Charts: When College Presidents Are Paid Like CEOs
It’s been a tough few years for people working in higher ed: As the recession hit, pay for faculty stagnated, and schools have been struggling with budget cuts and the rising cost of providing education. There’s one notable exception to this trend: Pay (and perks) for college presidents is on the rise. There are a lot of possibilities as to why this is happening, and none of them make the world of higher education look very good.
Read a list of the 10 most ridiculous perks given to college presidents and celebrity profs.
In the past, universities have made the case that incentives—often in the form of exit bonuses, deferred compensation, and loan forgiveness—are necessary to attract top talent, particularly highly skilled, and oftentimes high-profile, administrators. Yet some incentives simply cross the line, says Claire Potter, a professor at the New School who writes frequently about salaries for college administrators. Providing faculty with mortgages for homes is a common practice, she explains, but a few colleges have taken to forgiving those mortgages, essentially turning a loan into a cash payment. “There are two kinds of mortgages in play,” Potter says. “One is the type that the university cosigns for you to get faculty in. The other is to give them a mortgage that essentially puts money in people’s pockets.”