As the University of Missouri’s new chancellor steps into office later this year, he will do so with a larger base salary than his predecessor.
When former chancellor R. Bowen Loftin took office in 2013, he was offered a base salary of $450,000 a year before bonuses. Alexander Cartwright, who will be taking over the same position, signed a contract Wednesday to make about 8 percent more, $485,000 a year. In the same time period, the consumer price index, which measures cost of living, has only gone up about 3 percent.
Cartwright will also be eligible for transportation funds up to $15,000 a year and a retention bonus of $125,000. This bonus will only vest if he sticks around for five years.
Compensation packages like Cartwright’s are part of a growing trend across higher education. In November, a new chancellor at the University of Tennessee was hired for $585,000 a year, and the president at the University of Texas in Austin was hired in 2015for $750,000.
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UM System President Mun Choi says he believes the school reached a good agreement.
“This is a very competitive salary,” Choi said at the new chancellor’s announcement Wednesday, “and we are very pleased that Alex was focused more on his ability to contribute to the university rather than the compensation issue.”
Unlike former chancellor Loftin, if chancellor designate Cartwright ever leaves the chancellorship but remains on the faculty, he will take a substantial pay cut of nearly 50 percent.
