Brazil receives $2.77 million with deferred compensation

Faculty Senate writes letter to Board of Trustees to voice community members’ concerns over Brazil’s pay

by Samantha Bos

The Faculty Senate has written a letter to the Board of Trustees voicing its concern over the $2.77 million compensation that the board paid to John Brazil, former president of the university, upon his leaving Trinity.

According to the Nov. 14 edition of the “Chronicle of Higher Education,� this compensation makes him the second highest-paid president from a private college or university in 2008 in the United States.

According to Diane Graves, chair of the Faculty Senate and head librarian, some members of the Trinity community were shocked by the report and complained to the Faculty Senate.

“A couple of the people on the Senate had heard from alumni, from parents of students and from emeritus professors expressing real dismay over that compensation report and pretty much saying, ‘What are all you doing about it? How are you responding?’� Graves said.

In reaction to the response of the community and their own misgivings regarding the compensation of Brazil, the Faculty Senate decided to write a letter to the Board of Trustees.

The letter was meant to express “the really awkward position faculty members get put into when we are asked to explain why he was compensated as he was, because we really aren’t responsible for that decision,� Graves said. “The other concern is one that runs a little deeper, and that is that while Dr. Brazil’s income was increasing pretty significantly over a period of time, faculty and staff salaries have stayed pretty stagnant.�

Walter Huntley, the chair of the Board of Trustees, sees Brazil’s compensation in a different light.

“Basically, the Board strives, and the university strives, to hire the best leadership possible, to make sure there’s low turnover and high employee morale,� Huntley said in response to how the Board decides the compensation of presidents. “We look at a number of factors in determining the compensation. These factors include performance, the existing market and longevity of service of the president.�

But according to the “Chronicle of Higher Education’s� article written by Andrea Fuller, more than $2 million was comprised of the payment and interest on deferred compensation.

Richard Butler, professor of economics and chair of the department of business administration, further explained deferred compensation.

“Most of the presidents who get these enormous one-year salaries aren’t getting them year-to-year-to-year,� Butler said. “The context is that presidents in general have deferred compensation arrangements usually in lieu of some kind of pension or 401K type of plan. All that just explains why there’s this big jump. A separate question is whether he was worth that much money, and reasonable people might differ on that.�

Fuller’s article looked at the earnings and compensation of 448 top executives at private nonprofit universities and colleges in the United States in 2008-2009. In 2008, a new set of requirements set by the IRS created a new, more detailed system to evaluate the compensation of university executives.

According to the data collected, while more than 75 percent of the schools listed have executives who earned compensations under $600,000 for 2008, 30 of the schools listed have leaders who earned more than $1 million in compensation for the same year. The highest earning president in 2008 was Bernard Lander of Touro College who was awarded over $4,786,830 in compensation upon retiring after 35 years as the founder and president of Touro College.

The full article is available at the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com and is titled “Compensation of 30 Private-College Presidents Topped $1-Million in 2008� by Andrea Fuller.