ATHENS, Ohio – When Roderick McDavis came to Athens as Ohio University’s president, he brought another university employee with him: his wife.
Deborah McDavis will make $25,000 a year for her duties as the university’s “first lady.” Her husband has a five-year contract paying $275,000 annually.
Spouses of university presidents traditionally have been considered part of a package deal when it comes to the presidential salary and have not been paid separately. That concept is changing.
Raymond Cotton, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who specializes in contracts and compensation for college presidents, said more presidential spouses, especially younger ones, often have to give up their careers and believe they deserve compensation for their work on behalf of the university.
Mrs. McDavis, a college and high school English teacher for 33 years, was offered the salary and benefits in recognition of her expected role in community relations, alumni relations and advocating and entertaining on behalf of the university, university spokesman Hub Burton said.
“I intend to earn every bit of it,” Mrs. McDavis said of her salary, which will be paid out of general operating money.
McDavis said she earned more than twice as much in her teaching job but knew that the demands of her role as a a university first lady made it impossible to continue teaching.
Miami University in Oxford pays the wife of its president $1 a year, a token amount that qualifies her for liability insurance.
In 2000, Carole Garland kept a log of her activities at Miami and reported that she was typically on the road attending alumni events at least 15 days a year, hosted or attended more than 100 meals and represented the university at 60 or more other events.
Some presidential spouses have their own careers in higher education and are paid for those professional duties rather than as the wife or husband of the president.
Ken Howey, husband of University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher, has a faculty research position at that university.
Paula Whetsel-Ribeau, wife of Bowling Green State University President Sidney Ribeau, went on the payroll last week as interim assistant to the vice president for student affairs. She had been an administrator at Bowling Green and at Ohio State University in Columbus.
The practice of compensating presidential spouses is more common on private campuses than at public institutions, Cotton said.
A Council of Independent Colleges survey of 119 spouses, 87 percent who were women, found that the percentage of spouses getting a salary rose from 11 percent in 1994 to 23 percent by 1999.
Cotton said the most well-compensated presidential spouse at a public institution is the wife of the Indiana University president hired last year. She gets $60,000 a year.
