Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Penelope Kyle's new contract brings her annual compensation to $508,299, not including other benefits.

Radford University President Penelope Kyle is the highest-paid public university president among a list of Radford's national peer universities that responded to a survey conducted by The Roanoke Times.

Kyle's new contract -- awarded to her in June after more than a year of off-and-on discussion and debate among members of the university's board of visitors and the Radford University Foundation's governing board -- brings her annual compensation to $508,299. It is retroactive to July 1, 2008.

Kyle's previous annual compensation was $359,256. When the board's executive committee awarded the new contract last month, board Rector Thomas Fraim said it would bring her salary in line with Radford's peers.

That's true about universities that the board defined as Radford's peers -- five in-state public schools seeking the same level of autonomy from the state government as Radford. But a survey of Radford's 25 national peer institutions -- 18 public and seven private institutions selected by the university and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to help determine faculty salaries -- shows Kyle was already well-paid compared with leaders of those schools.

Her previous annual compensation was larger than those of the leaders of all 17 public institutions that responded to inquiries from The Roanoke Times about executive compensation. The compensation for the leader of the one public university that did not respond -- California State University, Chico -- was larger than Kyle's in 2006-07, according to IRS 990 forms.

Kyle's new contract likely puts her ahead of all but four of the 25 schools in the group. The private universities did not release the salaries of their presidents, but according to IRS 990 forms, presidents of four of those seven schools make more than Kyle.

Fraim could not be reached for comment last week or Monday.

University spokesman Michael Hemphill said Monday that the board of visitors believes a better peer group, for the purposes of determining executive compensation, are Virginia universities that are seeking Level II autonomy under the state's higher education restructuring act, as Radford is.

Passed in 2005, the act was designed to loosen restrictions and red tape for public universities in exchange for more accountability on measures such as access and student retention. Universities with the most fiscal strength -- Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University -- are all designated as Level III institutions with the most autonomy. Radford is attempting to attain Level II status along with James Madison University, the Virginia Military Institute, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and the Virginia Community College System.

"Looking at that [national peer] list, for instance, Appalachian State is in the peer group," Hemphill said. "In North Carolina, all universities are in a system and so the head of each university reports to the system president whereas, obviously, in Virginia, each university president has more autonomy and responsibility."

Jim Alessio, director of higher education restructuring at SCHEV, said the list of national peer institutions was created in the late 1980s as a way for the state to determine appropriate salary levels for faculty members at its public universities. The list is not intended to be a tool for determining appropriate salaries for administrators or presidents, he said.

SCHEV spokeswoman Kirsten Nelson said Virginia code clearly states that setting presidents' salaries is the purview of each university's board of visitors.

National peer institutions are selected through analysis of 15 to 20 variables, such as types of degrees offered, graduation rates and percentage of faculty with the highest possible degrees in their fields. SCHEV works with the individual universities to come up with a final list of national peers. The full selection process was last completed in 2007.

Before her new contract, Kyle was making less than leaders of three of the five Virginia universities Hemphill named as in-state peers. Now she is making more than four of the five in that group, the lone exception being George Mason President Alan Merten.

Hemphill also took issue with including Kyle's deferred compensation -- referred to as a stay bonus -- as part of her annual pay. The package, totalling $1 million, is contingent on Kyle staying at Radford through June 2013 and is not awarded to her each year but placed in a university account.

"Two hundred thousand [dollars] of what is being considered her annual compensation is not guaranteed," he said. "There are annual goals and objectives established by the board of visitors and President Kyle that must be met, and if they're not met or President Kyle does not fulfill the term of her contract, all of that money goes back to the foundation."

In addition to the stay bonus, Kyle's $508,299 compensation figure includes a base salary of $290,299 and an automobile allowance.

Kyle's contract also includes the use of a house and car and allows for limited reimbursement of other expenses, such as tax and financial planning services. It also provides for annual bonuses at the board's discretion. None of those provisions is included in the $508,299 compensation figure.

Kyle is not the only university president in the New River Valley who appears to be well-paid compared with leaders of national peer institutions.

According to figures from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger's 2007-08 total compensation of $719,892 was larger than that of leaders of all but four of Tech's 24 public national peer institutions.

Steger's total annual compensation is now $732,000, according to the university.

Among the public schools on Tech's national peer list, only the leaders of the University of Michigan, Ohio State, the University of Florida and the University of Washington made more in 2007-08. Presidents of the two private schools on Tech's list -- Cornell University and the University of Southern California -- are also paid more than Steger.