UMass head’s pay up 15% in year
Layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts endured by other staffers
University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson’s compensation did not crack the top echelons of public university leaders’ pay packages last year. But in a financially challenging year when many of his counterparts took pay cuts to help offset tuition increases, Wilson’s pay grew by 15 percent in 2008-09, according to a survey released yesterday by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wilson’s $546,000 compensation package included a $425,000 salary, a $45,000 housing allowance, $25,000 in deferred compensation, a $51,000 retirement annuity, and the use of a car. That made him the 50th-highest-paid public university executive out of the 185 surveyed.
In the 2007-08 fiscal year, Wilson received a compensation package worth $473,200. His increase came during a difficult year for the state’s university system, which saw midyear budget cuts and employee layoffs and furloughs.
Robert Connolly, UMass spokesman, said Wilson’s pay increased because the president had declined a performance bonus worth up to $54,000 in 2007-08. UMass trustees voted the following year to convert the bonus into part of Wilson’s base salary.
“His compensation level is right about where we intend compensation to be for the president and chancellors, in the 75 percent mark in the nation,’’ Connolly said.
Wilson oversees the five-campus UMass system. Robert Holub, chancellor of UMass Amherst, the state’s flagship campus, received $420,000 in total compensation, putting him in the 104th spot in the poll. UMass Lowell chancellor Martin Meehan was 136th, receiving $352,200. UMass Boston chancellor Keith Motley ranked 150th, with $334,944 in compensation.
The Chronicle of Higher Education survey showed that the dismal economy prompted a third of public higher education institutions to freeze base salaries for the first time in recent history, and 10 percent to cut total compensation.
While pay packages continued to go up, on the whole, they rose at a much slower pace than in recent years. The median total compensation for the public institutions surveyed was $436,111, a 2.3 percent increase over 2007-08.
Here are the five most highly compensated heads of state schools: Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University ($1.58 million); Mark Emmert, University of Washington ($905,004); Patrick Harker, University of Delaware ($810,603); John Casteen, University of Virginia ($797,048); and Francisco Cigarroa, University of Texas system ($787,258).
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. 
