These data are not directly comparable to those reported by The Chronicle for private nonprofit institutions. Those figures include many more categories, such as the value of various nontaxable benefits, are reported by calendar rather than fiscal year, and are taken from the IRS Form 990.

At some colleges, more than one president served during 2010-11. All people who served in the capacity of chief executive were used in the analysis, including interim leaders if they served for at least six months. Partial-year dollar amounts are reported for presidents who did not serve the entire year.

Partial-year presidents were excluded from analysis that compared presidential compensation with other variables, such as faculty salaries.

The Chronicle chose not to include year-over-year comparisons for individual presidents’ compensation packages because of slight changes to the questionnaire for 2010-11.

Data on endowments were obtained from the National Association of College and University Business Officers for the 2010-11 fiscal year. Data on fund raising were obtained from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for the 2010-11 fiscal year. Data on enrollments (fall 2010) and graduation rates (six-year rate for the 2004 cohort) were obtained from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Graduation rates were based on first-time, full-time students seeking a bachelor’s degree. Ipeds data were not available for all campuses and were omitted at systems that lack a clear main campus.

Data is for the main campus when the system and main campus share a president, although endowment data generally represents all branch campuses.

Revenues and expenditures are taken from Ipeds and are for 2009-10, the most recent year available. Revenues include all operating revenues, nonoperating revenues, and other additions such as capital appropriations. Expenditures reflect all operating and nonoperating expenses and deductions for the current fiscal year.

Faculty compensation for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which includes the average pay and benefits for full professors except medical-school faculty, was obtained from the American Association of University Professors. Not all colleges report the data to AAUP each year. These data are not perfectly comparable to the data The Chronicle collects on presidents’ pay, because the AAUP measures more components of total compensation, such as insurance premiums.

Robert Caldwell contributed research.

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