Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano is the highest paid public employee in the state (of New Jersey), receiving nearly $1.8 million in 2007

2007: Rutgers (University) doles out 1,700 six-figure salaries

More than 1,700 Rutgers employees earned six-figure salaries last year, according to a review of Rutgers University payroll information.

The salary figures for all 11,542 Rutgers employees became available today at the Data Universe link on the Web sites of the Courier-Post and other Gannett New Jersey newspapers.

The information was obtained through an Open Public Records Act request, a method used in New Jersey to obtain government records.

The data report base salary and gross compensation for 2007. Gross compensation includes such things as overtime, bonuses and/or retroactive pay.

According to the figures, Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick, who was appointed in 2002, received his retention bonus last year. McCormick, 59, collected $500,000 on top of his $525,000 salary under terms of his contract. That contract called for him to be paid a $100,000 per year bonus if he stayed at the school for five years. He did.

But even with the bonus, he was not the most highly compensated employee on the payroll.

That distinction went to Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano.

Schiano, who is the highest paid public employee in the state, has a base salary of $450,000 and guaranteed incentives that will push the gross to $1.6 million through June 30, 2009. The contract could be worth as much as $2.1 million by the time it expires in 2016, if he meets each incentive.

Perks include a car, a country club membership, and an $800,000 interest-free home loan that will be paid for by the university if he remains the coach through 2016. The loan was used to build a 5,000-square-foot home on land Schiano purchased near Rutgers Stadium in the fall of 2006.

Schiano, in his eighth year at Rutgers, received a contract extension in early 2007, two months after he turned down an offer to coach at the University of Miami.

In December, Schiano spurned an offer to coach at the University of Michigan.

Including bonuses, Schiano grossed nearly $1.8 million in 2007, which ranked 22nd nationally and second among Big East coaches last season.

Under Schiano, Rutgers has risen from the dregs of college football to a team that's appeared in bowl games in three consecutive seasons. Schiano declined to comment for this story, as did Rutgers' Director of Athletics Robert Mulcahy. Salary range

The salaries at the university range from Schiano's $1.7 million to classroom teaching assistants and/or secretaries who earned between $28,000 and $33,000. Those employed in dining services earned somewhat less. Teaching assistants' salaries varied widely, beginning with a base salary of about $19,800, but rising to about $28,000 with other compensation added in.

According to Data Universe figures, the median salary for 2006 was $44,463. It rose to $47,317 in 2007.

The combined base salaries for all Rutgers employees throughout the university system for 2007 was $700.9 million. Competitive salaries

McCormick's base salary is on par with Penn State President Graham B. Spanier. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Spanier's base salary was $545,000. Spanier is also given a car, house and an expense account for 2006-2007.

"In a way, a president is a CEO. There's a national market for presidents. You have to make sure your CEO is well-paid or else (competitors) will steal them away," said Paul Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities in Trenton.

In 2006, Rutgers women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer earned a base salary of $207,355. Her gross pay for that year was $485,288.20. For 2007, she received $450,000 as a base salary. Her gross pay was $749,528.15.

Beginning in 2009-2010, Stringer's base salary increases to $500,000 and her guaranteed income will be $985,000. If she meets every bonus stipulated in the contract Stringer would earn more than $1.2 million.

The Scarlet Knights have a 19-3 overall record this season and are ranked seventh in the Associated Press Top 25.

Stringer's salary ranks third nationally behind Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Connecticut's Geno Auriemma.

Stringer's counterpart in West Virginia, Mike Carey, is much lower on the earnings scale. He received a base salary of $126,024 for the 2006-2007 season.

Figures for the 2007-2008 season were not immediately available.

Mulcahy, as athletic director, received a $325,000 base salary that rose to $378,290 gross when other compensation was added in.

Philip Furmanski, executive vice president for academic affairs, had a gross compensation of $387,718 on a base salary of $420,000. Rutgers spokesman Greg Trevor explained that Furmanski's base salary was raised late in the year.

The university president, who questioned the news value of this story, was quick to point out that his salary last year was a one-year event because he received the bonus that was part of his contract with the university.

"Not a thing has changed in five years," he said, adding that his base salary hasn't "changed by a nickel" during that time.

McCormick does enjoy other perks.

The university agreed to give the president and his family annual membership to the Werblin Center or another New Brunswick athletic club and the Rutgers Golf Course.

McCormick, who said he doesn't play golf, opted for membership in a New York Sports Club branch in New Jersey.

In recent years, the Rutgers University community has felt the fiscal crunch.

In 2006, there were state funding cuts of more than $66 million at Rutgers and layoffs of 189 staff members plus hundreds of part-time lecturers. Numerous course sections were slashed.

In contrast to generous salaries, Karen Thompson, who has been a lecturer with the university for almost 30 years, receives just under $4,000 per course and teaches two to three courses a year.

Thompson, who works part-time, doesn't get health benefits or tuition remission unlike teaching assistants who can earn about $20,000 a year.

McCormick, when asked if some Rutgers salaries are top-heavy, indicated that "all of the salaries of our university employees are negotiable at the bargaining table," adding that approximately 90 percent of employees are union members.

In addition, he said that salaries of non-union employees like himself are set in a market context.

This article was first published in Courier-Post Sunday, February 11, 2008.