Anytime anyone in a high-profile, state-supported position gets a hefty ($75,000) raise in a recession, some eyebrows will arch. They should. Exhibit A: USF’s popular president, Judy Genshaft, now in her 10th year.
No one would argue that she hasn’t been good for USF as well as the Tampa Bay region. She’s a dynamic higher-education leader and strong advocate for community partnership and synergy. USF is a major educational and economic player for the region and Genshaft, with her vision and hands-on involvement, is a key catalyst. Her new 5-year deal means her total annual package could be as much as $745,000 a year.
Genshaft, whose raise was based on meeting most–but not all–performance goals, will now be among the highest-paid public university presidents in the country. In Florida, she is second only to UF’s Bernie Machen among state-school presidents. Machen pulls in $875,000 per.
It’s all relative, to be sure. Cops, of course, don’t make this kind of money. Neither do assistant professors; they average a barely competitive $63,000 per year at USF. But marketplace-savvy trustees will tell you it’s worth it to keep the well-regarded Genshaft, who is nationally recognized for her USF tenure.
But she’s not, of course, the highest paid person on her campus. Not when your institution is a BCS school. Head football coach Skip Holtz’s 5-year deal is worth $9.1 million–and he even gets a $25,000 bonus for taking the Bulls to the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Probably a free muffler too. His predecessor, the fired Jim Leavitt, had been working on a 7-year, $12.6 million contract.
Relative, indeed.