The Daily Free Press

Marlesse Marino

In an effort to maintain funds before the financial crisis hit critical mass, many colleges and universities nationwide tightened their budgets, curtailed campus construction and even laid off employees, but they all stopped short of docking the salaries of their presidents.

The salaries of college and university presidents at public institutions surged 7.6 percent during the 2007-08 fiscal year, while presidential salaries at private institutions during fiscal year 2006-07, the latest dataset that was available, climbed over 6 percent, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle released its annual survey Monday detailing the compensation of presidents of national colleges and universities.

The raises, which are about 2.6 percentage points above the inflation rate for the same year, came at the same time as skyrocketing tuition, while congressional leaders fight to increase the allotment of financial assistance to students already overburdened with loan debt.  BU’s increased 6.4 percent this fall. 

“As the pay for high level administrators increases, so does tuition and the cost of education for students,” Gregory Cendana, vice president of the lobbying organization United States Student Association, said. “It is really disappointing that the burden is always placed on the students from working class families. The questions that we ask [are]: where is our relief? Where is our bailout?”

Though many salary contracts were signed before the market’s massive downswing, Cendana thinks the price of tuition and presidents’ salaries will continue to rise. 

Federal lawmakers have also expressed concern about presidential pay increases at a time when tuition prices surpass the national inflation rate.

“In these hard economic times, apparently belt-tightening is for families and students, not university presidents,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said in a Nov. 17 press release.

Center for College Affordability and Productivity Director Richard Vedder said institutions that award their presidents with seven-figure pay packages are competing in an “academic arms race” to move up in rankings.

“They think they need a superstar leader,” he said. “A president that can charm people, cajole people, bribe people…[can do] whatever it takes to get the money and is very good at it, is worth his or her weight in gold.”

In Boston, Suffolk University President David Sargent is the nation’s highest-paid university president after receiving a $2.8 million pay package in 2006-2007, according to the Chronicle.

Suffolk University representatives were unavailable for comment at press time.

Vedder questioned the necessity to award $2 million to a university president.

“There is absolutely no educational gain whatsoever,” Vedder said. “How is the money advancing higher education? How is it advancing Suffolk U to give somebody a $1 million goodbye present?  It is absolutely beyond what is acceptable.”

Though some college leaders, like those at Rutgers University and the University of Connecticut, have refused bonuses or turned down raises to help financial matters, organizations still clamor for more transparency regarding how schools spend their money.

“If there is enough money for universities to pay salaries that are this high, then where is the rest of the money going?” Cendana said. “Tuition continues to increase, but there is still a lack of student services, and students are sitting on the floors in their classrooms.”