When Jack Wilson stepped down as president of the University of Massachusetts on June 30, 2011, he went on paid leave for a year at full salary, $425,000, with an agreement that he would return as a professor at UMass Lowell at an annual salary of $261,000, comparable to what provosts receive in the UMass system.
This package apparently raised some hackles, because the chairman of the Board of Trustees asked for a review by the board’s compensation committee, which in turn sought an opinion from an outside expert on higher ed compensation. The consultant concluded that Wilson’s post-presidential compensation was “within the norms of practice in higher education for large public universities” and “well within the range of what long-serving, successful presidents of comparable public universities receive when they step down and return to the faculty.” Or as the UMass news release put it, Wilson’s deal was “consistent with standard higher education practice.”
We bring this up so you can start acclimating yourself to the language you are likely to hear when UVM trustees explain the compensation package for the incoming president. “Consistent with standard practice” and “well within the range for comparable universities” is the typical lingo. You already heard language like that when UVM board chair Rob Cioffi responded to the “significant amount of anger” that he acknowledged having heard about the package Dan Fogel received when he stepped down: full presidential salary of $322,563 for 17 months, plus various other presidential perks (monthly housing and car allowances, among others).
“I recognize that it’s a lot of money,” Cioffi said back in August, “but in the national marketplace for university presidents it is not all out of line.” He contended that the deal “is still modest in terms of presidential agreements nationally.”
The next UVM president might very well come in with a salary higher than Fogel’s (which ranked in just the 31st percentile, according to one UVM survey of presidential pay). Whomever the trustees pick is likely to retain a lawyer to negotiate the compensation package, as trustees learned a few months ago when they were counseled on “best practices” in presidential compensation. (And if precedent is any guide, remember that Fogel came in at a higher salary — about 50 percent higher — than the president he succeeded, Judith Ramaley.) But you should be surprised if the UVM trustees fail to say that the next president’s compensation package is consistent with “best practices” in higher education, or well “within the range” that presidents of comparable institutions receive.
