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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

$400K DeGioia Bonus Goes to GSP

FILE PHOTO: ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA President DeGioia was the 15th highest-paid university executive in 2012.
FILE PHOTO: ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA
President DeGioia was the 15th highest-paid university executive in 2012.

University President John J. DeGioia received a salary bonus of $400,000 from the Board of Directors in 2012, making him the 15th highest-paid private university executive in the United States that year. However, DeGioia donated the entirety of the one-time bonus to the 1789 Scholarship Imperative.

According to the most recent rankings released by The Chronicle of Higher Education, this salary hike, which came a little over 10 years after DeGioia took office in July 2001, took him from the 60th rank in 2011 to the 15th spot. DeGioia’s total compensation was calculated at $1,292,786, while his compensation in 2011 fell at $875,317.

“President DeGioia’s compensation in 2012 reflected a one-time increase from a $400,000 bonus awarded him by the university’s board, in recognition of his performance over his first 10 years in office,” university spokesperson Stacy Kerr said in a statement to The Hoya.

Because DeGioia voluntarily froze his salary during the 2008 financial crisis, Kerr predicted that his place in future rankings would be similar to his 60th place in 2011. DeGioia’s rankings over the past eight years have peaked at 38th in 2008 and reached their low at 66th in 2005.

“We expect that when the rankings for the 2013 year are released, President DeGioia will return to the place he has historically occupied,” Kerr wrote.

After DeGioia, who graduated from the College in 1979, received the bonus, he and his wife Theresa (CAS ’89) established an endowed 1789 Scholarship fund in honor of their 35th and 25th graduation anniversaries, respectively, in fall 2013. DeGioia had not previously made public his donation to the fund, and a scholarship in his name does not appear on the 1789 Scholarship website.

“While grateful for it, President DeGioia had not asked for the bonus and donated it to Georgetown’s 1789 Scholarship Imperative, which supports undergraduate financial aid at the university,” Kerr said.

The fund was used to support financial aid for students in need for the first time in the 2014-2015 school year. Other donors to the 1789 fund include Fr. Otto Hentz, S.J., board of directors Chair Paul Tagliabue, PNC Bank and Goldman Sachs.

“The [DeGioia] fund was active this year for the first time, and its income supported three scholarships as part of Georgetown’s meet-full-need financial aid program,” Vice President for Advancement R. Bartley Moore (SFS ’87) wrote in an email to The Hoya.

The Chronicle ranks university presidents based on total compensation, not just base pay. This value includes salary in addition to benefits, housing, insurance and retirement payments. As a result, DeGioia’s 2012 base pay — which rested at $534,803 — accounted for only 41.4 percent of his total compensation, added to $153,241 of nontaxable benefits and $204,742 of other pay.

Though DeGioia, the first layperson to serve as president of Georgetown, is the highest-paid president of a Roman Catholic university, presidents of peer institutions generally have higher levels of total compensation. While Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania each compensate their presidents over $2 million, Northwestern University and Duke University, along with most of the other schools in the Ivy League, provide compensation north of $1 million. The outlier in the current rankings was Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson, who was compensated over $7.4 million.

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  • R

    Ray O'KeefeOct 18, 2016 at 10:43 am

    As a graduate of the medical school, I am so very disappointed how Georgetown has caved to the godless elitism that has taken over the academic, business, financial, entertainment and political aspects in our country. What a disgrace! Our universities are producing ( at great costs ) progressive robots that are paralyzed by moral and intellectual relativism and political correctness.

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  • D

    DavidSep 1, 2016 at 9:05 am

    I recently visited the campus and asked approximately a dozen students where the chapel was. Not one person knew. It seems to me that there is an immediate need to promote Christian values rather than walllow in guilt for something that no one living is responsible. Save your apologies for those living alumni who are heartbroken over the decline of a once great university now following the progressive pc issue de jour.

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