UW President To Make $228,000 Thanks To 17 Percent Raise Board Uses National Comparisons; Other UW Salaries Swamp Governor’s

University of Washington President Richard McCormick has become the state’s highest-paid employee, with an annual base salary of $228,000.

The UW’s Board of Regents voted Friday to give McCormick a 17 percent pay raise - up from $195,000.

McCormick’s salary increase was intended to keep his pay in the 75th percentile of presidents at comparable universities across the country.

Board of Regents President Shelly Yapp said the president has made “substantial progress” in meeting the performance goals outlined a year ago.

In voting for the pay raise, Yapp particularly noted McCormick’s success in filling out his top administrative team, pushing the UW’s budget priorities in the Legislature and creating innovative programs through the University Initiative Fund.

Other big earners at the UW include Dr. Paul Ramsey, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, who earns $200,004 a year; Provost Lee Huntsman, $180,000; and Executive Vice President Weldon Ihrig, $175,008.

In comparison, Gov. Gary Locke earns $121,000 a year.

The pay raise capped off a meeting in which the board also decided to ask the Legislature for $50 million to initiate a statewide Higher Education Endowment Fund, a proposal still being drafted by the state’s public universities and community college system.

The proposal calls for $250 million in state money over five years that would match private donations raised by the public institutions to create a permanent $500 million endowment.

The endowment plan is a way to leverage private money for public education, said Bob Edie, UW’s vice president for university relations.

Annual interest on the endowment would be distributed to the state’s higher education institutions to fund undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and faculty teaching awards.

The regents were also briefed on steps being taken to improve the university’s long-troubled American Ethnic Studies department and approved the reappointment of a popular lecturer who was let go last year despite student protests.