News first: You’ll eventually find below aother striking piece of information about the extraordinary compensation awarded UCA President Lu Hardin.

But I’ll begin at the beginning.

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The Times this week has a lengthy, but still abbreviated report on the pay of public college presidents and chancellors. Now comes the result of Higher Education Department research for legislators with a fuller accounting of  pay and perks for the top Arkansas academic administrators for fiscal 2009. (None of them comes close to Bobby Petrino’s seven-figure take to coach UA football, thank goodness.)

A memo accompanying the spread sheet on pay said no college official was found to be receiving pay greater than 25 percent more than line-item maximums from public funds. Many are receiving “private” supplements, generally from foundations related to the institution each leads.

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Highlights:

Dr. Les Wyatt, president of the Arkansas State U. system, is the most highly compensated, at $540,610, just ahead of $538,722 for Dr. Alan Sugg, head of the UA system. Low man on the totem pole is UA-Monticello’s Chancellor Jackson Lassiter at $219,024. UALR’s chancellor, Joel Anderson, is at $275,473.

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And, oh my lordy, here’s another round of publicity for poor ol’ LuCA.

Though he gave up his $300,000 early deferred comp payout and the Board suspended discussion of an additional $150,000-a-year deferred comp add-on, President Lu Hardin still ranks high in the collegiate stratosphere. Total compensation: $510,667. The breakdown: Pay, $253,774; car, $11,651; house, $27,196; cook, lawn service, building maintenance, utilities, etc., $55,252; deferred comp, $60,000 (this is the figure accruing annually under a deal approved by the Board three years ago); retirement match, $25,377; health insurance, $5,135; life insurance, $1,112; club dues, $11,277; cell phone, $2,893;

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AND, ta da, a new and previously unreported perk of fairly sizable significance:

A $57,000 — FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS — expense account funded by the UCA Foundation. As we’ve noted previously, the foundation has been guided by a UCA employee and realizes some of its income from renting space to UCA.

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I have questions pending about why Hardin’s housing staff expense is computed at a much higher level than others and why he has such a large expense account, plus whether there’s a public accounting available. (UPDATED ON JUMP)

Of the 13 university level administrators, only two others have expense accounts — Robert C. Brown at Arkansas Tech gets $5,188 and Dr. David Rankin at Southern Arkansas University gets $25,000 (?!).

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The two-year college bosses generally run from $170,000 to $200,000, with a couple of exceptions. Dr. Glenn Fenter at Mid-South Community College had total compensation of more than $238,000 and Becky Paneitz-Danks, chief of Northwest Arkansas Community College notched a bracket-busting $263,257.

Noted: the survey differs from ours in many ways chiefly because it ascribes a cost to such things as free housing and adds that into the total compensation package, though the expenses — such as staff — may be related to fulfilling public functions. These include dinners at presidents’ housing and the like.

Thus, the UAF chancellor’s total compensation is about $363,000 — with $282,540 in base pay (including about $54,000 from private funds); $6,600 for a car; $31,000 for the free house; $9,200 for maid and lawn service; $23,000 in retirement match; more than $4,000 for club dues, etc.

Here’s the spread sheet on colleges.

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Here’s the spread sheet on universities.

Read them and weep, or cheer, as you are so inclined.

Higher Ed is at work compiling figures from the two preceding years as well.

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