2 presidents in Washington are among the nation’s highest paid
The Boards of Regents of both the University of Washington and Washington State University will meet in Pullman, Wash., when the two universities’ football teams collide later this month. Although the intrastate rivals will be nowhere near the top of any football standings (they are a collective 1-18 this season), the boards helped put the two institutions high on another list: They have two of the highest-paid presidents in the country.
Mark A. Emmert, Washington’s president, brought in $887,870 in total compensation last year, making him the second-highest-compensated public-university president, according to The Chronicle’s executive-compensation survey. Washington State’s Elson S. Floyd is not far behind. His 2007-8 compensation, $623,000, did not include a $125,000 raise he received in August, which would make him the country’s sixth-highest-compensated public-university president. (Without the bump, his base salary was already the third highest among public-college leaders.)
While the University of Washington’s leaders have been perennial figures at the top of the list, Washington State’s have not. “The University of Washington is a huge enterprise. Washington State has excellent programs but is not in the same category,” said Raymond D. Cotton, a lawyer who has negotiated numerous contracts for university presidents. “They’re sort of like Avis. They have to try harder, but it’s where they want to get.”
That sibling rivalry seems to have, in part, fueled the high salaries in the Evergreen State. Mr. Emmert was a hot commodity when he arrived at Washington in 2004, having helped increase state financing by more than 25 percent in his five years as chancellor of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Just three years later, Washington State lured Mr. Floyd, then president of the four-campus University of Missouri system, with a base salary that now more than doubles that of Washington State’s previous president.
“We look at the University of Washington and say, ‘Where are they?’” said Fran X. Forgette, chair of the Washington State Board of Regents, when talking about Mr. Floyd’s $125,000 raise. “Looking at the salary package for Mark Emmert, we said that our guy’s done more in one year than we could have hoped for, and we need to reward him for that.”
So far, the competition seems to have worked out for both institutions. Mr. Emmert helped Washington rake in $1-billion in research money for the first time in a single year, while Washington State landed its largest private grant ever: $25-million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to finance the university’s new School for Global Animal Health, a project that Mr. Floyd had pushed.
“I have heard, ‘Geez, nobody ought to make that much,’” said David Lovell, chair of the University of Washington’s Faculty Senate. “But I’ve also heard people say [Mr. Emmert] is worth every penny.”
Even more striking than the confluence of high salaries has been a lack of the outcry that often follows revelations of big pay. When Mr. Emmert received the first of two raises two years after landing at Washington, a Seattle Times headline asked, “Will $100,000 raise be enough to keep UW’s Emmert?”
“The Seattle Times will run a story and there’s a few letters to the editor saying, ‘Isn’t this terrible,’ and then nothing happens,” said Dan Luchtel, former chair of Washington’s Faculty Senate. “It takes a crisis to move a faculty, and this did not seem to be an issue that moved people.”
That lack of rancor comes despite state budget trimming that will force cuts of $10-million at the University of Washington and $6-million at Washington State University this year. But those involved say talented and well-compensated executives are something the state has grown content with.
“There is no benefit to saving a few thousand bucks and winding up with mediocre talent,” said Craig W. Cole, chair of the University of Washington Board of Regents. “With organizations like Boeing, Microsoft, and a very large biotech industry, the region places a very high value on higher education and understands it’s best to have the best talent.”
http://chronicle.com Section: Executive Compensation Volume 55, Issue 13, Page B12