For almost a decade now, the salaries of senior college administrators have risen faster than U.S. economic inflation, according to a recently released trade association survey.
Although Dartmouth did not participate in the study, salaries for top administrators at the College have also increased in recent years.
The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources reported the overall median salary for high-ranking positions is up 3.3 percent over last year, putting it higher than the Consumer Price Index for the eighth consecutive year.
"The economy has picked up," said the association's research director, Ray Sizemore, who noted this year's increase is "actually sort of back to normal."
In 2002, the increase was at four percent before slowing to a 2.5 percent rise last year. Looking only at private colleges, the decrease was even less significant -- dipping to three percent last year compared with 1.7 percent for public institutions, according to the survey. Both public and private colleges picked up steam with their salaries this academic year, hitting 3.2 and 3.3 percent, respectively.
Adam Keller, Dartmouth's vice president for finance and administration, said he was a bit surprised by the survey results in light of concerns over shrinking endowments.
"I would have expected that salaries for administrators are in check," Keller said.
At Dartmouth, College President James Wright received a total of $460,166 in salary and benefits for the 2002-03 academic year, up 3.4 percent from the previous year, according to the most recent available tax forms.
Provost Barry Scherr netted $319,384 in salary and benefits the same year, up 11 percent.
More recent salary figures were not available at press time.
"I don't think our pay is particularly high," Keller said.
Keller, who received an opening salary package of $315,523 when he joined the College two years ago, said he could be making more money in the private sector. He also noted that a limited pool of qualified administrators means the marketplace often determines the salary needed to attract a potential hire. "We try to stay around the median or something like that," Keller said of the College's salary decisions.
At least for the very top salaries, Dartmouth comes out at the low end of the Ivy League. Wright, for example, outranked only Brown University President Ruth Simmons in terms of total pay in 2002-03. But Dartmouth's top salaries were slightly higher than smaller schools nearby like Williams and Middlebury.
Judith Rodin of the University of Pennsylvania was the highest paid Ivy League president, followed by Yale's Richard Levin and Harvard's Lawrence Summers.
In all, a total of 1,277 Dartmouth employees made more than $50,000 that year, down slightly from 2001-02 after at least five years of steady increase.
Professors and administrators at Dartmouth's graduate schools topped the College's payrolls. John Baldwin, the dean of the Dartmouth Medical School at the time of the College's last tax returns, made $546,490 in 2002-03, and surgery professor Richard Dow received $475,577 in salary and benefits.
Paul Danos, dean of the Amos Tuck School of Business, and Tuck finance professor B. Espen Eckbo took home $425,031 and $368,869, respectively, according to the College's tax returns.
The highest-paid position in the national survey was medical school dean, while the position of assistant registrar came out on the low end.
The results are based on an online survey completed by 1,387 colleges for 175 specific positions, Sizemore said.
The salary figures noted above were paid at the same time budget cuts threatened the swim team, but Keller, reached Friday before a presentation to the Board of Trustees, said the current endowment performance and alumni donations are creating a more positive budget picture this year.
"We're in a much stronger financial position than we've been in in previous years," Keller said.
