Ohio University’s top 10 highest paid employees saw $330,866 in increased pay this year. Meanwhile, OU netted $1.9 million from its 1.5 percent tuition increase. Officials say the two are not directly connected.
Ohio University raised tuition to net $1.9 million in new revenue this year. In the same year, an amount equaling more than 17 percent of that increase — $330,866 — went to pay raises for OU’s top 10 highest-paid employees.
Tuition, along with all of OU’s revenue sources, is funneled into one pot, from which all expenses are pulled, university officials have consistently noted.
This year, the top-ten highest paid OU employees — all high-ranking administrators — received a combined $330,866 increase in base pay.
Last spring, OU’s Board of Trustees voted to raise tuition by 1.5 percent, or $156 for a full-time student, for this academic year. That netted OU $1.9 million after some funds were diverted to financial aid.
These 10 administrators saw pay increases equivalent to 17.4 percent of this year’s tuition increase.
It’s not fair to directly compare those numbers, however, as the university doesn’t “itemize specific additional revenues with specific additional expenses,” Chad Mitchell, OU’s budget director, previously told The Post.
But university officials have said revenue from this year’s tuition increase has gone to faculty and staff compensation, along with the university’s construction plans and more than $600,000 for financial aid.
McDavis alone received a combined $118,730 between his pay raise — $33,730 — and bonus — $85,000 — this year. Last year, his pay raises and bonus combined were $97,050.
It was not immediately clear whether this year’s pay raises would have gone through if tuition had not increased. Multiple university officials did not return requests for comment by press time.
Saul Phillips, OU’s new men’s basketball coach, has the highest base pay among university employees at $550,000. He’s bringing in $116,500 more than former coach Jim Christian, who left last spring to coach for Boston College.
Two people on this year’s top 10 list didn’t have salaries listed on OU’s official salary record last year: Phillips and Robert Cain, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education in OU’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Because Cain’s salary wasn’t listed last year, The Post used Bryan Benchoff’s raise for its calculations. Benchoff is OU’s 11th highest-paid employee this year and the vice president for University Advancement.
“These are public servants … public servants should be paid a reasonable wage, but there is no reason any top administrator should be making wages comparable to a CEO in the private sector,” said Will Klatt, governmental affairs commissioner for OU’s Student Senate. “It does a disservice to the students who pay tuition and to the people who pay taxes in Ohio.”
Klatt was recently named chair of the newly formed Administrative Accountability Committee within senate. The committee is taking steps to investigate the compensation of university employees whose salaries top $150,000. It will present its findings to senate next week.
“There’s a sweetheart deal for the top administrators (right now),” Klatt said.
This year’s pay increases do not include fringe benefits provided to employees, which means their total compensation is likely higher than their reported salary. Fringe benefits include cars for personal use, insurance, and rings for athletic achievements.
For example, in 2013, McDavis’ base salary was $415,000, but once fringe benefits and bonuses were added, that number jumped to $596,024. His total compensation for the last academic year has not been provided to The Post.
The university’s highest-paid faculty member is John Kopchick, a distinguished professor of molecular endocrinology, who has brought millions of dollars to OU through his research. His base salary is $244,312 this year.
Employee compensation made up 67 percent of the university’s total expenses in the 2012-13 academic year, according to OU’s budget book. That number is projected to rise to 70 percent this year.
@JeremyHTweets
jh082912@ohio.edu
