Dive Brief:
- The Chronicle of Higher Education has released its 2012-2013 public college executive compensation list, topped by former Ohio State University President Gordon Gee at $6.1 million.
- The top three earners on the list are ex-presidents of the institutions they are mentioned alongside, and were all recipients of sizeable “parting packages” as they quit: Gee, Bowen Loftin at Texas A&M University, and Hamid Shirvani at North Dakota University.
- Ranked by compensation per $1 million in total school expenditures, the highest paid president on the list was Mickey Burmin at Bowie State University. His pay was $308,265, or $3,805 per every $1 million of the school’s $81 million in total expenditures.
Dive Insight:
The lowest pay on the list of 256 goes to Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge’s King Alexander, at $14,684, though it’s for only part of a position that was eliminated on July 1. The median pay for the 2012-13 list was $478,896, compared to $441,392 for 2011-12. No. 1 on that list, Graham Spanier ($2.9 million), was also a departed president, having been fired from Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.
