Lynn University’s Board of Trustees last week upheld the nearly $350,000-a-year salary and compensation of the president, Donald E. Ross.
The board had been re-examining the president’s pay in light of changes in federal law governing tax-exempt organizations. Mr. Ross, who has been president of the small, private university in Boca Raton, Fla., for 28 years, earned a salary of $320,965 in 1996-97, The Palm Beach Post reported last month, using the most recent year for which data are available from federal tax returns. In addition, he received $26,813 in benefits and $160,656 for expenses, including an unspecified housing allowance, the newspaper said.
Even so, the president of Lynn, which enrolls about 1,950 students, is not among the 10 highest-paid presidents of private colleges and universities in the United States, according to The Chronicle’s annual survey of executive compensation. In all, 46 presidents -- nearly 10 per cent of those listed this year -- earned more than $300,000. The survey includes data from 485 private colleges but does not consider those such as Lynn, which are categorized as business colleges by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
A committee of Lynn trustees had been re-evaluating the salaries of Mr. Ross and other university officials during the past year in light of the 1996 law, said Anthony J. Casale, executive assistant to Mr. Ross.
The law calls for stiff fines against officials of non-profit organizations, including private colleges, who receive lavish salaries or benefits, or who profit from sweetheart deals. Trustees also can be fined for approving such transactions.
The 1996-97 data reported this year provide the first complete fiscal year of information on the basis of which the Internal Revenue Service can impose the fines, said Marcus S. Owens, director of the agency’s exempt-organizations division. Field officers in I.R.S. regional offices are now checking institutions’ tax forms and bringing any problems to the attention of officials in the national office, he said last week.
The Lynn committee’s members reported their assessment of Mr. Ross’s salary to the trustees during a regular board meeting last week, and the committee “is satisfied that Lynn University is in compliance with all federal and state laws,” Mr. Casale said.
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Section: Money & Management
Page: A33