Higher salary for new president

INDIANAPOLIS -- The next IU president could receive upwards of $800,000 a year in annual compensation next year in a move to attract better candidates to replace outgoing IU President Myles Brand.\nJerry Baker, of the Atlanta firm Baker, Parker and Associates, presented a report to the IU board of trustees and the search committee Friday in Indianapolis concerning the search for Brand's replacement.\nThe $600,000 to $800,000 per year proposal from Baker would include salary, benefits and bonuses. Baker said this kind of package is what most universities around the country are offering presidents.\nIU Spokesman Bill Stephan said the firm's proposal was only a suggestion to the University and was unsure what the board plans to do.\n"If we're serious about going after the best candidate we can find, I think we should prepare the board for how competitive the market place is right now," he said.\nStephan said it was likely that IU's next president's salary would exceed Brand's, but wasn't sure by how much, partly due to the state's economic troubles.\n"I think that's one of the factors the trustees will have to weigh," he said, referring to the state's poor economy.\nBrand announced on Oct. 10 that he was leaving IU to head the NCAA at the beginning of the year. His last year as IU president, Brand made $307,660, half of what the search committee suggested the University offer the next president.\nThe committee, which worked with the NCAA in hiring Brand, plans to narrow the search to about 25 candidates by March. They will interview the best six to 10 candidates by April and will recommend three to five of those to interview in front of the board.\nIUPUI Chancellor Gerald Bepko will take Brand's place beginning Jan. 1 as interim president. \nIn other business, Dr. William Plater of IUPUI was named to replace Bepko as acting chancellor. Plater has been dean of the faculties at IUPUI since 1987 and executive vice-chancellor since 1988. \n"Bill is one of the finest academic executives I've ever met," Bepko said. "He's also one of the finest persons I've ever met."\nThe board also heard a presentation by IUSA Vice President Judd Arnold concerning equal access for all student groups. Arnold asked the board to look at the current policy of disallowing certain political and religious groups from receiving a Student Organizational Account, which allows groups to receive non-monetary privileges and rights, like access to rooms in the Indiana Memorial Union and a campus phone.\n"It's a really important change that needs to happen," Arnold said. He said his presentation was well-received by the trustees, but was unsure how they would decide on the issue.\n"I think, from what I have heard, certain people in the University are concerned about the additional liabilities this would create," he said, referring to recent court cases concerning equal access to all groups at universities around the country.\nArnold's bill would not give any direct University money to student groups and would create a separate SOA account for those groups.\nAt the end of the meeting, Trustee Cora Breckenridge unexpectedly asked for the trustees to discuss requiring the office of the president to require minorities in the chancellorship at all IU campuses.\n"I find it very disturbing," Breckenridge said, referring to the lack of minorities in top administrative positions. The board decided to wait until the the next board meeting in January to fully discuss and consider the issue.\nThe board then adjourned amid a round of applause for Brand, in what was his last trustees meeting as IU president.\n"It's with some sadness that I say goodbye," Brand said. "I believe in my heart of hearts that Indiana University students are just a wonderful group of young women and men."\nBob Eno, president of the University Faculty Council, remembered many thoughtful arguments with Brand, arguments that he said he never seemed to win.\n"He argues for the purpose of trying to discuss," Eno said. "My chief regret with Myles leaving is that we're going to suspend that conversation"