Former KU dean gets salary bump and bonus to remain Iowa president

? The University of Iowa will pay newly appointed President Sally Frost Mason about $100,000 more annually than her predecessor, and will offer her a salary bonus intended to keep her at Iowa at least five years.

Mason, who was announced Thursday as the school’s 20th president, will be paid $450,000 in base salary when she starts work Aug. 1, according to a letter from the Iowa Board of Regents outlining the terms of Mason’s employment.

As Purdue University’s provost, she is paid $321,900 annually – only about $28,000 less than what Iowa paid its last president, David Skorton, before he left last year to lead Cornell University. His salary at Cornell is $675,000.

Regents increased the salary for the Iowa post after former Gov. Tom Vilsack urged them in January to make the job more attractive to top candidates who would be willing to stay long term at the school.

Four times in the past 20 years, Iowa has lost it top administrator – three times to Ivy League schools and once to the University of Michigan.

To avoid another quick departure, the University of Iowa will put $60,000 a year into a trust that Mason will receive if she stays at the university through July 31, 2012. The deferred compensation plan is voided if Mason leaves early or is dismissed by the regents for good cause, the letter states.

Mason will receive $50,000 a year in bonuses for achieving performance goals to be set later by Mason and the regents. The $50,000 bonus is guaranteed for her first year.

Mason will also have joint appointment as a professor in the school’s biology department. If she wants to continue that job after serving as president, she will be paid 60 percent of her presidential salary.

Mason has more than a decade of experience in university administration, including serving as the Kansas University dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences beginning in 1995, then as the first woman provost at Purdue beginning in 2001.

Mason spent 21 years at KU, where she was also a full professor of molecular biosciences.