UD’s Curran ranked 68th in pay for private university presidents

Former University of Dayton president Dan Curran received $771,354 in compensation in 2014, ranking him No. 68 among private university presidents.

Curran was No. 2 on the list of Ohio private university presidents, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, which published its annual list Sunday.

Curran stepped down as president at the end of June and currently is on a one-year sabbatical. UD’s President Emeritus and executive-in-residence for Asian affairs plans to return to UD next year as a professor.

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Eric Spina took over as UD’s 19th president on July 1. The university would not reveal his salary. According to The Chronicle, he made $631,350 in 2014 as vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse University.

Curran’s salary breakdown from 2014: $517,868 in base pay; $130,290 in bonus pay; and $100,986 in other pay.

This media outlet reported in June that Curran’s total compensation for 2014 was $790,854, based on information in the university’s Form 990, which it files every year for tax purposes. That total included $19,500 in deferred compensation that The Chronicle did not include in its report.

Wilmington (Del.) University president Jack Varsalona was the highest-paid president on The Chronicle’s list with total pay of $5,449,405.

Thirty-nine president made more than $1 million two years ago. That list included Case Western Reserve’s Barbara Snyder, whose pay of $1,154,775 million was tops in Ohio.

Other recognizable names on the list include:

Donna Shalala, University of Miami — No. 11 at $1,570,761. She was Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton.

Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty University — No. 49 at $926,634. He’s the son of the famous evangelist of the same name who died in 2007.

Kenneth Starr, Baylor — No. 54 at $895,966. The former U.S. Solicitor General resigned earlier this year in the midst of a scandal involving sexual assaults at the school.

Thirty-five presidents made fewer than $100,000 in 2014, including 17 that weren’t paid a dime. Among those whose salaries were $0 was Boston College’s William Leahy, a Jesuit priest who has taken a vow of poverty.

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