A more than $2,000 increase a month will show up on MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon’s paycheck as a result of a 5 percent pay raise from the MSU Board of Trustees.
The raise brings Simon’s salary to $520,000, which unofficially places her 7th among the 11 Big Ten universities in presidential compensation, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Trustee Melanie Foster said at the board meeting Monday that the board’s goal was to keep Simon’s salary in the midrange of Big Ten presidents.
“It’s our goal to keep all (MSU faculty) in the midrange,” Foster said at the meeting. “We’re doing as much as we can.”
The contract terms of four universities — Ohio State University, Northwestern University, University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin — either haven’t been fully disclosed or were from prior years.
Foster said at the meeting Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee has an annual salary in excess of seven figures, though his contract hasn’t officially been released.
Trustee Faylene Owen said MSU can’t afford to pay that kind of money, though the board unanimously agreed Simon’s salary needed to be competitive relative to the Big Ten.
“I wish we could afford to pay President Simon a lot more than we do, because she’s done such a fantastic job at the university,” Owen said. “With all the cuts we’ve had to make, that’s all we could afford.”
The raise was passed as retroactive to Oct. 1, 2007. Simon also received additional health benefits, the terms of which MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said hadn’t yet been disclosed.
Simon, who donated an $85,000 raise back to MSU in 2006, said she never asked the board for a raise.
“This is something they chose to do,” Simon said. “Obviously, you have to be pleased to get a positive evaluation from the board, and Roy (Simon) and I will continue to give back to MSU.”
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