Pres. Lehman Earned $1 Million in 2004-05
Compensation highest in Ivy League
October 20, 2006 - 1:05amWhat’s the price of silence? For Cornell, it may well be over a million dollars. That’s the total compensation that former President Jeffrey S. Lehman ’77 earned in his last year as the head of the University, according to 990 financial filings obtained by The Sun.
Sources familiar with the situation said that at least part of that sum was contingent on Lehman’s willingness to remain silent on the reason for his departure.
The total amount, $1,079,034, was higher than any other Ivy League president’s compensation and a large jump above his own 2003-2004 total compensation of $740,027.
Simeon Moss ’73, University press relations office director, declined to comment specifically on the pay hike, saying that Cornell, as a private university, does not release that information publicly.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to talk about presidential salaries,” he said. “That’s a matter between the board and the president.”
The president’s salary is set by the executive committee of the Board of Trustees.
According to sources who worked with the last administration, Lehman and the Executive Board both signed Non-Disclosure Agreements stating that Lehman would not break with the Board’s official policy of not discussing the rift that ended Lehman’s two-year tenure.
Violating that NDA would have endangered much of Lehman’s generous package, which was comprised of a base compensation of $855,468, an additional $148,566 in contributions to his employee benefit plan and $75,000 in “expense account and other allowances,” according to sources close to the situation.
In the weeks and months after Lehman’s resignation, University officials worked hard to down play its significance — and keep quiet its causes. Insiders generally attributed the departure to Chairman of the Board of Trustees Peter Meinig’s ’62 frustration with Lehman’s fundraising approach, with the “final straw” being the departure of Inge Reichenbach, who had served for ten years as vice president of alumni affairs and development. Reichenbach left for Yale, reportedly over an inability to work with Lehman to jump start the capital campaign.
Day Hall was so intent on keeping Lehman’s resignation quiet that, on at least one occasion, a senior administrator called up the former president late one night to make sure he had not spoken too freely with press.
As a result of the turmoil, the capital campaign was postponed, and is now set to launch next Thursday with a goal of $4 billion, of which roughly $1 billion has been raised so far.
Lehman’s final compensation not only outstripped other Ivies, but also President David J. Skorton’s current salary, which was reported by the Des Moines Register to be $675,000. Harvard’s Lawrence Summers, who also recently resigned, earned $667,157 over the same period last year, while Yale’s Richard Levin was paid $791,140.
Why Lehman Left
No one is looking into the Quill and Dagger angle on this? It's all intra-society rivalries playing themselves out.
Why Lehman Left
I personally think ALL salaries of university officials, are WAY overinflated, just like those of government officials and corporate officials and especially, SPORTSMEN who make millions and millions for a "season" of the year...
We workers of the world, can't pay for our mortgage, car payments, utilities, and food...and heaven forbid, if we HAVE medical insurance, paying for that and medications out of our little salaries...well, as much as I liked Jeffry Lehman much more than Hunter Rawlings, no way do ANY of them, begin to deserve such salaries!
Our USPresident only earns 1/4 million each year; let's get life into perspective and quit paying such ridiculous salaries and bonuses!
Wow. Congratulations to
Wow.
Congratulations to Morisy and the _Sun_ for writing and printing this remarkable story.
Follow up. At this stage you are unlikely to learn much about the reasons for Jeff's departure; they are either well known or deeply occulted.
But: (1) What's the faculty reaction? Faculty were mad enough at knowing little or nothing about the resignation; what do they think about this development? (2), more important, what impact will it have on the capital campaign? How will donors, large and small, especially those not affiliated with the Trustees, feel about contributing to such a buyout package?
We are all curious.
CW
Bad PR officer
Simeon Moss's comment that this matter is between the president and the executive board was casual and poorly worded. I would expect a PR officer to have made a more thoughtful (and less defensive) statement. But his words nonetheless reflect the generally closed door approach Day Hall and its occupants have instituted. It is an obvious sign of how dysfunctional the Lehman presidency ultimately was. Simeon, I don't care if this is a private university. If I pay a tuition twice that (or more) of a public university I expect to be able to find out on demand where every penny of that money is going.
funny
This is really funny stuff - "By a mother", I love the "workers of the world unite" angle... very funny... did you happen to not notice that this is an ivy league university? to pretend that Cornell is not at a substantial level of remove from the rest of the world is laughable. Car payments? How much noblesse oblige do you have, anyway, considering the two billion people in this world who live on less than $2 a day? They'd loooovvveee to have your problems, not to mention access to a computer so that you can lay down your "woe is me" story.
Lori - you want to know where every penny of a private nonprofit is going? First off, recognize that Cornell has one of the most open governance structures of any private university, what with alumni elected, staff elected and student elected trustees. Also, there's lots of publicly available information out there if you care to look, for example the 990 tax filing this enterprising reporter downloaded. But every penny? Ha ha ha - good luck with that, at Cornell or anywhere.