UW joins hunt for new president

The next University of Washington president will lead a $1.6 billion, 42,000-student enterprise that higher-education leaders call one of the "better jobs in the country."\nBut with a crippled state economy and other prestigious schools in the hunt for new leaders, these are bad times for public universities to put out help-wanted ads. \n"The job is just very difficult because of funding issues at the state level," said David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. "There's no question this is a challenging time."\nThose challenges are exacerbated because Washington will be competing with several top universities to lure a new leader to replace Richard McCormick, who recently was named president of Rutgers University in New Jersey. \nThe universities of Minnesota, Indiana and Iowa -- which are "similar to Washington in scope and reputation" -- also are looking for presidents, Ward said. That makes for a candidates' market, driving up salary demands. \nMcCormick will make a starting salary of $525,000 at Rutgers, a 78 percent increase over his UW salary. McCormick, 54, is a native of New Jersey and previously was on the Rutgers faculty for 16 years. He was at the helm of UW for seven years. \nAccording to analysis done by Rutgers, the average annual salary for presidents at top public schools is $576,570. \nNew presidents hired recently at such schools as the universities of Michigan, Tennessee and Arizona ranged from $520,000 per year to $734,000. \n"Public universities are now offering pay and benefits comparable to private universities," said Scott Jaschik, editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education. \nAs it hunts for a successor to McCormick, UW officials recognize they, too, may have to up the salary ante. \n"If we want to attract the best people, we're going to have to offer a competitive salary," said Jerry Grinstein, president of the UW Board of Regents. \nThat may mean looking to foundations or donors to supplement the university's budget, he said. \nThe UW will enter that competitive salary market just as the state faces an estimated $2 billion budget shortfall. \nMost public institutions in Washington can expect severe funding cuts when the Legislature convenes next year to tackle the deficit. UW faculty and staff already have their salaries frozen, a decision that undermined morale. \n"That's not exactly a big draw to a new president," said Ronald Dear, a past chair of the faculty senate who served on the search committee that recruited McCormick seven years ago. \nThe UW is one of the nation's top recipients of research funding and continues to be highly successful in attracting private gifts and grants. But the school is also near the bottom of its class in per-student funding. \nIn 1991, the UW ranked 12th in per-student funding among the top 25 state institutions -- schools such as Illinois, Michigan and University of California, Los Angeles. But by 2001, UW had dropped to 20th place, putting it roughly $91 million annually behind the average institutions. \n"Our research is cooking, but our finances are in deep trouble and we're feeling very vulnerable," said UW Provost Lee Huntsman, who is likely to be named interim president during the search to replace McCormick. "If the day comes when key people, especially faculty, decide this is not the place to end their careers, it will implode."\nThe so-called brain drain is already occurring, said Faculty Senate Chair Sandra Silberstein, citing the departure of more than a dozen faculty members in the past few years from the English department alone. \n"People are very worried about the university's ability to maintain excellence," Silberstein said. "At every level of the institution, people make a great deal less than their peers at comparable institutions."\nHigher education is "at a crossroads in our state," said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee. "And depending upon decisions made, we could find our public higher-education institutions in real jeopardy in terms of being able to keep their quality and being able to provide affordable access to qualified students."\nGrinstein, the regents' president, acknowledged these are trying times to begin a presidential search. \n"There are some major universities looking for presidents who are months ahead of us," Grinstein said.