Nellis Says No

M. Duane Nellis, provost at Kansas State University, says he has rejected an offer to become president of the University of Idaho because the salary offered by Idaho’s Board of Education was too low, the Associated Press reports.

Nellis told the AP that although he was willing to take less than the $370,354 combined salary that he and his wife currently earn, the Idaho board declined his salary request.

“I was not being unreasonable, in my opinion,” Nellis said.

Nellis is paid a yearly base salary of $272,116 as provost and his wife, Ruthie, makes a $98,238 base salary working in institutional advancement, said Kansas State spokeswoman Beth Bohn. …

“I told them, given what they were offering me, I was turning them down,” Nellis said.

The AP quotes Paul Fain, a reporter who covers executive compensation for The Chronicle, as saying that ex-Idaho President Tim White took home a below-average salary of $291,912 in his last year on the job:

“That’s near the bottom,” Fain said. “You’re going to have a hard time getting who you want if you’re in that range.”

The university has had five leaders in the last six years, the AP notes. Idaho may now look to one of the remaining three finalists: David Dooley, provost at Montana State University; Donald L. Burnett Jr., dean of the University of Idaho Law School; and Larry E. Penley, ex-president of Colorado State University.