By Matt Morris
After serving the University of Louisville for seven years and making his mark as a president that has a flair for bringing money into the school, John Shumaker has now moved on to be the 21st President of the University of Tennessee. Shumaker has already made a name for himself at UT, not for bringing money into the university, but for getting money out of it, as he has managed to become the highest paid president in school history.
Shumaker replaces Dr. Wade Gilley as President of UT. Gilley is a graduate of Virginia Tech with bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in civil engineering. Gilley is also a Kellogg Fellow at the Institute for Higher Education at the University of Florida, and before coming to UT, Gilley was President of Marshall University in West Virginia. Gilley served as UT’s president for two years before resigning on June 1, 2001. He cited health problems and personal reasons as his primary grounds for leaving.
Shumaker agreed to a six year contract with an annual salary of $365,000 a year, and the salary is subject to increase based on evaluation and approval from the Board of Trustees. This yearly salary puts Shumaker well above the average salary for presidents of universities that grant doctorate degrees, which was $200,420 in 1999, according to the Associated Press.
Shumaker brings an impressive resume with him to UT. He attended college at the University of Pittsburgh and majored in Greek studies. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and went on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Shumaker began as a faculty member at Ohio State University and became Dean of the College of Humanities in 1975. During that time, Shumaker did post-doctoral work at the University of Toronto, Oxford University, and the University of California at Irvine. In 1977 he was appointed Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the State University of New York at Albany. Shumaker was assumed his first presidential duties at Central Connecticut State University in 1987. He came to U of L in 1995.
During his tenure at U of L, Shumaker made his mark predominantly with his fund-raising success, bringing the total endowment of $183 million in 1995 to $503 million in 2001.
This fund raising effort was part of a fifteen-year plan known as the “Challenge for Excellence.” The campaign was centered on bringing more money into the university with aspirations of U of L becoming a university of national prominence.
The Challenge for Excellence has been quite successful, and the university has benefited greatly from Shumaker’s efforts. As a result of his performance, Shumaker’s salary increased significantly.
His original contract at U of L, starting in 1995, was to end in 2000 with his yearly pay at under $200,000. Since then, he has enjoyed numerous pay raises and contract extensions periodically, taking his contract through the year 2008 with his yearly salary at $263,300. The University of Tennessee was willing to pay more for Shumaker’s talents, in hopes that he can produce similar results as president.
Gilley became president of UT on August 1, 1999. Gilley’s original agreement with UT was a five-year contract with initial base salary of $250,000 a year. At the end of his term, Gilley received a yearly salary of $258,750. Shumaker’s offer surpasses Gilley’s in all aspects.
Shumaker puts himself in an elite class of university presidents based on salary as he leaves U of L for UT to meet new challenges and establish himself as a successful and respectable president.
