College Presidents with Million-Dollar Salaries
Thirty college presidents earned over $1 million in the 2008 fiscal year, according to a salary report by The Chronicle of Higher Education. That’s quite a jump from the previous year’s 23.
On the other hand, 78 percent of college chiefs’ salaries were under $600,000 in 2008 and roughly half of them received less than $400,000. In 2007, 82 percent of the presidents’ compensation packages were under $600,000, and 58 percent received less than $400,000.
“As usual, there are a few outliers,” Jeffrey Selingo said, editor of The Chronicle. “When looking at the very big numbers, there’s always a lot of reasons why those people got such high compensation packages.”
With kickbacks of more than $50 million, Selingo gathered salary data from the tax filings of 448 private colleges. The Chronicle’s survey comes at a time of increased tuition rates amid an economic crisis, and it’s likely that this report will spark debates on whether or not college presidents are paid too much.