Despite a Pay Cut, Gee Still Highest-Paid President

E. Gordon Gee will take a pay cut when he returns to his former presidential perch at Ohio State University this fall, but he’ll still be the highest-paid president in the U.S., reports an article in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Gee currently earns $1.1-million as chancellor of Vanderbilt University, but when he goes to OSU, he’ll only get an annual salary of $775,000, plus an extra bonus of $225,000 a year if he stays five years (his new contract is for seven years) — for a total of $1-million, writes the Beacon Journal reporter, Carol Biliczky. Of course …

That is far ahead of the $600,000 for Nancy Zimpher at the University of Cincinnati, who is the state’s second-highest paid public college president, and the $603,000 that Edward Hundert made at the private Case Western Reserve University in 2004-2005, the last year for which figures are available.

And Gee’s contract also comes with …

a home provided by Ohio State, which will be “renovated, appointed and staffed” for his benefit. Gee will travel first-class or in a rented jet and have the use of an American-made car.

When he retires, Gee will be named president emeritus, with a stipend, secretary and office.

Despite all of that, the trustees say they got a bargain, Biliczky writes:

OSU trustee Chairman G. Gilbert Cloyd said the Ohio State trustees did not bat an eye at offering Gee such a package, which will include bonuses, incentives and other benefits that are yet to be negotiated.

“We knew if we were going to get the top person, it could very well take $800,000 to $1 million,’” he said. “We believe we’ve made a wonderful strategic investment for Ohio.”

Claire Van Ummersen, vice president of the Center for Effective Leadership at the American Council on Education, seems to think so, too. She told Biliczky she expected Gee to be paid more at Ohio State.