High Paid Presidents

The $1.5 million man: Rice University president among nation's highest paid private college leaders

Forget aiming to become a rock star or a professional athlete. Maybe those looking for a lucrative career should aim to be top dog at a private college or university.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey of what presidents of such private institutions earn, released Sunday, shows that 36 of them made more than $1 million.

Leading the list was Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who was paid $7,143,312 in 2012, the most recent year figures are available.

The publication determined Leebron, who became Rice's seventh president in 2004, was the highest paid president of his peer group.

In seventh place is Rice University president David Leebron, with compensation of $1,522,502. LeBron's base pay was just over $795,000 (five times the average salary of a full professor at Rice), bonus pay of $42,000, nontaxable benefits of just over $90,000 and other pay of around $594,000.

The publication determined Leebron, who became Rice's seventh president in 2004, was the highest paid president of his peer group, which includes presidents of the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, Princeton, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Cornell, Williams and Brown.

Across town, Houston Baptist University president Robert B. Sloan earned $354,735 in 2012, ranking him 284 out of 500. At the University of St. Thomas, Robert Ivany was paid $310,122, putting him 333 on the list.

Among other presidents of private universities in Texas, Texas Christian University president Victor J. Boschini Jr. earned $1,150,966 (ranking 23rd on the total list), Southern Methodist University president R. Gerald Turner earned $804,759 (58th) and Baylor University president Kenneth W. Starr earned $752,551 (70th).

In a survey earlier this year, the Chronicle of Higher Education determined that University of Houston president Renu Khator earned about $1,266,000 in 2013. She is one of the top nine highest-paid presidents of public colleges/universities who earned seven-figure salaries and was the highest-earning female college or university president in the United States, according to the American Bazaar.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”