Let's not tell the Regents about this

Now we know why she's smiling.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Amy Gutmann, the former president of the University of Pennsylvania, received nearly $23 million in total compensation in 2021, according to the most recent tax documents available.

It’s likely the highest annual total ever paid to a college president, but the vast majority of it — more than $20 million — was accrued over Gutmann’s nearly two-decade-long tenure as the Ivy League university’s leader and paid out as agreed when it vested, just months before she departed.

“That’s certainly a new record,” said James Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University, who has been studying university president contracts and compensation since the 1990s. “Certainly there is not a public university president in the country that has gotten anything close to that. For a private university president, it’s more than twice as much as the highest one I know of."

The total amount includes what’s known as deferred compensation, and if Gutmann, who was president for 18 years and left last year to become the U.S. ambassador to Germany, had not met the goals set or left early, she could have lost it. Many colleges offer deferred compensation packages as a way to retain high-quality leaders: They set aside money each year in a fund with an agreed-upon date on when that money can be withdrawn...

Full story at https://www.inquirer.com/news/amy-gutmann-university-of-pennsylvania-president-salary-20230617.html.