FARGO N.D.
The state Board of Higher Education has approved higher salary ranges for the state university system chancellor and college presidents. The board’s faculty adviser says the focus should now shift to teacher salaries.
Richie Smith of Wahpeton was the only board member to vote against the proposal. He said the ranges are not equitable because some of the two-year schools have more students, employees and programs than some of the four-year schools.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Smith said at Thursday’s board meeting.
The plan sets the range of college presidents’ salaries from $275,000 to $325,000 at North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota; from $165,000 to $195,000 at Minot State University; from $150,000 to $185,000 at other four-year schools; and from $130,000 to $165,000 at two-year colleges.
The chancellor’s salary range would run from $205,000 to $260,000. The current base salary for that job is $170,000.
NDSU professor Thomas Barnhart, the faculty adviser to the board, said he was happy the salaries of administrators were placed on the front burner. Faculty salaries have “got to get onto a burner some place,” he said.
