To the Editor:
Your article, “39 Private-College Leaders Earn More Than $1 Million,” (The Chronicle, December 4) states, “The average pay of private-college leaders, including those who served partial years, was $489,927 in 2014.” That’s a jaw-dropping number. It’s also clearly an inaccurate statement.
The article states that the salary figure is the average of just 500 presidents, a number less than one-third of the approximately 1,600 private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the United States. Additionally, the article notes that the college and university leaders were identified because they were leaders of the 500 wealthiest private institutions. While presidential salary and university endowment size aren’t directly linked, it’s logical to assume there is some correlation.
A complete analysis of all presidential salaries would likely result in an average salary figure significantly lower than The Chronicle’s stated amount. In fact, there’s already some evidence that’s true: A study of 692 private, four-year institutions, conducted in February by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, found the average salary to be $377,261 – or more than $112,000 lower than the Chronicle’s figure.
Neither amount, of course, is completely accurate, as neither analyzes all the data, which is surprising since almost every private, nonprofit college or university in the United States discloses their president’s compensation via public tax records. Those records are now freely available via sources such as GuideStar, removing what was historical the most significant barrier to undertaking a complete analysis: Having to individually request every single institution’s IRS Form 990.
An analysis of what the 500 highest paid private college leaders made is a worthwhile endeavor, but it should be framed and presented more honestly than it was in this article. And The Chronicle, likely the most prolific source of higher-education news and analysis, should be conducting more comprehensive examinations of issues like this, especially given how widely available the data is in this day and age.
What does the average private college president make? Right now, no one seems to know.
PJ Neal
Cambridge, Mass.
