The Biggest Campus Paycheck May Not Be the President's
By JEFFREY BRAINARD
The Chronicle February 27, 2009
Congress and other watchdogs have grilled colleges in recent years for what some regard as the excessive pay of their chief executives. But presidents and chancellors are a minority of the highest-compensated college employees, a Chronicle analysis has found.
Chief executives accounted for only 11 out of 88 private-college employees who made $1-million or more in the 2006-7 fiscal year. And only 90 presidents and chancellors numbered among the 293 who earned $500,000 or more. Many of the others drawing the biggest paychecks were medical-school administrators or professors with highly specialized skills.
Even the most highly paid private-college president in 2006-7 - E. Gordon Gee, then at Vanderbilt University, who earned $2.1 million - made less than two medical administrators there.
