, which does an annual survey of presidential pay. The University of Houston, TSU’s south Houston neighbor, pays President and Chancellor Renu Khator $700,000 a year. The University of Texas at Austin pays President Gregory Fenves $750,000, though the school offered
him $1 million, a figure he said was too high. Texas A&M University pays President Michael K. Young $1 million a year in base salary.
“I think we’re getting a heck of a deal,” Mitchell said. “We want to pay him fairly for the job he’s going to do. It’s going to be a big challenge … We wanted to send a strong message also to the Legislature that we’ve heard them and that we’re going to use the taxpayers’ money wisely.”
Some Texas lawmakers have called on universities to stop raising tuition, pointing in part to rising administrative costs as one reason the colleges have charged students more tuition to attend.
Lane signed his contract Tuesday after it was unanimously approved by the board of regents, officially making him president of the historically black college.
The regents named Lane the sole finalist for the top job in May, but by law he had to wait 21 days before taking office. Lane said Tuesday it was the longest 21 days of his life.
“It’s just an honor to be a part of this great, historic institution,” Lane told the regents and the audience at Tuesday’s meeting. “With your help and your support, I’m ready to take TSU to new heights.”