Deconstructing President Harris’ salary

How total compensation and salary are different 

KARISA KAMPBELL / NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

Clarification: On April 21, there was an editorial piece published that used information from the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica about President Harris’ salary. The information was not used in the correct context. This article explains the numbers that were used in their argument.

In an editorial piece published by the USD Vista last week titled “USD staff are looking to unionize” broad statements regarding salary and compensation of USD staff were used to argue that the clerical workers on campus should unionize and that everyone on campus should support this movement. 

This argument used information from propublica.com, a nonprofit investigative news company, stating that President Harris’ salary increased $462,000 between 2019-2020. 

However, the $462,000 wage increase in question is not money entering the pocket book of President Harris, but rather a broader overview of the total compensation he receives for working at USD. 

Total compensation includes a variety of different factors. These factors at USD include health benefits, such as medical and dental insurance, a retirement 403B plan, social security, medicare, worker’s compensation, tuition remission, vacation accrual, and additional benefits such as Employee Assistance Program, basic life insurance, etc. Each university has their own specific total compensation program. 

Peter Marlow Associate Vice President for University Marketing and Communications commented on what these total compensation packages look like in practice, across different universities. 

“While university presidents have a similar total compensation package, university presidents typically are hired under an employment agreement for a certain period of time that may have other incentives based on performance, unique university offerings (i.e., a place to live on campus), competitive market conditions or circumstances related to their previous employer,” Marlow wrote in an email.

Lissette Martinez Senior Director of Media Relations breaks down how what is seen on organizations’ websites like ProPublica can not be referred to literally for the direct salary that the President obtained in 2020. 

“The information obtained from propublica.org references USD’s annual tax return, Form 990. The Form 990 requires inclusion of various types of compensation and benefits that are not directly tied to income; examples include base compensation, deferred compensation, employer retirement contributions, medical/dental premiums, tuition remission, and other non-taxable benefits,” Martinez wrote in an email. “Dr. Harris did not get a raise in 2020; the data you are referring to from the Form 990 is based on the calendar year ended December 31, 2019, representing reportable compensation before the start of the pandemic.”

Martinez continued by further explaining the reason behind what appeared to be such a drastic wage increase according to Form 990. 

“Additionally, the ‘raise’ referenced ($648,115 on the 2019 Form 990 to $1,112,711 on the 2020 Form 990) is specifically a one-time deferred compensation payout from his original 2015 employment contract, not an increase in base compensation,” Martinez wrote.  “While the University has not filed our Form 990 that reports compensation from the calendar year ended December 31, 2020, I can share with you that Dr. Harris’ reportable total compensation on that return is $684,100 for the calendar year ended December 31, 2020. Further, his base compensation also declined from calendar year 2019 to $603,453.”

In order to determine presidential compensation, there is a comprehensive process that Marlow further explained. 

“One other point that I think is important to make is that we have a comprehensive and responsible process in place whereby we contract with an independent compensation consultant to work with our Board of Trustees to determine a fair and competitive salary for the president that is commensurate with presidents at peer institutions across the country.  

 In the Editorial, UCLA and USD are compared, however, Peter Marlow argued that is not a fair comparison because of how different the two universities are, and how within comparisons, only Peer Universities should be used. UCLA and USD are not comparable schools due to the differences in endowment, size, and the fact that one is a public institution and the other private.

“What is a peer institution? Well they have a similar endowment, similar number of students, similar profile, and a private Catholic University usually,” Marlow said. “There’s no way that president Harris makes anywhere near a UCLA chancellor, who is running a multi-billion dollar endowment.”

 Similar universities to USD include Loyola Marymount University and Pepperdine University in regards to the factors such as endowment, student population, and other factors outlined by Marlow. 

“We don’t have the ability to make an informed comparison of LMU and Pepperdine since we do not know their compensation details,” Marlow wrote. “As I shared previously, university presidents typically are hired under an employment agreement for a certain period of time that may have other incentives based on performance, unique university offerings (i.e., a place to live on campus, tuition remission, etc.), competitive market conditions or circumstances related to their previous employer. These nuances make direct salary comparisons difficult and at times unreliable when reviewing university president compensation listings in various higher ed and other publications.” 

Taking this into account, it is hard to compare compensation of other Presidents reported by propublica, due to the many variables that could be attributed to the specific breakdown of salary versus benefits that makes up a total compensation package.Therefore, it is hard to determine exactly what the exact salary of the Presidents are.  However, ProPublica reports President Andrew Benton of Pepperdine University receiving $1,133,000 in compensation in 2020, and President Timothy Law Snyder of Loyola Marymount University receiving $600,338 in compensation in 2020. 

However, Marlow was able to give some insight on President Harris’s compensation compared to the rest of the market. 

“According to the last executive compensation study that we did for President Harris, his compensation is below the 50th percentile of the market by 15.8% and 4.2% for FY2020 and FY2021, respectively,” Marlow wrote. 

While the editorial’s intent was not to misrepresent President Harris’ earnings and salary, it did misuse the information given by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.