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Lingering economic doldrums are giving higher education a dose of reality — one that might bring top executive compensation back down to earth.
David Schmidly may be the last University of New Mexico president for a while whose annual compensation package exceeds a half million dollars. As the regents prepare to select a new president today, they are planning to offer no more, and possibly less, to Schmidly’s replacement. They also may drop Schmidly’s $45,000 housing allowance and require the new president to live on campus. That’s quite a turnabout. Compensation has more than tripled since Bill Gordon took the helm at UNM in 1998 at a $190,000 salary. When Schmildy took over in 2007 he got a $587,000 compensation deal. Ever sweeter deals to attract or to retain university executives were de rigueur before the economic collapse. In 2007, after UNM regents announced how much they planned to pay Schmidly, regents at New Mexico’s two other research universities boosted their presidents’ compensation, too. At the time more than 100 presidents at traditional four-year systems were being paid more than half a million dollars. “No doubt that presidential salaries — and I think rightfully so for the good ones — are going through the roof,” former New Mexico State University regent Bob Gallagher said in September 2007. Of course university presidents are a fairly exclusive club, and when one moves the salary meter upward, all rejoice. They know they can point to the guy down the road in bargaining for their own deal. Also common were, and still are, perks like deferred compensation, bonuses, vehicles or vehicle allowances, and housing allowances if a president decides not to live in a university provided home. In 2007, NMSU regents bumped up former president Michael Martin’s compensation to $507,000, including a $72,000 housing allowance if he wanted to move out. He then jumped ship for Louisiana State University. His successor, Barbara Couture, came on board with a salary of $385,000 plus a $500,000 “retention bonus.” The beat goes on, but higher education appears to be coming to its senses about compensating its top dogs. Don’t expect the same to hold true in the hunt for head basketball and football coaches, but that is big business and another story. UNM’s newfound realistic approach makes sense — one that should pay off for taxpayers down the road. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
