Study: Former Mercy College President was Among Top Paid in Nation

Former Mercy College President Kimberly Cline was the 106th highest paid president at a private college in the nation as of 2011, according The Chronicle of High Education’s annual study. 

Cline became president of Mercy College, located in Dobbs Ferry, in 2008. She left the school at the end of the 2012-2013 academic year to take the same position at Long Island University. 

The study, which uses data from federal tax documents, ranks compensation for the 2011 fiscal year – the most recent date of data that was available. It ranks 550 presidents, from University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer, who tops the list making more than $3.3 million a year, to Saint Joseph’s University President Rev. Timothy Lannon, whose annual salary is undisclosed.

Cline’s 2011 annual total compensation of $653,735 at came in at spot 106. The study, which breaks down the presidents into “comparison groups,” ranked her pay third among presidents at private colleges of similar ilk.

The study also provides the following “key takeaways” for Cline in regard to her comparison group: 

• Cline made $362,443 less than the highest-paid president of a similar institution.
• The median pay for presidents in this peer group was $376,894.

To see the The Chronicle of Education’s entire list, click here.  

As for Cilne's successor, Mercy College is currently conducting a nationwide search for its twelfth president.