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Decision on Kopp's raise could come Wednesday
Marshall University President Stephen Kopp speaks during the State of the University Address in this Sept. 22, 2008, file photo. A decision on a proposed 18 percent pay raise for Kopp could come this week, as the stateÕs Higher Education Policy Commission to scheduled to discuss the issue Wednesday.
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HUNTINGTON -- The state's Higher Education Policy Commission is once again scheduled to consider whether Marshall University President Stephen Kopp should receive at least an 18 percent pay raise -- an increase that its backers say is important for keeping Kopp at Marshall.
The commission, which last discussed the proposed pay hike in November, meets at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Charleston.
The university's Board of Governors believes Kopp not only deserves a raise, but should get one in an effort to keep him at Marshall.
The board submitted a proposal to the commission that would increase Kopp's pay from $232,780 to $275,000 a year. The board also has asked the Marshall University Foundation to kick in a $50,000 annual bonus for the remainder of Kopp's contract, which expires in 2012. If that's done, too, the pay increase would amount to nearly 40 percent.
"Most of the members of the Board of Governors have had some measure of success in the business world," Board of Governors chairman Bob Shell said last week. "Forget that it's Marshall University ... it's an institution with 2,000 employees, 13,000 clients, three physical facilities and a quarter-billion-dollar budget. If you can find anyone to run all that (for that salary), let me know.
"It's a reasonable package that ensures he stays with us," Shell added.
According to Shell, the package, private funds included, would bring Kopp's salary to the starting point of the average from Marshall University's peer institutions and other competing post-secondary institutions.
Kopp originally signed a three-year contract in 2005 with an annual salary of $226,000. A 3 percent pay raise in 2007 pushed his salary up to $232,780.
Shell said the university's contract with the Marshall University Foundation in such instances is very clear that a private bonus is voluntary and the amount is never guaranteed.
Chief Financial Officer R. Scott Anderson said in early December that the foundation's board is aware of the university's request and is taking it into consideration. Calls placed this past week to Anderson were not returned.
Kopp has declined to comment on the pay proposal.
Salaries at peer institutions
According to Michael McGuffey, Marshall's director of Institutional Research and Planning, Marshall's first list of peer institutions was devised around 2001. In 2006, a new list was cast using an outside consulting firm.
McGuffey said the firm returned two reports, to which Marshall senior staff chose the 20. At least five -- University of South Alabama, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, East Carolina, Wright State and East Tennessee State -- were on 2001 list and also were on the reports from the consulting firm.
McGuffey said all of the peer institutions have similarities to Marshall related to amount of research, enrollment, faculty and types of programs, among others. He said the creation of the new list did not take into account level of funding because the amount of dollars allocated by each state has different determining factors.
The average salary of those schools' presidents or chancellors, consisting only of public funds, was about $270,000. (Two institutions were not included because they have interim presidents or chancellors who do not receive a full compensation package.) Most, like Kopp also receive a state vehicle and a house provided by the university.
The information was collected from newspaper articles, university press releases and The Chronicle of Higher Education Web site.
Details on university presidents and chancellors listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education site, which accounted for about half of the 20 peer institutions, also listed whether the school's leader received private annual compensation, deferred compensation, retirement pay, and country club or social club dues.
Shell said the list of presidents and chancellors receiving private money is growing because state dollars allocated to public universities and colleges have not increased.
"The public funds that go into higher education is declining," he said. "You have to get private funds to stay competitive."
Kopp's current and proposed package does not include deferred compensation or retirement pay, which is common among the school leaders profiled on Chronicle of Higher Education's Web site.
For example, Gary D. Russi, the president of Oakland University, makes $250,000 through public funds, but also receives $45,000 in deferred compensation and $42,500 in retirement pay, bringing his total compensation for the 2007-08 fiscal year to $337,500.
East Carolina, a fellow Conference USA school, pays its president, Steve Ballard, $299,750, provides money for a vehicle, a house, along with $32,452 in retirement pay and club dues.
Defending the proposal
Shell said he stands behind the proposed increase to Kopp. He said Kopp has brought immeasurable leadership to the university, helping to get the new freshmen dorms and recreational facility built since his arrival in 2005.
It's those new facilities that will help increase and stabilize enrollment in the coming years, Shell said. And that will have a positive impact on staff and faculty salaries.
"If everybody will concentrate on providing a university that people want to come to, then more students will come and that's what will increase faculty pay," Shell said.
The last raise for Marshall faculty and staff was 3 percent, and it took effect in October. Tuition for students this past year went up by less than 6 percent.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education Web site's 2007-08 faculty salary survey published last April, Marshall is well below most of its peer institutions. Since the survey was started in 1999, Marshall faculty pay has not kept pace with pay at those other institutions.
East Carolina's professors make an average of about $95,000 a year, up from about $69,000 in the past decade. In comparison, Marshall professor's made (before the 3 percent raise in October) an average of nearly $71,000, up from about $56,000 10 years ago. East Carolina's faculty members have received about a 2.5 percent raise each year in the past decade, while annual raises for Marshall's professors have averaged about 1.4 percent.
Although West Virginia University is not a peer institution, the salary disparity is quite high. The April report listed the average salary of a professor there at $92,800, $22,000 higher than at Marshall. However, WVU has more than double the enrollment.
Shell said those opposed to raising Kopp's salary should think about the cost of finding another president. He believes the new package is crucial to keeping someone with Kopp's background at Marshall. Anything less, and there's no reason to think Kopp won't test the job market, he said.
"Kopp isn't driven by money, but he's just like you and I," Shell said. "Nobody wants to question the salary of a coach, but they want to question the salary of the man who leads the university."
Marshall football coach Mark Snyder makes about $150,000 in base salary and more than $440,000 in total compensation.
Shell said in the event that Kopp doesn't receive a pay raise and would leave Marshall for a better offer, it would cost more than half of what the Board of Governors is proposing.
"People don't think about the fees and the cost of a search," he said. "Plus the loss of leadership."
