5 college chiefs are paid $1M+

Associated Press

BOSTON

Pay for public college presidents continued to climb in 2015, and a growing number of chiefs topped the $1 million mark, according to results from a new study.

The median total pay for public university presidents reached $431,000 in the 2015 fiscal year, an increase of 4.3 percent over the year before, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Five presidents were paid packages of more than $1 million, up from two presidents in the previous year and three in 2013.

Topping the list was Renu Khator, who was paid $1.3 million to serve as both chancellor of the University of Houston system and president of its Houston campus.

She was followed by Michael Gottfredson, former president of the University of Oregon; Michael Young, president of Texas A&M University’s flagship campus; William McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas system and a retired United States Navy admiral; and Mark Becker, president of Georgia State University.

The pay for Gottfredson, who resigned in 2014, includes a $940,000 severance package. Young and McRaven started their jobs in 2015, and their pay reflects the portions of the year that they worked. Officials at the University of Houston say that both Young and McRaven will surpass Khator in pay during the current fiscal year.

“I can say unequivocally that Chancellor Khator’s salary is appropriate based on her stellar track record and the achievements she has helped the UH system and the University of Houston obtain,” Tilman Fertitta, chairman of the University of Houston’s board of regents, wrote in a letter in response to the Chronicle survey.

But critics question whether colleges should be raising pay for their presidents at a time when schools face increasing pressure to rein in costs.