Despite Whitten’s 20% pay raise, her base salary sits at the lower end compared to that of other Big Ten presidents.
The IU Board of Trustees gave President Pamela Whitten a 28% raise at its February meeting, bringing her salary up to $900,000 a year and extending her contract until 2031.
The board has awarded Whitten several bonuses since beginning her presidency in 2021 with an annual base salary of $650,000. It gave her a $162,500 bonus in August 2023 and a $175,500 bonus in August 2024.
Despite the raise, Whitten’s salary sits slightly below the Big Ten Conference’s average presidential base salary of $969,418. Her previous base salary made her the second lowest-paid Big Ten president, though that does not include bonuses, deferred compensation and at-risk pay, which can shake up the order.
Neeli Bendapudi has been Penn State’s president since 2022 with a base salary of $950,000. She is set to receive two five-year completion bonuses, the first being $1.25 million. The second, which she will receive in 2032, was increased Feb. 2024 by Penn State’s Board of Trustees to $1.5 million. Her annual retirement plan more than doubled last February from $255,000 to $555,000 a year.
Ohio State’s Ted Carter Jr. received a $164,368 bonus to his $1.1 million base salary last August.
USC’s president Carol Folt has the highest base pay of the Big Ten at $1.4 million. USC is one of two private universities in the Big Ten, the other being Northwestern. Its president Michael Schill earned $405,139 between September 2022 and December 2022, but it is unclear what his base salary is. His predecessor Morton Schapiro made $1.2 million the same year.
Michigan’s president, Santa Ono, received a 28% raise in 2024 to bring his salary up to $1.3 million and a contract extension to remain president until 2032. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s August 2024 pay statistics, the raise would make him the fourth-highest-paid public university president in the nation.
Purdue’s Mung Chiang’s base salary is $420,000, the lowest in the Big Ten, a decrease from his $619,094 salary as dean of engineering and executive vice president of strategic initiatives. The next lowest is John Karl Scholz, the University of Oregon’s president with a base annual salary of $725,000.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the percent increase in Whitten’s salary and her salary going into the February IU Board of Trustees meeting.
