President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz earned $477,764 for the fiscal year ending in June, 2006, making him the highest paid president of a Vermont institution of higher learning and the third highest compensated NESCAC president.
The figures - published in the Nov. 16 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education - reflect in part the president's growing role at Middlebury as a result of the school's institutional expansion and massive fundraising commitments. In addition to overseeing a constellation of affiliated schools (such as the Monterey Institute for International Studies) and year-round operations that include summer language programs, Liebowitz now finds himself shepherding support for a record five-year, $500 million capital campaign.
"My perspective on the fundraising challenge of our president is that he must raise about $1.5 million a week for us to make our goal and thereby fund the Strategic Plan," said Frederick Fritz '68, chairman of the Board of Trustees, which determines Liebowitz's compensation. "That's part of his overall charge, and our $500 million goal right now is the largest ever among liberal arts colleges."
While the board takes this unique role for Liebowitz into account, Fritz explained that it also works to set the president's compensation appropriately within several fields of comparison - the compensation given to the 11 NESCAC presidents, and that given to presidents at a broader group of 21 schools that Middlebury considers its "peers" among liberal arts colleges. Liebowitz's compensation was the seventh highest among this larger peer group.
"We are not daunted at being near the top," said Fritz. "Our goal is to retain the most qualified individual in the job, and we work with professional consultants to ensure that our compensation is within reasonable marketplace norms."
That consideration - retention - comes as a number of news outlets have reported a movement among college administrations toward what they call a "corporate culture." While college presidents have traditionally been considered public servants whose credentials could earn higher salaries in the private sector, articles like the one in The Chronicle argue that compensation for top positions in higher education is now coming closer into line with those in private industry.
"The growing demands of the job of college president, as well as the corporate culture that has started to take root among governing boards and college administrators, have contributed to an industry-wide ratcheting up of presidential salaries," The Chronicle reported in its November article.
The magazine noted in its article that, in exchange for their higher salaries, today's college presidents now find 20-hour workdays and the accompanying strain on their commitments to family and friends more common.
While the realities of the president's growing role as well as the executive job market may be forcing salaries upward, local media like The Burlington Free Press have cast the movement as one towards increased wealth in a state where fewer than eight percent of working citizens earn more than $100,000.
"Middlebury College's president makes more than any other college administrator in Vermont," the Free Press wrote on Nov. 23. "Each of the nine administrators on the list made more than $100,000, placing them among the wealthiest Vermonters."
None of the other eight colleges in Vermont, however, appear on Middlebury's list of 21 peer institutions against which the president's compensation is compared. Within the NESCAC, Tufts University paid its president more than $550,000 while Wesleyan University paid its president just over $501,000.
Fritz noted that despite the upward movement of presidents' compensation packages, Liebowitz's compensation in part also remains tied to his performance as president.
"We also have a set of long-term goals - annual goals for the president - and we sit down once a year to give a written performance appraisal of the president and his progress on those goals," he said.
While fundraising is just one of those factors, it is an important one - and one in which Liebowitz's efforts have so far been successful. Of the $500 million to be raised by the "Middlebury Initiative," $234 million had been secured as of the Oct. 6 public launch date.
Written by DEREK SCHLICKEISEN
