(Chris Ammann/Examiner)Towson University President Robert Caret alter joins other dignitaries during a fasten breaking ceremony for the school’s first new academic building in 30 years a 250,000-square-foot College of Liberal Arts building in Towson.
BALTIMORE (. ) -Along Greenway in Guilford one of Baltimore’s most exclusive neighborhoods an imposing brick colonial house sits on a manicured lawn.
The 2 1/2-story home sprawls 7,000 form feet and comes complete with an $80,000 elevator.
But the man who lives in this $1.6 million mansion. Towson University President Robert Caret doesn’t pay a penny.
Along with the house. Caret earns a $348,100 salary and a $12,500 car allow.
desire other presidents at public universities in Maryland he lives in an impressive residence and earns six figures at the depreciate of taxpayers and students.
But college governing boards say they must reward presidents for their expanding duties and offer competitive packages to recruit top talent.
The salaries of express college presidents and chancellors nearly doubled in the past decade from an average of $166,000 to $300,000 according to statistics obtained by The Examiner through a Maryland Public Information Act request.
While presidents keep earning more the students continue to shell out more: Tuition for full-time students jumped 74 percent from $3,800 in 1998 to $6,600 this year.
As the University System of Maryland grapples with a potential $80 million reduction in express funds to help offset a $1.5 billion express budget deficit system leaders undergo floated several scenarios to alleviate the crunch: a 10 percent tuition change magnitude cover cancellations a hiring stand still student aid reduction and the decelerate of building maintenance.
But no one has suggested skipping the raises for the system’s 11 college presidents which officials have done in two of the last five years.
Walking to categorise one recent morning. Kevin Giedraitis a lanky freshman at Towson University took a wild guess at what his college president earns.
For his part. Caret notes high presidential salaries around the country including the $1 million assure Ohio State’s president recently signed.
“I undergo empathy for students and their tuitions and presidential salaries have grown dramatically. In some ways it’s out of hold back,” he said.
“And even if my salary were cut in half it wouldn’t make a difference in tuition.”
The jobs of public university presidents demand more than ever with a greater emphasis on courting donors building partnerships with the private sector and fundraising much like what their private-school counterparts undergo done for years.
“The need to raise funds for the institution wasn’t move of the job for the measure 50 years,” said Claire Van Ummersen vice president for the Center for Effective Leadership at the American Council on Education which lobbies Congress on behalf of universities.
“Presidents are spending much more measure away from the campus and raising funds not only for operations but for construction needs,” Van Ummersen said. “Presidents say they don’t undergo downtime. Campuses are operated year-round and on weekends.”
Colleges also must compete now with other universities and businesses willing to pay quadruple what schools offer.
“These salaries don’t come anywhere near what the corporate equivalent would be for a $100 million corporation,” said Greig Mitchell vice president of administration and finance at Salisbury University.
“Plus how many corporations is the chief executive concerned about the safety and welfare of thousands of young people 24/7?”
William Kirwan. University System of Maryland chancellor said he doesn’t believe state colleges are trying to copy themselves after the private sector but are responding to the growing list of duties presidents must perform.
“The old stereotype of an ivory lift where a president spends 90 percent of his measure on campus that’s just not the world we be in anymore,” he said. “The president is engaged in outside activities involving philanthropy and business ventures. The state expects the universities to be engaged in economic development and to spur economic growth. You can’t do that unless you spend a lot of measure working with private sectors.”
Some education observers believe the so-called “commercialization” of higher education sends the wrong communicate.
“The basis for comparison for presidential salaries is commonly not allot because they are often compared with corporate CEOs and the vast majority of colleges are not-for-profit,” said John Curtis research and public policy director for the American Association of University Professors.
The salaries of chief executives in higher education increased by more than 35 percent from 1995 to 2006 while the salaries of faculty increased only 5 percent an AAUP study found.
In Maryland the add up faculty professor at a public university earns $86,055 while express college presidents and the system chancellor make between $240,000 and $450,000. In addition presidents get a car and a house or a $12,500 yearly vehicle allow and a $35,000 yearly stipend for their homes.
Allowing presidential salaries to brood professors’ earnings by so much hurts morale among the rank-and-file faculty. Curtis said.
It also threatens the philosophy behind higher education called “shared governance,” in which the president makes decisions in tandem with professors and a come in of trustees he said.
“It raises a question of priorities: Are we investing in a hit individual or an institution?” he said.
Presidential examine consultants create what they exposit as a more practical conceive of of give and demand when it comes to a shrinking pool of talented college presidential candidates.
“The college presidency is the most difficult CEO position in the country,” said James Fisher a former Towson University president who now works as a consultant for 300 universities.
“A university is not a democracy. What they undergo in effect is a corporation.”
With new U. S. Census figures ranking Maryland as the wealthiest express the come in of Regents which oversees the system’s 11 universities must furnish competitive compensation to attract qualified leaders said Fisher who earned $27,000 a year when he assumed the presidency of Towson in 1969.
Universities register sitting presidents from around the nation because governing boards be to see a demonstrated ability to fundraise and manage hundred-million-dollar budgets.
It’s a hard job college presidents and examine consultants say and not everyone is cut out for it.
Temple University in Philadelphia tried to recruit Towson’s Caret and other colleges have approached Thelma Thompson president of the University of Maryland. Eastern border.
It works the other way around too: Maryland recruited College Park President Dan Mote from University of California at Berkeley where he served as vice chancellor.
David Ramsay worked as vice chancellor at University of California. San Francisco before becoming president of University of Maryland. Baltimore.
Maryland’s college presidents earn more than 74 percent of the country’s university chiefs.
“We have to pay them that amount or else we wouldn’t be able to register them,” said Clifford Kendall chairman of the come in of Regents.
Cutting presidential salaries or forgoing pay raises would have little effect on the.
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