4. Are College Trustees Getting Their Money’s Worth from College Presidents?
College presidents normally do not dictate their schools’ academic programs or initiate new faculty hires, but their public pronouncements can significantly impact the choices made by faculty. By commending faculty to deepen student knowledge of America, a college president can help preserve our traditions of freedom and representative government. Many presidents either do not see this as their mission, however, or fail to carry it out.
| WELL-PAID PRESIDENTS, POORLY PERFORMING COLLEGES | |||
| Among the 50 schools in the ISI survey, these colleges ranked in the top 10 for the salaries they paid their presidents but the bottom 10 for the civic knowledge gained by their students. | |||
| College | President’s Salary | Mean Faculty Salary | Value Added |
| University of Pennsylvania | $675,000 | $124,167 | +0.83% |
| Cornell University | $630,747 | $101,788 | -4.95% |
| Yale University | $618,822 | $112,558 | -3.09% |
| Princeton University | $542,875 | $121,520 | -1.70% |
| Rutgers University | $525,000 | $88,963 | -0.94% |
| Duke University | $500,000 | $97,756 | -2.25% |
One reason for this may be that while college presidents are increasingly compensated like top executives of leading corporations, there seems to be no linkage between their salaries and the civic knowledge students gain—or lose—at their schools. Six colleges in the ISI survey (Pennsylvania, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and Duke) paid their presidents $500,000 or more but ranked in the bottom 10 for the civic knowledge gained by their students. Concordia University and Marian College, by contrast, ranked in the top 10 for civic-knowledge gain but paid their presidents less than $167,000.
| LOWER PAID PRESIDENTS, BETTER PERFORMING COLLEGES | |||
| Among the 50 schools in the ISI survey, these colleges ranked in the bottom 10 for the salaries they paid their presidents and the top 10 for the civic knowledge gained by their students. | |||
| College | President’s Salary | Mean Faculty Salary | Value Added |
| Concordia University | $164,646 | $50,343 | +8.99% |
| Marian College | $166,630 | $51,638 | +9.44% |
| Pfeiffer University | $186,000 | $49,848 | +8.25% |
College trustees should examine this pattern as they determine whether their school’s performance is in line with what they expect from their president.