Penn State University approves salary increase for school president, making her second-highest paid in U.S.
Imagine your salary just going up by nearly half. Penn State's President, Neeli Bendapudi, is getting that.
Its board voted 34-1 to adjust her compensation package last week.
Bendapudi's base salary will increase from $950,000 a year to $1.4 million. She will receive an automatic 3.5% increase annually until 2032.
Bendapudi's completion/retention payment will increase to $525,000 a year from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2032.
Her supplemental retirement plan will also go up to $650,000 from $555,000.
Bendapudi's annual performance bonus will be set at up to 15% of her base pay, on the condition that she meets "mutually approved goals."
The increase makes Bendapudi the second-highest-paid public university president in the country.
In base pay, she's behind Jay Hartzell, the president of the University of Texas at Austin, and in front of Michael Ray Williams, the president of the University of North Texas system, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The pay increase comes around a period of uncertainty for the University.
Penn State's board voted to close seven of the university's branch campuses in June.
Penn State Beaver and Penn State Greater Allegheny were two of five branches saved from the final cut.
Penn State DuBois, Penn State Fayette, and Penn State New Kensington are among the seven that will close.
"That money can be going to other benefits – other campuses," Penn State Greater Allegheny First-Year Alex Mann said.
This news comes after Penn State's public broadcasting station, WPSU, announced it would be winding down its operations in 2026.
That came after the Board of Trustees Finance and Investment Committee rejected a proposal that would have transferred that station's ownership to WHYY in Philadelphia.