Carter creates change
October 29, 2012
President Warrick L. Carter was Columbia’s highest-paid employee in the 2010–2011 fiscal year with an income of $351,205, according to the college’s most recent Form 990, an annual tax document all nonprofit institutions and organizations must submit to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Carter’s salary decreased from the previous fiscal year because he received a $45,000 bonus in 2009, compared to a $3,384 bonus in 2010, according to the form.
The annual tax forms, which are made public two years after they are submitted, were released this month and list the college’s top salary earners.
Steve Kapelke, former provost and vice president of Academic Affairs and who is no longer with the college, came in distant second to Carter with an annual salary of $235,824.
The top 10 highest-paid administrators had salaries similar to the previous fiscal year, though each of heir salaries decreased a few hundred dollars. Doreen Bartoni, former dean of the School of Media Arts, made the list for the first time, as the tenth highest-paid employee at the college, with a salary of $188,837, according to the document.
Others who made the list include Michael DeSalle, former chief financial officer and vice president of Business Affairs, $216,259; Eliza Nichols, former dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, $209,363; Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs, $207,233; Eric Winston, vice president of Institutional Advancement, $206,464; Annice Kelly, vice president and general counsel of Legal Affairs, $203, 135; Alicia Berg, vice president of Campus Environment, $201,892; and Paul Chiaravalle, associate vice president and chief of staff, $191,884.
Kelly surpassed Winston as the fifth-highest earner, and Zafra Lerman, former head of The Institute for Science Education and Science Communication, who was the seventh highest-paid administrator in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, subsequently was let go by the college.
For the 2010-2011 fiscal year, salaries and other compensation totaled approximately $133 million, approximately $1 million less than the previous year. Full-time faculty increased by an estimated 13 members and part-time faculty decreased by 57 in that period.
Tuition and fees accounted for approximately $215 million of the college’s total revenue, an increase of $3 million from the prior year. The uptick was due to the 3.3 percent tuition and fee hike implemented in 2010, as reported by The Chronicle March 15, 2010.
When asked to comment on the forms or allow The Chronicle access to individuals on the list, Diane Doyne, the college’s
spokeswoman, denied the request.
Columbia received almost $10 million in grants and contributions in the 2010–2011 fiscal year, approximately $3 million less than the prior year when it received more than $13 million. Similarly, Roosevelt University—which Columbia surpassed in total grants and contributions in the previous fiscal year—beat Columbia by more than $4.6 million, according to its Form 990 for the 2010–2011 fiscal year.
Columbia’s total net assets at the end of the fiscal year were up approximately $28 million from the beginning of the year, coming to $226,338,313, according to the college’s Form 990.
Columbia’s figure surpassed Roosevelt’s net assets, which were approximately $122 million, according to its Form 990.
In the prior fiscal year, Columbia lost approximately $14 million in investments, although in 2010-2011 it earned $3,868,413. Roosevelt’s investment income, according to its 2010 Form 990, was approximately $10 million.
The income brackets for the highest-paid administrators at Roosevelt and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago are relatively close to Columbia’s. Most comparable to Columbia’s highest-paid was Roosevelt’s president, Charles R. Middleton, who earned $495,897 for the 2010 fiscal year and didn’t receive a bonus.
On the national level, Rhode Island School of Design’s highest-paid administrators also had salaries similar to Columbia administrators in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. RISD President John Maeda earned $443,821. RISD was also comparable to Columbia in contributions and grants, bringing in approximately $6 million during the 2010–2011 fiscal year. However, RISD surpassed Columbia by $122 million with approximately $349 million in total net assets at the end of the fiscal year.
Carter ranked 94 in pay scale out of 519 colleges surveyed by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
According to data compiled and published by The Chronicle of Higher Education in August, the top 36 highest-paid presidents of private nonprofit colleges throughout the country earned between $1 million and $5 million in total compensation in 2009. Former Drexel University President Constantine N. Papadakis was at the top of the list, with a total salary of $4,912,127 in 2009.
The 20 lowest-paid presidents of private nonprofit colleges in the country earned between $7,855 and $165,402 in 2009, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education report. The lowest salary earner was Sister Janet Eisner, president of Emmanuel College, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.