At Harvard’s Top Post, Pay Is Lower Than Peers

For many candidates in the running for the top job at the world’s richest university, getting the nod would come with a sizable pay cut.

If the salary paid to former University President Lawrence H. Summers is any indication, a Harvard president could hope to earn about $595,871, the total that Summers took home in the 2004-2005 year, the last for which Harvard data is available.

Among the presumed candidates for Harvard’s presidency who were paid significantly more than Summers in 2004-2005 are Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson, who earned $983,365; University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann ’71, who earned $767,030; and Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, who earned $685,930.

The salary statistics come from a new study by The Chronicle of Higher Education and are drawn from schools’ tax filings. The study found that the highest-paid university chief—not including retirement packages for departing administrators—was Vanderbilt President E. Gordon Gee, who earned $1.17 million in 2004-2005.

Harvard’s president has long been among the lower-paid Ivy League chiefs. In addition to Penn and Columbia, presidents at Brown, Cornell, and Yale earned more than the Mass. Hall occupant. Princeton’s president edged Summers by just $111 in 2004-2005. Dartmouth was the only Ivy whose chief made less than Summers.

For Harvard’s three oft-mentioned internal candidates—Provost Steven E. Hyman, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan, and Radcliffe Institute Dean Drew Gilpin Faust—only Hyman’s salary is publicly available. In 2004-2005, he earned $416,939 in combined salary and benefits, meaning that the top job would be a significant pay boost.

Law School spokesman Michael A. Armini and Radcliffe Institute spokeswoman Jenny Corke declined to release their deans’ salaries, both of which are likely considerably lower than that of the University president. Both Armini and Corke said that they do not release salaries beyond what is required in Harvard’s filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

University spokesman John D. Longbrake also declined to release Interim President Derek C. Bok’s salary for this year.

Despite the fact that Summers’ salary was lower than that of many of his potential replacements, there is precedent for increasing the president’s compensation upon his taking office. Summers’ total compensation in his first year—$516,804, including travel and housing credits—was nearly 23 percent higher than that of his predecessor, Neil L. Rudenstine, who earned $421,081 in his last year in office.

Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn told The Crimson at the time: “Any salary is a private negotiation between the Corporation and the president.”

—Staff writer Aditi Banga can be reached at abanga@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.