Penn president Amy Gutmann and her husband Michael Doyle have made two donations to Penn recently. The first gift of $150,000 is to be used for financial aid, Penn spokeswoman Lori Doyle said in an e-mail. The second gift of $100,000, made last month, will support undergraduate research through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at Penn.
“I want more Penn students, regardless of their future career plans, to experience the thrill that Michael and I have had in our academic research,” Gutmann, who served as Princeton’s provost from 2001 to 2004, said in a statement.
Doyle noted that in addition to her gift, “Gutmann has decided not to take any base-salary increase this year.”
Gutmann received a 40 percent increase in her salary and benefits from 2006 to 2007, bringing her total compensation to slightly more than $1 million, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Among Ivy League presidents, her compensation is second only to Columbia president Lee Bollinger, who received $1.4 million in the 2006-07 academic year.
President Tilghman, who made $742,444 in the same timeframe, has not made any public gifts or announced any changes to her salary.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be discussing those issues publicly,” she said. “Those are issues between myself and the compensation committee of the University.”
Presidents of public universities have also given money to their institutions.
Rutgers president Richard McCormick donated the amount of his annual bonus, $100,000, back to Rutgers for financial aid. He and his wife will pay the gift over the course of five years.
McCormick made the donation this summer, before the economic turmoil deepened. In light of recent developments, “it feels even more now that it was the right decision,” he said in an interview with the Chronicle.
Likewise, University of Connecticut president Michael Hogan refused his raise this year, estimated at $100,000, according to the Chronicle.
Hogan’s decision was praised in the university community, and he received thank you e-mails and supportive editorials in local newspapers.
According to The New York Times, Washington University in St. Louis chancellor Mark Wrighton will take a 5 percent cut from his salary on Jan. 1, followed by a second 5 percent cut on July 1. University of Washington president Mark Emmert, the second-highest-paid public-university president, also turned down his raise this year.
The salaries of administrators in higher education have attracted criticism as their institutions face falling endowment values and shortfalls in state funding.
“People are getting tuition increases; some faculty are facing layoffs — it just doesn’t look too good for presidents, no matter how capable they are, to be getting so much money,” said Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, according to the Times.
“Americans have had a touching faith in higher education; it’s losing its good image with the public,” he added.
According to the Chronicle, the median salary for presidents of public universities in the 2007-08 academic year was $427,400, a 7.8 percent increase from the year before.
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