Leader's pay rankles at Suffolk University

News of $2.8m salary leads to campus chatter

PRESIDENT 19 YEARS The bonus was designed to rectify years of paying David J. Sargent less than his peers and honor his five decades of service.

When Suffolk University sophomore Priscilla Santana read the news yesterday, she immediately dashed off an incredulous text message to a classmate, punctuating her note with a barrage of exclamation points. Approximately one for each zero in her college president's $2.8 million salary last year.

"Neither of us could believe it," Santana, a Roslindale native, said yesterday morning on the Beacon Hill campus. "The highest in the country, here at Suffolk? It doesn't make much sense."

Many Suffolk students, staff, and faculty voiced similar skepticism yesterday over David J. Sargent's hefty pay package, which topped The Chronicle of Higher Education's latest survey of college presidents' wages and benefits. While one-time payments, deferred until Sargent retires, make up a substantial majority of his earnings, many students criticized the bonuses as irresponsible and extravagant.

"That would explain our tuition," said Joe Curley, a sophomore from New Jersey who is paying the private university almost $26,000 in tuition, 7 percent more than last year. "My parents are not happy about this, not happy at all."

Higher education specialists said the scope of the compensation was nearly unprecedented, even if - as school officials contend - the salary was just a one-time boost designed to compensate for below-average compensation in the past.

"Two million is just out of whack, I don't care if he had been underpaid for 30 or 40 years," said Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. "Why should a university receive a tax deduction to fund a $2 million payout to its president?"

Suffolk officials vigorously defended the decision to award Sargent nearly $2 million in deferred compensation, which trustees approved unanimously as part of a five-year contract reached in 2006. The bonus was designed to rectify years of paying Sargent less than his peers and to honor his five decades of service to the university as faculty member, administrator, and president. His base salary is $436,000, which is typical for university presidents.

"He was embarrassingly underpaid for a half-century, and this is a one-time correction to that situation," said John Nucci, the university's vice president for external affairs. A report from an outside specialist on presidential salaries concluded that Sargent's salary and benefits had lagged behind his counterparts.

Overall, pay and benefits for presidents at 184 public universities rose more than 7 percent last year, according to the Chronicle study. Nearly one-third of presidents at public research institutions make more than $500,000, and the number receiving more than $700,000 rose from eight to 15.

Leaders of public research universities drew a median salary and benefits of $427,400. Pay for presidents at private research universities in 2007 remained steady at $527,000, while salaries for those at smaller private universities rose 6 percent during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Vedder said lucrative payouts like Suffolk's, coupled with the overall national increase in presidential salaries, undercut the arguments colleges use to defend frequent tuition increases.

"We are currently paying college presidents way above any historic norm," he said.

Nucci said trustees also believed a lucrative package was necessary to prevent Sargent, now 77, from retiring. Nucci said Sargent, who was unavailable for comment, did not seek the increase and was not involved in negotiations.

Nicholas A. Macaronis, chairman of the trustees, said the package was "designed with the understanding that President Sargent's value to the university has been, and is, extraordinary."

"Under his leadership as professor, dean of the law school, and president, Suffolk has grown into a world-class institution, with campuses on three continents," he said.

Suffolk officials said Sargent has personally donated more than $1 million to the university.

Sargent, who has been president for 19 years, will receive a $1.1 million bonus for not taking a sabbatical over that time. He also received $436,000 longevity bonuses for the past two years, $555,667 in deferred pay, and a performance bonus of $87,200.

As the news of Sargent's lucrative payday became the leading topic of campus conversation yesterday, many said no college president could be worth such a sum. Students said news of the windfall was especially galling during a financial crisis that for many families will probably put college costs further out of reach. Education specialists say college presidents' rising salaries are likely to receive more scrutiny amid growing frustration over rising tuition costs.

"Colleges keep saying they are nonprofits, but then they act like corporations," said Nicholas Priday, a Suffolk freshman. "The money would be much better spent on the students."

Other students questioned why Suffolk had paid its leader substantially more than the leaders of more prestigious institutions.

"Other schools' presidents must be mad," quipped Josiana DeCarvalho, a sophomore from Boston.

Yet some students said Sargent deserved the financial boon for spearheading the university's transformation from a mediocre commuter school to a more selective, prestigious university.

"I think it's a tribute to his whole career at Suffolk, to everything he's done for the university and the city," said Courtney Madden, a second-year law student from Quincy. "A lot of people are getting a great education, and he deserves a lot of the credit."