the equivalent of 150 full ride students’ tuition. sickening beyond retching.
That was for the year she received a large one-time bonus for staying as President of RPI for 10 years.
The next year, she was not in the Top 10 of college presidents for either total compensation or base salary:
http://chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=table_private_2013
(Not really defending her pay, because I think it is way too high also. Just explaining that one-year anomaly.)
I don’t think her pay is out of line with the position responsibilities. Really need to see what sort of all encompassing position a university president is. One woman I know that tried it, at UC Santa Cruz jumped to her death after a year. Its not for the faint of heart, university president positions. First, a candidate needs a PhD in a tough field and RPI’s president has a Physics PhD. from MIT. Then teaching and research and administrative experience. By all measures RPI’s president is way way above average given the rank of the school, the new innovative programs like the summer Bridge, and the funding at RPI from IBM, Corning, and the programs in computing with Lawrence LIvermore Labs. Why critic a person’s salary without understanding what her job really is? Its day and night fund raising, PR, dealing with unions, hiring and firing deans, and on and on and on. So yes, it pays well.
For a NON-profit organization, it’s waaaaay out of line.
http://www.forbes.com/top-charities/list/
The base salary of CEO of:
American Cancer Soc $1.4M
American Red Cross $600k
Salvation Army $560
United Way $350k
I have absolutely no problem with her salary (which in actuality is much less than 7million)
She worked hard to get where she is. She’s done great things for the school. Living the American Dream & I hope for the same opportunity for my kids.
Hardwork pays off. Lesson learned.
Need to compare her salary to Carnegie Mellon’s President. NOT United Way, as the two jobs are very different. If RPI wants to improve its endowment, and I know it does, it needs a very well compensated leader who is well respected by the faculty and alumni. Alumni essentially make the endowment, so her job is to reach out to them, and at the same time keep improving RPI so that the next generation of alumni donate money. Its difficult. The job of University President in no way resembles Health nonprofits. This is a job in education, much more difficult in my mind.