The Board of Regents announced the salary of incoming chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little this week, and it is nearly an $85,000 jump from the salary of the outgoing chancellor.

According to information compiled by Kip Peterson, director of government relations & communications for the Regents, Gray-Little will earn a maximum of $425,000 per year, up from $340,352 for Chancellor Robert Hemenway. The state contribution of $267,177 will remain the same. The extra $84,648 will be made up in money from private donations.

Gray-Little also has a deferred compensation clause in her agreement. Of the $425,000 per year, $25,000 per year will be set aside and will not be paid until she finishes her service as chancellor.

Other university leaders across the country that the Regents said Gray-Little trails in compensation include Sally Mason, University of Iowa president and Holden Thorp, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Richard Lariviere, former provost for the University, now makes $425,700 per year as president of the University of Oregon, although private money picks up $180,000 of that amount.

The extra private funds for Gray-Little’s salary will come from sources such as the University Leadership Professorship at the Kansas University Endowment Association, a fund started in 2002 with a $1 million gift to support the chancellor’s position. Dale Seuferling, president of the Endowment Association said the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees had approved an allocation of unrestricted funds.

The need for more private funds to help support a new chancellor’s salary was identified early on in the chancellor’s search processes by the Regents, and they contacted the Endowment Association, which agreed to make the extra funding available.

“Part of the mission at KU Endowment is to provide resources to recruit a highly talented chancellor, similar to providing support to recruit top faculty and meritorious students,” Seuferling said.

— — Edited by Derek Zarda