University President Judith Rodin's annual paycheck has climbed once again, continuing to assure her a spot among the highest paid administrators in the country.
In Fiscal Year 2001, which ran from July 2000 through June 2001, Rodin's compensation package exceeded $800,000 for the first time in her tenure at Penn.
Rodin's combined salary, employee benefit package and expense account totaled $826,021, according to University tax forms released this summer. Her base salary and bonus alone was $690,405, up from $605,000 the previous year.
Rodin's benefit plan contributed $117,616 to the total, and her expense account was $18,000 for the second consecutive year.
In FY 2000, Rodin's total compensation, benefits and expense account topped $700,000, making her the second highest-paid president of a private research university that year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
University Board of Trustees Chairman James Riepe said Rodin's salary takes into account a number of factors, including compensation trends for administrators at Penn's peer institutions and in the private sector as a whole, as well as her high level of performance at Penn.
"She's one of the outstanding university presidents in the country," Riepe said. "We think she deserves to be among the best paid, so we're quite comfortable with her level of compensation being among the highest."
However, Rodin was not the highest paid administrator at Penn for FY 2001. Health System Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin received a combined compensation, employee benefit package and expense allowance that topped $1 million for the first time since his arrival at the University.
Several medical school faculty members -- including Hospital of University of Pennsylvania surgeon and professor Thomas Spray, whose total compensation topped $1 million, and former Health System CEO William Kelley -- also received bigger packages than Rodin.
John Fry, who stepped down as executive vice president on July 1 to become president of Franklin and Marshal College, earned $521,951 in total compensation and employee benefits for FY 2001. But that figure does not include the $150,000 that Fry received for his role as the president of P2B Ventures, a not-for-profit University subsidiary that promotes economic and entrepreneurial development in West Philadelphia, University spokeswoman Lori Doyle said.
Fry's total compensation for the previous fiscal year topped $700,000, but, due to a processing glitch, that number included his bonuses from both 1999 and 2000. He had also received a $115,000 special compensation for staying at Penn rather than accepting other job offers during FY 2000.
Provost Robert Barchi's salary topped $500,000 for FY 2001 as well. He also received $61,693 in employee benefits, bringing his total to $571,693. Part of this was generated from the clinical neurosurgery practice that Barchi operates at HUP, Doyle said.
Riepe said compensation for the University's senior officers and deans are set by the Board of Trustees' compensation committee and are reviewed by Rodin. The committee also consults an outside firm, he added.
"Several of the people on the committee are in business and go through this exercise in their own organizations, and so they have an awareness of compensation in the private sector," Riepe said.
While base salaries remain relatively stable, bonuses that factor into each administrator's total compensation depend on an analysis of what goals individual administrators have achieved, including staff development, hiring and retention.
"That's a key thing we look at, because good people make for good results," Riepe said. "We look not just at accomplishments in the last year, but we look to the accomplishments in progress that have been made over time."
Riepe said Rodin's salary remained relatively unchanged between FY 1999 and FY 2000, partly because of financial worries over the then-struggling health system. Her increase in compensation for FY 2001 in part reflects the health system's recovery, as well as other key accomplishments like the continued implementation of the University's Strategic Plan.
Administrators whose combined salaries and employee benefits packages topped $300,000 for FY 2001 included now-departed Vice President of Development Virginia Clark, former Vice President and General Counsel Peter Erichsen and former Vice President and Chief of Staff Stephen Schutt.
Administrators with combined salaries and benefits packages exceeding $200,000 included Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik, Vice President for Finance and University Treasurer Craig Carnaroli, Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery and Vice President for Government Relations Carol Scheman.
