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Des Moines Register
02/19/06
The rising price of a president
By KATHY A. BOLTEN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Money — lots of it — will play a key role in attracting and keeping the next
University of Iowa president.
David Skorton, who is leaving for Cornell University, is the fourth U of I president
in 19 years to be lured to a larger or more prestigious institution.
He'll make $675,000 at Cornell, more than twice his U of I salary. At $302,050 ,
Skorton's Iowa salary fell short of most presidents' compensation at comparable
universities, two national measures show. In fact, state universities in Nebraska,
Missouri and Oregon with smaller enrollments paid their presidents more than
what Skorton receives.
The Iowa Board of Regents risks seeing another short tenure for the next
president if the compensation package continues to lag, observers say.
"To try to secure the best leadership for the rest of this decade, it will require
competing in this market," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the
American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. "In many instances, you get
what you pay for."javascript:doFacts(3);
Marvin Pomerantz, a past Iowa regents president, was more blunt.
"We're in the Dark Ages when it comes to the way we pay people," he said.
Some faculty and students in Iowa City worry that the president's position is
becoming a steppingstone to similar but better-paying positions, creating
disruptions, causing faculty to leave, and making it difficult to attract top
professors and researchers.
The worries are warranted, Steinbach said. "It interferes with relationships on
campus. It interferes with the continuity of the contacts with state legislatures and
impairs fundraising.
"It can take years for a university to cultivate people who give gifts. The president
is a big part of that process."
The issue is one the regents will likely explore yet this spring, said Michael
Gartner, the board's current president. About a month ago the regents asked
their staff to compile a range of salaries of presidents at peer universities, he
said.
"I hope salary isn't a bar to getting good people as candidates," Gartner said. "I
think that we will try to find the very best man or woman we can find and then try
to work out the very best salary package we can work out."
The U of I president's position is among the top jobs in the state, and whoever
steps into the role will need top-notch fundraising skills and experience in
creating economic opportunities that will help Iowa's economy and population
grow, say faculty, students and regents. In addition, the president is instrumental
in ensuring that postsecondary education is financially accessible to students.
About 30,000 students attend the U of I, which has more than 13,000 employees,
a budget of $2.2 billion , and is considered the flagship of Iowa's three public
universities.
"High expectations" for new president
Whoever becomes the school's next president will oversee a major national
research university made up of 11 colleges offering more than 100
undergraduate majors, 107 study areas for graduate students, and seven
professional degrees such as engineering, law and nursing.
The university also operates the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of
Iowa Hospitals and Clinics . It boasts major sports teams that are nationally
ranked and routinely invited to participate in bowl games and end-of- the-season
tournaments.
In addition, thousands of people who affect Iowans' daily lives graduated from the
U of I. Three-fourths of the state's dentists and half of its physicians attended the
university. Teachers and administrators at 70 percent of Iowa's public school
districts were educated there.
"Any president coming in must understand the complexity of the university," said
Jay Sa-Aadu, a U of I finance professor. "And you add to this the numerous
stakeholders — faculty, students, staff, taxpayers. . . . We need to have a very
high expectations of this individual."
Despite those expectations, Skorton's U of I salary falls short of the average
compensation of presidents whose schools belong to the Association of
American Universities, a group of 62 schools that is devoted to academic
research and education. The average salary package of that group's public
universities was $348,738.
Skorton's pay is also less than the average compensation package of $378,666
for presidents or chancellors at 139 U.S. public universities, according to the
Chronicle of Higher Education's annual executive salary survey. So is the salary
of Robert Koob, president of the University of Northern Iowa, who receives
$242,610. Koob is retiring in June, and a search is under way for his
replacement.
Salary is important, but isn't the only thing
A university president often spends long hours on the job and frequently wears
many hats — administrator, fundraiser, representative, spokesman. The
president must understand university finances, academic expectations and
research missions, and must be facile at communicating and interacting with
students, parents, faculty, coaches and staff.
"We have to signal we want the best quality person we can get, and it takes more
money," Sa-Aadu said. "I doubt very much it would be a productive venture
thinking we could get someone at the same wage rate" Skorton now receives.
Rose Vasquez, an Iowa regent, said that while compensation packages are
important to attracting top candidates, so are other things. She cited Iowa's
quality of life and whether candidates' families like Iowa City and the state.
"Salary is a key issue, and we need to be mindful of it, but we also need to
remember these other things," she said.
Skorton, in an interview with the Des Moines Sunday Register, also said salary
isn't necessarily the only deciding factor for some university president job
candidates.
He said the compensation offered by Cornell, located in Ithaca, N.Y., was not the
main reason he accepted its offer. Instead, it was important that Cornell is a landgrant university — an institution geared toward serving its state's residents with
agricultural and other offerings. Cornell also operates a statewide extension
service. Also, the university is heavily involved with public outreach, including to
students, faculty and community members, Skorton said.
Still, "We're on the low side, and we should see what we can do to raise the
salary," said Robert Downer, president pro tem of the Iowa regents.
Compensation "may be important to attracting the caliber of person that is really
needed to head this very complex and high quality of institution."
Downer said increasing the compensation package for the president's job could
mean the university will attract a well-rounded candidate rather than one with
only one or two top-notch qualities.
Other compensation part of packages
In addition to his salary, Skorton receives an automobile allowance of $7,200,
which he puts in a scholarship fund for U of I students. Like most university
presidents, he lives in a house on campus. The university pays expenses, such
as utilities and upkeep.
Salary packages for public university presidents can include private contributions,
retention bonuses, deferred compensation and incentives paid when specific
goals are met. At Iowa State University in Ames, private donations pay for an
automobile for the president, but no private money is used in the U of I
compensation package.
Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges based in
Washington, D.C., said he doesn't think it's a good idea for a public university
president to be paid with public and private money. "It's a bad way to go — it
creates two sets of interests," he said.
Pomerantz, the former regents president and a Des Moines businessman, said
the state risks losing top leaders and educators if something isn't done to
increase salaries, not only of university presidents but also faculty. "We have
billion-dollar budgets; hopefully, we could find a few hundred thousand for
salaries," he said.
"Our problem is retention"
The average tenure of a university president is 6.6 years, according to an
American Council on Education survey. The respondents said their greatest
challenges were relationships with faculty, lawmakers and governing boards.
"Our problem is retention of excellent people," said Richard LeBlond, U of I
faculty president. "We need to provide a competitive salary package, but we also
need to do more to retain people. We need to make that position prosper — the
president needs wide latitude and a degree of independence."
In August, the regents voted to give the presidents of the state's two other
universities — UNI and ISU — 5 percent raises, while Skorton received a 3
percent increase. In addition, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy was given a
deferred compensation package of $60,000 a year. He can collect the money —
which will total at least $330,000 — if he stays at ISU until January 2011.
The move meant Skorton would have been paid $65,000 a year less than
Geoffroy, who leads a campus with about 25,700 students, 6,020 employees and
a budget of $949.32 million.
Pay not the reason, Skorton says
Skorton has said the difference in raises didn't play a part in his decision to leave
Iowa. In an interview last week, he said that when he was hired, he asked the
regents not to increase the pay from what the previous president had made.
"The average salary of the faculty at the University of Iowa is among the lowest
when compared to peer institutions. At the time (2003), tuitions were being raised
because of budget cuts," he said. "It wouldn't have been right" to accept a higher
salary.
"When the median family income in Iowa is around $45,000 and I make over
$300,000, it's hard to argue that is not a lot of money. It's very generous."
The pay of leaders at state universities is being discussed in other states, too.
California lawmakers are debating compensation packages for university
chancellors — similar to Iowa's university presidents. Wisconsin's Board of
Regents voted this month to raise the pay range of its 13 chancellors.
"The overall value of the (compensation package) is pretty competitive between
universities at this level," wrote Jennifer Bol, a consultant for the executive
search firm Spencer Stuart, in an e-mail response to questions from the Register.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education's survey, 53 of 139 public
university presidents receive compensation of $400,000 or more — and the
number in that category is growing.
Among those is Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan.
Coleman had been the U of I's president, receiving $281,875. She left in 2002 to
go to Michigan, where her annual compensation is $724,604, which includes a
$100,000 bonus if she completes her five-year contract in 2007.
Four U of I leaders lured away
Skorton is the fourth straight U of I president to be lured to a larger or more
prestigious institution.
James Freedman left in 1987 to became Dartmouth College's president. Hunter
Rawlings left in 1995 to head Cornell, and Coleman left in 2002 to be president at
the University of Michigan.
"There must be some people in Iowa that think the University of Iowa is like the
minor league — preparing people for their next step," said Steinbach, the
American Council on Education's general counsel. "I don't think that is saying
anything disparaging about Iowa — it just seems to be a good breeding ground in
the eyes of search committees at more prestigious institutions."
The main reason regents provided Geoffroy with a deferred compensation
package was to keep him from being lured away.
Gartner said if the right person is found for the U of I job, "you hope they settle
into this place for a long time. But you never know."