Public-private funds eyed for college president salary

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

The high presidential price tag attached to Nevada State College heir apparent Kerry Romesburg has prompted the Board of Regents to consider changing the way it pays its presidents.

Instead of asking the state to absorb the entire salary, the board may consider looking to the private sector, namely university and college foundations, to pick up part of the tab.

"We just can't afford the salary they are offering Romesburg," Regent Steve Sisolak said. "We have to look at the option of generating a salary package that includes the possibility of having subsidies provided by the foundation."

Regents are expected to vote Thursday on appointing Romesburg to lead the Nevada State College at Henderson, which opens in September. His proposed annual salary of $195,000, which is $5,000 over budget, is also up for discussion. A committee chose Romesburg as the only finalist for the job after a nationwide search.

With proposed salary raises of nine other presidents on the table, some officials are concerned.

"What it looks like to me is that in order to compete with other public universities, we need to get money from other places," Regent Mark Alden said. "To do that, we are going to have to remodel the way we do business."

Romesburg's total salary package as president of Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah, is $223,000 per year. The state of Utah pays for only $145,000 of that, with the rest coming from private sources, Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada, said.

"It's a very common arrangement," Nichols said. "The advantage of doing that is it prevents the state budget from having to carry that high of a salary."

Nichols said that Romesburg's higher salary will mean he will have to budget more carefully in his first year, leaving little financial latitude.

Talk of increasing presidential pay with private subsidies has given one regent deja vu. "It would be the worst policy decision in the world and a real reversal for us," Regent Jill Derby said. "Years ago we decided we didn't want that to happen."

Derby said that after controversy erupted over private contributions to former University of Nevada, Las Vegas president Bob Maxson, regents did away with that policy.

"A contributor had done quite a bit for (Maxson) and it wasn't a good arrangement," Derby said. "It created a kind of conflict about who was in charge."

But Alden said if such a public-private arrangement were to come about it would be different.

"The Bob Maxson situation happened prior to this board's rules on disclosure," Alden said. "That just wouldn't happen now."

Foundation heads say the idea is an interesting one.

"I think exploring it would be fine," said Bill Martin, chairman of the Nevada State College Foundation.

"I don't think that raising funds for this kind of a possibility is necessarily more difficult than raising money for any other university need," said John Gallagher, vice president of UNLV Foundation.

If regents were to pursue such a policy, it would take months of negotiations with foundation members.

Romesburg's salary is expected to be approved using state funds, even with some of the balking over his salary.

"I still have a problem with the salary," Sisolak said. "It doesn't mean I'm not going to vote for him."