RSS

UPDATE: Why WGU pay puts WGU’s Mendenhall near the top of presidents of elite private universitiies

I found an article in the Deseret News from 2008/  The article notes that President Mendenhall’s salary far exceeds those of other college presidents in Utah. UPDATE, originally posted on Mar 30, 2011

William A. Sederburg, Utah’s commissioner of higher education, told the Deseret News that salaries in Utah’s universities “are about 80 percent of salaries of their peers; we’re just a cheap state;. ”   Utah’s public university (presidents earn ) from about $180,000 to $350,000 —I think (private universities) have gone overboard; I think some of these salaries are a little bit out of alignment. ”

David Simmons, a member of WGU’s board of trustees and its compensation committee, thinks Mnedenhall’s s salary is in line with competing salaries even though  it would rank (among the highest salaries for a private college in the use, see below).  Simmons said  WGU with”is a very nontraditional university — having no bricks and mortar. It being online and also being competency-based, which is a very different learning paradigm,” he said. “You end up in competition with for-profit institutions like University of Phoenix or several others that are all online.”

Previous post continues below ….

Simmons went on to list the criteria for this high salary, including WGU’s phenomenal rate of growth in enrollment while ti has contained costs. As below, it appears that WGU’s current gross income is about $120,000,000

One of the proponents of WGU  commented to me that the salary of WGUs president was “not as much as the UW pays its football coach.”  That was correct.  At $700,000 it is hard to find a good football coach.

A more relevant comparison, however, is to the salaries made by presidents of  OTHER non profit, private universities:

Comparing Robert W. Mendenhall, President of WGU to his peers.  Mendenhall makes:  $689,150.

School Name President (2008-2009) Total Compensation* Total Enrollment Cost Per Student
Harvey Mudd College Maria M. Klawe $465,099 757 $614.40
Pitzer College Laura Skandera Trombley $521,018 1,043 $499.54
Hillsdale College Larry P. Arnn $608,615 1,315 $462.83
Southwestern University (Tex.) Jake B. Schrum $565,034 1,301 $434.31
Claremont McKenna College Pamela B. Gann $522,508 1,237 $422.40
Haverford College Stephen G. Emerson $482,162 1,190 $405.18
University of Tulsa Steadman Upham $1,622,229 4,187 $387.44
Colby College William D. Adams $695,143 1,838 $378.21
California Institute of Technology Jean-Lou A. Chameau $799,472 2,130 $375.34
Wofford College Benjamin B. Dunlap $488,539 1,439 $339.50
Amherst College Anthony W. Marx $589,281 1,744 $337.89
Agnes Scott College Elizabeth Kiss $288,524 868 $332.40
Reed College Colin S. Diver $476,632 1,481 $321.83
Dillard University Marvalene Hughes $317,584 1,011 $314.13
Washington and Jefferson College Tori Haring-Smith $470,440 1,514  

$310.73

The major point of this table, previously published on The AVE, is that the only excuse for WGU’s board paying Dr. Mendenhall’s salary must be that he is being compared to the CEOs of profit making edu-companies like Phoenix, McGraw Hill, etc.  By that standard, Dr. Emmert’s $1,000,000 slary may have beenb justified by the comparison with other CEOs who manage football teams.