College presidents getting hundreds of thousands in extra pay from foundations
Six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries, generous housing allowances and chauffeur-driven cars don’t seem to be enough for the leadership of New York’s public colleges and universities.
They also need low-interest or interest-free loans and hundreds of thousands in extra pay. And the public they serve may have no idea.
The extras are hidden in private foundations linked to City College, Baruch College, Stony Brook University and other institutions.
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, dean of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine, collected a taxpayer-funded salary of $387,500 in 2010 and got another $400,000 from the Stony Brook Foundation. The foundation also lent him $600,000 at an interest rate of no more than 2 percent, documents show.
His state salary rose to $395,250 the next year, and he collected $319,679 from the foundation.
Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley was paid $400,000 in state money in 2011 and got another $250,000 from the Stony Brook Foundation. He also has a housing allowance and use of a car.
Stanley is the highest-paid public-university president in the state, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education survey.
The foundation “is able to help the university attract top talent and foster excellence in a very competitive market,” said a Stony Brook University spokeswoman.
When City College hired Lisa Coico from Temple University in 2010, it paid her $300,000 with taxpayer money. But the City College Fund kicked in another $100,000 a year, compensation that is not disclosed on the group’s tax filings, which list her as working 10 hours a week.
A college spokesman recently told The Post that Coico’s salary was just $300,000.
Baruch College President Mitchel Wallerstein is paid $300,000 and gets an extra $75,000 from the Baruch College Fund, which is not detailed in the group’s tax filing.
The salary arrangements for the college presidents was negotiated by the system’s chancellor “consistent with the marketplace realities of attracting and retaining the highly skilled talent needed to lead our colleges and our university,” said CUNY spokesman Michael Arena.
Meanwhile, students are straining to meet soaring tuition, after trustees in 2011 approved $300-per-student increases for five years for the state and city college systems.
The union is pressing for state legislation that would make the college foundations subject to the state’s open-records law.
“We feel strongly that the funding of the college foundations and the expenditure of funds should be transparent,” said Barbara Bowen, president of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress, the union representing faculty and staff.
Pay packages to university officials became an issue this year when former New York University executive Jack Lew was undergoing congressional confirmation hearings as treasury secretary. The school lent Lew $1.4 million, part of which was forgiven in a rich exit package.
The foundations tied to CUNY and SUNY schools give out scholarships and provide research money.
The Brooklyn College Foundation compensated five college employees last year, including President Karen Gould, whose state salary is $255,000.
Gould worked 12 hours a week for the foundation and received $75,448 in 2011 and $24,898 in unspecified benefits, the group’s latest tax filings show.
But Gould did not list this “non-state” income on her state financial-disclosure form.
CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who is a board member of the Research Foundation of the City University of New York, also failed to list that membership on his disclosure form, or the $19,292 in income that came with it.
Goldstein’s total pay is $490,000 plus a $90,000-a-year housing allowance and a car and driver.
It is unclear whether Gould and Goldstein needed permission to do the outside work for the foundations, which are independent non-profits. Such approval is required for some state workers.
Arena insisted they were not employed by the foundations, even though federal tax filings suggest otherwise.
Some of the state college executives who got fat bonuses from private donor-funded foundations:
Kenneth Kaushansky
* Dean, Stony Brook University Medical School
* Taxpayer salary: $395,250
* University foundation bonus: $319,679
* Total: $714,929
Karen Gould
* President, Brooklyn College
* Taxpayer salary: $255,000
* College foundation bonus: $75,448
* Total: $330,448
Samuel Stanley
* President, Stony Brook University
* Taxpayer salary: $400,000
* University foundation bonus: $250,000
* Total: $650,000
Lisa Coico
* President, City College
* Taxpayer salary: $300,000
* College fund bonus: $100,000
* Total: $400,000
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