Ex-Penn State chief is highest-paid public school prez

Soaring college tuition costs in recent years isn't bad news for everyone. Take college presidents, for instance.

The median pay for public university presidents came to $428,000 last year, an increase of 7 percent over 2013, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which supplies news and information to college faculty members and administrators. By comparison, Americans' average hourly earnings are on track to rise 2.3 percent this year, with the U.S. Labor Department's latest employment report showing that hourly wages rose 8 cents, or 0.3 percent, in May from April.

Two public college presidents made more than $1 million in total compensation last year. Rodney Erickson of Pennsylvania State University earned $1.5 million in base pay, bonus, deferred compensation and severance, putting him at the top of the heap, the Chronicle's analysis found. Erickson's predecessor, Graham Spanier, took in nearly $2.3 million during the same period, according to the findings, which tracked compensation for the year ending June 30.

Spanier is on administrative leave after resigning as president of Penn State in 2011. The tenured faculty member pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy and perjury related to former football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual assault of boys, with the case pending.

Texas A&M University's R. Bowen Loftin earned $1.12 million last year. Loftin left the position in January and is currently chancellor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he has worked since February of 2014. He has made nearly $323,000 in fiscal 2014, the Chronicle said.

And while it's likely little surprise that the heads of public universities are getting larger pay hikes than Americans overall, the money public-college presidents make is inviting attention, especially with student debt and tuition on the rise.

Illinois offers a recent example. In a report released last month, the state's Senate Democratic Caucus maintained the state's university and community-college heads benefit from a "fantasy world of lavish perks," many given without taxpayer consent.

The report came from a probe into presidential pay after a $763,000 severance package for the former president of the College of DuPage drew controversy. The board of trustees at the two-year publicly funded community college approved the deal for Robert Breuder in January.

A study last year called into question the outcomes for students who enroll at public colleges with the highest-paid presidents. Graduates at those schools wound up with higher debt loads than those coming from the average state university, according to the findings from the liberal-leaning Institute for Policy Studies.

Surprisingly, perhaps, public university presidents were not the highest-paid employee at more than half the schools surveyed, with 62 staff members including athletic coaches and medical faculty racking in more than $1 million last year, the Chronicle found.

Pay for college and university administrators has risen as school costs spiral ever higher. Average published tuition and fees for full-time in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities rose 2.9 percent, from $8,885 in 2013-14, to $9,139 in 2014-14, according to the College Board, while tuition and fees for out-of-state students at those schools rose 3.3 percent, from $22,223 in 2013-14 to $22,958 in 2014-15.