Interim University President Lisa Lynch’s salary ranks in the lowest 7th percentile of comparable institutions, according to a presentation on executive compensation that Board of Trustees Chair Perry Traquina ’78 gave at Friday’s faculty meeting.

Traquina presented the Board Chair’s Annual Report to the Faculty on Executive Compensation, stating, “I’m unaware of any [other] private college or university that discloses this data so ahead of what is legally required.” The data in the report was provided by the executive compensation consulting firm F.W. Cook.

The University president’s compensation, Traquina said, is derived from the University’s Compensation Philosophy, which emphasizes, along with other criteria, “internal equity,” according the University’s website. To provide context, all of the information relevant to 2015 was compared alongside the same information from 2013 and 2014 and compared to the University’s peer group of 28 institutions, the Association of American Universities and AAU private institutions.

The estimated total compensation for Interim President Lisa Lynch was $587,621, based on an assumption that she had served for the entire calendar year instead of beginning Jul. 1. However, Brandeis spent $773,000 on the office of the University President in 2015; $492,000 went to former University President Frederick Lawrence and $281,000 went to Lynch. In 2014, Lawrence received $1,004,593 in total compensation, and in 2013, he received $992,726.

Compensation, according to Traquina, is considered “salary, whether or not he or she received a bonus, cost of benefits … and any deferred compensation that may have occurred.”

Compared to the Peer Group, the president’s total compensation ranks in the 7th percentile for 2015, which was attributed to Lynch’s interim status. In 2014 and 2013, Brandeis ranked in the 46th and 59th percentile, respectively, compared to the Peer Group, and finished in the 37th and 25th percentiles compared to AAU private institutions for those same years. The median value of total compensation for the Peer Group was $949,000 in 2015, $1.037 million in 2014 and $908,000 in 2013.

One faculty member commented on Lynch’s comparatively low salary, saying, “Even when you’re an interim president, you’re a president, and I am shocked at the gap between 40th and 46th percentile and 7th.” Traquina countered, saying “That was, in all honesty, a number [Lynch] wanted, and we agreed to pay her.”

The Senior Executive Team consists of 15 offices, including Provost, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the Heller School and Senior Vice President of Students and Enrollment. For the academic year of 2014 to 2015, Senior Executive compensation was totaled at $4,978,000, or 1.55 percent of the University’s $326 million of expenses. This is compared to $4,947,000 (1.57 percent) for 2013 to 2014, and $4,885,000 (1.58 percent) for 2012 to 2013. For the current academic year of 2015 to 2016, the University is spending 1.47 percent of its total $339 million expenses on Senior Executive Compensation.

Full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 students was the next statistic Traquina presented. Brandeis has 211 staff members, compared to the Peer Group’s 364, AAU’s 73 and AAU private institutions’ 574.

Regarding the size of Brandeis’ staff in comparison to the staff of comparable institutions, Prof. Susan Lanser (ENG) commented, “It’s nice to say we’re lean, but sometimes we’re not lean in good ways, so this is a faculty issue and a staff issue. I really am sorry if the Board is getting excited that we have a lower number of staff where we need staff.”

Traquina reported that the Peer Group of 28 institutions is subject to change for next year, due to concern that the University does not compare fairly to schools such as Boston University, adding, “I’m guessing some of those bigger schools are coming off the list, and the overall size of the budgets, if you were to aggregate them all up, would be lower going forward than what is showing here, which would tend to push comp. data down — and, all other things being equal, it would push our percentile numbers higher if the data were not to change,” he said.

The faculty then briefly discussed the need for data breakdowns for salary by gender, as well as a comparison between senior executives and faculty and staff in terms of the percentage of expenses given to total compensation.

“You would think there needs to be a slide on how everybody else is paid, from the bottom up. … I don’t think you can say that only [the executive team’s] work needs to be compensated in comparable ways,” Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) commented. There was a call for a livable wage — $15.05 per hour — for all employees, including those who do not work directly for Brandeis but who are contracted with Sodexo, for example.

Traquina later responded by saying, “The Board has discussed that staff compensation is not where we want it to be. … The Board is concerned about lack of equity.” He commented that “the Board doesn’t look at what janitors make [and] maybe we should,” adding, “What if the data showed that our janitors were paid at market value?” Von Mering replied: “Our values are more than what the market does.”

Traquina ended his presentation by saying, “The highest priorities for the Board today are financial aid and faculty salaries … [and] endowment for both.”

Other pieces of the agenda included memorial awards for two former Brandeis professors, Prof. Emeritus of Chemistry Myron Rosenblum and Prof. Emeritus of Fine Arts Robert Maeda. Both were lauded for their success as scholars and professors of their respective fields, as well as their strong senses for social justice.

The Provost’s Report from Interim Provost Irving Epstein highlighted recent senior administration training sessions for Title IX issues and investigation, including trauma and sexual assault, as well as a faculty training session for emergency response.

Prof. Susan Curnan (Heller) delivered the Senate Report, discussing primarily the Faculty Senate’s meeting with Ron Liebowitz in which the next University president emphasized the need to “rebuild trust” with faculty.