news-record.com

Even as some colleges fear having to close in the face of a trying economy, some college presidents are doing very well, thank you.

Salaries of public university presidents rose 7.6 percent in 2007-08, reports a national survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Chronicle adds that nearly one-third of public university presidents earn more than $500,000 a year. Fifteen made at least $700,000 in 2007-08, nearly twice as many as the year before.

Gordon Gee of Ohio State University led the way with more than $1.3 million a year in base pay, bonuses and other benefits. He was followed by the University of Washington’s Mark Emmert ($887,870) and the University of Virginia’s John Casteen ($797,048).

Good work if you can get it.

As the survey’s results were made known, at least 20 states had cut public university budgets. Even private Harvard University, whose endowment of nearly $37 billion is the nation’s largest, plans cuts in the wake of recent investment losses. Dartmouth College also announced cuts and Brown University imposed a hiring freeze until the end of January. And those are the haves.

Thankfully, the salaries for top administrators in North Carolina’s public universities are far more reasonable. UNC President Erskine Bowles made a relatively modest $478,987 in total compensation in 2007-08 — and he heads a 16-campus system. (Bowles has since received a 3 percent raise.)

In current base pay, UNCG’s Linda Brady makes $315,000 and N.C. A&T’s Stanley Battle makes $273,156.

Yet some UNC chancellors have received raises as high as 8.08 percent, since the Chronicle survey, reports the News & Observer of Raleigh.

To be fair, these raises preceded the most recent economic bad news. Every UNC chancellor’s pay falls below the national median.

But these are hard times. Gov. Mike Easley already has asked UNC schools to cut 3 percent from their budgets. In Greensboro, UNCG and N.C. A&T have placed a number of construction projects on hold, including a $46 million joint data center and a $47 million School of Education building at UNCG.

Shouldn’t college leaders show the way in frugality, if only symbolically, by forgoing raises where they might seem out of line with current conditions on campus?

Make no mistake, top-tier college CEOs are expensive. If you don’t pay on the front end for a good leader, you’ll surely pay on the back end for a bad one. But UNC’s campuses are hurting. Some N.C. State University faculty have cut their own pay and some instructors have volunteered to teach for free.

Other schools are struggling to make cuts that avoid hurting instruction.

UNC leaders ought to consider the mixed message sizable raises can convey in the wake of sizable budget cuts.

Tough times call for tough measures, from the top down.