Not that it was good, but this made slightly more sense during the credit bubble years since money was falling from the sky. Today as college tuition is being hit with double digit increases, it's going to be much more hard to stomach. There's nothing wrong with making lots of money and teachers have historically been undervalued but college presidents sound too much like corporate CEOs. It didn't pass the smell test before and during these economic times, it really stinks. Pay consultants strike again.
A record 23 presidents received more than $1 million in total compensation in fiscal 2008, according to an analysis of the most recently available data published Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education. A record one in four in the study of 419 colleges' mandatory IRS filings made at least $500,000.
Topping the list is Shirley Ann Jackson at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., whose total compensation the Chronicle pegged at nearly $1.6 million. She was followed by David Sargent at Suffolk University in Boston, who made $1.5 million. However, one-third of his compensation had been reported as deferred compensation last year and counted as salary this year — an example of the difficulty of making straightforward compensation comparisons.
