11/22/2008

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP  / Associated Press

A few days after a national report on the salaries of college presidents showed the leaders of the University of Washington and Washington State University are among the best paid in the nation, both men announced they would be taking voluntary pay cuts.

Washington State University President Elson Floyd told the WSU Board of Regents on Friday he would take a $100,000 cut in response to budget problems.

"These are exceedingly tough times for my students, faculty and staff. We will be asking them to think more creatively and work harder with less as we deal with budgetary restraints. It is incumbent on me to lead by example," Floyd told the regents.

The regents said they "reluctantly" granted Floyd's request and that his salary will drop to $625,000 a year, effective Jan. 1.

"This action on his part only reinforces our belief that he is the right person at the helm to lead WSU through the challenging times ahead," Francois X. Forgette, chair of the Board of Regents, said in a statement.

UW President Mark Emmert, who earns about $905,000 a year, told the UW Board of Regents he would forgo a pay raise this year.

Emmert said Thursday that he decided to forgo a raise because "in light of what's going on with the budget and the university's finances, it seemed like a prudent thing to do," The Seattle Times reported.

The two boards met jointly in Eastern Washington on Friday to discuss the economic downturn and its expected impact on higher education. Gov. Chris Gregoire attended the meeting in advance of this weekend's Apple Cup football game between the two schools.

In an e-mail to university faculty, students, staff, alumni and supporters Thursday, Floyd wrote of the global economic crisis and the state's revenue forecasts and how WSU was trying to meet the challenge.

He said WSU officials began looking for ways to cut back last February and had already identified $3 million in savings without layoffs. He said the cuts would not affect instruction, the WSU libraries or the regional campuses. But more cuts are on the way.

"I'm trying to paint a very realistic situation ... but also to provide some glimmer of hope, because I think people need that," Floyd said in a telephone interview on Friday.

He said further cuts would likely results in layoffs because most of the university's budget pays for faculty and staff salaries.

The governor's office has asked all the state's colleges, universities and agencies to examine their budgets for ways to cut as much as 20 percent for the next two-year budget cycle.

"I realize these reports are troubling, but I remind you all that the governance and legislative process is just beginning and there is much that we do not know about the eventual shape of the budget and how it might impact WSU," Floyd wrote.

The UW regents completed their annual review of Emmert on Thursday and said he had done an exceptional job, but they did not consider a pay raise, at his request. The Seattle Times reports Emmert also sits on the boards of two companies that pay him $340,000 a year in cash and stock.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported earlier in the week that Emmert is the second-best-paid public university president in the nation. No. 1 is the president of Ohio State University.

Floyd is ranked 17th among public university presidents. His ranking did not include a $125,000 raise he received in August, so his $100,000 salary decrease won't affect his national ranking.