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.