Many private college presidents make $1 million
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#2[deleted]
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#3U of C has an endowment of about $6.6 billion. Much of the job of the President of the University is to raise money for this fund. In any other context, $3.4 million/year for the chief fundraiser of a $6.6 billion fund would not cause anyone to bat an eyelash. Since 2000, despite two major economic downturns, U of C's endowment almost doubled, from $3.8 billion. About half that time was during Zimmer's tenure, and his fundraising activity undoubtedly had a major impact on that growth, especially given the impact of the downturns on investment returns.
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#4The median base salary for private was $301,299, the median base salary for public was $441,392. The slant the headline suggests is not well supported by the actual numbers, carefully hidden in the last paragraph. (The article itself is useful enough, I'm specifically criticizing what I feel is the slant they are trying to convey.)
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#5The median base salary for private was $301,299, the median base salary for public was $441,392. The slant the headline suggests is not well supported by the actual numbers, carefully hidden in the last paragraph. (The article itself is useful enough, I'm specifically criticizing what I feel is the slant they are trying to convey.)
The article does mention "Presidents at 42 private colleges scaled the $1 million annual mark in total pay and benefits in 2011". So while the base compensation was 400K, the total comp. touched a million for most of them.
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#6The median base salary for private was $301,299, the median base salary for public was $441,392. The slant the headline suggests is not well supported by the actual numbers, carefully hidden in the last paragraph. (The article itself is useful enough, I'm specifically criticizing what I feel is the slant they are trying to convey.)
I imagine public universities can't pay out the same kind of bonuses and the like, because of state rules, and have higher base salaries to compensate.
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#7Having gone to a private university with a highly paid (probably not 1M+) president, this is unsurprising to me.
University presidents and the vision + fundraising prowess they bring to these schools can be pretty amazing. The school I attended was quite small with a mediocre array of programs and athletics. After 10+ years of the current president's shepherding, the school has undergone a transformation in student body size, program depth, and athletic accomplishment.
All of these things mean more students in the future and an increased alumni pride - both of which mean more revenue to the school.
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#8This isn't an issue, despite the article's implication otherwise. Being a president of a college isn't exactly a low-impact position: in addition to being a public emissary to the college, they send the majority of their time on the road, raising money for their endowment. Colleges who offer poor compensation for their presidents will generally receive a commensurate return on their investment (though I'd love to see a normalized graph of presidential salary to yearly fundraising, as a point of comparison.)
(If you're interested in examining bloat and waste in universities, I recommend faculty-to-administrator ratio as a jumping-off point.)
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#9Having gone to a private university with a highly paid (probably not 1M+) president, this is unsurprising to me. University presidents and the vision + fundraising prowess they bring to these schools can be pretty amazing. The school I attended was quite small with a mediocre array of programs and athletics. After 10+ years of the current president's shepherding, the school has undergone a transformation in student b…
Yeah I think you're right. If anything it's the endless list of deans making $200k that we should be looking at, not the president.
Re: Many private college presidents make $1 million
#10U of C has an endowment of about $6.6 billion. Much of the job of the President of the University is to raise money for this fund. In any other context, $3.4 million/year for the chief fundraiser of a $6.6 billion fund would not cause anyone to bat an eyelash. Since 2000, despite two major economic downturns, U of C's endowment almost doubled, from $3.8 billion. About half that time was during Zimmer's tenure, and hi…
Agreed. A relative of mine has done college presidencies and her main job was to visit wealthy alums and sweet talk them into more donations.
There are actually a lot of small, financially distressed colleges out there that pay their presidents about $120K or $160K, and hope they'll raise more money for the school not to mention attract in more students.
The picture is rather grim these days for many small liberal arts schools. I hope they can pull through but it's like everything else--the small newspapers, the mom-and-pop stores, the small publishers and broadcasters are all being squeezed out by mega chains and online options.