Colleges Are Evasive About Presidents' Benefits Packages

By JULIE L. NICKLIN

Ask what's in a college president's benefits package, and trustees and other officials clam up.

They'll tell you medical coverage and deferred compensation, but beyond that, they won't say much more.

However, a handful of presidents each year receive benefits that total more than many other presidents' entire compensation packages -- salary

ALSO SEE: Database: Pay and Benefits, 1993-99 74 Private-College Presidents Earned More Than $300,000 in 1998-99 For Some Presidents, Large Salaries Don't End With Retirement Chart: Presidents in Top Pay Brackets Table: Presidents Receiving Largest Benefits Packages in 1998-99 Tables: Presidents Who Earned the Most in 1998-99, by Category » Research Universities » Doctoral Universities » Master's Universities » Baccalaureate Colleges Colloquy: Join a debate on whether private-college presidents are receiving compensation packages that are too high.

and benefits combined. In a survey by The Chronicle, eight presidents earned benefits of more than $120,000 in 1998-99. Half of those received more than $200,000.

In some cases, such as Harry C. Payne, the former president of Williams College, the package represented a one-year blip. Mr. Payne's benefits grew by roughly $600,000 in 1998-99, shooting them up to $645,672 the year he resigned. A Williams spokesman says only that it's "an accrual" to be paid out over time. It made Mr. Payne the highest-paid president in the country.

Even presidents who stuck around got some nice benefits packages. Take Thomas K. Hearn Jr., the president of Wake Forest University, who received $244,102 in benefits, the second-highest amount of any president.

Kevin Cox, a Wake Forest spokesman, declines to talk about the makeup of Mr. Hearn's benefits, except to say that a special committee of the Board of Trustees determines the president's compensation each year.

The generosity is justified, Mr. Cox adds, because Mr. Hearn has been president for 17 years, oversees a current budget of $584-million, and has seen the endowment grow to $967-million, from $124-million, during his tenure.

Secrecy over such benefits packages worries critics of high pay for leaders of nonprofit organizations. They charge that some college trustees, assuming that benefits receive less scrutiny than salaries, use presidents' benefits to inflate pay without drawing attention.

"They try to put as much in through the back door as they can," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. "But any kind of real understanding means looking at the salary and the benefits -- the whole package."

Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service's 990 tax form, upon which The Chronicle bases its annual compensation survey, asks an institution to list its president's salary and benefits separately. Officials have to disclose only the total amount of benefits, including health and pension plans, and all forms of deferred compensation that were paid or approved in that year. Some colleges provide footnotes to explain unusually large sums. But they are not required to itemize the benefits, and most do not.

They also don't like being asked about the details. Harold Tanner, the chairman of Cornell University's Board of Trustees, makes no apologies in refusing to discuss the $220,760 in benefits that the president, Hunter R. Rawlings III, drew in 1998-99, the third-highest amount. "We report what we're required to report," Mr. Tanner says.

Some executive-search experts point out that the size of presidents' benefits packages seems to increase toward the end of their term, especially if it marks the end of their career as well. The logic is simple enough: As presidents near retirement, they begin to ask for bigger increases in benefits, in the form of deferred compensation, than in salaries.

Such is the case at Westminster College, in Utah, where Peggy A. Stock has been the president for five years. She's 64. In 1998-99, she was awarded a "bonus" -- an undisclosed amount of deferred compensation -- that helped to shoot her benefits up to $123,257, from $82,021 the previous year.

"It was one of those banner years when everything came together," says Ginger Giovale, chair of the college's Board of Trustees. "The deferred income is critical at her age, more so than current income. We were trying to fashion a package that would fit her needs."

Ms. Stock is content. "I'd rather have the money in benefits than in salary," she says. "You have to be realistic. I want to stay here as long as I'm doing a good job and am healthy. But the reality is that I need to look ahead to make sure that I have a nice lifestyle when I retire."

So is the college trying to pull a fast one by sneaking more money into benefits? "Whether you put it in benefits or salary, you're still under scrutiny," says Ms. Giovale.

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