PSU president ranks fifth in pay, survey says

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

Penn State president Graham Spanier is the fifth-highest-paid public-college president in the country, a new survey found.

The Chronicle of Higher Education report released Sunday night found it cost Penn State more than $800,500 to employ Spanier. That figure includes annual base pay, deferred compensation and retirement contributions.

The Chronicle’s yearly survey comes as Spanier and students protest Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposal to slash in half public funding to Penn State and 17 other schools. Spanier, Penn State’s leader since 1995, is one of the nation’s longest-tenured college presidents.

“The timing is certainly awkward, and any discussion of my salary, which I consider to be very generous, feels peculiar for someone who grew up in a poor family,” Spanier wrote Monday in an email to The Associated Press. Spanier noted his salary is set by the university’s board of trustees.

Spanier has donated more than $1 million back to the university, said university spokesman Geoff Rushton.