Kirkwood President Kristie Fisher making $350K

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood Community College will pay its new President Kristie Fisher — officially inaugurated this week — an annual salary of $350,000 for the budget year that ends June 30, according to her three-year contract.

Thereafter, per the agreement provided to The Gazette in response to a public records request, the Kirkwood Board of Trustees can adjust Fisher’s salary “from time to time.”

Having started her tenure as Kirkwood’s sixth president Oct. 30, her initial employment agreement runs through June 30, 2026 — unless "extended in writing by the parties.” She’s also receiving benefits, an annual annuity at 12 percent of her base pay, a vehicle allowance, and expense reimbursements for business costs.

Her $350,000 salary is a slight bump up from what her predecessor Lori Sundberg was making in 2022 when she announced plans to retire.

Rob Denson — president of Des Moines Area Community College, which reported nearly double Kirkwood’s 12,662 enrollment in fall 2023 — made a base salary of $355,780 in 2022, according to public records.

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Data: Kirkwood Community College public employee salaries for fiscal year 2023

For comparison across the public higher education way in Iowa, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson is making $700,000 a year; Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen is making $650,000 a year; and University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook is making $372,110 a year.

All three of those public university presidents also have deferred compensation agreements paying them bonuses at designated points.

Kirkwood officials told The Gazette this week that Fisher doesn’t have any deferred compensation agreements or other contract attachments or amendments.

Community college bill

Before lawmakers reconvened for the current Legislative session earlier this year, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said he and his colleagues aimed to undertake a broad review of “how we deliver higher education” in Iowa.

That promise has manifest in a bill aimed at modifying the responsibilities and roles of the Board of Regents and its public universities, along with community colleges and private institutions.

Where the legislation — which passed out of committee this month and has been placed on the debate calendar — changes how regents choose university presidents, it doesn’t address presidential selection across the community colleges.

It does, however, offer several community college-related amendments — like requiring community colleges to authorize their presidents to “initiate a post-tenure review of any employee of the community college at any time.”

It also would mandate the colleges “accept the classic learning test, developed by Classic Learning Initiatives, as a means of determining whether to admit a student to the community college.”

Iowa’s community colleges have an “open-door” admissions policy guaranteeing admission “regardless of previous educational attainment.” Kirkwood, like the others, reports admitting 100 percent of its applicants. And even those without a high school degree or equivalent can find help getting it at Kirkwood.

The Classic Learning Test — an online standardized test developed in 2015 — was designed as an alternative to the SAT and ACT in assessing reading grammar, writing, and math. Florida in 2023 passed a law allowing students to use CLT scores to apply to Florida state universities, among other things.

The Iowa bill also would require Iowa community colleges to revise strategic plans to include descriptions of how they'll prioritize degree-programs leading to employment in high-demand fields. And it would mandate the colleges adopt policies barring any faculty senate or leadership group from having “any governance authority over the community college.”

During Fisher’s inauguration earlier this week, Julia Rabe — president of the Kirkwood Faculty Association — spoke about the import of collaboration and shared responsibility.

“We pride ourselves on being an institution where we embrace our differences and celebrate the ways we can come together,” she said. “We believe that our diversity of talent, perspectives and backgrounds make us stronger. While change can be intimidating and overwhelming, it is where we thrive here at Kirkwood.

“I am confident that we can continue this rich culture of working together as an institution and as a family to make great things happen.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com