Dobelle disputes salary ranking

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

A survey of college presidential salaries counts the University of Hawai'i's Evan Dobelle as one of the 12 highest-compensated public university presidents in the country — if you include a potential $157,000-a-year "golden parachute" to his base salary of $442,000.

Evan Dobelle called the recent Chronicle of Higher Education salary report "misleading." Advertiser library photo

The report released this week found that the leaders of more than a quarter of the 131 public universities it surveyed earn more than $400,000 a year, and noted that the increasingly high salaries are indicative of stiff competition for top candidates at doctoral institutions.

Meanwhile, it points out that at private institutions, the million-dollar college president has arrived, with the compensation packages of four leaders of private universities topping $800,000 — and surpassing $1 million for three of them if income from their service on boards is included.

The report noted that salaries are rising in academia as boards hiring new leaders opt to push pay packages ever higher to attract candidates now expected to offer skills in fund-raising, academia, business and politics.

While the Chronicle survey lumps Dobelle among the top dozen presidents of public institutions with compensation packages above $500,000, Dobelle disputes the designation, and said he has complained to the publication.

"My salary is $442,000," he said. "The other part is money they would owe me after seven years if I wasn't renewed."

Dobelle's contract states that he would receive the $157,000 annually in "incentive" pay only if he is terminated after seven years or does not have his contract renewed for a remaining three years. If the contract continues, he does not get the money. Nor does he get it if he chooses to leave voluntarily.

The plan was designed when Dobelle was hired in 2001 as an incentive to keep him at the university for a full decade.

Trend criticized

University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle works at a stand-up desk in his office at Bachman Hall, on the Manoa campus. Advertiser library photo

It pointed out that in virtually every state, the big paychecks are coming in for criticism as opponents ask whether their tax dollars should go to administrative expenses or to teaching and research. Critics also question the growing gap between administrative pay and faculty salaries.

One-third of the presidents of public institutions surveyed receive supplements from private sources, a practice that also has drawn criticism, the Chronicle said. Private foundations are not held to the same standards of disclosure as public institutions using taxpayer dollars.

Dobelle noted that his UH salary is the same as what he received in his last position, at Trinity College — "I didn't ask for any more," he said — and it is all public money.

Last year, he turned down the automatic 6.3 percent pay raise — $28,000 — that all UH executives received in 2002.

"I have no side deals," he said. "Everything I get is public knowledge. Many, many college presidents have side contracts that are not public information."

With an annual salary and benefits package totaling $891,400, Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the private Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., was the top earner among college presidents last year, according to the survey.

That doesn't include her compensation for serving on eight corporate boards, which adds $591,000 a year, the Chronicle said.

While the pay at public universities doesn't reach those levels, the report said the $677,500 being paid in salary and benefits to the University of Michigan's Mary Sue Coleman this academic year puts her at the top of the list for public institution leaders.

Coleman is followed closely by University of Delaware President David Roselle, who will earn $630,654 this academic year, and Richard McCormick, who will receive $625,000 to head New Jersey's Rutgers University.

Meanwhile, on the private school list were Gordon Gee, president of Vanderbilt University in Nashville ($852,000), the University of Pennsylvania's Judith Rodin ($845,474) and Arnold Levine of Rockefeller University ($844,600), who has since resigned for health reasons.

During the 2001-02 fiscal year, the Chronicle said, the chief executives of 27 private schools received compensation exceeding $500,000.

David Harpool, the president of Argosy University in Chicago, criticized college boards that approve exorbitant salaries for their presidents while saddling students with tuition increases topping 10 percent.

"We don't apply any common-sense business principles to these decisions," said Harpool, the author of "Survivor College," a book that criticizes nonessential spending on college campuses.

Tuition increase modest

Tuition increases at the University of Hawai'i, however, have been among the lowest in the nation. The Manoa campus is in the midst of a five-year, phased-in tuition increase of approximately 3 percent per fiscal year through 2005-06.

Dobelle said again yesterday he had been "very strong" about not adding increases for people already in the system. "If we look to tuition increases, we look for people not in the system," he said.

The Chronicle compiled its salary data for private institutions by reviewing nonprofit tax forms filed by each school last year. The current salaries of state college and university presidents are determined by reviewing both nonprofit tax forms and the public budgets filed by each institution.

Associated Press Education Writer Steve Giegerich contributed to this report. Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.