Foundation wants to raise Harter pay

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 10:43 a.m.

The UNLV Foundation's Board of Trustees wants to make sure President Carol Harter sticks around, and is willing to supplement her salary by $50,000 a year to keep her.

The proposal, which regents must vote on Oct. 14, also involves socking $40,000 away for Harter's retirement. If she helps the foundation meet its fund-raising goal of $400 million to $500 million in an upcoming capital campaign, the foundation will give her a bonus of $250,000.

Foundation members argue in the proposal that Harter's current compensation is insufficient to keep her at the university if a more lucrative offer were to come along. She withdrew her name from consideration in 2000 for a job at University of South Florida in Tampa.

The average presidential salary for a doctoral granting institution is $270,000 a year, according to the 2004-2005 almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Harter makes a base salary of $219,616 a year, plus a $18,000 housing allowance and a $8,000 automobile allowance.

"What we've determined is that the position is grossly underpaid compared to similar institutions of like size," Terry Wright, chairman of the UNLV Foundation Board of Trustees, said.

The Board of Regents last year approved the possibility of allowing private foundations to supplement the salaries of presidents, but have not approved any contracts.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers said about half of the public institutions in the country are already supplementing their presidents' salaries through outside sources, and Nevada institutions would have to do the same if they wanted to stay competitive.

"I don't think you can continue to keep top management if you don't do that," Rogers said.

Several regents on Friday said they still had questions about how the proposal would work.

Concerns included whether donors would be able to have undue influence over the president, whether the state would be responsible for the extra pay if the UNLV Foundation were unable to raise it one year and whether allowing the UNLV Foundation to supplement Harter's salary would put other institutions at a disadvantage.