Dartmouth President James Wright received the lowest compensation of any Ivy League president, earning $569,761 for the 2006-2007 school year, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey released Monday. Wright's salary does, however, make him the highest paid private college president in New Hampshire, The Nashua Telegraph reported. The average Ivy League president made just under $900,000 that year, according to the survey. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger was the highest paid president in the Ivy League with a total compensation of $1,411,894 and Ohio State University President E. Gordon Lee was the highest paid president of a public research university, with a total compensation of $1,346,255. There are 82 presidents at non-Ivy League private institutions that make $500,000 or more a year, according to the Yale Daily News.
Yale University President Richard Levin announced that the founding of the approximately $75 million "Yale India Initiative" on Monday. The program is designed to build Yale's ties to India through increased course offerings, research partnerships, internship opportunities and student exchanges, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The initiative aims to address issues such as public health, politics and economics, while providing a curriculum that reflects both India's culture and history and its growing influence in the world, according to the Chronicle. Yale also plans to add faculty that specialize in India by up to 200 percent. Yale currently offers Hindi, Tamil and Sanskrit language programs as well as existing academic programs in India, the Chronicle reported. Cornell University has announced a similar plan to increase its recruitment of students from India and for increased "joint research projects" with a $50 million donation, according to the Chronicle.
Four small Christian colleges will permanently close their doors this year due to the weak economy, the Associated Press reported Monday. While only four of the 4,400 colleges in the nation closed during 2007, according to the AP, more colleges could close in the coming year depending on how many students do not return the next two semesters. Vennard College in Iowa, a nearly 100-year-old school with 80 pupils, announced Wednesday that it will close at the end of the semester, the AP reported. Cascade College in Oregon announced in late October that it would close after this academic year due to its $4 million debt, and Taylor University announced it will close its undergraduate program at a branch campus in Fort Wayne, Ind. Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Minnesota also recently announced its plans to shut down. College closings are rare in the United States because many schools have substantial endowments, which can serve as a buffer against foreclosure in the case of a financial emergency, according to the AP.
