AUGUSTA, Mich. - MSU President M. Peter McPherson received his traditional 3 percent raise and a $25,000 bonus at Friday’s MSU Board of Trustees meeting.
The board, which met at the university’s newly acquired Brook Lodge in Augusta, Mich., voted unanimously to boost the president’s salary.
Since his arrival, McPherson has been insistent on limiting his raise to 3 or 4 percent, an amount somewhat comparable to what other university employees have received.
And he said he will donate the bonus, a one-year stipend, back to the university to plant 2,000 trees on south campus as part of a beautification project.
“I really didn’t come here to make money on this job,” McPherson said. “I think I need to give this back.”
Trustee Don Nugent, chairman of the board’s finance committee, said he was thrilled to learn McPherson would donate the money back to MSU.
“I really compliment the president for making this donation back to the university,” Nugent said. “I think this is just outstanding - the dollars going toward the beautification of the south campus. This is really wonderful leadership on their part.”
Other trustees agree.
“That’s very commendable for him to do that,” Trustee Dorothy Gonzales said.
It’s unknown if McPherson will receive the bonus again next year, but it’s likely he won’t accept it.
All board members were persistent in offering the bonus - which amounts to 13 percent of McPherson’s $191,000 base salary.
“It’s only rightly fair that the president is paid,” Trustee Robert Weiss said. “I think it moves the position of the president into a competitive nature that it ought to be in. Not excessive, but very generous and well worth it.”
McPherson is one of the lowest paid chief executives in the Big Ten. University of Wisconsin Chancellor David Ward, who makes $193,000, is the only other Big Ten president known to make less than a $200,000 base salary.
Northwestern University, a private institution, doesn’t release presidential salary figures.
However, McPherson’s base salary doesn’t include other forms of compensation such as living at Cowles House for free and his deferred salary.
Each of McPherson’s salary increases have been put into a deferred payment fund - at about $59,230 with this year’s 3 percent raise - which he will receive if he stays at MSU through 2003. Soon to be the longest-serving current Big Ten president, McPherson has said he plans to remain at the university until at least 2005.
The trustees agreed they were pleased with McPherson’s performance and thought he was well-deserving of the raise.
In recent years under McPherson’s leadership, MSU’s study abroad program has become the nation’s largest, admission and academic standards are on the rise and the university continues to break fund-raising records.
Including the bonus, deferred compensation and 3 percent salary boost, McPherson’s salary is about $276,800.
But some trustees say they’re not going to forget about the salaries of other MSU employees.
Nugent said that while he was happy with the added compensation for McPherson, he also wants to raise other employees’ salaries.
“(McPherson is) still down in the lower part of the Big Ten,” Nugent said. “But it’s moved him up perhaps one or two slots from the bottom maybe, just as we’re trying to move the faculty up. They’re getting closer to the middle of the Big Ten and I think it’s fair that we try to move it along.”
Because staff and faculty salaries are so low compared to other Big Ten universities, serious work must be done to compensate those workers too, Gonzales said.
“We all have to realize that’s an issue that we have to do that,” she said.
Pamela E. Spencer can be reached at spencerp@msu.edu.
