Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
News

39 Private-College Leaders Earn More Than $1 Million

By Dan Bauman December 4, 2016
Jack P. Varsalona (left), of Wilmington U.; Mark S. Wrighton, of Washington U. in St. Louis; R. Gerald Turner, of Southern Methodist U.; Amy Gutmann, of the U. of Pennsylvania
Jack P. Varsalona (left), of Wilmington U.; Mark S. Wrighton, of Washington U. in St. Louis; R. Gerald Turner, of Southern Methodist U.; Amy Gutmann, of the U. of PennsylvaniaJason Minto, The News Journal, Washington U. in St. Louis, LM Otero, AP Photo, and Star Shooter, Media Punch, IPX

A total of 39 leaders of private colleges earned more than $1 million during the 2014 calendar year.

The number of leaders with compensation above $1 million was up from 32 the year before. The average pay of private-college leaders, including those who served partial years, was $489,927 in 2014. Among presidents who served the whole year, average pay was $512,987. Leaders who served full years in both 2013 and 2014 saw a pay increase of 8.6 percent.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

A total of 39 leaders of private colleges earned more than $1 million during the 2014 calendar year.

The number of leaders with compensation above $1 million was up from 32 the year before. The average pay of private-college leaders, including those who served partial years, was $489,927 in 2014. Among presidents who served the whole year, average pay was $512,987. Leaders who served full years in both 2013 and 2014 saw a pay increase of 8.6 percent.

The Chronicle analysis is based on the latest available federal tax filings, known as Form 990s, of the 500 private, nonprofit colleges with the largest endowments. The data include compensation figures for 516 presidents who served at 499 institutions for all or part of the 2014 calendar year. The year-over-year calculation includes 377 presidents. (Because this year’s analysis used averages rather than medians, 2014 figures may not be comparable with previously published figures.)

Jack P. Varsalona, president of Wilmington University, in Delaware, led the field in 2014 with a total compensation package of more than $5.4 million. Mark S. Wrighton, of Washington University in St. Louis, and R. Gerald Turner, of Southern Methodist University, were the next-highest earners.

Mr. Varsalona’s one-year pay package is the second largest, after adjusting for inflation, in The Chronicle’s interactive database of private-college leaders’ compensation, which includes figures since 2008. Only Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has earned more. She was paid $7.1 million in 2012.

University board chairs and college officials defended how much they pay their leaders, arguing that industry pressures and the unique demands on their specific chief executives necessitated significant compensation. Several chairmen echoed the same point: High-level compensation reflected high-level performance.

Nonetheless, seven-figure pay packages still raise concerns, especially as the cost of college continues to rise.

Executive Compensation at Private and Public Colleges

Exec Comp Fall 2016

Browse The Chronicle‘s executive-compensation package, which includes the latest data on more than 1,200 chief executives at more than 600 private and public colleges.

Richard K. Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics at Ohio University and director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, said there would continue to be “an increasing public disdain and contempt of universities for using taxpayer monies and more to pad their own pockets.” When tax-exempt colleges behave like for-profit companies, he adds, questions are bound to arise about whether colleges deserve those tax privileges. Mr. Vedder said institutions should take those critiques seriously.

“The last election showed that the conventional wisdom of what the establishment thinks or what the intellectual, cultural, political, and economic elites think may not resonate as much as you think with the broader population,” Mr. Vedder said, “and at some point that can come home to haunt you.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Among the highest-paid leaders, deferred-compensation plans made up a significant portion of earnings in 2014. More than $4.6 million of Mr. Varsalona’s total pay, for example, came from a deferred-compensation payout. Mr. Varsalona, who has led Wilmington University since 2005, has announced that he will retire at the end of June 2017.

Deferred-compensation plans are used commonly in higher education as a retention tool for top administrators. They work like this: A university sets aside money, tax-free, each year in a prescribed fund for the college leader, who may not withdraw any money from that fund until an agreed-upon date. Those earnings are typically forfeited if the employee resigns before the specified date. These arrangements usually complement a standard retirement plan, such as a 401(k).

Mr. Varsalona’s deferred-compensation package ranked second-highest in the history of The Chronicle’s executive-compensation analysis, exceeded only by the one paid out to Ms. Jackson, who in 2012 received nearly $5.9 million as deferred compensation.

Mr. Varsalona’s deferred-compensation arrangement called for him to be paid in full when he turned 65, barring termination or separation from the university. Joseph J. Farnan Jr., the chairman of Wilmington’s board, said the board was prepared to hold back deferred compensation, or even eliminate the deferred-compensation plan, if the institution experienced a budget deficit in any year or endured prolonged financial problems.

ADVERTISEMENT

Neither of those situations occurred during Mr. Varsalona’s tenure, Mr. Farnan said. And, in fact, the university’s student population and endowment both grew significantly under Mr. Varsalona’s direction, the chairman added, with student and faculty satisfaction remaining high.

In defending his chief executive’s compensation, Mr. Farnan invited comparison to pay rates for college basketball coaches. A president’s job is more complicated and wide-ranging than a coach’s, he said, and, thus, a president deserves to be paid more.

“I joke with Dr. Varsalona and say, We ought to start a Division I basketball program, because we could pay you $6 million and no one would blink an eye,” Mr. Farnan says, “and you would only be managing 15 students.”

Deferred compensation also made up most of the pay earned in 2014 by Mr. Wrighton, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Mr. Turner, of Southern Methodist University. Of Mr. Wrighton’s nearly $4.2 million in total compensation, nearly $3 million was the result of a deferred-compensation payment plan spanning 10 years. In a statement, Washington University said the deferred-compensation arrangement was put in place in 2004 after a recommendation from the compensation committee of the university’s Board of Trustees. The university said the committee settled on that arrangement after a review of the chancellor’s performance.

ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, of the nearly $3.4 million in total paid out to Mr. Turner, at least $2.2 million came in the form of deferred compensation that had been set aside in previous years. Michael M. Boone, chairman of Southern Methodist’s Board of Trustees, said the university had chosen to use a deferred-compensation arrangement to help retain Mr. Turner during the period in which the college was executing a strategic plan. The plan, Mr. Boone said, “prospered during Dr. Turner’s two decades of extraordinary service, and we look forward to many more highly successful years under Dr. Turner’s leadership.”

Deferred-compensation packages weren’t the only means to a high presidential payout in this year’s analysis. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, earned a bonus of close to $1.5 million, bringing her total pay to almost $3 million in 2014. Ms. Gutmann earned the fourth-largest total compensation package in 2014.

Ms. Gutmann’s bonus is the second-largest ever awarded to a public or private college president since The Chronicle has been tracking executive compensation. She was also the recipient of the largest bonus, again nearly $1.5 million, earned in 2013.

“The bonus compensation that Dr. Gutmann received is attributable to the successful completion of her performance goals and her leadership of the university’s very successful capital campaign, which exceeded its goal by $800 million,” said David L. Cohen, chairman of Penn’s Board of Trustees. “As I have said in the past, the trustees feel strongly that we have the best university president in the country in Amy Gutmann, and we believe her compensation should reflect that reality.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Some private institutions, including Brigham Young University’s campuses in Utah, Idaho, and Hawaii, cite a religious exemption from filing Form 990 and are therefore not included in The Chronicle’s analysis.

The Chronicle surveys the pay of public-college leaders separately, publishing new data and analysis each spring. The figures for public colleges are not directly comparable to data reported for private colleges because they reflect slightly different categories of pay and different periods of time.

The most-recent analysis of public-college leaders who served the full year found their average pay to be $467,533 in the 2015 fiscal year. That was a 6.1-percent increase from the year before for leaders who served for both full fiscal years.

Dan Bauman is a reporter who investigates and writes about all things data in higher education. Tweet him at @danbauman77 or email him at dan.bauman@chronicle.com.

A version of this article appeared in the December 9, 2016, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Leadership & Governance
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Bauman_Dan.jpg
About the Author
Dan Bauman
Dan Bauman is a reporter who investigates and writes about all things data in higher education. Tweet him at @danbauman77, or email him at dan.bauman@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Illustration showing a letter from the South Carolina Secretary of State over a photo of the Bob Jones University campus.
Missing Files
Apparent Paperwork Error Threatens Bob Jones U.'s Legal Standing in South Carolina
Pro-Palestinian student protesters demonstrate outside Barnard College in New York on February 27, 2025, the morning after pro-Palestinian student protesters stormed a Barnard College building to protest the expulsion last month of two students who interrupted a university class on Israel. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Campus Activism
A College Vows to Stop Engaging With Some Student Activists to Settle a Lawsuit Brought by Jewish Students
LeeNIHGhosting-0709
Stuck in limbo
The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH
Protesters attend a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025, in New York.
First-Amendment Rights
Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions

From The Review

Vector illustration of a suited man with a pair of scissors for a tie and an American flag button on his lapel.
The Review | Opinion
A Damaging Endowment Tax Crosses the Finish Line
By Phillip Levine
University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky
Photo-based illustration depicting a close-up image of a mouth of a young woman with the letter A over the lips and grades in the background
The Review | Opinion
When Students Want You to Change Their Grades
By James K. Beggan

Upcoming Events

07-31-Turbulent-Workday_assets v2_Plain.png
Keeping Your Institution Moving Forward in Turbulent Times
Ascendium_Housing_Plain.png
What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin