The thing that would make sense would be to base it off the academic staff's salaries. But I suppose the idea of a college with decent working conditions for the faculty would be too utopian.
And 10x seems like an arbitrary (and large) multiplier. What justifies it? What does the president of a University do that adds that much value to a University? I remember ours made over $300k and all he did was go to parties thrown by wealthy Alums, give public speeches, and otherwise be a politician at council meetings.
By comparison, entry level IT there was $30k, "programming" was $40-50k, and senior in either was capped at $55k essentially. And IIRC, the professor salaries were similarly pathetic. I never understood how a public University justifies paying an administrator (something like a glorified answering machine that can make Excel spreadsheets) double what it pays someone who builds and maintains the infrastructure the school needs to function. Especially when the latter often must wear 10+ hats and train themselves on their own time just so they can do the job adequately.
He's the chief fundraiser for it, and head salesman.
The vast majority of income to the University was from public funding, tuition, and sales on campus. He was never involved in working with state legislation to try to get us more funding -- that happened at a higher level in the University system. The large independent contributions happen regardless, and had mostly happened before his time (you know, buying a new building for the University and having it named after you).
The President was so far divorced from students that almost nobody could actually recognize him. He wasn't the reason anyone attended the school. Every alum I know has never heard of him outside of public speaking engagements. Every faculty member and staff member on campus I talked to (and I worked there for 3 years, it was a small University) had almost 0 interaction with him.
How is he fundraising, and who is he selling what to?
I saw absolutely 0 justification that he was earning the salary of 1 sanitary worker, let alone 5x the highest amount they paid any skilled worker on campus.
If the justification for someone's salary is "they make us that much money", then why would the University refuse to compensate an IT worker who demonstrably saved the school $50,000+ a year by having extraordinary skills for their position?
Or why can't there be Alumni relations staff that only exist to cater to Alumni and extract as many donations as possible? Why does it make sense that the President would do that?
Does Obama, to make a stretch comparison, raise all democratic party donations himself? It seems a silly thought. And if he did, would it justify giving him a salary of some outrageous number, just so long as we point out that he raises more money than he costs? Say, $20,000,000/yr salary and he brings in $90,000,000?
I'm all for profit sharing, but that brings up an even bigger question: why is there only a single person in the University being given the option of profit sharing? In a place where raises didn't happen for nigh on 10 years straight and bonuses were unheard of, if you could generate more value for the University than your cost, in multiplicity, you should see part of it. It's not OK to do that for the independently wealthy white man running the University with a base salary of $300,000, allowances upwards of $250,000 and a paid-for home while keeping the guy making $40,000/yr who just kept you from needing to buy $100,000 in software and consulting from seeing a single additional penny. It's completely unfair and there isn't any valid justification I can imagine would ever be presented to explain it.
[1] http://faculty-salaries.findthebest.com/l/5282/St-Mary-s-Col...
Professor at a university in the US wins the Nobel Prize for research in chemistry. The university see this as a way to get publicity.
The president calls a press conference to announce this. He congratulates the professor and asks if there is anything the university could do to better support chemistry and scientific research and produce more Nobel Laureates.
"Pay professors what you pay football coaches."
"Now, be reasonable..."