University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen receive pay raises

IOWA CITY — Both University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen are getting 8.3 percent pay raises this summer — bumping up their annual base pay from $600,000 to $650,000.

The Iowa Board of Regents announced those pay raises, which take effect in the new fiscal year that begins July 1, on Thursday following performance evaluations of the presidents held in private earlier this week.

Wilson’s raise comes one year after she began last July as the UI president.

On top of the deferred compensation agreement Wilson signed at the time paying out $2 million in 2026 — a result of $400,000 annual contributions for five years — the board Thursday announced an additional deferred compensation deal paying Wilson another $200,000 also in 2026.

Wintersteen this week also received a new deferred compensation plan beginning July 1, paying her $80,000 in June 2024.

That is on top of her existing deferred compensation deal contributing $300,000 annually through June 2023, with an eventual payout of $733,333. She already received a $475,000 payout from her first deferred compensation plan in 2020.

Wintersteen, as part of a deeper across-campus budget reductions for fiscal 2021, said she was taking a 10 percent salary cut, worth $59,000 at the time, for that year.

University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook’s annual base pay will remain at $357,110, but the board this week did enact a new two-year deferred compensation agreement paying him $100,000 in 2024.

That is in addition to Nook’s existing deferred compensation agreement — which runs through 2025, paying him $100,000 a year, although he forfeited half that for both last year and for this year due to pandemic-related budgetary challenges. His total payout in 2025 will be $625,000.

State lawmakers last month agreed to increase its public university appropriations by $6.2 million in the upcoming budget year starting July 1 — just a fraction of the $22.1 million increase the regents had requested.

Of the Legislature’s $6.2 million increase, $5.5 million has been designated for general university appropriations to be split between UI, ISU and UNI.

All three of the campuses saw slight increases in their revenue budgets from fiscal 2021 to the current 2022 budget year, which ends June 30. For ISU and UI, that increase can be tied to more tuition revenue. Although total enrollment has been falling across all three campuses since fall 2017, tuition rates have enabled them to collect more student income.

In addition to the presidential compensation changes, the regents Thursday agreed to pay its Executive Director Mark Braun a $50,000 retention incentive on July 1, plus another $50,000 in July 2023 so long as he stays employed with the regents.

The board created a new deferred compensation plan for Braun, contributing $130,000 annually through June 2024 — with a $260,000 payout. Braun already has in place a deferred-compensation plan paying him $210,000 in 2023.

His contract, which runs through 2024, spells out a complex compensation matrix. That’s due to an Iowa law capping his position’s pay at $154,300 a year. The state employee database shows Braun made $349,930 in the 2021 budget year.

In announcing the new pay raises, regents President Michael Richards said, “We like the team.”

“We want to continue with the same leadership team and want to keep a steady course as we go forward,” he said.

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