Wilkes tops presidential pays

Wilkes University President Joseph “Tim” Gilmour’s compensation has risen faster and higher than any other local president of the area’s five private institutions, soaring by 78 percent since his first year in 2001-02.

In fact, the compensation for the Wilkes president has more than doubled since 1999-2000, rising by 111 percent. By comparison, compensation for the top person at Misericordia University has risen over the same stretch by 51 percent.

The Times Leader reviewed total compensation for the five college presidents since 1999-2000 after The Chronicle of Higher Education released data for 2007-08 fiscal year as part of its annual review of private college salaries earlier this month.

The Chronicle highlighted the fact that 23 presidents received more than $1 million nationwide, but local presidents have a long, long way to go before joining that elite club.

Gilmour’s total compensation – salaries and benefits – hit $324,553 in 2007-08. As good as that sounds, it’s still below the median pay of all private college presidents reviewed by The Chronicle: $358,746.

Gilmour’s raise from the previous year totaled 6.8 percent, slightly higher than the 6.5 percent increase in median pay nationwide.

By comparison, Misericordia President Michael MacDowell got a total compensation increase that year of 12 percent, bumping him up to $251,878, still nearly $75,000 less than Gilmour.

In fact, data shows Misericordia paid its president more in 1999-2000 and 2000-01, but that Wilkes overtook the Dallas Township school the following year. Misericordia never caught up, despite larger increases in recent years than previously given.

Wilkes Director of Marketing Communications Jack Chielli said Gilmour’s salary is set by the board of trustees’ presidential evaluation and compensation committee using data from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. The goal is to set the salary around the mid-range of what similar institutions are paying.

Overall, size of budget is more important than enrollment in determining which schools are similar. Chielli said the budget at Wilkes is around $70 million.

Using data from similar schools keeps the post competitive, Chielli said. “We use national data because, when we recruit, we recruit nationally.”

MacDowell said Misericordia similarly sets salary based on rates paid by similar schools. “We have a very explicit and IRS-sanctioned salary philosophy here for the president,” he said.

“They look at comparable institutions; we have about 26 or 27 of them. Our board has stated that my salary will be in the 40th percentile of the comparison institutions,” meaning presidents at 60 percent of the institutions looked at pay their president more than MacDowell gets.

Wilkes and Misericordia have bonus incentives. If the presidents meet goals set by the board of trustees, they may get more that year.

Chielli did not know the details of how the system works. MacDowell said the trustees may bump his salary up to as high as the 60th percentile of comparative schools if he meets goals set at the start of the year.

The bonus is obvious when looking at Gilmour’s increases over the years. His compensation shot up from $198,842 to $246,145 from 2002-03 to 2003-04, and again shot up from $262,336 to $303,926 from 2005-06 to 2006-07.

Chielli said those spikes were the result of bonuses. He cited major accomplishments in Gilmour’s tenure, including increased enrollment, introduction of new programs and expansion of the campus with the purchase of the former downtown Call Center and neighboring apartment complex at the corner of South and South Main streets.

MacDowell’s compensation spiked for a different reason in 2005-06, rising to $212,617 from 169,751. MacDowell said that was a bookkeeping change involving life insurance that had previously not been reported on federal 990 forms, the source for The Chronicle’s data.

The life insurance was previously a deferred compensation, but was added to his salary over a two-year period at the recommendation of accountants, pushing it up by about $60,000 the first year and $63,000 the second year.

Salaries have flattened recently locally and nationally, thanks to the economic downturn, both men said, but that won’t be reflected in the Chronicle data until next year. When Wilkes faced a $2 million shortfall last year, Gilmour received no pay raise, Chielli said, a fate all administrators accepted unless they had their job descriptions changed to require more responsibilities.

The three other local schools – King’s College, the University of Scranton and Marywood University – are all Catholic institutions run by members of religious orders, which makes comparison trickier. Typically, the presidents either take no salary or have it paid to their religious orders, in which case it may not be reported on the 990 forms, depending on the institution’s practice.

At King’s and Scranton, priests have been in charge during the time period reviewed, and have reported no pay and only relatively small amounts of compensation, generally in the $20,000 range – with one exception. King’s President The Rev. Thomas O’Hara, reported total compensation of $163,557 in 2003-04. Other than that, he reported neither salary nor benefits of any amount until 2007-08, when the Chronicle lists $24,683 in benefits.

King’s spokesman John McAndrew said O’Hara draws no salary, but that King’s does make payments to his religious order, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and that auditors told the college to report those payments one year but not the others.

“We make those reports based on the best information our auditors give us,” McAndrew said.

Those interviewed said benefits entail the usual items, including insurance coverage, but can have some costs not seen in most other businesses, particularly housing.

Presidents often live on campus and entertain and conduct business at their residence, so it is common for a college to provide a home and cover related costs.

At Marywood, religious sisters have headed the school, and initially also reported only small compensation packages, but began reporting salaries in 2000-01. Those salaries have, overall, risen slower than the two private institutions. Marywood’s salary for president has climbed only 3.5 percent since that year. Spokeswoman Juneann Greco did not respond to e-mails and phone messages, but has addressed the issue previously, noting that, like King’s, the college budgets money for all religious staff, but the payments go to the religious order, not the individual. One reason to do this is to keep the money in the annual budget in case a lay person someday fills the post.

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