
Many private college presidents make $1 million - codegeek
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101275431
======
rayiner
U 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.

~~~
blisterpeanuts
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.

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jmduke
This 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.)

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grecy
With millions of your countrymen without basic health care, shelter and food,
you think it's not a problem that someone makes $1 million a year? Wow.

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a3voices
I think the solution is that everyone should get subsidized health care,
shelter, and food. I don't think you should need to work to have these things.

~~~
grecy
That's how it goes it many developed countries.

~~~
a3voices
I don't get why we have free public education, but not these other things
which are more essential.

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stevesearer
Having 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.

~~~
thenmar
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.

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saryant
The president at my university retired taking home $2.2 million his last year
in service, second-highest in the nation [1]. As an alum, I'm really not that
bothered because he raised >$250 million during his last three years in
office. He gets a cut of that.

[1] [http://www.texastribune.org/2010/11/15/texas-college-
preside...](http://www.texastribune.org/2010/11/15/texas-college-presidents-
made-over-1-million-in-08/)

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objclxt
...this doesn't bother me nearly as much as some people. Certainly not while
college football coaches earn _far_ more. The top ten highest paid football
coaches are all taking home $3.7 million+, and that's at _state_
universities[1]. Personally, I would value the university president more than
the football coach.

[1]:[http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1840036-usa-today-
reveals...](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1840036-usa-today-reveals-
college-football-head-coaches-salaries-for-every-fbs-school)

~~~
hnja
Universities make a boat load of money on football. It's important to have a
great coach.

~~~
chaz
Indeed. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciajessop/2013/08/31/the-
econ...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciajessop/2013/08/31/the-economics-of-
college-football-a-look-at-the-top-25-teams-revenues-and-expenses/)

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callmeed
Not surprised. Also, why single out private presidents?

FYI most California _Community College_ presidents (and there are over 100 of
them) make $200-300K per year.

The UC system president gets a $570K salary, a $10K/month housing stipend, and
$9k/year vehicle stipend [1].

[1] [http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/16/local/la-me-ln-uc-
re...](http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/16/local/la-me-ln-uc-
rental-20130916)

------
skloubkov
Reminds me of this:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html)

College presidents act as a face of an institution, paying someone extra
100,000 could mean bringing in millions extra in donations/tuitions/fees etc.
Big money attracts talent.

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jerf
The 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.)

~~~
rayiner
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.

~~~
jerf
My point is that it's not as if private colleges are paying out in the
millions while our frugal and humble public presidents get by on a paltry
$50,000/year, pouring everything into educating the student. Fiddly little
differences like this are no advantage to either side, irrelevant fractions of
a percent of either budget.

The whole thing about salaries seems like an attempt to distract from the
administrative bloat problem, which public universities have in spades. The
problem in either school isn't whether one employee out of thousands is being
paid a million dollars, the problem is that universities are paying a
staggering number of "administrators" $50-150K/year, when after decades of
computerization any sane person would expect the administrative load of
universities over the past several decades to be rapidly trending _down_ , not
up.

I haven't heard anyone criticize private universities for this; I infer with
weak confidence from this and the general politicization of private university
that do not have this problem.

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deadmike
Somewhere, Shirley Jackson chuckles...

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cantbecool
This is sensationalism. There are many college athletic coaches in state
schools being compensated over a million a year. Look at the recent contract
extension of Nick Saban at the University of Alabama.

~~~
steve-howard
And the justification for that is the same; these people bring in tons of
money.

First link I could find to support that:
[http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/03/report-
finds-a...](http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/03/report-finds-alumni-
giving-among-other-areas-correlated-football-success)

------
notdrunkatall
Supply and demand, supply and demand, supply and demand.

I wish more people understood this most basic law of economics.

If the supply of people who are both willing and able to handle the position
of university President is low, wages (which are the price of labor) will
rise, thus enticing those who are able but not willing to meet the demand. The
prevailing average wage rate for university Presidents is simply a reflection
of the price point at which the supply and demand curves of capable labor for
this position meet. Conversely, if there was an abundance of people who could
fulfill this position, wages would decrease commensurately. There is nothing
wrong with someone making $1 million, or $10 million, or $100 million for
performing a function, provided that wage is being offered to everyone who can
perform that function indiscriminately. Of course, a system made up of
imperfect agents will not function in a theoretically perfect fashion, but
this is more or less how things work. I'm sure that being the President of a
university is not without its myriad challenges, and it is unlikely that the
average Joe off of the street could perform this function well. Thus, wages
for university Presidents are going to be higher than the average Joe's wages.
The solution for the average Joe is not to attempt to bring down the wages of
the university President, but to aspire to become capable of performing the
function of the university President himself.

Simplistic? Perhaps, but sometimes it's advantageous to think of things in
simplistic terms. No one escapes the pot when everyone is being pulled back
down.

~~~
bradleyjg
That makes sense when the product in question faces a market test, but here
that condition doesn't apply. Almost all universities are organized such that
they are run by perpetual boards of directors, with only nominal oversight by
a state AG.

The selection process for such board seats is not designed, nor does it,
produce members whose incentives are identical to a hypothetical person
privately purchasing college president labor from among all available choices.

Among other things Presidents themselves, after a reasonable tenure, have
large influence on the composition of their boards.

~~~
humanrebar
How is this different than politics or nepotism within a private corporation
or charity?

What about postsecondary education will keep larger market forces (i.e.,
attendance rates and donation levels) from solving this problem?

~~~
bradleyjg
Educational markets move very slowly because almost all the value in a degree
comes from reputation effects, and those are mostly solidified for each person
when he is young. So they change as people die off rather than as the
underlying _res_ changes.

