Last Year, Graham Spanier Was the Best-Paid Public University Prez in the Country
Penn State President Graham Spanier was fired halfway into the 2011-2012 academic year amid the Jerry Sandusky scandal. And yet, he was still the best-compensated public university executive in the country during that time.*
With compensation that totaled $2,906,721, Spanier clinched the No. 1 spot in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Executive Compensation Survey of Public Colleges and Universities released today. He received $350,959 in base salary for the five months he served as president in the 2011-12 academic year. And Spanier received a $1.2 million severance payment and $1.2 million in deferred compensation paid out that year, as per Internal Revenue Service regulations.
The year before, sans severance pay, Spanier was still the third-highest prez in the land. Hey, life isn’t so easy for Spanier though: Out on bail, he was cruelly blocked from visiting Slovakia a few months back.
*Not that the new “transparent” Penn State wanted anyone to know…
