<p>An interesting study conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education found that thirty college presidents received more than $1M per year in salary and benefits:</p>
<p>Many</a> college presidents top $1M salary mark - BostonHerald.com</p>
<p>And it's not just Ivy Leaguers cashing in, according to the article, "executives from schools such as the University of Tulsa and Chapman University in Orange, Calif." are banking, too.</p>
<p>No big shocker there! Many of them get to reside on campus in very nice houses as well.
But they probably are under a lot of pressure to get donations from wealthy alum for new science buildings etc or to endow a chair & so on. All that “sucking up” has to pay off!</p>
<p>I’m glad my 40k/year is being put to good use.</p>
<p>I don’t see anything wrong with this. Think about it: to be chosen as President of such an elite (for one reason or another) institution such as Yale (academics) or Ohio State (athletics) you have to have one heck of a resume, one heck of a personality, and one heck of an idea(s.) Pretty much the experience of the people who will lead this country in the future (the students of these institutions) is in your hands. Pretty big pressure. Not anybody gets chosen for this job: only the best of the best. So I don’t see why it’s so bad that they’re getting the best salaries.</p>
<p>I’m glad my 40k/year will be put to good use.</p>
<p>no person should make $1m+ per year. it’s gross.</p>
<p>30 college presidents out of the thousands out there? Well then, I need to sharpen the pitchfork immediately.</p>
<p>^^I definitely disagree with that. To make that kind of money you have to be not only smart, but savvy and articulate. You have to be great with people and have a plan. If a person can figure out a way to make that kind of money, they probably deserve it. Plus it’s not like these jobs are easy.</p>
<p>A university president is expected to rack in a LOT more than 1 million in donations/funding. Not to mention increase the prestige of the university measurably during his/her tenure which has no set monetary value but is still gold.</p>
<p>Looking at it that way I don’t see 1 million as out of the question.</p>
<p>$40 million for the Strayer University CEO though? Now that should raise some red flags -_-.</p>
<p>guys, I’m afraid I have bad news. Life is unfair.</p>
<p>Some of these Presidents are actually making more than reported. For example, Chancellor Cantor at Syracuse receives a 500,000 bonus which she gave back to the University as donations on top of another 1,000,000 donation. I’m pretty sure its not reported in her compensation.</p>
<p>I have news for you, the more you earn, the more you feel ‘entitled’ and ‘worthy’. In fact, the more you think you deserve more. Its a unique sickness of the human spirit. No person really is worth what they earn. Studies have been done about productivity, that is what people do during the day, not just the bottom line, and its shocking how many people spend 6 of their 8 hour day doing nothing. The worst offenders are executives. The most productive people are line manufacturing jobs. Basing a salary on the bottom line is ludicrous. The money actually belongs, legally, to the shareholders. The dirty secret of life is that the game of life is about how many people you can fool and how much money you can rip off. WallStreet is the worst. Glorified casino workers whose function is to be deceitful and steal as much as they can.</p>
<p>And I am NOT a liberal, nor marxist. I am a conservative and capitalist. </p>
<p>Part of what ailes our nation now is that we are fat, dumb and happy. We are overpaid. All of us. But nobody wants to be the fallguy. Nobody wants a cut in salary. </p>
<p>Further, the more we earn, the more we spend (or our spouses spend!). And then lifestyle becomes an expense. A big expense. Which is why so many doctors are in such financial straits. They may earn 500k a year, but they are spending almost that much. </p>
<p>Something has to give. To me the BEST place to start is with academics. We should examine their productivity by floor space. How many kids in the classroom and how much they are paid for square foot of space. And then run the college like a business, with productivity measures for them and the deans and the administration. </p>
<p>Off with their heads!</p>
<p>I think you have to differentiate between a president of a college (education facility for undergraduates) and a president of a University (graduate schools, undergraduate schools, medical center).</p>
<p>In the case of University of Pennsylvania, the college president is really a ceo of the largest employer in the state of Pennsylvania and in addition to running 4 undergraduate and 12 graduate schools also runs a major medical hospital as well as one of the largest Animal Hospitals in the Northeast. She also has fiduciary responsibility for millions of dollars of research grants. In a sense, she is running a large corporation and she should be reimbursed accordingly. </p>
<p>The same is true of many large Universities.</p>
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<p>Excellent idea! I think I have the perfect motto for it: “Publish or Perish”</p>
<p>@JanofLeiden</p>
<p>Especially not the ones that work the hardest, or have spent $200000+ on medical school (and save lives everyday), or provide the public with a vital necessity. They should get paid the least of all!</p>
<p>I think more significant is the growth. There was a CC thread on this 5 years ago. Apparently there were fewer back then.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/114646-guess-what-5-college-presidents-make-more-than-1-million-year.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/114646-guess-what-5-college-presidents-make-more-than-1-million-year.html</a></p>
<p>These aren’t exactly the biggest schools’ Presidents (E. Gordon Gee aside)</p>
<p>Presidents of large universities are like the CEOs of large companies. They have to manage-- and more importantly, take responsibility over–an institution that not only educates many students but serves as a major employer and often also runs a major medical center. They actually make less compared to similar CEOs. The sad part is that E Gordon Gee is probably the only one on the list who is not on the top of his university’s pay ladder (that honor goes to the football coach!).</p>
<p>This is part of the overall trend of rises at the top of the pay scale. The relation between professor versus president gets bigger, the difference between ordinary professor and star professor gets bigger, etc.</p>
<p>Academia is part of the broader US pattern in this way. For the same reason, I doubt universities in Europe would tolerate these levels of salaries or differences.</p>
<p>But hey, we are the US and we always think we know better how to do things, right? And it works well, for the elite. . .</p>
<p>If college presidents don’t make $1M then how can their staff make $500,000?</p>
<p>@JanofLeiden - Are you serious? Who are you to decide how much is “too much” to earn?</p>