President-elect Kent Fuchs will earn twice as much as Florida State University President-elect John Thrasher.
The Florida Board of Governors approved both Fuchs and Thrasher on Thursday.
Fuchs’ 5 1/2 -year contract to serve as the new UF president will include an $860,000 base salary. Meanwhile, Thrasher will earn a base salary of $430,000, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Fuchs’ salary could rank him among the highest-paid public university chief executives.
The top executive from 2012 to 2013 was E. Gordon Gee from Ohio State University, with a compensation of $6,057,615, according to The Chronicle for Higher Education.
Fuchs, who will remain the Cornell provost until Nov. 14, will make more than Cornell’s president, who earned $854,082 in 2010, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.
In 2008, UF President Bernie Machen received a base salary of $415,000 and $285,000 in annual performance bonuses, according to Alligator archives. Machen’s total salary in 2013 was $720, 594.
Once Machen leaves, Fuchs will move into the $5 million president’s house located on West University Avenue.
Fuchs will make more than Florida A&M University President Elmira Mangum, who receives a $425,000 base salary, while Florida Atlantic University President John Kelly secures a $400,000 base salary, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Fuchs will work full time as president. However, once his contract ends, he will be granted tenure as a professor in the College of Engineering’s department of electrical and computer engineering.
Fuchs has known about the university since he was in high school in South Florida.
“The opportunity of being at a spectacular university was just irresistible,” he said in a UF video.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said Fuchs will begin as president in January, the middle of the 2014-2015 fiscal year. His contract, written to reflect this, will end at the close of the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 11/10/2014]
