A $1 million salary appears to be an amount reserved for the nation's top CEOs. However, according to a new survey, the presidents of the best private universities also collect over $1 million in salary- and sometimes three times that amount.
The survey, released Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education, found that in 2011, 42 private college presidents collected more than $1 million in pay and benefits. The 2011 number is a 17 percent increase from the year before, NJ.com reported.
Former Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow earned $2.2 million. Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, collected $2.3 million. University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer earned the most. His salary, including compensation, was almost $3.4 million, the survey said. Part of Zimmer's compensation package gave more money just for remaining president, NJ.com reported.
A lot of the college presidents manage budgets that were more than $1 billion, the survey said.
"In the grand scheme of a given college's budget, $1 million for the president may not amount to much," Jack Stripling, a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, told NJ.com. "But those types of numbers still tends to set people off, which is a testament to the symbolic power of executive pay."
The Chronicle of Higher Education, looked at the latest tax returns available for 500 private universities. Usually the salaries of presidents at private institutions are seldom talked about. That's changing, thanks to rising tuition costs that increase pressure on colleges to reveal where the money is spent, NJ.com reported.
Some college officials say the students profit from paying the tuition.
"Those students entering the workforce had an average starting salary of $66,000," Ed Stukane, vice president of communications and marketing at the Stevens Institute of Technology, told NJ.com.
Boston University President Robert A. Brown collected a $1.4 million salary in 2011. A spokesman for BU told The Boston Globe that the university greatly benefited Brown's leadership
"He's certainly well worth it, BU spokesman Colin Riley told The Boston Globe.
