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Chancellor Albert Carnesale looks out of his state-provided, on-campus residence that the state d

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More than three dozen college presidents and chancellors are set to make more than $500,000 this year.

Though University of California President Robert Dynes and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl are on the list, the UC continues to lag significantly behind comparable schools in executive pay packages.

A survey of college presidential salaries released this week revealed that pay packages given to the leaders of four private universities last year topped $800,000. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was the head of the class, bringing in $891,400. She also sat on eight public boards, earning an additional $591,000.

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual salary report also showed that public schools were led by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, who will earn $677,500 during 2003-2004.

Among presidents and chancellors whose salary and other compensation come entirely from the state, Dynes and Berdahl are two of the highest paid this year – both topping $500,000.

UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale’s complete pay package last year was $471,616, which includes a $315,600 base salary, with the remaining amount used for housing maintenance and administrative expenses, UCLA spokesman Max Benavidez said.

“It seems like a fair salary for what is involved,” he said. “This is somebody who is 24/7 making very complex decisions that affect tens of thousands of people, as well as the future of this institution.”

The Chronicle’s report was released at a time when college students nationwide are facing increasing costs for higher education – from the nominal to the formidable.

Thousands of students have taken on additional jobs, increased their course load, or dropped out of school altogether to offset tuition increases.

Mo Kashmiri, a third-year student at the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, was forced to drop out of school on Sept. 11 because fee increases put the cost of education out of his reach.

But many support maintaining faculty and administration salaries. Pedro Reyes, education consultant for Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, said because Carnesale’s responsibilities have not lessened, it doesn’t make sense for his salary to decrease.

To put it in context, Carnesale would have to work for free to save UCLA students $10 of the extra $1,150 they are paying to help absorb the $410 million reduction in UC state funding for this year.

As many see it, base salaries for UC chancellors, which range from $269,200 at UC Santa Cruz to $315,600 for Berdahl and Carnesale, are currently too low anyway.

“If you look at it in a narrow view, the numbers seem large,” said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz. “But what you have to do is look at it in the market of chancellors.”

UC salaries currently lag significantly behind average pay scales for comparable public and private universities.

Carnesale’s annual salary, however, is larger than salaries for chancellor’s at three of the four public universities the UC uses as a comparison, including the University of Virginia, New York State University at Buffalo, and the University of Illinois at Champagne.

In response to a $410 million state budget reduction that afforded no funds for salary increases, Schwartz said the UC is remaining competitive “to the extent our resources allow us to be.”

The UC recently gave significant pay raises to two of its top executive positions, saying that the increases were essential to remaining competitive.

Earlier this year, Senior Vice President of Business and Finance Joseph Mullinix received an offer from a comparable university that included a higher base salary and an income supplement that would offset the loss of pension benefits he would lose if he left the UC. In May, the UC Board of Regents approved a 19.9 percent salary increase – almost $60,000 – which Mullinix accepted.

In an effort to recruit newly hired President Dynes, the regents approved a 9.3 percent salary increase for the system’s chief executive. Dynes will receive a base salary of $395,000 this year.

“Higher education is an industry in and of itself,” said Karl Engelbach, chief policy analyst for the California Postsecondary Education Commission, a group that advised the UC on how to improve its executive pay scale.

“If they are not paying competitive salaries any longer, they are not going to attract the most qualified, top-tier applicants,” he said.