Tilghman's pay neared $800K during 2007-08 year

Tilghman’s pay — including her $738,432 salary as well as $45,027 in benefits and deferred compensation — stood at $783,459 in the 2007-08 academic year, the most recent year for which tax filings are publicly available. The amount marked a 5.5 percent increase over her 2006-07 compensation package, which totaled $742,444.

In addition to compensation, Tilghman also had an expense account totaling $76,810 for the 2007-08 year.

But Tilghman received only the fourth-highest pay among University employees. Coming in first was Andrew Golden, president of the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), whose compensation package amounted to $1,911,659, a 23.9 percent increase from the year before.

PRINCO managing director Jonathan Erickson made $1,074,849, while Daniel Feder, who is also a PRINCO managing director, earned $971,097.

“As a policy, the University does not discuss issues of personnel or compensation,” University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said in an e-mail Tuesday evening.

The salaries of top Princeton administrators are determined on a year-to-year basis by a compensation committee composed of members of the University Board of Trustees.

Stephen Oxman ’67, who chairs the executive committee of the board, told The Daily Princetonian in November 2005 that Tilghman’s salary was performance-based.

“The compensation committee reviews [her] performance and her salary annually and, among other things, looks at salaries of people in comparable positions,” he said. “Salary is determined based on performance, and performance has a lot of different dimensions, and we try to look at all of them as fairly as possible.”

Ivy League comparison

Tilghman ranked sixth in total compensation among Ivy League presidents during the 2007-08 academic year, according to each institution’s tax filings.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger was the highest-paid Ivy president, receiving a compensation package worth $1,380,035. Penn President Amy Gutmann, who served as Princeton’s provost from 2001 to 2004, was the second-highest-paid Ivy League president, receiving $1,225,103.

Yale President Richard Levin, the longest-serving president in the Ivy League, made $1,179,332, while Cornell President David Skorton earned $836,382. Brown president Ruth Simmons, who served as a vice provost at Princeton from 1992 to 1995, made $818,462.

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Two presidents earned less than Tilghman: Harvard President Drew Faust, who assumed her position in November 2007, earned $693,739. James Wright, who served as president of Dartmouth College from 1998 until last July, made $603,983 during the 2007-08 academic year.

On average, the eight Ivy League presidents earned roughly $940,000 in compensation.

Compensation on campus

Like Tilghman, provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 is the sixth-highest-paid Ivy League official with his position. His compensation package totaled $514,814 for the 2007-08 academic year.

Executive Vice President Mark Burstein earned $497,159, while Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69 received $384,489 in total compensation. Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, who served as dean of the Wilson School from 2002 until last January, made $493,421.

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel was not among the administrators listed on the filing.

Federal law requires all nonprofit organizations, including universities, to disclose annually the total compensation of its officers, trustees, directors, key employees and five other employees making greater than $100,000 with the Internal Revenue Service.